Robin, Batman's long-standing partner in justice, has come out as queer in the latest issue of Batman: Urban Legends.

In the comic, Robin, aka Tim Drake (the third Robin in the Batman canon), has what he calls a "lightbulb" moment while fighting alongside his friend Bernard Dowd. The panel reads:

“Ever have a lightbulb moment? Like something out in the ether has been taunting you, teasing you. Like you know you’re supposed to be on the same page as your brain but not everything made sense. People keep asking me what I want. But I couldn’t grasp it. Whatever it was. It always felt just out of reach. Until now. Until right now.”

Later, he catches up with Bernard and says, “I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about that night and I don’t know what it meant to me. But I’d like to find out.” Bernard replies, “I was hoping you would. Tim Drake… do you want to go on a date with me?” Tim then says “Yeah … yeah. I think I want that.”

Tim Drake finally coming out is so inspiring, DC never wanted a queer Robin but after years and years of campaigning from writers and fans it finally happened

A big thank you to Meghan Fitzmartin, Belén Ortega and Alejandro Sánchez for making this moment so beautiful ❤️ pic.twitter.com/xb5YugEYd9

— Neb | 🏳️‍🌈 (@NebsGoodTakes) August 10, 2021

It's a landmark moment in comic book history. Though DC had always maintained the character was straight, Robin's sexuality has long been the subject of jokes, speculation, and wink-wink, nudge-nudges from Batman's fans and creators. Joel Schumacher made references to the character's ambiguous sexuality in Batman Forever and Batman and Robin. The long-running Stephen Colbert and Steve Carrell sketch series The Ambiguously Gay Duo was clearly inspired by the relationship between Batman and Robin.

“I wanted to pay tribute to the fact that sexuality is a journey,” writer Meghan Fitzmartin told Polygon. “To be clear, his feelings for Stephanie have been/are 100% real, as are his feelings for Bernard. However, Tim is still figuring himself out. I don’t think he has the language for it all… yet.”

The move was praised widely by comic book fans who had long seen a queer identity in Robin.

Well, it's officially – Tim Drake/Robin is CANON BISEXUAL! 🤯👏👍

Kudos to the writers for weaving this chapter so greatly and tastefully into the Batman Mythos – from a longtime Tim Drake fan 😎👍❤ pic.twitter.com/YVE7EDj22h

— WriterGuyKai (Kai)✒ (@WriterGuyKai1) August 10, 2021

// batman urban legends spoilers

good morning to the first bisexual robin only 🙏 pic.twitter.com/5LqwZXBtnM

— kon (@konshideout) August 10, 2021

We need to discuss the implications of #Robin being bisexual, because this is a moment for the history books yall pic.twitter.com/WHy9dkMcPw

— Croc (@Croc_Block) August 10, 2021

Robin is fucking bisexual and I’m accidentally sobbing. This is so cool and I didn’t know how important it would feel to me until it happened. #TimDrake 💖 pic.twitter.com/vandL8hF6W

— tiefling rage (@bbkirpsty) August 10, 2021