Batman and Robin: Are they or aren't they?

From Grant Morrison and Frank Quietly, the creative team behind the critically acclaimed All-Star Superman comic series, comes this week's release of the first issue of a new ongoing title, Batman and Robin, which explores the Dynamic Duo from a fresh and modern perspective. Batman and Robin are two of the most well-known pop culture icons of the 20th century, but there's always been a mystery surrounding their relationship. Sure, Bruce Wayne is an older bachelor who runs around in spandex and takes Dick Grayson, a young orphan boy, under his wing and transforms him into his sidekick, but does that necessarily make them gay?

Robin has been around since almost the beginning of Batman's comic career. A year after Batman's debut in Detective Comics, Robin was brought on to attract young readers, and he was immediately a hit. While Dick Grayson eventually grew up and attended college, where he had the occasional girlfriend, Bruce for the most part was always married to his crime-fighting and showed the opposite sex very little attention (except for Catwoman, who is pretty much Gotham City's answer to Lady Gaga). Most of the "evidence" for Batman and Robin's hidden homosexual lifestyle come from comic panels that at the time seemed acceptable, but have since been regarded as gay or pedophilic in nature. In fact it was the Dynamic Duo's "relationship" that sparked comic controversy back in the 1950s, when parents and politicians felt comic books to be evil and responsible for the teenage rebellion of that day.

The gays have always loved Batman and Robin (remember Chris O'Donnell's bat-nipples in Batman and Robin?) and the most recent controversy arose when artist Mark Chamberlain debuted his watercolor collection in New York in 2005 that depicted Batman and Robin in various sexual positions and acts together (you can Google Image search them yourself). The art gallery was hit with a cease and desist order by DC Comics to hand over all unsold work and invoices for the sold pieces. Like being the Oprah and Gayle of the comic world, most evidence points to Batman and Robin just being best friends, but one gay can dream about what latest "Bat-gadgets" Bruce and Dick are trying out in the late hours of the Batcave after a long night of cleaning up the streets of Gotham.

-- CHRISTOPHER RUDOLPH

Previously > Tori Amos and Neil Gaiman's comic connection

Comments

[@Daniel_Baylis]

How sweet of Mr. Wayne to take in Dick.

The subtext is so strongly homo-erotic, I can't believe we're even having this debate. They were a subtle expression of homosexuality in a time where explicit expression was impossible.

My sentiments: Gay Gay Gay.

(and yes, after all these years, the bat-nipples are still doing it for me)

[James H.]

Sexuality in comics are always fluid due to the needs of the plot and the direction the writers want the character to go. You can interpret the Batman-Robin relationship in many ways: 1) Father-son (given that Tim Drake (Robin 3) was legally adopted and Damian Wayne (Robin 5)is the biological son of Bruce, 2)Brotherly (especially as the new Batman is Dick and his Robin is Damian), and 3) Homoerotic. I favor interpretations 1 and 2 over three (even though I'd love to eventually see a gay Robin). Also, the post misstates Dick's relationships with women: he's had serious relationships with Firestar and Barbra Gordon.