A superhero can partake in righteous violence and destruction, but according to DC Entertainment, pleasuring a lover is far too obscene. In a recent Variety Magazine article focusing on shows that subvert the superhero genre, Justin Halpern, co-creator and executive producer of the HBO animated series Harley Quinn, told Variety:
"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.'"
'Heroes don't do that' eh? A number of Batman fans made the point that DC once went with a pretty graphic rooftop sex scene between Batman and Catwoman in an issue of their comic. Where was their concern about merchandise sales then? Many weighed in on the controversial question of whether or not Batman—ahem—goes down, including Zack Snyder, who tweeted an illustration of Batman and Catwoman in the throes of passion. He captioned the image with one word: 'canon.' Snyder's tweet sparked some spicy memes in the replies. Way to set the record straight, Zack.