Girl Wonder: No More

This week at San Diego Comic Con DC Comics announced that Stephanie Brown, former Robin and current Batgirl, would have her name removed from the legacy of Robin.

For those that have not yet heard of the overhaul DC Comics is giving itself this coming September, check out this link for more information. The long and short of it is that DC is taking the universe back to year one and effectively starting from just about square one. The theory behind this is that a young (and presumably simpler) universe will attract new and younger readers.

Another theme is that this new universe will also be more “diverse” and thus will expand DC’s fanbase and appeal to a variety of readers.

This upheaval of course is more than a shock and trama to long term and committed readers– Will my favourite character make the cut? What kind of changes can I expect?  Those of us who are attached to Stephanie Brown, the forth Robin and third Batgirl, will be suffering quite the loss.

spoilers (no pun intended) after the jump

Born and raised in Gotham, Stephanie lived with her mother while her villain  father was bounced in and out of jail for his exploits as The Cluemaster. Because of her father’s devotion to crime and her mother’s low paying job, the profits of which feeding her drug habit, the Brown family coasted just above the poverty line throughout Stephanie’s adolescence.

Stephanie first appeared in Batman comics as the persona Spoiler, whom she became in order to “spoil” her father’s villainous ventures. Later, she teams up with Batman and Robin, entering a relationship with then Robin Tim Drake.

During Stephanie’s run as Spoiler she faced all kinds of hardships and accomplishments– the death of her father, training under infamous vigilante Black Canary, discovering her boyfriend’s secret identity, training under Batman, being told by Batman that she must stop being Spoiler, becoming pregnant and later giving the child up for adoption, and finally, becoming Robin after Tim Drake quits.

Stephanie is the only female Robin ever to have existed inside continuity, and all though her run was short lived, there is no doubt that she loved her title and honored it well. Stephanie brought optimistic light and exuberance to the Bat Cave that hadn’t been seen since Dick Grayson, the original Robin, carried the title. Stephanie’s role as Robin was abruptly ended after she was brutally killed during War Games, though some time later it is revealed that Stephanie has been resurrected and becomes first Spoiler again and then later Batgirl.

The DC reboot will effectively erase most of Stephanie’s history, though it unclear how much– one thing is for certain, there will only be four Robins in the new DC universe and Stephanie isn’t one of them. DC has announced that each Robin, past and present, will be receiving their own headlining book. And with Dick Grayson starring in Nightwing, Jason Todd in Red Hood and the Outlaws, Tim Drake in Teen Titans and current Robin Damian Wayne in Batman and Robin, there is no room for Stephanie.

Bottom line is that DC comics is telling us they’re aiming to be more diverse! But the poor girl who had a baby in high school isn’t good enough to make the cut.

If you would like to read more about Stephanie, try picking up her comic!

Batgirl (Volume 3)  written by Bryan Q. Miller and penciled by Lee Garbett and Dustin Nguyen.

Stephanie: Was any of it real? Was I ever really Robin?
Batman: Of course you were.

– Batman #633 (December 2004)