"One of many, many reasons I'm glad he isn't here," Kon said dryly, before remembering that, you know, that it was rude as hell to diss other people's mentors.

But his dislike of Batman had only grown in the years since his brainwashing by Luthor. Having the people at Project: Gladiator parrot a lot of the same things Batman had said about him in the past had only made that dislike crystallize into something more concrete and solid.

Like that he was a machine. A robot. A weapon. Something that needed to be controlled. All things he'd heard out of Batman's mouth partly due to the visions of Raven's soul-self - and some of which he'd even said to his face. And while he was sure he'd gained some of Batman's respect after his death and revival, it wasn't like the guy had even apologized once.

Now that he was getting older, he wasn't as easily intimidated - or impressed - and the fact that his death had happened in no small part because most of the heroes had been occupied with Brother Eye had only added to the big heap of reasons to dislike him.

"...that was rude." You didn't diss other people's mentors lightly. "Sorry."