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
- #LGBTQ: A BRIEF HISTORY OF THAT AMBIGUOLY GAY DUO, BATMAN & ROB
- BATMAN AND ROB WERE NEVER GAY, ACRDG TO DIRECTOR JOEL SCHUMACHER
- FEAR OF A GAY BATMAN BROUGHT BATWOMAN TO LIFE
- GAY BATMAN HOLDG A BANANA
- S E I J I — SUPPORT YOUR LOL GAY SUPERHERO
BATMAN’S LONG TIME SIKICK ROB COM OUT AS GAY
The Complete History of Batman and Rob’s Gay Subtext On the subject of The Caped Csa, ’s probably... * gay batman and robin tumblr *
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.
WA, WAS ROB GAY IN BATMAN & ROB? HERE'S WHAT CHRIS O'DONNELL SAID
Batman's longtime sikick Rob (Tim Drake) has e to a is actually gay. Check out the story! * gay batman and robin tumblr *
Let’s get one thg absolutely clear: Rob isn’t gay. 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.
… 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.
#LGBTQ: A BRIEF HISTORY OF THAT AMBIGUOLY GAY DUO, BATMAN & ROB
@gffa let’s be real here: they’re never gog to portray Dick as Rob aga for the wir dience (ie live-actn movi) bee they’re too aaid of gay jok or groomer cracks. Crime-fightg... * gay batman and robin tumblr *
This is the issue wh gay readgs. 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.
BATMAN AND ROB WERE NEVER GAY, ACRDG TO DIRECTOR JOEL SCHUMACHER
* gay batman and robin tumblr *
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.
FEAR OF A GAY BATMAN BROUGHT BATWOMAN TO LIFE
There's a new book out, The Caped Csa: Batman and the Rise of Nerd Culture by Glen Weldon. Acrdg to anyone who’s ever wrote a Batman & Rob ic, this duo wasn't gay, ambiguo as they might seem. Batman’s -creators, Bill Fger and Bob Kane, both firmly answered the qutn as have wrers like Frank * gay batman and robin tumblr *
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:.
GAY BATMAN HOLDG A BANANA
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. * gay batman and robin tumblr *
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. They shuffled Dick Grayson off to llege 1970, effectively endg the Bce–Dick partnership that had grown so weighted wh gay meta-meangs over the s. Which, really, was all took for heteronormativy to reassert self, bee while separately Batman and Rob me hardwired wh vague gay associatns (the fear of one’s secret inty beg exposed, for example), was only ever their stat as a bond male–male pair that had tly raised eyebrows.
In recent s, certaly seems as if his wrers have grown more self-aware about untend gay readgs and hence more circumspect. Batman has self-policed himself, and his optics, much more thoroughly sce Dick left; ’s que rare to see any subtextual gay elements bubblg up to the surface.
What Schumacher produced wasn’t gay subtext; was gay domtext. But while the Schumacher Bat-films seem like outliers among the kds of Batman stori that reign the prent day, they f squarely wh a long and storied legacy of homosocial, homoerotic, and homosexual ronanc the Bce–Dick partnership.
S E I J I — SUPPORT YOUR LOL GAY SUPERHERO
@gffa let’s be real here: they’re never gog to portray Dick as Rob aga for the wir dience (ie live-actn movi) bee they’re too aaid of gay jok or groomer cracks. Crime-fightg... * gay batman and robin tumblr *
On the subject of The Caped Csa, ’s probably worth sharg this article by Glen Weldon (The thor of that book, and a gay man himself) on the subject of Batman/Rob subtext.
Batman and Rob enjoy some downtime: a panel om World’s Ft Comics #59 (1952) * Today's Natnal Post ntas an article an article I've wrten examg the history of the mour that Batman and Rob are gay. (like everythg I wre for the Post the article me along wh an stant rebuttal, which you n… * gay batman and robin tumblr *
To be clear– Glen Weldon is not argug that Batman and Rob are gay or should be a uple. “In Sctn of the Innocent, Wertham tells of one “young homosexual” who showed him a py of Detective Comics that featured ‘“a picture of ‘The Home of Bce and Dick, ’ a hoe so betifully landsped, warmly lighted and showg the voted pair si by si, lookg out of a picture wdow….
Superman has e out as bisexual followg Batman's Rob revealg he's bi and months after a versn of Marvel's Capta Ameri said he is gay * gay batman and robin tumblr *
It is only the rart of precly self-actualized gay kid who ever gets as far as imagg himself gettg his eaky pubcent relatns on wh the Caped Csar. But for most gay kids, pecially this era of Amerin history, any nfg attractn they may have felt toward Batman stayed exactly that– an tert that seemed to well up om some ep place below the stomach, a blunt, preverbal ache.
Schumacher’s two dienc, however, were spl not by age but sensibily: 1) gay men and 2) everyone the years sce the sixti televisn show had gone off the air, mp had e out of the closet. ”On the history of gay men beg drawn to Batman-“Morrison unrstands the same sential tth that Wertham did– the one that every ten-year-old gay kid worriedly unrstands as he gaz at a panel of Batman placg a iendly hand on Rob’s shoulr: Intentn don’t matter.
The 153rd Doodle Per Diem. It is a drawg of a gay batman holdg a banana. * gay batman and robin tumblr *
This gnive equilibrium produc a closed, ntuo circu of reassurance, harmony, a sense of to gay rears, those same reprentatns matter-of-factly assert a visn of the world not only which they do not belong, but which they do not exist. Gays have always looked for their reflectns media, seekg the same sense of affy and belongg, but until very recently, they’ve failed to see them: the circu of reassurance is broken.