Stephanie Brown

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Character
Name: Stephanie "Steph" Brown; Spoiler, Robin, Batgirl
Occupation: Masked vigilante
Relationships: Arthur "Cluemaster" Brown (father); Crystal Brown AKA Agnes Bellinger (mother); Leslie Thompkins (guardian); Tim Drake (major love interest, friend); unnamed daughter; Cassandra Cain (friend); Kara Zor-El (friend); Bruce Wayne (associate, mentor); Barbara Gordon (mentor, friend); Damian Wayne (friend)
Fandom: DC Comics, Batman franchise, Batfamily
Other:
Happy Birthday, Stephanie Brown! by songblues (2021)
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Stephanie Brown is a Batman character from DC Comics. She was created by Chuck Dixon and Tom Lyle, and debuted in Detective Comics #647 (June 1992).

The daughter of the criminal Cluemaster, the character originated as the amateur crime-fighter named Spoiler. Later, she briefly became the fourth Robin and the fourth Batgirl [counting Bette Kane]. She has also served as the love interest/girlfriend of the third Robin, Tim Drake. From 2009 to 2011, she was the star of her own ongoing Batgirl comic book series. In 2014, following a company-wide relaunch of all DC Comics titles as the New 52 in 2011, the character returned to the Spoiler identity in Batman Eternal, completely resetting her to the beginning of her crime fighting career. She is the only character to have been both Robin and Batgirl in mainstream continuity.[1]

Canon

Stephanie is the daughter of the Batman villain Cluemaster (alias Arthur Brown) and the nurse Crystal Brown. She took up vigilantism in order to stop her father during a brief period when he was cured of his compulsion to leave clues but still committing crimes. Her original moniker, Spoiler, came from the way she would 'spoil' her father's crimes.

Spoiler (1992)

Stephanie Brown took up the mantle of Spoiler to try and spoil her father Cluemaster's crimes. This is the mantle she has used for most of her comic appearances. In her earliest appearances Batman appeared charmed by her efforts, but as time went on, he grew increasingly disapproving and several times ordered her to stop.

She became attracted to Tim Drake who at the time was the current Robin, even though he kept his identity secret from her, and they eventually began to date. She also became close friends with the current Batgirl, Cassandra Cain, after making a deal where Cassandra would train Stephanie and Stephanie would teach Cassandra how to read.

During her relationship with Tim, she learns that she is pregnant from a previous relationship with a boy named Dean. She gives birth to a daughter, who is adopted by an unknown family.

Robin (May 2004 - August 2004)

Following Tim Drake's forced retirement as Robin, Stephanie sewed her own Robin costume and went to the Batcave to declare herself the new Robin. Batman accepted this and worked with her for several issues, but he fired her after she used potentially lethal force against the serial killer Mr. Zsasz to save Batman's life.

War Games (2004)

In an attempt to prove herself to Batman, Spoiler stole the War Games protocol from the Batcomputer and enacted it. The plan was supposed to end with Matches Malone as the reigning crime boss of Gotham City. However, Stephanie did not know that "Matches Malone" was an alias of Batman. Without Malone there, a gang war broke out, and the supervillain Black Mask seized control of Gotham's underworld and captured Stephanie, torturing her for several days.

Stephanie succumbed to her wounds at the end of the "War Games" event. This is later retconned twice. First, in "War Crimes," it was revealed that Dr. Leslie Thompkins deliberately let Stephanie die to teach Batman a lesson about endangering children in his crusade.

About three real-life years of publication later, it was revealed that Stephanie did not die and that Dr. Thompkins faked her death to protect her. Stephanie then returned to Gotham and the Spoiler identity.

Batgirl (2009)

Stephanie Brown became the third Batgirl after her best friend Cassandra Cain gave her the costume during the "Batman Reborn" event. Though they initially butted heads with Barbara Gordon, they soon came to terms and Oracle gave Stephanie a new costume and served as her mentor and mission control. She teamed up with Damian Wayne, Supergirl, and Klarion the Witch Boy, and she formed a partnership (and flirtation) with the police officer Nick Gage.

Near the end of her run she learns that Bruce Wayne arranged for her to become Batgirl with Cassandra before his "death," and the two make peace. She then joins Batman Inc. and travels to the United Kingdom, where she teams up with Knight and Squire and goes undercover at a boarding school for the daughters of supervillains.

Stephanie's time as Batgirl was relatively short lived, lasting only 24 issues before it was erased by the New 52 reboot.

Post-Flashpoint (2011)

Following Flashpoint rebooting the DC Universe, Stephanie Brown was missing in action for two years until debuting in the weekly series Batman Eternal [2013], where she was a teenager running an online gossip blog. After stumbling upon her father's criminal conspiracy meeting, she went on the run, exposing her father's secrets online and becoming one of the most wanted fugitives in Gotham. She came under the protection of the Bat Family, and helped Batman defeat conspiracy's mastermind, Lincoln March.

After Batman Eternal, Stephanie popped up as a supporting character in a number of Bat books. In Genevieve Valentine's acclaimed Catwoman, Spoiler found herself embroiled in a mob war involving Selina Kyle (head of the Calabrese crime family), Eiko Hasigawa (temporary possessor of the Catwoman mantle), Black Mask, and the Penguin. In Batman and Robin Eternal, Stephanie met Dick Grayson and teamed up once again with the Bat Family to defeat the child trafficking villain Mother.

In Rebirth [2016], Stephanie Brown joined an ensemble cast in James Tynion's Detective Comics, in which she is Tim's girlfriend once again. They joined a crimefighting team led by Batman and Batwoman to take on the threat of a covert army operating in Gotham. However, after Tim's apparent death at the hands of the Colony, a disillusioned Steph left the team to pursue her own path.[2]

Other appearances

Meta

Robin or Not?

There is substantial controversy over whether or not she qualifies as a Robin. Her time as Robin was short lived and is generally agreed that Bruce only asked her to take over the position as part of his ploy to get Tim back. The question over her legitimacy goes all the way up to the heads of DC who can't seem to make up their minds on the matter. Some of the writers say she was a Robin, others don't and she is frequently left out of material that is supposed to be about all of the Robins.

In an issue of The All-New Batman: The Brave and the Bold she was one of the future Robins called back to assist in savings Batman's life.[3]

There is some suggestion, although it has not been confirmed one way or the other, that her time as Robin was completely erased with the creation of the New 52. Scott Snyder, a Batman writer, did refer to her as one of the Robins.[4]

Some fans, even those who love Steph, feel that Steph doesn't legitimately "count" as a Robin due to the very short length of her tenure (about six comic issues over three real-world months of publication)[5] and due to the "gimmicky" circumstances under which she took up the role. Thus, some see her as more of a "quasi" Robin in the same way that many do not consider Helena Bertinelli to have been a true Batgirl, or Cheyenne Fremont and Jason Todd to have been true Nightwings. Other fans strongly insist that Stephanie should be acknowledged as a Robin, both in canon and in fan works.

Reviews at the time indicated that some people viewed Steph as a placeholder:

"Robin #127 is still annoying me. Batman's casual acceptance of a girlie as the new Robin, Batman's clever-clever fun-loving dialogue exchanges with Robin, Tim Drake's ongoing presence in the storyline - let's face it, we know the female Robin isn't going to hang around for long, she'll probably snuff it in the upcoming crossover, and Tim will be back as Robin before you know it. Because we know this, everything that happens is just marking time."[6][5]

i never liked her as robin, though i had no problems with her as spoiler. mostly she was a placeholder for tim drake, & that was always clear in the narrative, which just annoyed me.[7]

Death

Stephanie's (later-retconned) death sparked and renewed a lot of discourse in fandom over the treatment of female characters, and led to the foundation of Girl-Wonder.org. She is often cited as one of the symbols for mistreatment of women in comics.[8] (See also: Women in Refrigerators)

Her death was also a representation of something- a lot that's wrong with the treatment of young female characters in comics. But Stephanie's power drew fans together and she came back- overcoming the greatest force there is to face for a comics character-DC Editorial. And now she's back, still flawed, still strong, still positive, her return only serving to reinforce what kind of character she is.[8]

When Black Mask killed Steph in the comics, I very clearly recall the Wednesday I picked up my books, got into my truck, and literally read the issue right there behind the wheel in the parking lot. As soon as I saw that they flatlined her, I got so upset. I tossed the book into the backseat and stopped collecting Batbooks for quite a long time. I'm pretty sure I only started regularly picking up again after her return.[9]

Post-Flashpoint

Batgirl vol. 3 (2009-2011) was ended by the Flashpoint event, the main DC universe was rebooted, cleaning the slate of years of history and resetting many characters' development. For a couple of years, Stephanie made no appearances in this new universe, while Barbara had been deaged to being an inexperienced young college student and reset to the Batgirl role, leaving many fans worried that Steph and her years of character development had been wiped out of existence.

In June 2012, fans of the character attempted a letter movement, sending waffles, waffle mix, and/or letters to the editors, expressing a wish to see her published once more.[10] Shortly thereafter, [DC Comics publisher] Dan DiDio [a known hater] claimed in an interview that about ten waffles had arrived and expressed doubt that her fandom was really as strong as it appeared.[11][1]

Steph was reintroduced in Batman vol. 2 #28 (April 2014). With her vigilante career reset to the very start as a fledgling Spoiler, many fans have continued to be troubled over the loss of her original character arc. As Infinite Frontier has given the greenlight for DC creative teams to restore elements of past continuities at will, some fans hope that story potential from Steph's more mature, independent pre-Flashpoint self will return. Thus, there has been some mixed reaction to the lighthearted Batgirls (2021) series, in which Stephanie and Cassandra are bubbly teens.

Fanon

Fanon Stephanie Brown: Stephanie Brown loves waffles, eggplants, and the color purple– which is pretty much all we know about her. She’s generically happy and doesn’t have any flaws unless she’s in the way of a TimKon relationship, in which case she’s an abusive demon. At other times, Steph is portrayed with only flaws and seems to mess up everything she does, whether she’s Spoiler, Robin, or Batgirl. She’s not a good fighter, not a good detective, and is only a nuisence who gets in the way.

Canon Stephanie Brown: Stephanie has a complicated history with the Batfamily, but over time she has solidified her place there. One of her most notable qualities is her determination to see things through no matter what’s holding her back. She grew up with a father who was involved in crime and decided to act out against him from a young age even though she had very limited resources. Stephanie has a friendly, emotionally affirming and accepting personality, but she’s also bold and upfront to someone’s face when she has something she wants to say, even if that someone is Bruce. As a crimefighter, she usually relies on her ingenuity and creativity rather than strict combat skills, but she’s still renowned as one of DC’s martial artists in her own right. Stephanie is arguably the second closest person to Damian after Dick. This is mostly due to her ability to be patient and because of her social intelligence about other people’s needs.[12]

Occasional fanon: happy & energized all the time, naive. Waffles and eggplant.

Steph is funny and can be a ray of sunshine, sure. But she’s sensible, knew a significant emotional intelligence & maturity growth over the years, chose to do good and to be hopeful despite her harsh background. Between her criminal, abusive father and her addict mother, all indicates she had to raise herself. Insecure af, she can give too much importance to what people think of her and often seeks their validation. Compassionate. Not Tim ‘I make friends wherever I go’ Drake but her emotional competency allows her to befriend different, occasionally unconventional people and build unique dynamics. With Cass ofc, but also Kara, Damian, even Klarion. More competent than people give her the credit for, she can be a plain badass when she forgets to second-guess herself.[13]

Some fanon treats Stephanie as a fully recognized sibling of the Wayne kids.

Some notable freeform tags on Archive of Our Own (AO3) include:

Relationships

Gen relationships

Pairings

Stephanie Brown is a popular character for shipping. On the canon side, she is often paired with her on-and-off boyfriend Tim Drake and her ally on the police force Nick Gage, with whom she often flirted during her solo series. She is also shipped with other members of the Batfamily such as Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Damian Wayne, and her best friend Cassandra Cain. Another popular couple pairs her with her other best friend, Kara Zor-El.

Fan works

Fan fiction

  • No Dawn, No Day an often recommended Damian/Steph fic, regarded by many as the best for the pairing. A future AU based on Batman 666/700

Fan art

Cosplay

Meta

Vids

Archives and Communities

Fan site

Resources

References

  1. ^ a b https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephanie_Brown_(character)
  2. ^ https://old.reddit.com/r/DCcomics/comments/7n6qdm/character_of_the_month_spotlight_stephanie_brown/
  3. ^ [1] The All-New Batman: The Brave and the Bold #13
  4. ^ [2] Scott Snyder Courts Fear with Owls in "Batman"
  5. ^ a b https://stephaniebrown.fandom.com/wiki/Steph_as_Robin
  6. ^ (http://comicsbulletin.com/old-site-archive/?review=108763263033957)
  7. ^ https://mordicai.livejournal.com/1326063.html?
  8. ^ a b http://stephaniebrown.wikia.com/wiki/Why_create_this_site%3F
  9. ^ https://archiveofourown.org/comments/509510113
  10. ^ "Stephanie Brown fans launch 'Waffles For Stephanie' mail campaign". 26 June 2012.
  11. ^ Johnston, Rich (August 28, 2012). "Talking to Dan DiDo About Stephanie Brown and Rob Liefeld". Bleeding Cool. Retrieved November 17, 2013.
  12. ^ https://theflyingwonder.tumblr.com/post/146878333796/what-are-in-your-opinion-the-biggest-difference
  13. ^ https://bat-lings.tumblr.com/post/183777820755/have-you-ever-done-a-canon-vs-fanon-post-for-the
Related Concepts, Fandoms, Terms, Fanworks
See also Girl-Wonder.org, justkeepstrying, Stephanie Brown Wiki, EvenRobins.net
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