It would be unfair to frame it as nave or cynical, since the majority of DC Pride's stories choose to address the ongoing struggles LGBTQ+ people face in the real world right now by rejecting hatred and showing an unabashed, relentlessly queer series of stories about love and acceptance. The anthology acknowledges that it has a blast of optimism and love, but it also acknowledges that it has a reminder of its past.
There is an unprecedented amount of aniti-LGBTQ+ legislation being introduced in the country right now. Lawmakers in a number of states tell young queer kids that they are wrong for being who they are. Seeing a gay person wearing a cape can inspire hope.
It might be enough for DC Pride 2022, if they thought this was all they needed to say first. It's all the better for it because it isn't as far as the anthology would have you believe. The final story in the collection, which was preceded by a warning for its depiction of graphic content including slurs, may feel out of place capping off the stories that you've already read. The story of Batman: The Animated Series is very real and has a personal recollection of the past by Batman himself.
The essay of his life as a gay man is called "Finding Batman" and is illustrated and colored by J. Bone. A career began as the AIDs crisis emerged, killing a generation of Conroy's, because he was told to deny his identity for the sake of his career.
It is a harrowing tale. The deliberate contrast in structure and its position in the shape of the whole anthology, down to its intentionally muted color, strikes you the moment you begin reading it, a stark contrast to the rainbow of pages you'd been reading before it. It demands attention because it is a painful reminder of what queer generations before the ones reading and loving DC Pride 2022 have been able to escape. Every time a job is lost, a friend dies in the hospital, and a slur is thrown, it's another piece of punctuation. There is only one striking shock of color beyond black, white, and cool shade tones in the entire story, and that is a splash of red letters to illustrate a slur flung at Conroy by his own brother.
What anger the actor could have felt was masked by his recollection of his younger self, his need to hide, and his reservation of just how to confront the horrors of AIDS and homophobia in acting. When he was auditioning for the role of Bruce Wayne, Conroy was asked to relate to the story of a boy who saw his parents killed before he was old enough. A mask of confidence to the world and a private one racked by conflict and wounds are what the author describes. They wanted to know if I could relate to that.
The grief of his own life, the death of his father, cradling his mentally ill brother, over the grief of Bruce Wayne holding his parents' bodies in Crime Alley, was what made the growl in his voice come true. What escapes, what becomes the voice that would define a character for generations and continues to define it to this day, is a howl of pain and rage at the injustice that was inflicted on him. The Batman, in that moment, is not a figure of hope, but a figure with which to channel his righteous fury.
There is a shocking note to the Pride anthology. It is a reminder that queer anger is as important as queer joy in a time when the rights of the gay community are being taken away. One of the most beloved figures in the DC Universe can be seen as a parallel of queer struggles. It isn't as shocking as you might have thought, but it is as beautiful as if it had been.
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