Gay Batman

Fascinating article over at Comics Alliance about the gayness of Batman. I'm no comics scholar, but I thought the read on the Batman character was unique and compelling.

Unrelated to gayness, this quote from the piece especially puts into canonical perspective my abhorrence for the casually misogynist world of "The Dark Knight" (and how popular and beloved that movie is):

Frank Miller expanded on this point when he was asked about Batman's sexuality by Christopher Sharrett for his 1991 essay, Batman and the Twilight of the Idols: An Interview With Frank Miller. The cartoonist said, "Batman isn't gay. His sexual urges are so drastically sublimated into crime-fighting that there's no room for any other emotional activity. Notice how insipid are the stories where Batman has a girlfriend or some sort of romance. It's not because he's gay, but because he's borderline pathological, he's obsessive."

It doesn't make it better, but it is interesting at least that blowing up girlfriends and omitting any other solid female characters is normal in the historical Batman universe.

This take on Batman's almost pathological obsession connects with another quote I recently came across:

[The late psychologist David Lykken] has controversially called psychopaths and heroes 'twigs on the same genetic branch.'

This was in the context of high vs. low reactive kids in the excellent book "Quiet" by Susan Cain, but my mind instantly jumped to Batman because my favorite cinematic crush (Christian Bale) has played both psychopath and hero in his career. Interesting to think of the two characters being connected by more than just an actor.

Thanks to Matt for the Comics Alliance link.