Batman Writer Spills the Beans to Playboy: Batman is Very, Very Gay

Posted by Kevin Farrell on Apr 26, 2012 in Comics | 21 comments

Batman megawriter (Batman, Batman & Robin, Batman Inc., I could go on…) Grant Morrison spills the beans on what makes Batman tick to Playboy (with incredible art from Frank Quitely, FYI). The secret? “Batman is very, very gay.”

“I got interested in the class element of Batman: He’s a rich man who beats up poor people. It’s quite a bizarre mission to go out at night dressed as a bat and punch the hell out of junkies. And then he goes home and lives in this mansion. There’s an aspirational quality to him—he’s an outlaw and he can buy anything. He has a new Batmobile every movie. He’s very plutonian in the sense that he’s wealthy and also in the sense that he’s sexually deviant.

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.”

Real talk, Grant Morrison is a personal hero and I gobble up almost everything he produces. I can’t imagine that DC is pleased that Playboy is running an interview calling their biggest moneymaker “very, very gay” right before The Dark Knight Rises heads to theaters, but I imagine there’s not much they can do to chastise the most talented and popular writer in their entire company.

So what do YOU think? Is Batman inherently gay? Is it built into his mythos?

(via Playboy)

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002265695433 Thynkie Dink

He does hang with Robin much more often that he hangs out with women. I always thought that Robin was gay.
http://www.facebook.com/rabblesthebinx Brian Frang

Considering his relationships with Talia al Ghul, Selena Kyle, Vicki Vale, etc; as well as the existence of his unintended, illegitimate offspring from Talia (Damian Wayne) I’d have to say he’s straight. Deeply disturbed, but straight.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Randy-Skretvedt/598442818 Randy Skretvedt

One picture worth a thousand words…
http://www.facebook.com/jay.crookshanks Jay Crookshanks

well i guess I always thought batman and robin were Gay crime fighting lovers and he had those flings with women to throw off the Gothamites of his gayness …. but then again he could be a really big BI guy who straddles the fence ….. and then again I am a Gay man who was married and has 2 kids so it could have been his straight moments in life that finalized that he was a totally Gay man/batman…
http://www.facebook.com/Lofngilbreath Lofn Michelle Gilbreath

Bisexual makes the most sense to me.
http://www.facebook.com/todd.klopfer Todd Klopfer

Growing up watching Batman and Robin (Adam West and Burt Ward) I was always intrigued by their relationship. I also had a major crush on Burt Ward. I was really shocked when as an adult to find out the actors are both heterosexual. I don’t care how many girlfriends you give Bruce Wayne he still comes across gay with a like for younger men.
http://www.facebook.com/misterstellar Tim Stellar

Morrison has always been a Pot Stirrer. One of the reasons I love him.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Erica-Cook/100000628613592 Erica Cook

The way he put it is increadably insulting. He makes it sound like Bruce is having sex with Robin, and that’s never been the case. He’s been an adult mentor to a disadvantaged child who was also an orphan like he was. He DOSE NOT just go around knocking out poor people on drugs. He stops criminals from harming him. In that he most likely could be a single gay man looking to be a part of society as many of us would attest to doing. We all look for way to contrubure to society. Happens to have more means to do so… and dose.

http://www.facebook.com/shadyblues Lucas E. Wagner

he wrote it silly lol

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1633382380 Joseph B. Cole

Like we couldn’t already tell?
Phil Mata

As a heterosexual male who has admired Batman since early childhood, my response is “DUH!” But you know what? Who gives a crap? Bad-ass is bad-ass.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Tiffany-Jeffords/1502506418 Tiffany Jeffords

I always thought Batman and Robin were a couple, I mean Robin ran around in HOT PANTS!!! Batman has a thing for young men but Bruce might be straight but I doubt it.
Martin Kennedy

Definitely homoerotic and probably pedophiliac as well. Robin is his ‘ward’ which means that Bruce is his legal guardian and I always assumed Robin was pretty young. I actually also kind of envied the pure ‘pals’ or ‘father-son’ fun they had running around in cool cars and fighting crime. I also think that the subliminal messages could be analyzed for eternity; the pathos of these men and how they have created a ‘family’ together.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Bob-Gilbert/100001680361014 Bob Gilbert

Robin’s age depends both on which Robin we’re talking about and which version of the DC universe. He’s been everything from 13 (the first incarnation) to 27 (his eventual role as Nightwing) with a lot of ground covered in between. However, the pedophile aspect I’m not entirely sure of. I would rather believe that he raised Robin, and came to find that he loved him as Robin aged. But, that’s just me.

http://www.MaleEroticEvolution.com/ Michael!

Please, all of us gay boys grew up thinking that Batman and Robin were lovers. Sliding down bat poles, going into the secret cave, the festive outfits….and excuse me, Adam West, hello…it all adds up to gay, gay, gay. YEA. YEA. YEA.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1326000279 Kyle Milner

I’m just confused by Morrison’s logic here because it sounds like he is saying that because he is a costumed crime-fighter who happens to be wealthy then, that means he’s gay. Idk. I think this is is a flawed argument. The thing about Dick Grayson/Robin is that Bruce Wayne saw himself in Grayson as they were both orphaned around the same age. He saw a chance to help out someone and guide them through that tough time in a way he didn’t have. Sure, he had Alfred but, Alfred wasn’t able to relate to Bruce’s tragedy like Bruce could with Dick.

I understand why people raise their eyebrow to the Batman/Robin relationship but, Grant Morrison isn’t really backing up his claim. More interested in hanging out with the old guy and the kid? They’re his damn family; they’re, respectively, his surrogate father and son!

Also, he dresses up not cause he likes the theatrics but because he wants to be a symbol to put fear into his opponents. By Grant Morrison’s argument, EVERY superhero is gay and that is simply not true. Even someone as tough as The Punisher has a costume… COME ON!
http://www.facebook.com/people/Yuri-Ritoru/1242879617 Yuri Ritoru

I….. do not understand this writer’s reasoning behind him being “very, very gay”.

Sure, he’s got a “boy side-kick”, and that’s been joked at for ages, but besides that… I just fail to see what’s so “utterly gay” about his lifestyle.
Anonymous

Overgrown pajama w/ weak bat symbol
Black eye-makeup.
Underpants, over regular pants.
All those corny one-liners
“You’ll never get away with this” Are you kidding?

Batman is flaming.

Dont think about it too much
Anonymous

Overgrown pajamas w/ weak batsymbol
Black eye-makeup
Underpants, over regular pants
Silly one liners;
“You’ll never get away with this”.

Batman is flaming.

Don’t think about it too much.
http://twitter.com/c0mpfr3ak Chris G.

for someone who wears as much leather as he does its hard not to be gay, and a female that follows his every move and he has yet to sleep with her i would say yet another sign hes gay
http://www.facebook.com/people/Ariel-Reyes/584822197 Ariel Reyes

Noooooooooooo!!! I loves mi batman, and plus nightwing eventually goes back to batgirl.

And Batman happily gets married to Catwoman, and have a daughter. Although he was seriously distraught after her death by joker, and disappeared. Gay like tendecies? Wouldn’t that be stereotyping though? I dunno love Batman as in in my head.

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