DC’s Batman Family Just Got a Little More Queer

Because there are a number of Batman books launched by DC Comics in any given week, there’s at all times one thing occurring with the Bat-family. Events would possibly embrace a devastating dying, the introduction of a new member, or, as is the case on this week’s Batman: Urban Legends #6 from author Meghan Fitzmartz, artist Belén Ortega, colorist Alejandro Sánchez, and letterer Pat Brosseau, somebody revealing a brand new aspect of their identification.

In the Robin-focused “Sum of Our Parts” story—the third of three—featured in direction of the top of Urban Legends #6, a solo Tim Drake flies into motion to save lots of Bernard, a longtime pal of his who hasn’t but been correctly let in on the entire secret identification factor. This chapter picks up instantly after the occasions in Urban Legends #4 the place Tim and Bernard’s reunion was all of the sudden interrupted by the arrival of Chaos Monster, a brand new Gotham villain who wears a grotesque masks and assaults individuals utilizing chloroform powder. After waking up in a daze to search out Bernard kidnapped, Tim makes a fast costume change and instantly tracks the brand new villain to a lair the place he and a gaggle of his followers have chained Bernard to an alter.

Though there are many different kidnapped victims locked up in cells who Chaos Monster presumably additionally meant to sacrifice, Tim’s targeted on Bernard as he fees the villains head-on. From the pregnant pauses written into Tim and Bernard’s dialogue, you possibly can instantly get the sense that whereas Tim won’t have explicitly informed Bernard that he’s one of the Robins working round Gotham, he is aware of. What’s fairly specific, nevertheless, is Bernard’s hope that he will get an opportunity to complete his date with “Tim,” and “Robin’s” very confident smirk in response.

While some could also be fast to take situation with Urban Legends establishing Tim Drake’s canonical queerness—and/or that he and Spoiler (Stephanie Brown) have damaged up—these are components of the character’s story that the inventive staff put a substantial quantity of thought and care into. In a latest interview with Polygon, Fitzmartin defined that this path for Tim got here from her poring over the character’s earlier arcs. “[“Sum of Our Parts”] occurred as a result of that is who Tim is,” Fitz Martin stated. “I love this character very much, and as I went back to reread as much as I could to do Robin justice, it became clear this is the story Tim needed to tell.”

As Polygon notes, Tim has had a much more nebulous identification over the previous few years in comparison with Nightwing (Dick Grayson), Red Hood (Jason Todd), and the latest Robin (Damian Wayne), and this new growth introduces a aspect of his identification that’s prime for exploration. On the topic of how Tim identifies, although, Fitzmartin was cautious to elucidate that Tim’s popping out doesn’t in any respect retcon or reduce the sentiments he’s had for Spoiler. “I wanted to pay tribute to the fact that sexuality is a journey,” Fitzmartin stated. “To be clear, his feelings for Stephanie have been/are 100% real, as are his feelings for Bernard. However, Tim is still figuring himself out. I don’t think he has the language for it all… yet.”

While there are positive to be some diehard Red Robin-Spoiler shippers and/or run-of-the-mill homophobes who will stand up in arms about the truth that but one other member of the Bat household is queering up the place (see: Batwoman), late in (fictional) life comings out are a part of the queer expertise which are essential to highlight, and could be a strong manner of including new dimensions to (once more, fictional) characters. Now that Tim’s queerness has been placed on the desk for readers, the query is how DC is definitely going to go about addressing it.

Tim Drake doesn’t have to develop into the “queer Robin” any greater than Kate Kane wanted to develop into the “lesbian Batwoman who is also Jewish.” There’s a depth and complexity to Kate’s life that’s stemmed from completely different inventive groups placing thought and care into constructing out the bigger context she exists in as an individual. The similar has been true of Tim up to now, and it nearly definitely shall be sooner or later. It’s simply that now, Tim’s queerness can and ought to be an essential facet of his identification that he embraces as a result of it’s a part of who he’s.

Batman: Urban Legends #6 is in shops now.

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