Batman gay robin
We Need To Talk About The Inherent Queerness Of 1997's Batman And Robin
While superhero movies are everywhere thanks to the various cinematic universes in perform, there was a age when they were massive risks for the studio. Given how popular the Caped Crusader is, fans spent years watching Batman movies in order, including the franchise that ran through the '90s (which is streaming with a Max subscription). And while it's usually listed reduce when ranking the Batman movies, Joel Schumacher's 1997 movie Batman& Robin is campy fun that I've always loved. But we need to talk about the queerness of this comic book flick.
To be clear, there aren't any LGBTQ+ characters or storyline in this movie. But there are various elements of it that undergo inherently queer. And speaking as a nerdy kid from the '90s, I'm not the only one of my peers who shares the same connection to Joel Schumacher's delightfully bonkers classic. So without further ado, here are the biggest moments that have made Batman & Robin into a lgbtq+ cult classic.
Chris O'Donnell, especially after kissing Poison Ivy
For many LGBTQ+ kids who grew up in the '90s, Chris O'Donnell was a major heartthrob, o
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 lush Speedo and the pixie boots steer you wrong; Dick Grayson is as straight as uncooked spaghetti. In fact, there contain been several Robins over the years, and not one of them has exhibited any trace of same-sex attraction or evinced anything resembling a homosexual self-identity.
Neither, it feels crucial 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 write down 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 hold 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
Holy homoerotica, Batman!
Handsome, dazed, and to perish for
When I was a young lad, my pulse quickened every time I came across a naked male torso in a magazine, on greeting cards in the mall gift shop, or on TV. Initially I couldn’t realize why such images held my attention. Later, I’d fret that someone would notice me lingering over these hunky men for much longer than a young boy should.
Sometimes, it felt sound to marvel at these displays of the male physique because it was a sports game or a TV show I was watching with my family or friends. As a kid, my younger brother was a large wrestling fan. I’m guessing he followed them for the storylines (?), whereas I stuck around to watch hulking men touching each other in their ridiculously skimpy costumes. And then there was that one ACC Thinksafe TV ad featuring a buff guy enjoying a steamy shower before stepping out and slipping on the wet floor. That ad sent my confused short-lived brain into overdrive, to the signal where I still couldn’t help but notice how boiling he was while lying there with a suspected broken neck.
But my ultimate source of fit men in various states of undress (other than Farmers catalogues) were comic books.
The Patron Saint of Superheroes
The short answer: Sort of.
Bob Kane never drew the dynamic duo in an intentionally compromising position, but were the two having sex in the gutters between the panels?
Can’t speak. That’s the point of the comic book gutter. It requires the reader to fill in the narrative gap. If you read sex in that space, then sex it is. Frederic Wertham certainly did, and lots of it.
In his 1954 Seduction of the Innocent, Wertham famously explains: “Only someone ignorant of the fundamentals of psychiatry and of the psychopathology of sex can fail to recognize a subtle atmosphere of homoerotism which pervades the adventures of the mature ‘Batman’ and his little friend ‘Robin.’ . . . They live in sumptuous quarters, with pretty flowers in large vases, and have a butler, Alfred. Batman is sometimes shown in a dressing gown. . . . It is like a wish dream of two homosexuals living together. Sometimes they are shown on a couch, Bruce reclining and Dick sitting next to him, jacket off, collar open, and his hand on his friend’s arm. . . . [Robin] often stands with his legs spread, the genital region discreetly evident.”
Wertham is great fun to lampoon, b
How DC’s finest gave Robin a coming out story
Tim Drake is the Robin who isn’t really sure how to be Robin anymore — but in this week’s Batman: Urban Legends, he’s figured at least one thing out. A nice male child asked him out on a hang out, and Tim said yes.
That makes him the first brand-new LGBTQ member of Batman’s immediate family in 15 years, since Batwoman herself.
Batman: Urban Legends is one of DC’s new anthology series. In each issue, multiple creative teams share an episode of various carried on stories starring characters under the Gotham City umbrella. Over several issues, Author Meghan Fitzmartin (DC Superhero Girls, Future State: Robin Eternal) and artist Belén Ortega (Sensational Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel) have crafted “Sum of Our Parts,” a story in which Tim Drake tries to defeat a mysterious unused villain who captured his old partner Bernard.
In “Sum of Our Parts,” Tim wrestles with uncertainty in a way that has turn into core to his character over the last decade. He feels as though he doesn’t understand what he wants, until Bernard — not knowing that Robin and Tim are the alike person — wistfully refers to their interrupted dinner as a “date,” and Tim has “a lightbulb moment.”
Tim