Stephanie Brown

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 joined in on the capturing of Cluemaster. Although she initially desired to kill her father for his actions, Batman managed to convince her to let him get 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 began regular patrols as 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, due in large part to the fact that he was at the time in a relationship with another girl. The two however worked as sometimes partners for a time, 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, 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 more than happy with this arrangement.

Unfortunately for Stephanie, she found out she was pregnant by an ex-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. Unfortunately Robin was moved temporarily to Keystone City during the last few months of her pregnancy. He however returned to her when she was giving birth. With Robin's help, she was able to deal 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.

Unfortunately, soon after 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 for a time.

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 as well as caused trouble for Stephanie and Tim for a while. 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, 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. In a fit of rage, Tim beat Warlock to apparent death (he would later be resurrected due to magic), the aftereffect left Tim feeling 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 modification of 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. [1]

In an effort to prove her worth to Batman, Stephanie stole one of his long-range 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.[2]

.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.

== Spoiler returns ==

In the events following the resurrection of Ra's al Ghul, Robin follows the trail of a female thief called Violet. This leads him to reunite with his friend Ives in a pregnancy social service class. 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. Later, this character takes off the mask revealing a blonde girl that knows Robin's secret identity [3]. Accordingly, Robin is led to believe that Stephanie Brown is alive and back as a Gotham vigilante, although she is yet to be positively identified. Spoiler reveals herself to Robin trying to warn him that Violet led him to an ambush. Robin reacts violently and confused trying to unmask Spoiler and finally falling in the trap she was trying to warn him from. Before the trap is sprung however, Spoiler addresses Robin with his true name. [4]

Spoiler is revealed to be the thought dead Stephanie Brown. Leslie Thompkins faked the death of Brown, switching the body with a woman who overdosed. Batman reveals he had his own doubts about it, placing a reason behind the lack of memorial. The reason behind the ruse was because the doctor was trying to protect her: if Batman's enemies knew that she was alive, they would continuously use her against him as Black Mask did as her identity has been compromised. Stephanie followed Leslie to Africa after she was well enough to travel under an alias and has been doing volunteer works all this time until she decided to return to Gotham. Spoiler once again rejoins the Bat-Family, the issue ending with her telling her mother of her return.[5] The details of her absence since the gang war will be revealed in Robin/Spoiler Special #1.

== Controversy ==

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.[6] 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.[7]

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, 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 and even alters his costume colors in Conner's memory.[8]

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 Batman: War Games 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."[9]

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.

In Batman #673, in a scene shown as a possible hallucination of Batman's, there appears to be a monument case in the Batcave containing the Robin costume worn by Stephanie Brown.

In Robin #174, upon Stephanie's apparent return from the dead, Batman reveals to Tim that he had lingering doubts about her death, which is why he never dedicated a Batcave memorial to her.