Brian Michael Bendis Quotes

I have never met a superhero, but why are we so obsessed with superheroes?

When men are growing up and they're reading about Batman, Spiderman, Superman ... those are not fantasies ... they're options.

When you're a young boy, you're looking at older men for role modelling. Before I loved De Niro, I loved Clint Eastwood; I loved John Wayne. And James Bond.

My reason for getting into the film business was a Spider-Man comic called 'The Night Gwen Stacy Died' when I was a kid; it changed my life.

I've always loved comic books. As a kid, I used to read cowboy stories and historical comics about other worlds, unknown places that would take me out of myself and which helped to develop my imagination.

I never really looked up to celebrities when I was young.

Being around all the great names of the game at a young age because they were my heroes; the fact this meant so much to Canada. It was just an incredible thing to be a part of.

Growing up, I always liked Catwoman and Superman; they inspired me.

I was that little kid: I was the one that was looking up to athletes and getting to see them and getting to be a part of it, and I remember those experiences.

When I was growing up, the really, really cool super heroes were all male - so I wanted to be them.

I'm a fan of the sensibility of comics, and I love the escapism of them and the defining of good and evil. They're just so creative, too.

One of my favorite things, coming of age, reading comics, was these ideologies and these philosophies of these characters. Seeing those on the page really represented in amazing ways some of my favorite 'Batman' comics like 'The Killing Joke' or 'The Dark Knight Returns.'

People of African descent, most of us grew up accepting and loving Spider-Man. I still love Spider-Man. I still love the Incredible Hulk. I still have those characters that were white role models, superheroes, heroes - whatever you want to call it. You basically had no choice but to accept those.

In terms of Ray Liotta, when I was a teenager growing up in Colorado, I didn't have pictures of girls on my wall. I had pictures of Ray Liotta on my wall. Along with Mike Patton, he was one of my heroes.

From the age of six I used to watch every England team and when I was messing around in the backyard I would pretend to be whoever was scoring runs at the time, whether they were a right or left-hander. I just wanted to be them and do that.

For me, I was never really obsessed with Luke Cage. My obsession was Wolverine.

As a kid, growing up, my heroes all had the Intercontinental Championship. Ultimate Warrior, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Mr. Perfect, Ric Rude, all of them. And they were the people I looked up to and wanted to be like.

As a kid, you'd look at all these guys in the NFL and almost idolize them.

I had never been a comic book person before, really, because I had no access to them. Once I had access, I thought that these are just another avenue for telling stories and delving into the imagination.

What adults don't always understand is that to a kid, a comic book is like a movie. My Marvel comics took my imagination to other places - other galaxies.

I definitely had very strong male figures in my life, who, when I look back, clearly laid the foundations to who I am.

What we've done now sits with those films that inspired me as a kid, and I hope there is a kid like myself today who is watching 'Wreck-It Ralph,' and he or she is inspired the way I was inspired when I was 5 years old, and now they'll pursue this crazy dream.

As a child I wanted to be a kind of hybrid of Ferris Beuller, Ace Ventura, Bette Midler, and Lucille Ball.

It's pretty simple, really: I love the X-Men. They were my favorite heroes when I was a kid. My dad and I collected X-Men comics together, and I know it would have made him proud to see me writing 'Uncanny X-Men.'

It never really occurred to me to seek out a female influence, a female musician.