Pride Month: Batman and Joker get married (sort of)

[cyberghostface]

For the most part Batman and Joker's relationship is subtext but DC gave us this a few years ago...

This is from Harley Quinn/Gossamer #1.

Comments

[alicemacher]

Tsk. That gown isn't right for Batman. His torso demands to be shown either fully or not at all, and the latter isn't really wedding-appropriate, unless you're holding the ceremony at Chippendales with an unusually accomodating officiant. I'd recommend a high-neck dress instead.

[kurenai_tenka]

I suppose shirtless may be a bit too revealing for a wedding. Maybe some bat-pasties?

[silicondream]

Of course it isn't right for Batman, it's Harley's fantasy. If it was Joker's fantasy, which is to say reality, Batman would be wearing precisely what you describe and none could gainsay him.

And it wouldn't be from David's Bridal or some Bougie shit like that, it would be a dress that he designed and commissioned himself and made from a special silk spun by caterpillars that he personally selected while exploring the Chinese highland forests. He had to fight ninjas while holding them.

[icon_uk]

Gotta say, that strikes me as actually less textual than subtext since it's only Harley's flight of fancy and being played for laughs.

[cyberghostface]

Yeah but it’s still the only time they’ve been depicted as being a gay couple (they’ve been a hereto couple if you count Flashpoint) in an official DC media. Besides that the closest is the LEGO Batman Movie which was clearly going for that angle with the gag being Batman wouldn’t commit to saying he hated Joker.

https://youtu.be/fWT9md6_Q-A

The Telltale game sort of played around with it but even there Joker is in love with Harley. (At one point you can actually have Bruce ask Joker if he’s in love with him and his response is “No but I hope we can still be friends.”)

[tcampbell1000]

I mean, the subtext has been outright text on the Joker's side of things since at least The Dark Knight Returns ("Darling"). The moments where Batman says or does anything in kind are a lot rarer. Like Batman-Robin and Joker-Harley, though, this hypothetical relationship is a lot more fun in smaller doses, because the power dynamics don't really line up: one of them would have to give up pretty much everything that they are to be with the other.

I suppose you could do a little alternate-universe exercise like The Authority and pair a Batman-type with a Joker-type, maybe setting them in the gray middle of the moral spectrum. That'd be an interesting exercise.

[zachbeacon]

Who is Bats kidding with that white dress?

[zenfrodo]

Yeah, he's definitely a summer, not a winter, with those skin tones.

[crinos]

Harley Quinn: She ships it.

I wonder if her and Alfred get into shipping wars on AO3.

[reveen]

Woah, that is a super low cut dress on Batman there. Right on the danger line for a wardrobe malfunction.

[killnotic]

Batman does not have the hips to pull off that dress, and the bright, yellow belt is calling attention to it.

[leahandillyana]

When to think of it, Joker is the most logical romantic interest for Batman. He's obsessed with Batman, and by his actions is the one who influenced Bruce the most. If Batman was a manga, Joker would have probably be drawn as a neko, like Grelle Sutcliff.

[icon_uk]

Well, there IS Shiori Teshirogi's "Justice League" series, which I never have got off my arse to post yet...

And it does include the Joker

[thenicochan]

It says a lot about me that I thought his boot and the gun were connected and were some weird... toy... just under him and... yeah.

*Cough* It's so clearly not, but now I can't unsee it.

(is this series any good?)