Batman gay
A Brief History of Dick
Freely adapted from The Caped Crusade: Batman and the Rise of Nerd Culture by Glen Weldon, out now from Simon and Schuster.
Let’s get one thing absolutely clear: Robin isn’t gay.
Don’t let the grassy Speedo and the pixie boots steer you wrong; Dick Grayson is as straight as uncooked spaghetti. In fact, there hold been several Robins over the years, and not one of them has exhibited any trace of same-sex attraction or evinced anything resembling a gender non-conforming self-identity.
Neither, it feels vital to note here at the start, has Batman.
Don’t take my word for it. Ask anyone who’s written a Batman and Robin comic. Or, you know what, you don’t have to: Dollars to donuts they’ve already been asked that question, and have gone on document asserting the Dynamic Duo’s he-man, red-blooded, heterosexual bona fides. Batman’s co-creators, Bill Finger and Bob Kane, both firmly swatted the question down. So own writers like Frank Miller, Denny O’Neil, Alan Grant, and Devin Grayson—though Grayson admitted that she could “understand the gay readings.”
So there you have it. After all, if a character isn’t written as gay, then that personality can’t possibly be g
Batman: Robin coming out as bisexual person was 'missing piece' of story15456
1. Read what you love. If you don't appreciate it, don't interpret it. Great thing about this society -- especially in the world of comics, tv, movies, books, etc., there's so much damn content available now.
2. Personally, I don't equate this move the same as the Bat Dong. That was clearly for headlines and had absolutely nothing to do with the story. It was just a way to get the Black Label some press.
3. Totally agree that brand-new characters can be a focus for diversity. We've seen that with probably the best example in the past 20 years -- Miles Morales, which someone referenced earlier. However, at the same time, there's a lot of joking about the million Robins that have been around, which is very fair. 50% of Gotham has been Robin at this point. So, if DC created a new bisexual ethics and said, "Here's our new Robin," I think a lot of folks would come out and say that's it lazy writing and just done solely to produce a bisexual Robin for the sake of diversity and that this Robin is not a real "R
Let something percolate in our collective perception long enough and it’ll grow into a profound fable. When DC Comics artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger came up with Batman in 1940, he was just a detective in a cape and mask – goofy rather than dark, aimed as he was at the target market of the time; kids.
Seven decades and a raft of social issues later, Batman has taken on Shakespearian proportions, talking about the modern day so successfully 2009 saw the first Oscar awarded to an actor playing a comic book traits (Heath Ledger’s posthumous win as The Joker in The Dark Knight).
But secret meanings can also crop up in modern mythologies, given enough time. Just one is the theory that Batman is one huge gay parable, and when panels from the comics’ golden age show Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson waking up in bed together in Wayne Manor (complete with double entendres about a cold shower) or Batman sporting a suite of rainbow-hued costumes, it’s firm to argue – search for ‘gay Batman’ on Google to see for yourself.
Batman comes out?
It all started with German born American psychiatrist Fredric Wertham, whose written operate a
The Gayness of Batman: A Concise History
"Gayness is built into Batman. ... Batman is very, very gay. There's just no denying it. Obviously as a unreal character he's intended to be heterosexual, but the basis of the whole concept is utterly gay."
As we reported last week, this was the claim made by Batman, Incorporated writer Grant Morrison in an interview with Playboy where he offers his insights into the psychology of superheroes. In Morrison's view, Batman's attachment to Alfred and Robin and his alleged detachment from the women in "fetish clothes" who "jump around rooftops to get to him" is symptomatic of his conceptual gayness. That's a very selective framing, but as Morrison told the LA Times in 2010, "Batman can take anything. You can act comedy Batman, you can execute gay Batman."
That's not true, of course. You can do comedy Batman, and you can act The Midnighter (Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch's openly gay Batman analogue), but DC Comics is unlikely to allow any journalist to make Batman gay, even in an Elseworlds or alternate-universe story. As Morrison himself says, Batman is intended to be he