Suspension of Disbelief

I was reading something about a new Batman series which had something in it that the reporter took to be a sign that Bruce may be bi-curious. Of course, many fans were outraged by this and declared that Bruce Wayne was straight - in fact if you cut him open like a stick of rock you'll find the word "heterosexual" running all the way through him.

What strikes me about this is the way that this is apparently the sticking point, when if DC did reveal that Batman is a bit curious about men, it would be the most realistic thing about the character. (And let's not forget that he is fictional, we're not talking about a real person and for all we know - barring the creation of Gilead in the next 30 years - in 2052 it may be that Batman is officially bi and nobody knows what the fuss was all about with him maybe, possibly, wanting a bit of cock).

It strikes me as bizarre that the tent pole elements of the character are simply accepted with no questioning, when they are pure children's fantasy and would fall apart in even a slightly realistic world. Part of that is the nature of the superhero fantasy, but Batman is particularly vulnerable to this by dint of the very thing that allows him to afford all the gadgets he has. He's a member of the 1% who has no bodyguard, apart from an aging butler, no PA, so trappings of the lifestyle he supposedly lives to support the illusion of him performing that role. He lives a double life, despite the emotional and psychological toll of maintaining the illusion that Bruce Wayne, billionaire dilettante. is a real person instead of a persona. We need only look at Lady Gaga's struggles after spending 18 months in character for the House of Gucci role she had, or the fate of poor Jeremy Brett after he became too caught up in the role of Sherlock Holmes in the 1990s, to know that the human mind cannot withstand too much of that. As Batman's act must be perfect, the toll must be that much greater, and that's before you consider the PTSD, depression, and guilt he so obviously feels over his parents' deaths, not to mention the horror show of fighting his villains. By all rights that's a man who should be locked up in Arkham permanently, perhaps only escaping to fight a fellow inmate before returning to his comfortable padded cell. Leaving that aside, even if he wasn't plagued by mental health issues, the chances of maintaining a secret identity are so low they're not worth talking about. Consider the short lived trend of "real life superheroes" in around 2010, and the way that a) Phoenix Jones, the professional fighter who took up the role in Seattle, retired because being a hero was too hard on the body, and b) the fact that the guy who was in Birmingham (UK) got outed by his Mum. It's pretty clear that sooner or later someone would work out what was going on with Bruce and his fortune and someone would talk. Hell, they probably wouldn't need to see Bruce in action - just looking at his supply chain records would be enough to work out the secret, even if he hand makes everything he needs for his crime fighting adventures.

Going back to the toll on the body, are we really supposed to accept that when professional athletes have a max of what fifteen years doing what they love, before sports commentary and crisp advertising beckon, a man who edifices almost everywhere, fights supervillains, and so on isn't going to have his knees give out after a decade?

This is before we get into issues around race or the portrayal of women (Batman being a white dude's fantasy - and one where rich guys get to beat up poor people). 

With all that in mind, it seems odd to me that the man maybe wanting a bit of man love is where we draw the line.