10 DC Movie Quotes That Aged Poorly

The movies of the DC Universe sometimes take some wild swings with their dialogue, which doesn’t always pan out well as time goes on. Compared to the likes of Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, films starring DC characters are far less sanitized as a whole, typically being overall edgier and more corrosive than their squeaky-clean competition. This means that they tend to be less concerned with ensuring their dialogue has a good shelf life, with many quotes in various DC films aging quite poorly.

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There are many different factors that can severely age a DC movie line in a short amount of time. The movies of the DCEU in particular have produced some cringey one-liners, whereas older films tend to feature some alarmingly awkward and needlessly sexually-charged dialogue that seems strangely out of place in retrospect. In addition, DC movies are full of false starts and promises of later expanded stories that never ended up developing.

10 “Just The P*ssy I Was Looking For”

The Penguin, Batman Returns

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Batman Returns is rated relatively highly compared to the quality of Batman’s many other movies, but that doesn’t mean every aspect of it has stood up well to the test of time. The dynamic of the film’s two major villains, Catwoman and The Penguin, presents and interesting Beauty and the Beast dynamic between Michelle Pfeiffer’s sultry performance and Danny DeVito’s mutant sewer man. That being said, their odd relationship becomes quite uncomfortable at a few points when Penguin seems to be struggling to control his affections.

At one point, upon meeting up with Catwoman, The Penguin snarls “Just the p*ssy I was looking for“, making an awkward sexually-charged pun at Selina Kyle’s expense. This line is one of the places in which the script for Batman Returns has aged the heaviest. It’s not that it’s unbelievable that a socially outcast pariah like The Penguin would say such a thing, but Catwoman’s relative acceptance of the line and the strange wink to the audience it implies leaves a sour aftertaste.

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9 “Joygasm!”

The Riddler, Batman Forever

The original quadrilogy of Batman movies continued its increasingly raunchy sensibilities with Batman Forever. Here, Jim Carrey’s The Riddler is the star antagonist, prancing about the screen doing cane tricks in a questionably tight question-mark-themed bodysuit that leaves disturbingly little to the imagination. As fun as some of Carrey’s ludicrous antics as the cartoony villain are to watch, he occasionally dips his toes into needlessly sexual waters.

Just as his convoluted plan to blow up the Batcave starts coming together, The Riddler celebrates his success with some pelvic thrusts in-time with the surrounding explosions, followed by a hearty crotch-grab. To finish the campy routine, Carrey fires off an impressive cane trick before shouting “Joygasm!“, his full anatomy painfully visible through the skin-tight outfit. Why director Joel Schumacher insisted on this bit making the final cut will forever remain a vaulted mystery.

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8 “What, We Some Kinda…Suicide Squad?”

Deadshot, Suicide Squad

The DCEU is a graveyard of infamous lines that have since been memed into ironic oblivion, especially in the case of 2016’s Suicide Squad. Still the DCEU’s worst-reviewed film to this day, a big part of Suicide Squad‘s infamy was its dedication to corny lines bad enough to exponentially age it within days of its theatrical debut. Among the team of villains, Will Smith’s Deadshot just might take the cake for the single most cringe-worthy line in the entire movie.

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Giving in to the temptation to have a character plainly state the title of the film in the dialogue, Suicide Squad infamously has Deadshot review his circumstances with Rick Flagg. In his trademark incredulous tone, Will Smith asks if him and the other inmates are a literal “Suicide Squad”, resulting in one of the most hilariously eye-rolling lines in DC movie history. Beyond the cheesiness with which the quote ages the film, Will Smith’s total lack of interest in what he’s saying with the same stock-standard performance he’s already turned in in dozens of other films is hard to swallow.

7 “Ready The Armada. We Will Use The Old Ways”

Darkseid, Zack Snyder’s Justice League

The last few films in the DCEU were particularly sad in how they continually made empty promises of future storylines that would never end up manifesting. One of the biggest was the coming invasion of Darkseid to Earth, an obvious reflection of the MCU’s treatment of Thanos a handful of years earlier. In Zack Snyder’s Justice League, Darkseid is given a hearty amount of screentime to tease his supposed future appearance as he debriefs Steppenwolf’s failure with his general, DeSaad.

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In doing so, Darkseid states his intention to invade the Earth the old-fashioned way after Steppenwolf’s plans fail, prompting DeSaad to “Ready the armada”. This ended up being a hollow threat, as the DCEU finally collapsed long before Zack Snyder would be given a chance to realize his vision for Darkseid’s battle with the Justice League. It’s quite disheartening to hear lines like this again after some time knowing that the future movies they promised would never come to pass.

6 “To Put It Plainly…Shouldn’t We Have A League Of Our Own?”

Lex Luthor, Justice League

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Zack Snyder’s Justice League was far from the only time a DCEU villain promised a grand return to form, only for the franchise to fizzle out before such plans could manifest. Interestingly enough, the original cut of Justice League also featured its own unfulfilled prophecy with a post-credits scene in which Lex Luthor meets Deathstroke. Freed from captivity with a freshly-shaved head, Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor meets up with Joe Maganiello’s Deathstroke on a classy yacht, discussing some business in their plans to murder Batman.

Here, Lex Luthor propositions Deathstroke with the idea of the two of them starting a league of their own in response to the formation of the Justice League. This is an obvious set-up for the DCEU’s Legion of Doom, a cool concept for a future crossover movie that sadly would never manifest. It’s saddening to see Luthor’s line here knowing that a unique idea for a superhero movie that hadn’t yet been done before was left on the table as the franchise came to an unceremonious close.

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5 “I Bought The Bank”

Batman, Justice League

Occasionally, lines from superhero movies can age poorly, not because of changing standards in pop culture, ironic infamy, or the failed promise of future films, but because they simply refuse to make sense when given more than a moment’s thought. A prime example of this is Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent’s aside towards the end of Justice League, in which it’s revealed that Wayne is helping to restore the damaged Kent farmhouse. Previously, the farm had apparently been repossessed by a bank due to some financial difficulties on behalf of the Kent family.

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When Clark asks Bruce how he was able to get the house back from the bank, he simply responds “I bought the bank”. On paper, this is a cool line that shows off Bruce Wayne’s wealth, but the more thought it’s given, the less sense it makes. Even assuming Bruce Wayne is a multi-billionaire, buying an (assumingly) national bank would be likely to leave him destitute. It seems unlikely that Wayne’s massive wealth would keep him from getting back the house without resorting to such drastic measures, making the quote make little sense in hindsight.

4 “Besides, Who’s Gonna Give You A Reach-Around?”

The Joker, Zack Snyder’s Justice League

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If there’s one thing Zack Snyder’s superhero movies love to do, it’s drastically alter the tone at the drop of a hat with a jarringly foul line. This happens in the nightmare sequence of Zack Snyder’s Justice League, in which The Joker and Batman work out an uneasy alliance. Capping off their truce with a weird, sexually-charged Joke, Jared Leto’s Joker assures Batman he won’t betray him in a filthy, roudabout way.

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Admittedly, it’s not out-of-character for The Joker to say something like this, especially in such a bleak situation as an active apocalypse. However, it’s the allegations of sexual misconduct against Jared Leto (via Newsweek) that first surfaced in 2005 that age this line particularly badly coming from Leto’s character. Even if nothing substantial has come from the allegations, it’s an uncomfortable and awkward quote that only becomes worse coming from Jared Leto.

3 “Black Adam…We Should Talk”

Superman, Black Adam

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Of all the DC attempts to sow future exciting cinematic events, the brief phase the comic book giant had in championing the lesser-known Shazam villain Black Adam as a new flagship character was one of the strangest. The Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson star vehicle promised to forever alter the hierarchy of the DC universe, introducing a powerful anti-hero to the mix with Black Adam. The film was a critical and commercial dud, which has only made the tease of a Superman and Black Adam crossover film in a post-credits scene all the more depressing over time.

Apparently sent in by Amanda Waller, Superman appears in the final moments of the film, dramatically stepping out of the shadows to challenge Black Adam. The egregious attempt to promise more conflict to come has aged the film tremendously, making for an embarrassing beat in an already sub-par DCEU outing. Even more disheartening is the realization that this was Henry Cavill’s last cinematic appearance as Superman, who deserved better than such a woefully painful line teasing a future movie everyone knew would never release.

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2 “I Just Think He’s Kind Of Hot”

Air Force Captain, Man of Steel

The first film of the DCEU, Man of Steel was occasionally a little heavy handed in its attempts to get audiences on-board with the newest cinematic incarnation of Superman. This can be seen in a tense standoff Superman has with a couple members of the United States Air Force, shortly after trashing one of their surveillance drones attempting to find out where he lives. After Superman flies off, a female Air Force Captain is left with a stupid grin on her face.

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When her commanding officer asks her what’s up, the Airwoman admits that she finds Superman hot. This line reeks of insecurity on the film’s behalf, desperately hoping to sell audiences to Henry Cavill’s Superman on at least a surface level of conventional attraction. A weird and unnecessary line that the film didn’t need to sell audiences on Cavill as one of the best live-action Superman actors, one would hope that real-life military leaders might act with a little bit more decorum when interacting with an alien force as powerful as Clark Kent.

1 “Save Martha”

Superman, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

One of the most infamously aged lines in comic book movie history, “Save Martha” was quick to become a hilarious indictment of the DCEU as a whole. During the title fight of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Batman surprisingly manages to get the upper hand on his powered opponent thanks to a combination of a power suit and a kryptonite-tipped spear. As a last resort, Superman bellows the name of his own mother, which happens to be the same as Batman’s, giving The Dark Knight enough pause for the two to work out their differences.

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The convenience with which this line suddenly buries the hatchet between Batman and Superman has been widely mocked for good reason, only getting more nonsensical as the years go on. Realizing that Martha Wayne and Martha Kent shared the same first name is an interesting premise on paper, but in execution, it utterly falls flat as the poignant moment of emotional realization the film intends it to be. With time, the “Save Martha” line has only further cemented Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice‘s place as an uneven DC movie.

Upcoming DC Movie Releases

• Superman

  Release Date July 11, 2025

• Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow

  Release Date June 26, 2026

• The Batman Part II

  Release Date October 2, 2026

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