Spoiler
(Stephanie Brown) (Profile #1)
Context
Stephanie Brown is a minor Batman character. She appeared in 1992 and was primarily a supporting character for Robin (Tim Drake).
As she developed as a character and became Tim’s girlfriend, she gained something of a fan club among Robin readers.
Her core themes are psychological resilience, hard luck, and overcoming obstacles through sheer resolve.
Her original costumed identity was the Spoiler, but she later was Robin – then Batgirl.
Sequence
This profile is the first in a chronological series. It stops when Steph gets training and equipment from the bat-squad (starting in Robin #87), and thus covers the 1990s.
For orientation among our Stephanie Brown character profiles, the simplest is for you to check our Batgirl disambiguation page.
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Background
- Real Name: Stephanie Brown.
- Known Relatives: Arthur Brown (aka the Cluemaster, father), Agnes Bellinger-Brown (mother), David Bellinger (uncle), child (name and gender unrevealed).
- Group Affiliation: Informal partner of Robin (Tim Drake).
- Base Of Operations: Widowstone Creek, in the greater Gotham area.
- Note: The neighbourhood for Mrs. Brown’s house is Widowstone Creek, which isn’t mentioned in sourcebooks. It seems likely that it is a suburb of the Bristol Township (which includes the Brentwood and Gotham Heights neighbourhoods), probably adjacent to Gotham Heights and not too far from Gotham Island (which might mean it’s relatively close to Wayne Manor).
The comics once mention “Holden Street, Manchester” for Mrs. Bellinger Brown’s house. That doesn’t match the 2005 sourcebook. But that may simply mean that this suburb isn’t on the shorelines covered by the sourcebook. Manchester would thus be in Gotham’s hinterlandAn area away from a coast.. - Height: 5’4” (1.62m). Weight: 100 lbs. (45 kg.).
- Eyes: Blue-green. Hair: Blonde.
Powers & Abilities
Stephanie Brown has an abnormal level of athletic talent, particularly when it comes to acrobatics. Though she’s not as hyper-gifted as the other Robins (such as Dick Grayson, Tim Drake or Damian Wayne), she operates on a higher level of speed and agility than ordinary athletes.
For instance she can run the rooftop expressMoving across a dense city using comic book acrobatics (and usually a swingline). with just a rope and a grapnel.
She evidences talent as a hand-to-hand fighter, and hits surprisingly hard. Though there is only so much she can do to compensate for her lack of stature and formal training, she’s way stronger than a realistic 100 lbs. person.
She can thrash thugs fairly reliably. But being outnumbered or facing genuinely skilled opponents may lead to disaster.
Other assets
- She is courageous and intelligent. But her full potential in these areas has yet to bloom.
- She managed to get a decent education despite being working class.
- Steph also has some talent as an amateur sleuth. But this isn’t reliable.
- Ms. Brown is a solid piano player, and prolly could become a noted professional. However, her parents couldn’t afford the necessary lessons.
- She’s also a good gymnast. But she’s much better at free form real-world parkour than at formal gymnastics.
- Drake taught Brown some crisis management skills. Such as dressing gunshot wounds, and more advanced acrobatics and martial arts forms (chiefly aikijutsu ).
Techniques
Spoiler is already using two of her signature fighting techniques :
- Her right roundhouse punch packs impressive power. Way more than what anybody would expect from a slight teenager. However this is a slow technique, and it can normally only be used against opponents who are not looking at her.
- When facing an opponent who’s too heavy for her, Spoiler will occasionally run away toward a wall. She then runs up the wall for a few steps, does a back somersault above her chasing opponent, and delivers a kick to the back of the person’s head while still in the air.
This normally sends them crashing face first into the wall. However, perceptive opponents with quick reflexes will likely not fall for it.
Steph also gets a lot of mileage out of surprise attacks, particularly when taking out small groups of thugs. Most of her knock-outs occur against flat-footed, run-of-the-mill opponents. Often with a jump kick or by swinging feet first into her target.
If she’s fighting alone and loses this momentum against a group of street toughs, she’s in hot water and she knows it. In such cases she’ll sensibly retreat using her acrobatic prowess.
Gear
Beyond her cool costume, Spoiler just uses value-priced commercially-available equipment she scraped together :
- A cheap Radio Shack shotgun mike (only seen once – it may have broken down).
- A Honda motor scooter and a helmet.
- A length of basic construction rope (and presumably a grapnel).
- Large caltrops – probably useless against people, but these will puncture most tyres.
- Robin later gave her a vomit gas riot control grenade and slim night vision goggles. He may also have given her the caltrops.
- A distinctive gift from Robin is a handful of marbles that collectively act as a flash grenade. It’s not a SWAT-grade one, but people don’t expect marbles to detonate either. Or expect masked vigilantes to throw marbles at them.
One Young Justice appearance depicts her as having some mini-grenades, a motorized line-and-grapnel projector and a ninja-style shortsword. But these are never otherwise seen.
Soundtrack
So here we need a good, suitable way to evoke 1992 – her debut year. Mmmm…
Let’s go with CeCe Peniston’s sizeable hit, “Finally”. It was punchy, groovy, wilful dance music – with house and funk aspects to it.
History
Stephanie Brown grew up in a dysfunctional household.
- Her father was the minor but nasty criminal the Cluemaster. He was a toxic mix of weakness and evil.
- Her mother was a nurse with a heavy history of antidepressant, alcohol and painkiller abuse. Though Mrs. Brown meant well, she was frequently too stoned to help.
The Cluemaster made a strong initial showing (at least pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths). But he soon degenerated into a D-list loser, forever defeated by Batman and associating with low-rent criminals. He also often hit his wife.
Honour thy father, or not
When Stephanie was 11, the Cluemaster briefly reformed. He got a job in manufacturing. It was considerably more lucrative than his life of crime.
He also forced his wife into cold turkey — under threat of death.
However, one of his best buddies turned out to be a paedophile. And the clueless Arthur Brown had him baby-sit Stephanie whilst he was forcing Agnes to quit her pills.
The kid fled in time and hid until her parents returned. Her aggressor later turned up dead, presumably murdered in secret by the Cluemaster.
For several years, Stephanie remained prone to anxiety attacks when finding herself alone with a man.
Adνеrtisеmеnt
Spoiler rising
Having nobody she could trust, Stephanie taught herself to be stealthy, self-reliant and to use force if necessary.
Meanwhile, the Cluemaster also grew. Therapy freed him from his compulsion to leave clues about his crimes. Unsurprisingly, he was now much more successful.
This made Stephanie furious. To bring her father to justice, she carefully sent clues to the police in his stead. From there she developed the costumed identity of the Spoiler. The Spoiler spied on the Cluemaster and sent more clues.
This brought Batman (Bruce Wayne) and Robin (Tim Drake) in. But they swiftly discovered her identity and forbade her to accompany them.
Spoiler predictably disobeyed them. She was instrumental in foiling what would have been the Cluemaster’s greatest heist. Though her father unmasked her, she took him down. Stephanie might even have killed Arthur had Batman not calmed her down.
He rocks in the tree tops all day long
A few months later — late 1993 — the Cluemaster escaped. He allied with Titus Czonk and the Electrocutioner.
Spoiler therefore returned, and ran into Robin. The two youths defeated the trio of scoundrels, with Spoiler saving Robin’s life.
In 1995, Gully Carson and crew kidnapped Stephanie. They demanded that her father, who was still in prison, plan their operations. However, Steph soon realised that it was her dad who had suggested kidnapping her. As insurance when negotiating with Carson.
The heists ran smoothly. But Carson got greedy – and Brown ratted him out to Batman and Robin.
Robin found Stephanie in the nick of time, and they escaped together – eventually taking down Carson.
Stephanie then visited her father in prison. She thrashed him thoroughly in retaliation, with the guards turning a blind eye.
But the drugs like me
A few months later, Spoiler followed on a hunch of her mother’s. Agnes had sensed that Steph’s gym coach was a fellow addict.
Despite Stephanie’s doubts, mother knew best. Spoiler exposed Coach Lewis as a drugs dealer.
After this incident mother and daughter slowly rebuilt bridges.
Agnes’ addiction also slowly improved. The cold turkey her husband had forced some years before hadn’t held for long. But with Arthur Brown out of her life, she now could make real progress.
By mid-1998, Agnes Brown was essentially cured. Which also considerably improved her financials.
Young vigilantes in love
Though Batman and Robin still objected, Spoiler was occasionally active as a minor vigilante in and around the Gotham Heights suburbs. She continued allying with Robin on minor cases throughout 1996/97.
But from practically day one, there was a strong romantic tension between Drake and Brown.
As it happened, Tim’s relationship with his girlfriend Ariana Dzerchenko was disintegrating. Despite Steph’s constant and ham-fisted flirting, Robin and Spoiler therefore grew increasingly comfortable with each other.
Brown remained realistic as to her chances of seducing Robin, and for a while she dated one Dean. They split in 1998, during the big Gotham earthquake.
Tectonic
Minutes later this breakup, Stephanie again confronted her father and some of his associates with the help of the Huntress (Helena Bertinelli). They were pillaging a mall damaged by the disaster.
However, Spoiler let Arthur Brown escape. She feared that the Huntress would slay him.
After Drake and Dzerchenko separated, Robin started dating Spoiler. Things were going swimmingly, and Stephanie was of course much less sheltered than Ariana.
But Steph soon discovered that Dean had left her pregnant. Despite being 15½, she decided to keep her baby. Then arrange for an adoption, since she knew that she was far too young to be a mother.
Though Robin was out of his depth, he supported her in her travails. He occasionally switched to his Alvin Draper identity — a squalid young tough — to accompany her. He even managed to be present when Brown gave birth, by disguising himself as a nurse.
Mrs. Brown then handled the adoption procedure.
No Man’s Land
When Gotham was closed off by the government, Stephanie was on the right side of the river. Gotham Heights was not part of the no man’s land.
At that point, her mother finally found Steph’s Spoiler costume. Agnes reacted well – but she didn’t want her daughter to resume risking her life as a vigilante.
Of course, Stephanie promptly disobeyed. On her next outing she put her uncle Dave behind bars – since he actually was a Z-list thug.
However, her relationship with Robin started falling apart. Personal difficulties were keeping Drake away from her. Stephanie came to resent Robin having a whole secret life away from her – while he knew everything about both her lives.
Splitsville
Somewhat spiteful, Spoiler left for a bit. She convinced Black Canary (Dinah Laurel Lance) to give her some real training, beyond what little Robin had time for. How this arrangement turned out remains unrevealed.
Spoiler then dumped Robin, and investigated his secret identity. Excessive teenage emotions and her baggage tangled Stephanie into baseless jealousy and feelings of abandonment and betrayal.
She followed a completely wrong lead. The girl she persuaded herself was Robin’s other girlfriend was just one of Drake’s acquaintance.
After a few weeks of this, Batman (Bruce Wayne) approached Spoiler… with an unexpected offer.
Description
Spoiler seems to be about a year older than Robin.
Even in her civvies, she almost always wears a purple or eggplant-coloured top. It’s her signature colour.
Early on her mask, briefs, gloves, boots, etc. are dark blue.
Eventually they become black, which also allows for the distinctive “Marvin the Martian ” effect with the flexible eyepieces on her mask.
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Personality
Early on Steph is depicted as angry and aggressive. She hates her father for having wrecked her life.
This anger eventually recedes. To attract Robin, she puts significant effort into appearing perky, sassy and cool. It works, too – she’s good at acting this way, and quite funny.
This also establishes how Stephanie refuses to let herself be brought down by the misery of her life. She tries to face everything with strength, willpower – and a quip and a smile if there are friends of hers around.
But at this point she’s not as polished in this as she’ll later be. Occasionally, her anger visibly resurfaces.
Spoiler’s alert
While she’s initially out for justice by taking her father down, she discovers that she likes being Spoiler. It becomes an adrenaline thing, as she enjoys the risk and action. Being Spoiler also allows her to be near Robin.
However, her tastes also make her too impulsive in the field.
While Stephanie comes from a broken home in a so-so neighbourhood, she has a robust vocabulary and commands a wide range of cultural references.
She’s also unusually mature for her age. Presumably because she’s so used to being self-reliant.
Surprisingly, she keeps a diary. Probably because she’s always been her own best friend.
Rockin’ Robin
At first, Spoiler acts pragmatic and streetwise. But Robin soon convinces her to adopt ethics closer to his own. Such as fighting to subdue – and risking one’s life to save even their enemies.
Stephanie isn’t as rigid as Tim about these rules. But she wants to please him – and the habit eventually rubs off.
On some level, Steph thinks that Robin is too good for her. Her self-image issues aren’t yet apparent, but she clearly thinks she’s super-lucky to have found a decent, smart, honest, brave young man who’s interested in her.
As a result she makes sure to appear positive and low-maintenance, as her “onward and upward” personal ethos is starting to emerge.
We all got limits
Though she’s fairly good at it, it’s not her usual behaviour. She has difficulty hiding her occasional feelings of jealousy if Robin pays attention to another girl. And will sometimes need clear proof that Tim cares about her.
With people who aren’t Robin, Stephanie’s markedly more in-your-face, sarcastic and stubborn. This seems to be mostly out of habitual wariness, as she tends to assume that people are out to use her and control her.
If faced with an authoritarian person, Steph will just keep rebelling and escalating. To an extent that includes Batman, even though he scares her.
Quotes
“In your dreams, birdboy. To the Spoiler belongs the victory.”
Robin : “Do you have to remind you we have a warehouse full of killers looking for us right now ?”
Spoiler (starry-eyed after having kissed him) : “Isn’t that romantic ?”
(Teasing Robin) “You named your car. That’s so boy.”
“Maybe Gotham needs a Spoiler. You and Batman handle all crime in the city. The suburbs don’t have anybody.”
Agnes Brown: “Since when have you started watching crime shows ?”
Stephanie: “How else am I ever gonna see dad ?” (beat) “Sorry, mom. Bad joke.”
(As Spoiler nervously backs away from the edge of the roof of Wayne Tower)
Robin: “You’re not afraid of heights, are you ?”
Spoiler: “Only as long as they’re suborbital !”
“I’ve never been very good at doing what I’m told.”
(To herself) “Dear diary : embarrassment level critical.”
DC Heroes RPG
Tell me more about the game stats
Spoiler (Early)
| Dex: 04 | Str: 02 | Bod: 03 |
| Int: 04 | Wil: 04 | Min: 04 |
| Inf: 03 | Aur: 03 | Spi: 04 |
| Init: 013 | HP: 020 |
Skills:
Acrobatics (Athletics, climbing, dodging): 05, Artist (Gymnastics, pianist): 04, Artist (Sewing): 02, Martial Artist (AV, OV, Techniques): 05, Martial Artist (EV): 03, Medicine (First Aid): 02, Thief (Stealth): 04, Vehicles (Land): 02, Weaponry (Thrown): 05
Advantages:
Area Knowledge (Bristol Township).
Connections:
Robin (High).
Drawbacks:
Age (Young).
Motivation:
Justice/Thrill.
Occupation:
High School Student.
Wealth:
001
Equipment:
- Cheap shotgun mike [BODY 01, Extended hearing: 05, R#04].
- Motor scooter [STR 02 BODY 03, Running: 05, R#03].
- Vomit gas grenade [BODY 01, Fog: 03, Chemical attack: 06, R#03, Grenade drawback, Bonus: Chemical attack is Combined With and Active Throughout the Fog].
- Flash marbles [BODY 03, Fog: 03, Flash: 03 (Area of effect 1 APs), Sensory block (Hearing): 03, Note : all Powers are Combined, Grenade drawback, R#03].
- Night vision goggles [BODY 02, Ultra-vision: 03, Miniaturisation: 01, Limitation: Ultra-vision only vs. poor lightning, R#02].
Even earlier Spoiler
Before she associates with Robin, Spoiler has lower stats :
- WIL is 03.
- Hero Points are 015.
- No Medicine, and no Techniques to her Martial Artist.
- No grenade, no goggles, no marbles.
Signature techniques
The two signature fighting techniques described in the Power and Abilities section are handled like this :
- Spoiler’s roundhouse right starts by Pressing the Attack (she has to have the Initiative), then doing a Critical Blow and using her Martial Arts for EV. She will also increase her AV by two APs if she can afford it.
During that Phase, Steph thus ideally has an AV of 06, an EV of 03 and an OV of 03, while her target receives a +1CS to their OV and a -3CS to their RV. - Spoiler’s run-up-the-wall technique can only be done in a Phase where the Spoiler has the Initiative, and pits her DEX/Acrobatics (Athletics) against her opponent’s DEX/INT. If she gets positive APs, she can Blindside her opponent in the next Phase. She will usually add HPs to that kick and Press the Attack.
Source of Character: Batman and Robin comics.
Helper(s): Craig Clark, Darci, the DCU RPG’s Daily Planet guide to Gotham.
Writeup completed on the 9th of March, 2015.