In the presentation on Batman and queerness I did at cons and academic conferences, I keep touching on how Schumacher's Batman movies harkened back to the intentional camp of the '66 series, cementing Batman as a staple of queer culture

That's important to me on so many levels, especially given that Batman's theatricality, pageantry and high drama are what I've come to love about the character. Those parts are embraced in those movies to the max, lampshaded and played with

I can't help but feel like the gritty, grounded realist aesthetic that came after was a deliberate statement in response to the angry fan backlash, and while the de-queering of live action Batman wasn't entirely successful - there are still elements of pageantry in nolanverse -

- there's a reason there was a surge in batjokes fanworks after TDK - it still feels like it TRIED a de-queering, intentional or not, and that's part of what I find alienating about those movies

("Birds of Prey" feels a bit like dipping toes back in camp tho and that's awesome)