Spoiler (cartoon character)

In spoiler is a cartoon character from the DC Universe . The name is derived from the English verb (to) spoil , which translated means: spoil something / screw something up. Spoiler's real name is Stephanie Brown . Stephanie had her first appearance in Detective Comics # 647 (published in the US in August 1992 with the title "Inquiring Minds"). The first appearance as a spoiler followed in Detective Comics # 648 (also published in August 1992 with the title "Let the Puzzlement fit the crime"). The character was designed by the author Chuck Dixon and the illustrator Tom Lyle.

In the comic

Stephanie Brown's father was a criminal named Cluemaster. Arthur Brown gave himself this name because he left the law enforcement officers and the superhero Batman clues during his first crimes in order to lure Batman into a trap. When Arthur Brown was released after a long prison sentence and resumed his criminal activity, Stephanie decided in turn to see to it that Batman could find her father and send him to prison. She made herself a costume, which was held in the colors purple and blue and completely covered her face, and from then on called herself Spoiler (Detective Comics # 648).

Spoilers and robin

Robin alias Tim Drake managed to find the Cluemaster together with Spoiler, who was imprisoned again. Spoiler decided to become a superhero and began to patrol Gotham regularly , which kept her in contact with Robin . A romance began to develop between the two teenagers; Robin helped spoilers when she discovered she was pregnant (the child's father had left Gotham after an earthquake) and supported her in her decision to put the child up for adoption.

The relationship with Robin ended when Batman offered to train spoilers and revealed Robin's real name, which Stephanie did not know before. After a while, Batman offered her to become the new Robin after Tim Drake - after his father's death - gave up the costume. Stephanie accepted, but she disregarded Batman's instructions, whereupon he took the costume off her.

War Games and Death

The plot of the "War Games" booklet was aimed at completely changing Batman's starting position in Gotham City. The former loner, who was not only watched suspiciously by the police, recently had a microcosm around him, which fans called the “Bat Family”. In addition to his butler Alfred, these included the doctor Dr. Leslie Thompkins, Oracle (Barbara Gordon, the former Batgirl), Batgirl (Cassandra Cain), Nightwing (Richard "Dick" Grayson), Robin (Timothy "Tim" Drake), Catwoman (Selina Kyle) and Huntress, and the detectives Montoya and Harvey Batman benevolently. Devin Grayson , the author of the War Games, wanted to give the series more dynamism by cutting these connections and making Batman a lone fighter again.

Spoiler served as the common thread in the War Games .

Her failure as Robin led ambitious Stephanie to want to prove herself to Batman again. She stole Batman-designed contingency plans and began putting them into action. This started the saga Wargames (German: War Games ), in which Stephanie played a central role. One of those contingency plans began with all of Gotham's bosses being invited to a secret meeting. Stephanie sent out the invitations, but couldn't find one of the people on the list: Matches Malone. In the original plan, this should unite the entire gang bosses. In fact, Matches Malone was a secret identity of Batman, which Batman assumed after the real Match Malone died.

The lack of matches Malone resulted in a massacre at the gangster meeting that only a few survived. Stephanie tried to limit the chaos that arose from the newly created power vacuum and looked for Orpheus, a gang boss who was, however, connected to Batman. This should now create order in the chaotic Gotham. When Stephanie found him, the gangster Black Mask (real name: Roman Sionis) cut his throat in front of Stephanie's eyes and, masked, took over Orpheus' position. He also took Stephanie prisoner and brutally tortured her. Stephanie finally escaped seriously injured, but returned to neutralize Black Mask. After she nearly succeeded, Black Mask succeeded in unsettling her and he shot her. (The dialogues between Black Mask and Spoiler were originally an allusion to the film True Romance with Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette .)

Seriously injured, Stephanie was finally taken to the hospital by Batman, where Dr. Leslie Thompkins, a doctor friend of Batman, was supposed to take care of her. Dr Thompkins, however, did not give Stephanie the necessary medication because, as she said in the mini saga War Crimes Batman, she wanted to prevent more people from dying because they felt they had to be superheroes like Batman. As a result of this decision, Stephanie Brown died in the hospital after Batman visited her one last time.

After her death, Stephanie hallucinated Batgirl (Cassandra Cain) two more times. The first of these appearances was a typical near-death experience and happened in Batgirl # 62, the second appearance followed Batgirl's death as a result of massive blood loss ( Batgirl # 72-73).

Spoiler returns

In 2008, the character spoiler was reintroduced into the Robin stories. During an operation against a thief named Violet, Robin (Drake) meets a girl in Spoiler's costume, who also calls him by his real name (Robin # 173). It turns out that Thompkins' death was only faked to protect her; she had had to spend some time undetected in rehabilitation in Africa. After her reveal, Robin rejoins and also enrolls in the school Tim attends ( Robin / Spoiler Special # 1, Robin # 174). Batman explains that he suspected that Stephanie's death was only faked, and therefore did not erect a memorial to her.

After a brief continuation of her career as a spoiler - whereby she also shows herself to be responsible for a gang war - Stephanie finally succeeds Cassandra Cain as Batgirl ( Batgirl # 1, August 2009). She works closely with Orakel (Barbara Gordon), who acts as her mentor.

The New 52

With the reboot of the DC universe The New 52 , Stephanie Brown was completely removed from the series canon . She first appears again in 2014 in Batman Eternal , where she is a teenager again and discovers her father's criminal machinations.

Skills and powers

Stephanie has no super powers, but is very artistic and is a good fighter through training with Batman and Robin. She uses grappling hooks, jump cables and ropes to move from house to house between the tall buildings of Gotham.

External impact

Stephanie's death and the way in which the authors and the DC publishers treated him were controversial: Criticism was in particular that she was not thought of properly. While one of her predecessors as Robin, Jason Todd, received its own memorial in Bath Cave, Stephanie did not receive the same attention within the comic, even though both characters previously acted as superheroes in the Batman environment and were killed by supervillains .

The reason given was the orientation of the series towards a male audience, which had already been shown in the depiction of the torture scenes in which Stephanie had been drawn in a sexist way. The fact that her tormentor and the instruments of torture he used there had been made into an action figure was also viewed as extremely unfortunate for the public image. In this context, a statement by a DC officer was criticized who, when asked what the death of female characters meant to him (in the question, spoilers were explicitly mentioned), replied that this had a "major impact on the lives of the heroes", with which he made a distinction between female characters and heroes, thus excluding them from heroic status.

Another point of criticism was the fact that the subsequent transfer of responsibility for Stephanie's death to Dr. Leslie Thompkins Batman's complicity was negated. While he tormented himself with feelings of guilt, even if only briefly, and possibly had to think about his role as a mentor , he could see Stephanie's death as an act of a madwoman who has no connection with him.

Overall, spoilers are seen as an example of the phenomenon known in America as " Women in refrigerators ", according to which women in superhero comics suffer more than the average number of gruesome fates that put off a female audience of comics (the name goes back to an episode of the comic Green Lantern , in which the protagonist Kyle Rayner finds his murdered girlfriend tucked away in the refrigerator).

Web links

Individual evidence

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