Stephanie Brown (comics)

Infobox superhero
character_name = Spoiler


caption =
publisher = DC Comics
debut = As Stephanie Brown:
"Detective Comics" #647 (August 1992)
As Spoiler:
"Detective Comics" #648 (September 1992)
As Robin:
"Robin" #126 (July 2004)
creators = Chuck Dixon (writer)
Tom Lyle (artist)
alter_ego = Stephanie Brown
full_name =
species =
homeworld =
alliances = Batman Family
partners = Robin Batman
supports =
aliases = Robin
powers = Skilled acrobat and martial artist.

Spoiler is the name of a fictional character. She is a superhero in the DC Comics. Her real name is Stephanie Brown, and she also operated as the fourth Robin. The character first appeared in "Detective Comics" #647, and was created by Chuck Dixon and Tom Lyle.

Fictional character biography

Stephanie Brown is the daughter of the Cluemaster, one of Gotham City's third-rate criminals. 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, after a few brief confrontations, she helped capture Cluemaster. Although she initially wished to kill her father, Batman convinced her to allow him to be arrested.

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 she began regular patrols as the Spoiler. This also brought her into regular contact with Robin, on whom she had a bit of a crush. For a long time, Robin denied his own attraction to Spoiler, since he was then in a relationship with another girl. However, the two worked as sometimes partners, and during a point in which Robin and his then-girlfriend Ariana were unable to see each other, he and Stephanie grew even closer. Robin soon came to realize that his feelings for Stephanie had grown into something more, and, after breaking up with Ariana, he began dating Stephanie. Unfortunately, because Robin needed to maintain the secrecy of Batman and his allies, Robin was unable to reveal his true identity to Spoiler. At first, she seemed happy with this arrangement.

Unfortunately for Stephanie, she found out she was pregnant by an ex-boyfriend who had run from Gotham after an . Robin, in his alter ego as Alvin Draper, took Stephanie to Lamaze classes, and the two became even closer. Unfortunately, Robin moved to Keystone City during the last few months of her pregnancy, but he returned to her when she was giving birth. With Robin's help, she was able to cope with giving her child up for adoption. Although a painful experience, she felt it best to give her daughter a chance at a better life.

Soon after, Robin's father sent him away to boarding school, and the the couple was forced into a long distance relationship, made even more complicated by the fact that Stephanie 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 for a time.

Shortly after this, Robin disappeared from Gotham for several days (he was 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 between the two. Spoiler began to train with Batman, Batgirl (in return for teaching her how to read), and, more reluctantly, the Birds of Prey.

Stephanie and Tim, as she now knew him, reconciled. 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 in addition to going on regular dates with him.Citation | last = Beatty | first = Scott | author-link = | contribution = Batman | editor-last = Dougall | editor-first = Alastair | title = The DC Comics Encyclopedia | pages = 40-44 | publisher = Dorling Kindersley | place = London | year = 2008 | ISBN = 0-7566-4119-5] When the U.S. 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 crime-fighting 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, Stephanie 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 a question 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. In a fit of rage, Tim apparently beat Warlock to death (though he would later be magically resurrected), the aftereffect left Tim devastated and disillusioned.

Robin

Stephanie snapped Tim out of his funk just as his father discovered Tim was Robin. Tim was told to hang up his cape, and he did. Tim was forced to live a normal life for a time. During one day after school, Stephanie attempted to surprise Tim with a visit. Unfortunately as she arrived, she caught a female classmate of Tim's attempting to put the moves on him. Assuming yet again that Tim was being unfaithful, Steph broke off ties with Tim and angrily decided to put her attention elsewhere. Creating a homemade Robin costume, Stephanie snuck into the Batcave and demand that Batman train her as the new Robin. Despite his past belief that Stephanie was an inept crime fighter, Batman accepted her as the new Robin and put her through several months of intensive training and made her a costume with the same design as Tim's. The fourth Robin patrolled with Batman, and for a time seemed like a capable replacement for Tim. Unfortunately due to her disobeying his orders during two missions, Batman later stripped her of the costume and told her that she was done being a hero. ["Robin Vol. 2" #126–128, July–September 2004, reprinted in the Batman graphic novel "War Drums", 2004]

In an effort to prove her worth to Batman, Stephanie stole one of his long-term plans for dealing with the entirety of Gotham's criminal underworld. 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 supposedly died in a hospital bed as Batman sat beside her. ["Batman" #633, December 2004]

Batman later found 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.

Posthumous appearances

Following her death, Spoiler appeared twice in the "Batgirl" series. The first time, in "Batgirl" #62, Cassandra Cain met her during a near-death experience. Then in "Batgirl" #72–73, Cassandra is near death following a battle with Mad Dog when Stephanie's "ghost" appears before her again and informs Cassandra of her true parentage and of Blüdhaven's destruction. 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 used by Barbara Gordon to dissuade another young superheroine from using the name Batgirl. In Booster Gold #5, Rip Hunter's chalk board had the phrase "No Trophy = Stephanie?" written on it. In "Batman: Gotham Underground", an unidentified female in a Spoiler costume has been spying on Robin.

poiler returns

In the events following the of Ra's al Ghul, Robin follows the trail of a female thief called Violet. This leads him to reunite with his friend Ives during social service classes at St. Camillus Cathedral. This added to random encounters with a blonde student in high school trigger his memories of Stephanie Brown. During his quest to find Violet, he is followed by a character dressed up as Spoiler. Spoiler reveals herself to Robin trying to warn him that Violet led him to an ambush. Robin reacts violently and confused, believing someone else is dressing up as Spoiler and finally falling in the trap she was trying to warn him about. Before the trap is sprung however, Spoiler addresses Robin with his true name. ["Robin" #173]

After they escape the ambush, Robin and Batman track down the Spoiler, intent on getting her to stop, believing it is someone copying Stephanie. When confronted, however, she removes her mask, revealing herself as Stephanie, and she explains that Leslie Thompkins faked her death, switching the body with a woman who overdosed. Batman reveals he had his own doubts about it, saying that's why there was no memorial in the Batcave. She said Thompkins did it to protect Stephanie: if Batman's enemies knew that she was alive, they would continuously use her against him as Black Mask did since her identity had been compromised. Stephanie followed Leslie to Africa under an alias after she was well enough to travel and had been doing volunteer work until an attack from a local witchhunting tribe on the camp led her decide to return to Gotham. ["Robin/Spoiler" Special #1] Spoiler once again rejoins the Bat-Family, the issue ending with her telling her mother of her return. ["Robin" #174] She's enrolled in the same high school Tim is currently in.

Before being revealed to Robin and Batman, Stephanie worked freelance for the Penguin and got information that helped him in his gang wars. She abruptly stopped aiding him which led to him losing the advantage and leaving Gotham. She sent Penguin a note apologizing for leaving him when he needed her the most.

During the recent Batman R.I.P. storyline, Spoiler has had a prominent though unexpected role as both ally and betrayer to Robin. Following Batman's recent disappearance and slip into madness, Robin is attempting to locate his mentor, while at the same time trying to maintain a control over Gotham's criminals. Tim asks that Stephanie aid him in their search for Batman, who Tim believes has gone insane due to a incident from years ago. Unknown to Tim however, Stephanie, under the orders of Batman himself, has been doing all she can to hinder the investigation. Batman it appears had anticipated his own downfall, and feels that it is best that Tim learns how to handle things on his own. Upon discovering this, Tim has pulled away from his friendship with Stephanie until he can sort out his feelings. Unknown to Tim however, Stephanie has for reasons yet unknown hired an assassin, with the mission of killing Robin. She has also started working with Tim's old pre-teen foe Ulysses Armstrong, also known as the General. Unfortunately Ulysses is quick to betray Spoiler due to the fact he'd rather kill Robin than to aid him and his allies.

Powers and Abilities

Like the rest of the Batman family, Spoiler has no superhuman powers. She has been trained extensively by Batgirl, Batman and the Birds of Prey in martial arts, stealth, acrobatics, strength training, interrogation and detective skills. She carries a belt similar to that used by other Gotham vigilantes containing a grappling hook, tracking devices, etc.

Controversy

There is some controversy in the 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. [ [http://www.sequentialtart.com/article.php?id=488 Sequential Tart: An Open Letter (vol X/iss 4/April 2007) ] ] 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. [http://www.wizarduniverse.com/conventions/la/003907944.cfm] However, her memorial has been present in different publications since the controversy arose.

In "Robin" #174, Stephanie's death is revealed to be a ruse devised by Leslie, and Batman reveals to Tim that his lingering doubts about her death lead him to never dedicate a memorial to her. In "Batman" #673, a memorial is seen in a possible hallucination, and in "Batman" #677, Batman and Jezebel Jet walk past a number of cases with uniforms, including the uniform Stephanie used as Robin. In "Action Comics" #859, when the founding members of the Legion of Superheroes were fighting the Justice League of Earth within the Batcave, Stephanie's Robin outfit can be seen in the background.

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). Furthermore, Tim Drake, despite having dated Brown for several years, was only able to grieve for her for a few short issues before the death was overshadowed by the loss of his father in Identity Crisis. On the other hand, he is so devastated by the death of Conner Kent (whom he knew for less time than he dated Stephanie) he grieves for months, attempts to clone his fallen friend dozens of times and even alters his costume colors in Conner's memory. [ [http://girl-wonder.org/robin/projectgirlwonder.html Project Girl Wonder ] ]

She was only Robin for a very short time, during "Robin" #126-128 (not counting appearances as Robin in other DC titles). In narrative time, according to "Robin's War Journal" from the crossover story arc, she was Robin for 71 days.

When Alfred asks if 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, Batman evades the question. However, when a dying Stephanie asks, "Was I ever really Robin?", Batman answers, "Yes." ["Batman" #633]

In the DC Nation column for the week of December 25, 2007, DiDio showed the Christmas wish lists of various DC characters. Robin wished for "a trophy case for Stephanie". It was crossed out with "No can do!" written in red marker, setting up the storyline of the next several issues.

References

* [http://stephaniebrown.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page]

External links

*DCDP|Stephanie Brown (New Earth)|Stephanie Brown
*comicbookdb|type=character|id=90|title=Spoiler
*comicbookdb|type=character|id=1289|title=Robin / Stephanie Brown
* [http://www.dcuguide.com/who.php?name=spoiler Spoiler] on the Unofficial Guide to the DC Universe website.
* [http://girl-wonder.org Girl Wonder] a fansite
* [http://stephaniebrown.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page Stephanie Brown Wikia]