Kevin Smith is the latest celebrity comic book maven to air his thoughts on the recent controversy regarding a NSFW scene that was cut from Harley Quinn. Originally premiering on the now-defunct streaming platform, DC Universe, in 2019, Harley Quinn caught on quickly with fans and critics alike for its darker take on the popular DC villainess. Having recently moved to HBO Max, the animated series follows Harley Quinn in the wake of her breakup with the Joker as she embarks on various misadventures alongside Poison Ivy.
The recent controversy began when the show’s head writer and executive producer, Justin Halpern, revealed that DC forced him to cut a scene from the show’s upcoming third season in which Batman performs oral sex on Catwoman. DC objected to the scene on the grounds that “heroes don’t do that.” This subsequently caused a collective uproar in the comic book culture. Batman Forever’s Val Kilmer was the first celebrity to react to the controversy, followed by Zack Snyder, and now another well-known comic book personality is speaking out.
On a recent episode of his Fatman Beyond LIVE podcast, comic book writer and filmmaker Kevin Smith aired his thoughts on the whole Batman-Catwoman oral sex controversy. Smith certainly did not mince words in his response. Read what he said below:
Look as a guy who’s been reading Batman his whole life and was given stewardship once or twice – but take it with a grain of salt because I did make him pee his pants as well and the Internet hates that – of course f**king Batman eats p***y!” It would track for the character: he’s great at everything… He studied everything! He went all around the world; you telling me he’d leave that off the list? You know he went somewhere and met the lick master… and he went home a smarter, wiser, man.
Smith went on to address DC’s reaction to the scene, specifically the statement that “heroes don’t do that”:
I would imagine only a villain is like ‘I’m not gonna eat your p***y! Because I’m a villain, I got no time!’ But a f**king hero? That’s what a hero does! Hero eats your p***y before you do anything! Before you even see his d**k – and in Batman’s case that takes a long time because he’s a layered character.
Out of Kilmer, Snyder, and others who have shared their reactions to the controversy, Smith’s has definitely been the most explicit. Kilmer’s reaction on Twitter was much more cryptic, as he posted a GIF from Batman Forever, accompanied by the question, “Does he or doesn’t he…?” Snyder posted a graphic image on his Instagram depicting the act in question, but it was captioned simply, “Canon.”
Over the years, Smith has shown he’s not afraid to speak his mind, especially when it comes to one of his main passions: comic books. In the wake of this controversy, many have pointed to the contradiction between DC allowing Batman to massacre people in Snyder’s live-action films, but not perform oral sex on Catwoman in Harley Quinn. Sex has always been a much more taboo subject than violence in film and popular culture, but maybe Smith’s rant about Batman’s sexual habits will begin a dialogue regarding the double standard.
Source: Kevin Smith