Only Joel Schumacher might have had an opposing view". Denny O'Neil's Batman, Marv Wolfman's Batman, everybody's Batman all the way back to Bob Kane… none of them wrote him as a gay character. Writer Alan Grant has stated: "The Batman I wrote for 13 years isn't gay. The Comics Bulletin website posed the question "Is Batman Gay?" to their staff and various comic book professionals.
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Īndy Medhurst wrote in his 1991 essay Batman, Deviance, and Camp that Batman is interesting to gay audiences because "he was one of the first fictional characters to be attacked on the grounds of his presumed homosexuality", " the 1960s TV series remains a touchstone of camp" and " merits analysis as a notably successful construction of masculinity".
Tilley stating that he "manipulated, overstated, compromised and fabricated evidence". Wertham's work is now often criticized, with one review of his work by Carol L. This book was issued in the context of the " lavender scare" where authorities regarded homosexuality as a security risk. In Seduction of the Innocent, Fredric Wertham claimed, "the Batman type of story may stimulate children to homosexual fantasies, of the nature of which they may be unconscious" and "only someone ignorant of the fundamentals of psychiatry and of the psychopathology of sex can fail to realize a subtle atmosphere of homoeroticism which pervades the adventures of the mature 'Batman' and his young friend Robin". This style awoke contemporary and later associations with gay culture. The early Golden Age Batman stories were dark and violent, but during the late 1940s and the early 1950s they changed to a softer, friendlier and more exotic style that was considered campy. 4 LGBT characters in the Batman franchise.3 Interpretations in later years parody and fandom.By taking an iconic character known to all, like Robin, and giving him a bisexual storyline, DC Comics is showing fans they are seen. Other than Batwoman, who wasn’t generally a household name until her recent CW show, any and all superheroes who were written as LGBTQ+ were ones mainstream audiences wouldn’t have heard of.
But until now, DC – which arguably has the bigger names in Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman – has lagged behind. Marvel started a sea change (on the page, mind you) in recent years, with new iterations of old favorites, like a gender-flipped Thor or a Korean American Hulk in Amadeus Cho, some of whom are now coming to the screen via Disney+. Despite the dominance of the superhero genre in TV and movies, the comic books from which these stories are drawn have only a fraction of the audience that the on-screen adaptations get partly because for decades there was no move to broaden their appeal. The development of Robin’s character is particularly significant given that comics until how have overwhelmingly been written as white-cis-male for decades, even as other cultural formats have increasingly diversified and adapted to modern audiences. The comic then ends, post-rescue, with Drake back in his street clothes going out with Bernard. As they take on the Monster together, Bernard confesses his feelings for the suddenly absent Drake and his wish, should he survive, to get another chance at love. When Bernard is kidnapped by the comic’s current baddie, Chaos Monster (just go with it), it necessitates a rescue by our titular hero, now in Robin costume. That follows the same trope as most traditional love interests in the comics, like Batman’s Vicki Vale or Superman’s Lois Lane. (Batman may eternally be Bruce Wayne, but his sidekick position has been held by multiple people since the Robin character was introduced in 1940.) This particular anthology run is a Robin-centric story featuring his circle of acquaintances, including Bernard, a longtime friend who nonetheless has no idea of Drake’s secret identity. In the new comic, the current Robin’s alter ego is Tim Drake. Opinion 'The Suicide Squad' reboot-that's-not-a-reboot is actually good (yes, really)