Saturday, October 01, 2005

Harsh! Hated Female Characters #5: Spoiler


Robin #4
Originally uploaded by Heidi Meeley.
Spoiler is a character that never resonated with me. When she first came around and started flirting with Robin, I thought it was kind of cute, but then her character was so all over the board that I gave up and lost interest.

Depending on who was writing Spoiler at the time, she was a pregnant teen who gave up her baby for adoption, an innocent flirt, Robin's devoted gal pal, or a lost child of a notorious super villain. Sometimes she was all of the above. It just depended on who was telling the story, or what niche needed filling. Once the new Batgirl came around, writers really lost a feel for the character that never rebounded.

Spoiler never really found her groove. To me, becoming Robin was going to be her redemption, but alas, she was set up to be killed instead. Now, unless she comes back from the dead, we will never know where she could have gone, but that isn't neccesarily a bad thing.

As Stephanie Brown, the daughter of the Cluemaster, Spoiler had a chance, but then she lost her way. RIP Spoiler, you're in a better place now.

6 comments:

Ragnell said...

Totally agree with you. Never liked Spoiler.

Of course, I have a major problem with the recetn trend of creating a cookie-cutter Blonde Cheerleader Teenager girl hero whenever they want a female teenaged hero around. Call Batgirl contrived if you want, but at least she looks and acts different from her surrounding teens!

They always look the same out of costume, and with a bad artist you can't tell them apart. Even more annoying, they tend to start out with the same basic personality, and then get developed when a good writer finally gets hold of them. Poor Stephanie never went to the control of a Peter David or a Geoff Johns who cared enough to flesh her out, so she needed to be put out of her misery.

Heidi Meeley said...

It was definitely Spoiler's time, wasn't it? With Batgirl in the mix, she was a wallflower with an empty dance card.

I also agree that none of the writers who tackled her gave her the depth she could have had.

Great input- I agree completely!

Carl said...

Hmmmmm, welp, I actually liked Spoiler. She had terrible parents, one of them a wretched "B" villain and shrew mother and got pregnant and gave up her child. Not exactly a 'cookie-cutter blonde cheerleader's' life I would say.
She just was never handled right and apparently the 2nd part of the War Games story arc blood sacrifice. Overall I would say she was a great waste of what could have been a great character. I mean, my daughter was all excited about a girl Robin and I had to tell her it was already over when she wanted to get the issues. And oh yes, I didn't care for the new Batgirl at first. She was just like a deadly animal, all reaction and training, not a jot of personality till she wanted to be more. I don't know, the death of Spoiler really, really pissed me off and renewed my view of DC as a company that will kill off characters simply to sell comics. Maybe they should have a new motto: More blood for your comic dollar!

Heidi Meeley said...

What is so disheartening to me, Carl is that when they made Stephanie the girl Robin, they had a lot of potential that was wasted. It was the moment for Stephanie, and instead she ended up murdered.

I wish that someone who really cared would have gotten ahold of her. It is for the best that she has gone to the great beyond, even though finding out last month how she really died made me even angrier then the fact that she did.

Have you heard the 'ahem' spoilers about that?

Carl said...

Nope, can't say I have. Did the mercenaries at DC tie it in with one of the current crisises going on?

Heidi Meeley said...

The DC brass tied Spoiler's death back to one of the most pristine characters in Bat Lore. It has completely pissed me off, so I don't know if I should even spoil it for you. Are you sure you want to know?