Stephanie Brown (DC)
Stephanie Brown is a female comic superhero who features in DC Comics.
Contents |
Biography
Origin
Stephanie Brown
Spoiler
Robin
Batgirl broke up an arms deal, but when the crooks broke out a hi-tech gun she called Batman for backup. Batman sent his new Robin Stephanie Brown her way, and they brought the hi-tech gun to Oracle. Oracle told them the gun was a Masami NK-4, commissioned by the British government and manufactured in an arms lab in Kyoto. Only five were made, and they were all promptly stolen. Penguin was behind the arms deal and had already gotten his hands on the other four. Batgirl and Robin went to confront him, and Robin was overjoyed that Batman had chosen her to be his new partner, saying it was a dream come true. Batgirl and spoiler leaned heavily on Penguin’s men, learning that he was using his underlings with children to have their kids courier the remaining guns. Melanie, the daughter of Penguin henchman Roy brought a backpack to a bar, delivering the gun to a crook named the Gouger. Gouger decided not to pay and Melanie said she’d call the cops because she wouldn’t let him rip off her dad so gouger ordered his men to kill her. Batgirl and Robin showed up in time to protect Melanie and subdue Gouger and his men. After the rest of the NK-4s were recovered Batgirl and Robin confronted Penguin, who was irritated that they’d foiled his business operation but assured them his underlings would serve jail time but he wouldn’t because he had the best lawyers in Gotham. Robin attacked him but Batgirl pulled her off. Robin said she remembered when her father the Cluemaster was arrested for the first time, and she didn’t know who to hate more, her father, the police or the world for letting it happen. Robin wished she knew what it would take to remove people like Penguin from the lives of children. (Batgirl v1 #53)
Spoiler approached Batgirl, telling her that Batman had fired her as Robin because she could not cut it. Spoiler thanked Batgirl for her friendship and said she wasn’t giving up on crimefighting and would prove to the whole Bat-Family that she was worthy. (Batgirl v1 #54) During Gotham’s gang war Oracle and Batgirl did their best to contain the situation. Batgirl stopped the Odessa Mob from killing a four year old boy who’s family was in the mafia, and Oracle realized things were escalating beyond control. Oracle received a report that after a botched hit there was a major gun battle at Louis Grieve Memorial High, Tim Drake’s school, and phoned in Batman. Batgirl was distressed that no one knew where Stephanie Brown was and found her trying to quell the gang war as Spoiler. Spoiler said she was only trying to help and Batgirl begged her to go home and stay out of it. Spoiler agreed, but Batgirl sensed she was lying to her. Oracle coordinated while Batman and Batgirl slipped into Louis Grieve when shots suddenly rang out. (Batgirl v1 #55)
Batgirl
Post-Flashpoint
Following the Flashpoint, a new version of history was created with a different series of events.
Getting on her bike, she was prepared to leave Gotham and even asked Harper Row to join her as she felt fighting for the city was a lost cause. However, Bluebird refused and instead devoted herself to helping civilians with Spoiler leaving the scene. Whilst driving away, she was nearly killed in the havoc in Gotham but was saved by a civilian who was happy to see another vigilante who were all gathering around Batman to save the city. This led to Stephanie deciding to stay back and fight where she rushed to Batman's location where she helped save him from Lincoln March who was revealed to had been the mastermind for the machinations that affected everyone. Her intervention allowed for the other vigilantes to arrive at the scene allowing for March to be defeated and his plan thwarted as a result. (Batman Eternal v1 #52)
Stephanie ultimately decided that the life of Batman ultimately brought tragedy to both his allies and Gotham with her attempting to force him to retire. When he refused, she left the team and decided that until he did then she would be opposing him. (Detective Comics v1 #947)
She later came to learn that her father had sought to make a new criminal empire that was based in Central City. Cluemaster had stolen some strategies from Mr. Freeze and decided to gather a gang where he offered them a less horrifying lifestyle and even perks. Spoiler looked to shut it down only to find a hired mercenary named La Tombe had been hired by the competition to eliminate Cluemaster. Stephanie managed to defeat the assassin thus saving her fathers criminal empire but he instead sent his hired guns to kill his own daughter. This led to her resolving to take down her father rather than attempt any reconciliation with Drake arriving at the scene. She wanted to take down Cluemaster herself but Drake ended up calling the entirety of Young Justice for the mission. (Young Justice v3 #18)
Overview
Personality and attributes
Powers and abilities
Notes
- Stephanie Brown was created by Chuck Dixon and Tom Lyle where she made her first appearance in Detective Comics v1 #647 (August, 1992).
- The character later appeared as Spoiler in Detective Comics v1 #648 (September, 1992).
- She for a time appeared as Robin in Robin v1 #126 (July, 2004).
- Stephanie later returned as Batgirl in Batgirl v2 #1 (August, 2009).
- She returned in the post-Flashpoint universe in the Batman: Eternal v1 storyline where she became Spoiler again.
- On Comic Book Legends, writer Bill Willingham stated that, "“I knew coming into the Robin series that Spoiler was doomed to die. And I wouldn’t have done that, but that was already locked in even before I came on Robin, so I had no point at which to say you shouldn’t do this. But, I did I have this hair-brained idea that, well, if she was going to die — she was such a frustrated character…I mean, everything she wanted out of life she pretty much didn’t get. So, can we give her one little reward before she dies and let her become Robin for awhile. There was a nice spike in sales during that time and I wish her death hadn’t been so as locked in because when it started going really well, what I would have liked to have said was ‘let’s follow this for awhile.’ That was not available as an option and you can’t really do it twice…now let’s have a character that we don’t plan on killing do a female version of Robin taking the reins. You do that same stunt over and over again. We had that momentum once, we lost it."
Alternate Versions
- In Young Justice v3 #8 (2019), an alternate version of Stephanie Brown was shown to exist in the Multiverse on Earth-3. This version operated as a masked vigilante known as Batwoman where she knew her world's Tim Drake during a time when the Crime Syndicate of America was missing from the planet.
In other media
Television
- In Young Justice: Invasion, Stephanie Brown made her first animated debut in the episode "Before the Dawn" where she was voiced by actor Mae Whitman. She was civilian that was among several that had been abducted by the Mantamen who were led by Tigress on behalf of the Reach but was later rescued from the alien ship by the Team.
Appearances
- Detective Comics v1: (1992)
- Robin:
- Batgirl:
- Batman Eternal v1:
- Detective Comics v1:
- Young Justice v3:
External Links
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