In a recent interview with Playboy magazine, comic-book writer Grant Morrison (Invisibles, Doom Patrol, New X-Men) talks about how he views Batman, a character Morrison has written for:
Gayness is built into Batman. I’m not using gay in the pejorative
sense, but Batman is very, very gay. There’s just no denying it.
Obviously as a fictional character he’s intended to be heterosexual,
but the basis of the whole concept is utterly gay. I think that’s why
people like it. All these women fancy him and they all wear fetish
clothes and jump around rooftops to get to him. He doesn’t care—he’s
more interested in hanging out with the old guy and the kid.
Sure, there’ve been jokes about Batman and Robin’s relationship, and the homoerotic nature of Batman (Joel Schumacher, anyone?), but this is probably the closest anyone has ever come to truly equating gayness with the bat. I don’t think this means that Bruce Wayne or his alter ego will ever come out of any closet, but it’s nice to see that the man behind the mask — or in this case, the pen — acknowledges a certain queer attitude in comic book heroes.
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