Batman has always had a slightly more fragile relationship to his masculinity than other superheroes. While Marvel’s top-heavy boys are glad to be ogled and Deadpool openly stans Bea, Babs, and Bernadette, the Caped Crusader shrouds himself in a bat cowl and hides from intimacy. So when DC told the creators of the animated series Harley Quinn that under no circumstances could Batman go down on Catwoman, maybe they were just trying to keep the character consistent?
The HBO Max adult animated series creators, Justin Halpern and Patrick Schumacker, told Variety in an interview, “in this third season of Harley we had a moment where Batman was going down on Catwoman. And DC was like, ‘You can’t do that. You absolutely cannot do that.’ They’re like, ‘Heroes don’t do that.’ So, we said, ‘Are you saying heroes are just selfish lovers?’ They were like, ‘No, it’s that we sell consumer toys for heroes. It’s hard to sell a toy if Batman is also going down on someone.’†Is DJ Khaled on the board of DC? Harley Quinn has plenty of violence and gore, and they sell toys based off of that no problem, but Batman can’t pleasure his on-again off-again lover? Well no one can tell us what to do with our Batman and Catwoman action figures in the privacy of our homes.