Spoiler (comics)
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Stephanie Brown, a.k.a. Spoiler, was a DC Comics costumed hero, part of the "Batman Family". She first appeared in Detective Comics #647.
Character history
Stephanie Brown was born the daughter of the Cluemaster, one of Gotham City's third-rate villains. He spent most of her childhood in jail or away from the family. And when he returned to Gotham, "rehabilitated," Stephanie became furious that he was 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.Tim Drake
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 false 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 IV
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 decided to make her the new Robin. He trained her hard, and she went out with him 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.War Games
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.It has recently come to light that Spoiler may have been denied vital medical treatment by Dr. Leslie Thompkins that could have saved her life. Thompkins willfully withheld such treatment, wanting to send a message to Batman in hopes that he would stop being a vigilante. Thompkins then liquidated all of her assets, leaving them to Brown's daughter and fled to Africa. During the 'War Crimes' Story arc - the sequel to War Games - Batman tracked her down and confronted her over Stephanie's death. She admitted that she had allowed Steph to die, to dissuade other children from putting on masks. Batman coldly told his old friend that she was now just another murderer in his criminal database.
After the events of Infinite Crisis, the DCU has a slightly different continuity, as related from the 'History of the DCU' backup in 52 #8. In this new continuity, Spoiler was killed and tortured by Black Mask and did not die from Thompkins' neglect.
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. It appeared she may have become her friend's guardian angel, although for a time there was debate that Cassandra may have simply been hallucinating.After Cassandra died, Stephanie's "ghost" informed Cassandra of her true parentage, and of the destruction of Blüdhaven, (Her mother Shiva would later resurrect Cassandra via the Lazarus pit). Since Cassandra had no knowledge of this event, it would have been impossible for her to hallucinate about it accurately. Thus it would appear that Stephanie's spirit has indeed been visiting her old friend.
Controversy
Some fans were critical of Stephanie's treatment in the comics[link], especially with the current discussion of what has been called the Women in Refrigerators Syndrome in comics. Examples given include her access to certain sensitive information Batman may or may not have realistically shared with a newcomer or the lack of a similar memorial to Jason Todd for her time served as a Robin.[link] Others found Leslie Thompkins's behavior out of character, as she had previously been seen to take a stern moral stance in favor of aiding any critical patient, regardless of their affiliations or legal status as criminals. For example, she insisted on giving an injured Mr. Zsasz medical treatment, despite Batman's arguments against doing so. Still others believe that the ill-considered nature of her actions in War Games ignores the character development that had previously been shown in Robin.
Other fans have been 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, not only once, but repeatedly, is completely out of character for the Dark Knight, especially after the resistance he put up to letting Tim in. They view his allowing her to fill the role of Robin as repeating the same mistake he made with Jason Todd, something that Batman would almost certainly never do. They also point out that her actions in stealing and initiating the plans that caused the gang war resulted in Gotham almost being destroyed yet 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. Alfred asked Batman point-blank if this were the case, and Batman pointedly ignored and evaded the question.
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