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Everyone knows Batman loves Dick but how queer is the caped crusader’s relationship with The Joker, asks Evelyn Hartogh?
The rather obvious homoerotic relationship between Batman and Robin is such a blatant, famous part of camp history that we rarely see Bruce Wayne’s ‘ward’ Dick Grayson in the big-screen adaptations.
However, Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, the prequel to his 2005 Batman Begins, takes a rather queer look at Batman’s intimate relationship with his worst enemy, the crazy camp Joker.
The Clown Prince of Crime has been a gay icon ever since the cult role was played by homosexual actor Cesar Romero in the 1960s Batman TV series.
Known to his friends as ‘Butch’, Romero’s lovers are said to have included Tyrone Power and Desi Arnnaz (Lucille Ball’s husband). Romero stayed in the closet almost all his life, until outing himself with comic flair in Boze Hadleigh’s book Hollywood Gays.
Romero’s 1960s Joker was more slapstick than psycho. James Jagic, from Comics Etc in Brisbane, said the new Joker in the upcoming film The Dark Knight is much darker and dangerous, and is “the Joker character as seen in the graphic novels The Killing Joke and The Man Who Laughs”.
Jagic said that most comics these days are aimed at a mature audience, Batman especially.
“Batman has the same amount of regular titles as Superman but Batman has a lot more mini-series,” Jagic said.
While Batman is widely regarded as the moral guardian of the superhero world and is by far the most respected character (due to his ability to use his intelligence instead of relying on super-powers), he is also seen as a very mysterious, dark, almost demonic, vigilante, and the Joker character is often called the “mirror-image of Batman”, Jagic said.
The latest actor to take on the role of the psychopathic Joker is the famous Brokeback Mountain gay cowboy, the late Heath Ledger.
Ledger’s death on January 22 from an accidental drug overdose provoked a revamp of the movie’s publicity campaign. Posters of a deranged-looking Ledger as the Joker with the caption, “Why So Serious?” were deemed tasteless considering Ledger’s rumoured struggle with depression.
Mere days after Ledger’s death, Jack Nicholson, who played the psychopathic Joker in Tim Burton’s 1989 movie Batman, claimed he had warned Ledger about the pitfalls of taking on such a demanding and challenging role.
Christian Bale, who plays Batman in The Dark Knight, felt Ledger’s performance as the Joker was “intense” and had “this great anarchistic streak to it – just getting dirtier than anybody’s envisioned the Joker before”.
Sir Michael Caine, who reprises his role as Batman’s trusted butler Alfred, said Ledger’s Joker was scary. “I completely forgot my lines … it will frighten the life out of people,” Caine said.
In The Dark Knight Batman’s relationship with the Joker is deeply psychological and both men define themselves in relation to the other. The modern Batman is a deeply conflicted character who can see the monster and the mad man inside himself.
Batman examines himself and can see how similar he is to the Joker.
The Joker often tells Batman that the costume is his real identity and that his mask is bachelor playboy Bruce Wayne.
Metaphors of the closeted queer self will always be integral to the Batman story, as long as he insists on wearing so much rubber fetish wear, and continues chasing boys.
The Dark Knight opens July 19.
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