Created 1998, Apollo and Midnighter were among the first married gay upl superhero ics — and they were totally parodi of Batman and Superman. Now, thanks to DC Comics ntuy, the four characters fally met face to face.
Contents:
- BATMAN’S LONG TIME SIKICK ROB COM OUT AS GAY
- WA, WAS ROB GAY IN BATMAN & ROB? HERE'S WHAT CHRIS O'DONNELL SAID
- BATMAN AND ROB WERE NEVER GAY, ACRDG TO DIRECTOR JOEL SCHUMACHER
- FEAR OF A GAY BATMAN BROUGHT BATWOMAN TO LIFE
BATMAN’S LONG TIME SIKICK ROB COM OUT AS GAY
* batman and robin gay love *
Former Batman ic wrer Grant Morrison even told Playboy magaze that “gayns is built to Batman. The list of superhero accintally or liberately d as queer who have never nonilly been brought out of the closet bee of homophobia is long and prsg.
But wa, I n hear the ments already: So now Tim is jt The Rob Who Is Gay? Tim Drake’s story speaks to what advot for diversy n fet and homophob would rather ignore: There are legimate reasons to give a long-standg straight character a g-out story beyond “more diversy is more.
Unpackg the gay subtext of Rob, the Boy Wonr. Gay subtext managed to suate self to the Dynamic Duo’s dyad om the very start. Let’s get one thg absolutely clear: Rob isn’t gay.
WA, WAS ROB GAY IN BATMAN & ROB? HERE'S WHAT CHRIS O'DONNELL SAID
So have wrers like Frank Miller, Denny O’Neil, Alan Grant, and Dev Grayson—though Grayson admted that she uld “unrstand the gay readgs. After all, if a character isn’t wrten as gay, then that character n’t possibly be gay, right?
Gayns is built to Batman. Batman is VERY, very gay.
BATMAN AND ROB WERE NEVER GAY, ACRDG TO DIRECTOR JOEL SCHUMACHER
… but the whole basis of the ncept is utterly gay. But gay subtext managed to suate self to the Dynamic Duo’s dyad om the very start. “It is like a wish-dream, ” he famoly wrote, “of two homosexuals livg together.
This is the issue wh gay readgs.
FEAR OF A GAY BATMAN BROUGHT BATWOMAN TO LIFE
Any given bond between mal n be homosocial whout beg homoerotic, and even the most explicly homoerotic bond n exist whout ever bbg up agast homosexual sire.
Intentn don’t matter when to gay subtext. This is why, as a visual medium filled wh silent cu like body language and background tail, superhero ics have proven a particularly fertile vector for gay readgs over the years. That panel of a be-toweled Bce and Dick loungg together their solarium, for example, would not rry the potent homoerotic charge do, were the same scene simply scribed borg ol’ prose.
But gay subtext, like rmatn, longs to be ee, and the universe doggedly nspired to keep droppg advertently hilar panels like this one, om a 1966 Jtice League of Ameri ic, to Bat-non:. Although the show beme extribly associated wh the notn of mp, s pop-art sensibily never me off as particularly gay spe the prence of gut villas played by such fierce divas as Tallulah Bankhead and Liberace.