The Renegade Robins Club joins the wreckage of Gotham during No Man’s Land! And Stephanie Brown’s cover has been spoiled as someone discovers her secret identity! See what happens in this month’s adventures, and then share your thoughts below!
To answer my own discussion question: as much as I appreciate the novelty of Stephanie’s pregnancy arc, it’s a real shame that she was sidelined throughout a major event. I feel the same thing was done to Huntress in a way, as she was teased to be the new Batgirl only to be shoved aside as unworthy. No offense to Cassandra Cain, but it’s really annoying how the writers/editors always seem to devalue current members of the Bat-Family whenever they prepare to introduce a new member. (The same thing would later happen to Cassie, of course.)
I agree that it is too bad Stephanie didn’t do much in No Man’s Land. She barely has a place in these issues other than her mother discovering her Spoiler costume. She is also selling herself short by agreeing to “date” Robin without knowing his true identity.
I’ve always been a bit sad that Steph didn’t have much of a part in ANY big events except Cataclysm in the 90s. She does start to pop up in later events, but quite often in ways that make me facepalm (which I’ll talk about in later threads, as appropriate). I do wonder if Steph lives in what would become Burnside, which we know is across the river as a Gotham suburb. Putting her outside the island of the city proper does tend to keep her outside of more direct action. (also makes me want to know where she, Cass, and Babs are currently in the upcoming Batgirls series - I hope we get some maps of the locations at some point!)
It would have been cool to see Steph be more involved in the event, but I can see why she wasn’t. That’s not just because of her pregnancy, though that definitely didn’t help.
The only way I could see her being a part of the story in her condition would be if she and perhaps her mom were stuck in Gotham during that time, perhaps with Leslie’s clinic. It could have added a dramatic twist if Steph was dealing with her pregnancy and being trapped in Gotham.
But I think the big reason why she wasn’t involved as much was because at this time Stephanie really wasn’t her own character. She was a supporting character for Robin, and it looks like at this time they wanted to keep Tim outside of the No Man’s Land event, probably to give readers more variety in the Batman line. People not interested in reading about the goings on of No Man’s Land or just wanted something different could then gravitate towards that book. And to their credit, I thought it worked well enough in giving Tim some different stuff to do.
That said, while there’s honestly not a lot to talk about with Tim in these issues, there is something that’s nagging me and I need some input from you all:
Really? I’ve literally never seen him skateboard before these issues. Maybe that was a thing following this point in the Robin run?
Also, while I get that the Bat Family are super smart and competent and all that, the way they describe Tim as being able to learn how to skateboard in one twelve hour day just feels too ridiculous. Like, even Cassandra’s ability to read people feels more likely than that.
Also, it’s funny I read these issues today when the latest free issue of Wayne Family Adventures had Bruce skateboarding.
