My Thoughts About Bucks County Batman

I know that I'll get some backlash over this, but I don't care. As someone who retired from cosplay last year, I felt like I need to publicly call someone out. Many of you might be familiar with the cosplayer that I'm about to talk about, but if not, stick around because I'll be sharing my two cents about this cosplayer. I retired from cosplay in October 2024 after 10 years, due to me seeking other hobbies, opportunities, and protecting my mental well-being. Just because I'm now a former cosplayer, it doesn't mean that a current cosplayer is exempt from criticism.

Who is Bucks County Batman?

Bob Gable, also known as Bucks County Batman, is adored by the thousands of followers on social media who admire him. However, he has been the subject of numerous controversies over the years. He's the kind of cosplayer many people have a huge disdain of. I happen to be one of them. According to his bio on his YouTube page, part of it says the following:

"Super hero, mentor, father, fitness guru, lover and the first of my kind."

I beg to differ on the "mentor" part. He doesn't seem like the person who supports other cosplayers who have way less followers than he does. Bucks County Batman isn't the kind of person I'd want to associate, nor be friends with. My issue with him is he doesn't know when to turn off his Batman persona. Cosplayers aren't their chosen characters 24/7. Underneath those suits and costumes, they're regular people with feelings, thoughts, and have personal lives. Bucks County Batman's inflated ego is one of the many reasons why I no longer follow him on social media. While there's no doubt about the generous things he's done, such as making children smile whenever he's in costume, overall, his personality is shitty and phony.

In May 2020 during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic and global protests following the death of George Floyd, a video of Bucks County Batman walking through Philadelphia City Hall with the caption, “Saving my city. Be right back.” That video had close to 250,000 views on Instagram. I wrote underneath his video stating that those protests weren't about him and they were about seeking justice for George Floyd. His defiant response was, "I'm Batman." He received a lot of backlash because of that video. I thought his actions were disrespectful, insensitive, and insincere. Bucks County Batman was self-promoting, meaning that he was more concerned about receiving likes and views than actually talking about social justice issues and taking a stand against police brutality. I criticized a black cosplayer for pulling the same stunt, but he chastised me for calling him out. Finally, I called out a white cosplayer for being more concerned about his pockets being affected for speaking out against policy brutality and issues like this, only when it benefited him. One person told me in the comments section in one of his posts that if he were to speak up about it, he would lose money, which I called bullshit on that claim. In fact, this cosplayer has never showcased any black cosplayers on his social media pages or supported them and he had the audacity to be more concerned about his earnings taking a hit. He was a walking hypocrite and I no longer follow him at all. Just like Bucks County Batman, his arrogance turned me off. He never gave a shit about black people, so why all of a sudden he wants to speak up about black lives? I don't care if you're black, white, or other. If you're a cosplayer who is self promoting in costume during peaceful protests, then your intentions of fighting against police brutality and other social justice issues aren't sincere. I believe there's a time and a place to cosplay. Being in cosplay during a social justice protest isn't one of them. Save the cosplays for conventions, photoshoots, charity events, and any other places that aren't protests.

Going back to Bucks County Batman, more recently, he decided to send another cosplayer racist and other insensitive posts in his DMs on Instagram. I won't go into specific details of the things he said or shared, but lets just say they were awful. I explained to that cosplayer that I wanted no part of Bucks County Batman's nonsense or foolishness. I unfollowed and blocked him on Instagram to protect my peace and mental well-being. If you treat black people and other minorities terribly, then that says a lot about your character. I, as a former cosplayer, have been bullied and discriminated against, because of my skin tone and sexual orientation. So he has no idea what people like me have gone through for the last several decades. I'm to a point where I no longer give grace to people like him.

If you're trying to defending Bucks County Batman, you're part of the problem. If you want to support and follow him on social media, by all means, be my guest. I've cosplayed for 10 years and I'm exposing Bucks County Batman for who he is: an egotistical, out of touch racist who has zero self-awareness. I don't like assholes who think that they're so much better than everyone. As I've stated earlier, he doesn't support all cosplayers. To him, as long as you have close to or around the number of followers he has, you're in his good graces. Calling Bucks County Batman out on his bullshit does not mean that I'm jealous of him. I don't give a fuck how many followers he has. I follow cosplayers who have more followers than me that don't display narcissistic behavior like Bucks County Batman. Even after retiring from cosplay, I still follow them on social media. I treat them with the utmost respect and I love seeing their cosplays. They're the most kindest people I have ever met online and seen.

Bucks County Batman needs to take notes from cosplayers who are kind, respectful, and friendly. He needs to learn lessons in both humanity and empathy. Someone's follow count doesn't determine their worth. I strongly dislike people with huge, inflated egos and entitled attitudes. I don't follow a lot of cosplayers and other content creators because of those reasons.

In closing, Bucks County Batman and I will never be friends for the foreseeable future. I'm not going to apologize for calling him out and he deserves any and all criticism. The reason why I wrote this story is to not only call Bucks County Batman on his bullshit, but to let all black cosplayers know that they're loved and do matter. Bucks County Batman only cares about himself and I'm a firm believer of believing people once they show you who they are. I refuse to entertain or tolerate bullshit, nonsense, or entitlement.

I know you're probably saying stuff like, "You're just jealous of him" or "You're trying to embarrass him". First of all, I don't have an ounce of jealousy towards Bucks County Batman in my body and number two, he's the embarrassment. Someone can do good things in life, especially for children, but can be a complete asshole. Attitudes like his are the reason why I don't associate myself with certain people, because they're not genuine and I rather protect my peace of mind than entertain those with entitled and inflated egos. Who wants to be friends with someone who displays that kind of attitude? To be honest, it's a huge turn off for me and one of my biggest pet peeves. Why am I putting him on blast? It's because I'm a good reader of bullshit. I started doing cosplay in the first place in order for me to meet people, make friends, and be an inspiration to others. Now that I've retired from it, I hope that those who are still doing cosplay can be inspirations to other people, too and just be themselves without having entitled attitudes.