- Batman: Joe Chill. You are the slinking coward that murdered Thomas and Martha Wayne.
- Joe Chill: That was a lifetime ago!
- Batman: Yes... My lifetime! You took them without mercy or regret, and in cold blood, Chill!
- Joe Chill: H-how would you know this? How could you possibly?
- Batman: I know because I watched it happen! I know because I am the son of the man you murdered!
- [lifts off mask]
- Batman: I am Bruce Wayne!
- Joe Chill: ...No... Oh, no!
- Phantom Stranger: [Concerning Joe Chill] He is beaten. Let your devotion of justice temper your rage.
- Spectre: He took your parents, ruined your life. Fulfill your destiny. Become what you have trained to be, an agent of vengeance. He knows who you are, if this man lives, Batman dies.
- Bruce Wayne: Batman may die... but Bruce Wayne? Never.
- Thomas Wayne: [Notices Batman] And here I thought I was going to be one of a kind. I guess great minds think alike, Mr?
- Batman: Uh... Malone. M-Matt. Matthew Malone.
- Thomas Wayne: Thomas Wayne. This is my wife, Martha.
- [Batman hugs Martha]
- Martha Wayne: Oh, my... You're friendly, aren't you?
- Phantom Stranger: [regarding Batman] And so, an ordinary mortal conquered tragedy, and became the greatest champion for the cause of justice.
- Spectre: Justice. What is justice without vengeance, Phantom Stranger? Simply a slap on the wrist and an invitation for evil to continue. Unabated.
- Phantom Stranger: What would you have, Spectre? Batman to become like you? Dispensing punishment without mercy? Growing just as dark as the villains he fights?
- Spectre: You know the reason for this meeting. Batman's darkest hour is at hand. Soon he will confront the man who took his parents from him. Then the final stroke will be delivered. For vengeance.
- Phantom Stranger: For the sake of his soul, I hope you're wrong. Batman must uphold justice.
- Spectre: I'd put it to a wager.
- Phantom Stranger: Interesting. And the prize?
- Spectre: If Batman falls, he is forever in my control. An agent that hunts and destroys his prey without conscience or mercy.
- Phantom Stranger: And if I win?
- Spectre: Batman is free to go his own way.
- Batman: Phantom Stranger, this had better be important.
- Phantom Stranger: Very. I'm alarmed at the way you're conducting this investigation.
- Batman: Go haunt a house. I'm busy.
- Phantom Stranger: Batman, I'm here to offer you an insight into your parents' demise.
- Batman: What do you know?
- Phantom Stranger: Most things.
- Joe Chill: Guys! You've got to help me! Way back I whacked a guy for a job, and now... that guy's son is back for revenge! That guy's son... is Batman!
- Joker: [Joker laughs]
- Joe Chill: What's funny?
- Joker: You're saying we owe Batman's existence to you? That's killer!
- Poison Ivy: So it's your fault Batman's always on our backs!
- [the other villains start to surround Joe Chill]
- Joe Chill: No, guys! Wait!
- Young Bruce Wayne: You know, Dad, that movie was pretty good after all! Can I be Zorro when I grow up?
- Thomas Wayne: Absolutely, son. We'll need to get you a bigger sword...
- Young Bruce Wayne: [runs down the alley] Take that, you wicked tyrant!
- Martha Wayne: Dear...
- Thomas Wayne: Oh, Martha. Let him play.
- Martha Wayne: Thomas Wayne, when he has nightmares tonight, you can be the one to calm hm down.
- Thomas Wayne: Okay, that's enough for now, Bruce. We'll start you on fencing lessons when you're older. Say... 30?
- Poison Ivy: [bidding on the sonic disruptor] Ten thousand!
- Two Face: Fifteen thousand!
- Joker: Two bits!
- [everyone looks at him]
- Joker: Ha Ha! Thought I'd lighten the mood.
- Phantom Stranger: Batman made the right choice. Ultimately is was karma that delivered the final blow to Joe Chill. Funny how Chill just happened to be under that crumbling ceiling when it came down.
- Spectre: [grins] I wouldn't know anything about that.
- Batman: [seeing his father in a bat-themed Halloween costume] I haven't seen them since...
- Phantom Stranger: I know. That night. Know that as a visitor to this temporal plane, there is nothing you can do that will alter their unfortunate fates.
- Batman: I remember that costume of his. It must have been in the back of my mind when I designed this one.
- Phantom Stranger: It seems your creativity has not gone unnoticed.
- Young Bruce Wayne: I swear, by the spirits of my parents, to avenge their deaths by spending the rest of my life warring on all criminals.
- Batman: Spectre, what's your stake in all of this?
- Spectre: That depends on you.
- Batman: I don't have time for cosmic guessing-games with you and the Stranger. I've finally uncovered the motive behind my parents' murder.
- Spectre: Yet, you are restless.
- Batman: I still need to know who pulled the trigger.
- Spectre: And to what end, Dark Knight? What will you do once you find out?
- Batman: I... I don't know.
- Spectre: Surely the world's greatest detective has thought that far ahead.
- Batman: You're the spirit of vengeance, Spectre. A criminal has walked free for over three decades. You have to know who he is.
- [Spectre grins and starts walking way]
- Batman: Don't walk away from me!
- Lew Moxon: You've got some nerve showing up here, after running out on the charity job.
- Joe Chill: I'm sorry, boss.
- Lew Moxon: Yeah... when I get out of here, you'll be even sorrier.
- Joe Chill: Wait, listen! I'll make this right! I can even the score with you with Thomas Wayne. He's the reason you're in here, not me! I'll make sure he suffers! Him, and his whole family.
- Lew Moxon: ...Whatever. Just make it look like an accident.
- Batman: So just like that, he signed away their lives. Soo casually, without remorse. Without blinking a filthy eye. Where was justice?
- Spectre: Where indeed.
- Joe Chill: [Dying] Funny... because I started you off as Batman, those other mugs made me pay. Yeah... I-I guess you got me... after all.
- Abra Kadabra: The creations of the world's greatest stage magicians; Houdini, Carter, Thurston. And now they're mine.
- Batman: Show's over, Kadabra.
- Abra Kadabra: Batman. Your clumsy antics are no match for my sorcery.
- Batman: Don't worry, I brought an assistant.
- Zatanna: ["magically" appearing behind his cape] Surrender, Abra. Don't make me say it backwards.
- Abra Kadabra: Ah, yes, Zatanna, your famous backwards spells. Too bad you can't put everything into one magic word, like...
- [waving his wand]
- Abra Kadabra: ...abracadabra!
- [as she recites an incantation, he's restrained by chains from a wardrobe]
- Abra Kadabra: Not bad, for an amateur. Abracadabra.
- [he becomes thin enough that the chains fall off; pointing his wand at civilians, they fall under his spell]
- Abra Kadabra: Abracadabra. Defend me, my puppets.
- Bruce Wayne: [disguised as a priest] Do you have anything you need to confess?
- Lew Moxon: Confess, huh? Yeah, sure. Why not?
- [coughing]
- Lew Moxon: When I was nine, I beat up Jimmy Flaherty for kissing my sister. Yelled at my wife once. Lied about my weight on my driver's license. Oh, uh, and there's the 40 years I spent running Gotham's rackets. Okay. I got one more big one. A while back, I took a hit out on Thomas Wayne. Remember him? Bigtime doctor, rich guy. Did a stint in Blackgate because of him.
- Bruce Wayne: Who did you hire to do it?
- Lew Moxon: It went all wrong, though. The guy got antsy or something. Wound up offing Wayne's wife, too.
- Bruce Wayne: Who was it?
- Lew Moxon: I mean, yeah, Wayne had it coming, but I'm no monster. Left their kid without a Ma. Felt kind of bad about that.
- Bruce Wayne: What was the man's name?
- Lew Moxon: Why do you care?
- Bruce Wayne: You're not the only one in need of forgiveness.
- Lew Moxon: Yeah, okay. Some guy named... Chi... Chill.
- Batman: [defeating Abra Kadabra with Zatanna] I had to train for years to fight crime, and all you do is talk backwards.
- [she gives him a wink]
- Batman: [thinking] These days, Joe Chill is an arms dealer who turns a profit selling weapons to super-criminals on the black market. And there's a sale going down tonight.