The first girl wonder didn’t stick around for long, and now there’s finally some closure to Steph's departure as Batman's signature sidekick.
Warning! Spoilers for Robins #2
It’s been revealed why Batman fired the female Robin, Stephanie Brown. The bat family’s first girl wonder didn’t stick around for long, and now there’s finally some closure to her departure as the Dark Knight’s signature sidekick.
At one time, Steph AKA Spoiler was the girlfriend of Tim Drake AKA Robin. When she became Robin herself, it felt like a longtime coming as she replaced Tim. The daughter of the villain known as ‘Cluemaster’ already had a few conflicts of interest, but they weren’t the reason that Batman chose to part ways with Steph. The exact reasons for Batman firing her have generally been left unknown, and have been chalked up to him wanting to protect her. There was clarification for the Dark Knight’s reasoning in Robins #2, written by Joshua Williamson with art by Gleb Melnikov.
While it’s hinted that Batman never truly considered Stephanie Brown to be a genuine Robin, he eventually fired her for breaking the rules. Bruce knew that it was only a matter of time before she compromised the mission again by making her own calls. Although she was a competent vigilante, she wasn’t dynamic duo material. Bruce also thought she had been lashing out at Tim, adding to the sense that she was never a true girl wonder. In Robins #2, Batman points out that unlike the various other Robins of the past, she wasn’t embarking on a crusader to get justice for her parents. Instead, Steph was trying to get revenge on her own criminal father, Cluemaster.
Steph’s contrasting motivations arguably made her a more interesting Robin, but she worked just as well as her initial alter ego, Spoiler. As fans know, Bruce goes onto accept the assistance of another female Robin in Carrie Kelley, who proves herself a worthy successor to the title during The Dark Knight Returns. However, she similarly wasn’t fighting for her parents’ memory. She also didn’t become Robin to get back at her parents. Instead, Carrie was fueled fully by inspiration, looking to the examples set by Dick Grayson and Jason Todd, who were the only Robins in comics at the time.
In retrospect, Steph’s firing makes Batman appear both less harsh and less sentimental. Bruce had a bond with Dick, Jason, and Tim, but he wouldn’t have allowed them to repeatedly break the bat family code either. Sensing something off in Steph as Robin, it’s hard to argue with Batman’s logic to let her go her own way.
