An important character reveal was made in the pages of this week’s Robin. Naturally, this is quite the spoiler, so consider yourself warned.
Nevermore999 appreciated the storyline:
Some say this retcon was sloppily done. That the comic was rushed, or whatever. I disagree.
I can’t really offer much in argument besides my personal feelings besides the fact the last half of the comic practically made me bleed joy with every page turn. Steph’s reveal was paced brilliantly. I love the *unmask* “That’s you all over, isn’t it? Always so sure you’re right?” And then Batman and Tim’s
with Tim softly saying “Stephanie?” while she stands with her hands on her hips, and then we turn the page and HUGE SPLASH where Tim GLOMPS Steph and EATS HER FACE. It is the perfect reaction.
We then get our official fanon explanation: Leslie faked Steph’s death. It is a nearly perfect retcon, and almost completely plausible, and redeems Leslie as well as bringing back Steph. Steph gets accepted back into the Bat family and Alfred drops his tea tray and is happy. I love Alfred so. Together he and Steph could be an undeniable duo of awesome. That panel where Steph is teasing him and he is grinning and they are linking hands….! So cute. Steph has obviously either guessed Bruce Wayne’s identity or he revealed it to her (about DAMN TIME) and…I love this part…they go to visit her Mom. Yay! Oh, and Tim is upset that both Bruce and Steph lied to him, so there’s gonna be some DRAMA, but who cares?
Lurkslikefox doesn’t like the implications of the event:
I was all pissed off with DC yesterday, after I read the spoilers that
Steph had been brought back to life in such a lacadaisical fashion with (yeah, right!) Bruce knowing all along. What with Jason turning up it seems that DC is set on reversing all the deaths in batman that ever meant anything. How long is it till we findout that Bruce’s parents never died at all, but just moved to a desert island and forgot to tell him.
In the comments to this post, Marag explains why she’s less then enthusiastic:
::flails:: I needed some smart thinky person (e.g., you) to articulate for me why I’m not jumping for joy over this. Your last sentence is definitely a good start on that.
I just…yes, it’s a retcon and if they’d done this, say, a month or two later, it would have worked. In fact, I seem to recall exchanging comments with Marcelo or someone and one of us suggested exactly this solution to the problem.
But so long later, with Bruce suddenly saying “Gee, I guessed all along, but I couldn’t be bothered to tell you”?
::flails more:: Argl. Am I the only one who visualizes Dan “The Moron” DiDio et al. in a meeting and saying “Ha! This’ll fix those uppity chicks!”
Um, it’s possible that I’m a bit upset over all this, because I want to be squeeing
So what do you think?
May 24th, 2008 at 11:22 pm
I never understand the point of this column. Shouldn’t the name be changed to Livejournal Roundup? Bless everyone involved, but there are approximately 50,000,000 very accessible message boards to read for anyone who wants to see pseudonymous nobodies blow their fanboy/fangirl stacks every time they don’t get their way, or in this case when they DO get their way. Livejournals may be a reliable source of hysteria and pornographic prose stories about Nightwing, but they seem like a dubious source for credible commentary and the reliance on them for this feature suggests that it may be a little too starved for content.
May 25th, 2008 at 12:07 am
And really, you couldn’t find a more credible comment than someone who has to insult someone else to get their point across?
May 25th, 2008 at 12:18 am
Thank you for your interest in “Variations”. My focus in this column is to highlight various representative opinions to facilitate discussion. Whether I personally agree or disagree with any of the opinions expressed is irrelevant.
Have a nice day.
May 25th, 2008 at 1:08 am
I can’t understand this Marag’s position that it would be perfectly believable if it was done a few months later. Or people unable to consider that they might not have given her a spot in the Batcave because DC planned to bring her back from the beginning…
May 25th, 2008 at 7:43 am
I totally approve of the return of Spoiler. It answers the concerns of a good number of fans. It does it in a way that doesn’t require magic or mad science. It restores the reputation of Leslie Tompkins. It undoes a little bit of the endless cruelty in Tim Drake’s life.
May 25th, 2008 at 8:54 am
The reveal was well done. Besides, how many fans figured out Steph was alive by now – come on? As Bruce said, “Why did you think there was no memorial in the cave?” Every Batman fan has commented on that. Plus lately there have been Leslie flashbacks so you knew she was going to be redeemed.
The Batman family is getting all it’s ducks in a row, as it were… something big is coming and it ain’t just “Batman R.I.P.”….
May 25th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
Chuck Dixon is awesome. It was a well done reveal that had a genuine “Awww…” moment in it.
Tomassi and Dixon are doing a very, very good job keeping the other Bat-heroes prominent and making their series worthwhile again.
May 25th, 2008 at 7:59 pm
As a longtime LJ user in good standing, I’m embarrassed and repulsed by how the site has become a repository for the worst examples of fandom entitlement in all its juvenile, infantilized, passively cynical glory.
If these people spent less time whining about how even positive developments they actively campaigned for have drained them of “squee,” and a little more time putting that energy to constructive use, they’d probably accomplish a lot more and be happier in the doing.
May 25th, 2008 at 10:51 pm
Like not posting comments on a Newsarama blog?
May 25th, 2008 at 11:37 pm
It amuses me how fashionable it is to trash Didio over this when Geoff Johns said in an interview, and I quote:
Since we’re going back years, a sidebar for a lot of you Spoilers fans – early on when I started talking with Dan about Flash, I remember him bemoaning the fact that they were planning on “killing” Spoiler, one of his, yes, favorite characters. Dan had just started and wasn’t the E-I-C yet and had no control over the Bat universe. He still misses Spoiler.
May 26th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
Hey now, DK, don’t bring LOGIC into these conversations…