Marvel’s God of Mischief Loki recently came out as bisexual in the Disney+ Loki series and fans all around celebrated along. Now, DC Comics has published its own coming out story in which Robin, a sidekick to Batman, comes out as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community too.
In the Batman: Urban Legends comics, Tim Drake/Robin is seen saving and fighting alongside a friend named Bernard. Amongst the action, Tim has a ‘lightbulb moment’ and a moment of self-acceptance. At the end of everything, he agrees to go on a date with Bernard.
Allowing Robin to rescue a male love interest and have the same romantic tropes play out ala Superman and Lois normalises and shows people that these romantic stories are universal and can apply to anyone. Tim’s coming out is arguably a far much stronger story than a one-liner mention of dating a same-sex partner.
Tim Drake in the comics has always been the Robin who never quite fit in and is constantly interrogating his own identity. Tim’s personality largely differs from past Robins like Dick Grayson and Jason Todd who were much older and sure of themselves.
The struggle with understanding oneself that Tim frequently displayed in the comics is a familiar experience for many queer folks. The development of Robin’s character is also particularly significant given that comics have overwhelmingly been written as white-cis-male for decades.
Tim now joins a large group of canon queer DC characters such as Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy and Kate Kane, all of which have come out in both the comics and their respective TV series.
Tim’s coming out comes at an interesting moment in time. This is especially since the character will be making a live-action appearance in the upcoming third season of Titans. Whether or not the HBO Max series will address his sexuality or write him as a queer character remains to be seen.
Don’t judge a book by its cover, for behind all this makeup, is a geek just like you. To simply put it, superheroes, Star Wars, Harry Potter and all things gore and creepy makes this girly girl swoon.
Yonk
Edwin Teo
Trinity Sun
