The Four Color Media Monitor

Newsarama recently wrote about Batman: Eternal, which features a New 52 rendition of Stephanie Brown, and told some history of what happened a decade ago, when a DiDio-led staff decided they rejected Chuck Dixon's visions:

Yet while readers were admiring her tenacity and snarky dialogue, DC editors were planning to end Steph's story violently — a plan that was set into motion when writer Bill Willingham was hired for Robin.

"I knew coming into the Robin series that Spoiler was doomed to die," Willingham told WordBalloon. "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?"

Sure enough, Stephanie Brown became Batman’s first female Robin—the Girl Wonder. But it only lasted a few issues, with Batman citing her recklessness as he took away the Robin mantle. Soon after, the character was brutally murdered by a villain during the "War Game" crossover event in 2004.

"There was a nice spike in sales during [the time she was Robin] 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,'" but that wasn't an option, Willingham said.

I'd be able to take Willingham a lot more seriously if he'd mention how the mandate for turning Jean Loring into a new Eclipso in Day of Vengeance, very soon after that horror called Identity Crisis, and the "revelation" Dr. Leslie Thompkins let Stephanie die by refusing to operate on her, were clearly locked in to boot. He himself admitted he didn't have a serious problem writing up such a repellent idea for Thompkins. And if he knew what editorial wanted but disagreed, why did he take the jobs in the first place? Obviously, he couldn't resist the paycheck. It makes little difference whether you're an intern or a hired hand; morality and honor should take some kind of priority, and he didn't present that.

To make matters worse, even the story he turned out with a girl Robin was terrible, and he practically admits it: he depicted her acting recklessly. I'm sorry, but that does little more than serve as a justification for wiping her out. Even if this is what they wanted, that doesn't mean the ladies shouldn't be depicted heroically and honorably. Sarah Essen's death in No Man's Land may not have been a good idea, but at least she by contrast had a more heroic role than what Stephanie got in War Games.

Even after Stephanie's fate was reversed in 2007, DiDio was making every effort to find an excuse to throw her out again (and to keep her out of some licensed products), and we shouldn't be surprised if they'll continue this insult even now. The saddest part, naturally, is that by this time, I'm sure there's Spoiler fans who've become so disenchanted with DC as a whole, they can't be bothered to buy a book that could easily reek of editorial mandates. And who could blame them: DiDio is still lurking in the background, and singlehandedly alienates.

Labels: bad editors, Batman, dc comics, dreadful writers, golden calf of death, good writers, misogyny and racism, violence, women of dc