Stephanie Brown, a.k.a. Spoiler, is a fictional character, a DC Comics costumed hero that is part of the "Batman Family". She first appeared in Detective Comics #647.

Fictional character history

Stephanie Brown is the daughter of the Cluemaster, one of Gotham City's third-rate villains. Stephanie's father spent most of her childhood in jail or away from the family, and though he claimed to be rehabilitated upon his return to Gotham, Stephanie was furious to discover that he was actually returning to crime without his need to leave clues behind. She decided something needed to be done.

The Spoiler

Stephanie tailored a costume for herself, and called herself the Spoiler. She knew where her father was hiding out, found out his plans, and left clues so that the police and Batman could stop him. Robin tracked her down, and she joined in on the capturing of Cluemaster.

Each time Cluemaster would escape or start some new plan, Stephanie would don her costume again. Eventually, she decided she liked being a hero, and began regular patrols as Spoiler. This also brought her into regular contact with Robin, on whom she had a bit of a crush. The two worked as sometimes partners for a time, but eventually, romance blossomed.

Unfortunately for Stephanie, she found out she was pregnant by a boyfriend who had run from Gotham after an earthquake. Robin, in his alter ego as Alvin Draper, took Stephanie to Lamaze classes, and the two became even closer. He returned to her when she was giving birth, even though he had moved away, and the two shared a few sweet moments together. With Robin's help, she was able to deal with giving her child up for adoption. Robin was then sent away to boarding school by his father, and the two were forced into a long distance relationship, made even more complicated by the fact she still didn't know his real name.

During his time away, Robin became friends with a girl named Star. One night, after seeing her go into an alley with some suspicious-looking people, Robin decided to follow her in costume. He ran into Stephanie, also on patrol, and she followed him as he tracked down Star to a gang meeting that erupted in a violent shootout. He managed to save Star, but Stephanie became convinced that he was cheating on her, and refused to see him.

Shortly after this, Robin disappeared from Gotham for several days (he was off in Tibet on a secret mission), and in his absence Spoiler realized that she still wanted to be with him. Batman approached Spoiler and offered to train her. He also told her Robin's real name, and this betrayal by Batman drove a wedge in between the two for a time. Spoiler not only trained with Batman but with the Birds of Prey, and began a friendship with Batgirl.

Stephanie and Tim, as she now knew him, reconciled, and the bond they shared was stronger than ever. Even after Batman - having decided that she wasn't really hero material - told her to hang up her costume and the Birds stopped mentoring her, she still patrolled with Robin, as well as went on regular dates. When the US government came to Stephanie and her mother, and told her that Cluemaster had died in the service of his country, Stephanie was shocked. She cut off ties with Tim and went on a crimefighting rampage, hunting down the Riddler, her father's former associate, to try to get a better idea of who he had been in life. Eventually, she made peace with his memory, and she and Tim rekindled their relationship.

In Robin #111, Steph revealed that when she was a child, her babysitter had attempted to rape her. This man died of an apparent drug overdose eight days after she told her father what had happened. Whether or not he had killed him was one of the questions she had to resign herself to never being able to answer.

During Tim's battle with the occult hitman Johnny Warlock, Stephanie was injured, her leg broken, and Tim took personal responsibility.

Robin

Stephanie as Robin. Promotional art for Robin vol. 2, #126 cover, art by Damion Scott.

Stephanie snapped Tim out of his funk, just in time for his father to find out he was Robin. Tim was told to hang up his cape, and he did. Shortly after, Stephanie snuck into the Batcave in a handmade Robin costume, and Batman accepted her request to become the new Robin and put her through several months of intensive training. The fourth Robin patrolled with Batman for a time. Unfortunately, due to her disobeying his orders, Batman stripped her of the costume and told her that she was done being a hero. ^[1]

This led directly to her stealing one of Batman's long-range plans for dealing with the entirety of Gotham's criminal underworld, in an effort to prove her worth. Since this plan was predicated on the involvement of "Matches Malone" (who was, unbeknownst to her, a persona that Batman used for infiltration purposes), it quickly spun out of control. The result was a citywide gang war, in which Stephanie was captured by Black Mask, who tortured her to get information about Batman. Although she escaped and made her way to a hospital, she had been severely injured by the villain, and died in a hospital bed as Batman sat beside her.^[2]

Promotional art for Batgirl' #62 cover, by Alé Garza.

Batman later finds evidence that vital medical treatment that could have saved Spoiler's life had been denied by Dr. Leslie Thompkins. When confronted by Batman, Thompkins claims she willfully withheld such treatment to send a warning to any of Gotham's youth intending to follow Spoiler's example. Although later sources (such as the history described in the series 52) state that Black Mask killed Stephanie, no canonical source has indicated whether Leslie's role in Stephanie's death has been undone via retcon.

Posthumous appearances

Since her death Spoiler has appeared twice in the Batgirl series. The first time, in Batgirl #62, Cassandra Cain met her during a near-death experience. In Batgirl #72–73 she appears again as Cassandra dies from blood loss.

When Cassandra was at the verge of death, Stephanie's "ghost" informed Cassandra of her true parentage and of the destruction of Blüdhaven.

During the Titans East storyline, a glass case with Spoiler's costume (alongside cases with clothing representing Tim Drake's parents and Conner Kent) is in a room used by Deathstroke to torture Robin.

Photos of her autopsy were also used by Barbara Gordon to dissuade another young superheroine from using the name Batgirl.

Controversy

Cover to Detective Comics #809 (2005). Art by Jock.

There is some controversy in the DC fan community about the fact that even though Stephanie Brown served as Robin for a time, she receives no monument or memorial in the Batcave, unlike other past Robins.^[3] During a Q&A at a convention in March 2007, DC executive editor Dan DiDio responded to questions about the absence of a Stephanie tribute from the Batcave, saying that the official position of DC Comics is that "She was never really a Robin," despite on-panel claims to the contrary.^[4]

Supporters of Stephanie Brown cite her death as a case of "Women in Refrigerators" syndrome. They state that the torture and murder of Stephanie Brown was a misogynist plot device used to cement the hatred between hero (Batman) and villain (Black Mask), a position supported by the fact that the instruments used to torture Brown have been recreated by DC Comics as action-figure accessories.^[5] Furthermore, Tim Drake, despite having dated Brown for several years, does little if any on-panel grieving for her, whereas he is so devastated by the death of Conner Kent (whom he knew for less time than he dated Stephanie) he grieves for months, and attempts to clone his fallen friend dozens of times.^[6]

Opponents argue that she was only Robin for a very short time, during issues 126-128 of the solo Robin title (not counting appearances as Robin in other DC titles). In narrative time, according to "Robin's War Journal" from the Batman: War Games crossover story arc, she was Robin for 71 days. These readers are critical of Stephanie's involvement in the series in the first place, pointing out that Batman's trust of her despite her origins and dubious credentials is out of character for the Dark Knight, especially after his opposition to letting Tim Drake take up the mantle of Robin after the death of Jason Todd.

They also point out that her actions in stealing and initiating the plans that caused the gang war resulted in Gotham almost being destroyed again, and that her death may have been an entirely justified consequence of her own, apparently selfish, actions. Still other fans have theorized that Batman's acceptance of Stephanie as Robin was conceived by him as only a temporary measure from the outset, and constituted part of a deceptive and manipulative effort to lure Tim back to the cape. When Alfred asked Batman point-blank if this were the case, Batman evaded the question. However, when a dying Stephanie asks, "Was I ever really Robin?", Batman answers, "Yes."^[7]

External links

• Girl Wonder

References

1. ^ Robin Vol. 2 #126–128, July–September 2004, reprinted in the Batman graphic novel War Drums, 2004
2. ^ Batman #633, December 2004
3. ^ http://www.sequentialtart.com/article.php?id=488
4. ^ http://www.wizarduniverse.com/conventions/la/003907944.cfm
5. ^ http://www.dccomics.com/dcdirect/?dcd=3101
6. ^ http://girl-wonder.org/robin/projectgirlwonder.html
7. ^ Batman #633

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