It's Waffles for Steph Day, Apparently!

[espanolbot]

To celebrate this day of the Pinkie Pie of the Bat Family, here's some bits and pieces of the joint best Batgirl of the past twenty years or so. :)

First a piece from Tiny Titans,



From her tenure of Robin, which was cool for the most part, despite the cynical reason for it happening in the first place,









One of the greatest moments from her solo series, in which she summarises the Bat Family history (sans Cass) for the newbie member Wendy (who also vanished into the Phantom Zone, 'cause... the new comics don't have wheelchair access? I don't know, it's like Oracle's around to make her a redundant character or something).









Two fancomics by the Black Cat,





And some stuff by the almighty Gabzilla,

Tradition by ~gabzillaz on deviantART


Tim Drake is a stud by ~gabzillaz on deviantART


Oracle Steph by ~gabzillaz on deviantART


Batgirl, Robin and the Kitty by ~gabzillaz on deviantART


Identity by ~gabzillaz on deviantART

http://dcwomenkickingass.tumblr.com/post/29135203314/wfs

Comments

[silverhammerman]

Some cute stuff.
That Robin and Superboy encounter seems needlessly confrontational though, on both their parts.
The illustrated history of the Bat-family is wonderful, and I this this is the first time I've seen it in it's entirety, but who on Earth is Wendy and why did Steph give her an exhaustive history lesson?
Those comics are all adorable but I think I desperately need context for the cross-dressing one.
And now I'm reminded how much more I liked the old Red Robin suit than the new one, which is saddening.

[espanolbot]

The Robin/Superboy one was from Teen Titans around the time Conner discovered that he was Lex Luthor's son, and he wanted to find Tim to talk it over with him. This caused him to be rude to Steph, who responded by being short with him in return.

Though it is a superhero comic written by Geoff Johns, heroes being dicks for no reason are parr of the course with him for the most part.

[icon_uk]

Wendy is the female half of the then current iteration of Wendy and Marvin the comedy relief wannabe heroes from the old SuperFriends cartoon. They were introduced as the caretakers of Titans Tower. Of course, this been the Teen Titans in the 2000's, it meant that they were A) revealed to be the children of a supervillain (The Calculator) and B) in a "comedy" moment that fell slightly flatter than a pancake after getting caught the a steamroller parade, their pet god, aka "Wonder Dog" turned out to be a slavering monster who killed Marvin by eviscerating him and injured Wendy badly.

When she eventually recovered, she became Oracle's stand-in, known as Proxy.

[kraesil]

Er... correct me if I'm wrong, but B is the reason Calculator developed a grudge against the Titans, because they didn't protect his children or something...?

[icon_uk]

To be honest I don't recall. It was either that, or he resented them for being the people his kids turned to instead of him. I wasn't reading the title at that point in time.

[kurenai_tenka]

Yeah, that's how I remember it. Also some disturbing kidnap/torture stuff in an attempt to bring Marvin back.

[q99]

Gabzilla, one of the reasons why I love the pre-FP Bat family :)

Her and Colors07 are incredibly awesome.

Bat-Family Story Time with Stephanie Brown

[big_daddy_d]

Click here and enjoy!

Re: Bat-Family Story Time with Stephanie Brown

[icon_uk]

That's rather nicely done! :)

[majingojira]

There's only one song to go along with this. http://youtu.be/WOArkrjVoiw?t=6m17s

WAFFLES! WAFFLES! WAFFLES!

[jaybee3]

I think some writers will bring back Wendy and Marvin (the Wonder Twins remember) when the time is right. I was never big on what was done to Wendy anyway. What was done to her and Marvin (the Wonder Dog literally eating them on panel) was probably the lowest point of any Titans run in memory (behind an amnesiac Miss Martian maybe/possibly servicing some guy in a run-down bathroom - both stories written by the same dude if I remember right).

I didn't come to love Stephanie until AFTER they killed her off. I think it's because up until then she was basically Tim's Girlfriend and a temp Robin (heck obviously DC didn't even consider her that). But then the uproar followed, they destruction of Leslie's character, Cass's writers (the only comic I followed religiously each and every month at the time) played up their friendship, no memorial for her in the Bat-Cave which was low on the part of DC, Ironic in that the worse DC does stuff to her, the more I want her back as a character.

I still will never understand why Miller could not insert a single panel of Cass in his "history" ( we know Dustin Nguyen has no problem drawing little Cass) since Cass was the Batgirl before her (and her former BFF) but does include Jason (who Steph never met) and does tell Wendy that Bruce Wayne is Batman (does everyone know). I still think there a DC-wide MANDATED blackout on even mentioning Cass Cain until FabNic did so in Red Robin. It's the only feasible explanation.

Steph (and Cass) fanarts (particularly by Gabzilla, who gets Steph perfectly) of which there are a multitude on Tumblr and DA are actually more entertaining than the "new 52".

[mrstatham]

Given the current mood toward both Steph and Cass - with the attitude to Steph's Batgirl series increasingly feeling more and more like they were throwing us a bone - I wouldn't be surprised if editorial made Miller not mention Cass. After all, save the first issue of Steph's series, and the hallucination in another early issue, she wasn't mentioned either.

As such, it's probably that 'toxic' attitude DC seem to be applying to characters now that was in place then, and I don't think you can really blame Miller for it - he's clearly at the mercy of editorial - Didio in particular - now, and with a book like Batgirl that apparently had a lot of behind the scenes stuff leading to it being made, that was probably the same.

As for Wendy being allowed to know Bruce is Batman, the girl was working with Steph and Oracle, knew both their identities and could likely be trusted with Bruce's, and at that point in Steph's series where we had the awesome little chibi-history, Bruce was considered dead, wasn't he?

[jaybee3]

Nah, Bruce was back as seen in Steph's chibi-retelling. When he was gone they lot others in on the "secret" that he never did. Like Huntress for example - who Bruce never told but Dick and company did so she could help keep an eye on Bruce!Hush. Of course, this being DC we never got a reaction of Huntress finding out THE Bruce Wayne is actually Batman, or Bruce finding out that Hush has been taking his place, giving away his money, etc. all with the complcity of friends and family or of Cass finding out Bruce was alive (if you think about it - Cass and Bruce have still never shared a single panel since before he "died").

And after finding out what was done with Smallville, I have no doubt now that the Steph Batgirl title (which let's face it was nothing more than a holding stone until Didio could get his dream of Babs Batgirl back) must have been heavily watched over by Editorial and I continue to believe there was a company-wide blackout on even mentioning Cass's name in the Bat-Comics (hey remember last time she disappeared she became a super-villain, but this time Dick, Alfred, Babs, or even Steph don't spend a single thought wondering she went? I'm not buying).

[arise]

ughhhh and here I'd almost banished that ridiculously mean-spirited Wonder Dog crap from my mind. I thought that was parody for the longest time. What's that about Miss Martian, though?

[jaybee3]

The Miss Martian thing was too icky to talk about/remember. Just google "Miss Martian" "rape" and "bathroom" and you'll see what I mean. It was written by Sean McKeever (one of the brains behind Countdown!) who was also responsible for the Wonder Dog chomping on Wendy and Marvin. He basically turned Teen Titans into a gross out gore book.

[arise]

Ew. I really wish my curiousity had not gotten the better of me.

[deepspaceartist]

Really, I can totally understand Superboy getting pissed off at Steph there.

I mean, wouldn't you be upset if one day you found a stranger doing your friend's job while using their identity, and said stranger then proceeds to deny all knowlege of your friend and try to run away?

I don't know about you, but if I was in Kon's place I would be assuming Steph was either evil or insane and probably had Tim tied up in a basement somewhere while she ran around pretending to be Robin. Until Batman shows up there's no real evidence to the contrary.

[silverhammerman]

I know right? I mean, yeah, Superboy was a little rude there to start, but given that Steph knows Tim she should have known that the two were friends so it's not like Superboy looking for his friend would be weird or suspicious, she could have just answered him. It wouldn't have been that hard. Just like, two sentences, "Tim's not Robin anymore, personal stuff came up. I'm his replacement, ask Batman." Instead of just being dismissive and incredibly suspicious. It actually seems out of character for Stephanie, maybe at this point she hadn't quite developed into the modern image of her, but still, I thought she was supposed to be the nice one.

[lieut_kettch]

She's being snarky because Kon's her rival for both Cass' and Tim's affection.

[mrstatham]

I'm sorry, but no. Superboy's being a dick. There were other Robins before Tim, and given the history between Tim and Conner, Conner would likely know this. He doesn't have ANY right to be harassing her based on any assumptions. He's a dismissive little ass to her from the get-go, calling her 'just a girl in Robin's costume'. Anything she says back to him, he absolutely deserves for being a condescending ass.

[deepspaceartist]

Is it really that wrong for Conner to believe that Tim wouldn't just quit being Robin without telling his friends? Even if he knows about Dick and Jason, why should he automaticly assume that some stranger in a Robin costume is legitimatly Robin and not a fake? AFAIK he had never met Stephanie unmasked, so to him she is 'some girl in Robin's costume'. That's literally the sum total of what he knows about her in this encounter.

Steph, on the other hand, should damn well know that Tim and Superboy were friends and that taking over as Robin while Tim just dissapears means that she's gonna get a few visits from Tim's friends. And when a superhero's confused friends start asking you where he is and why you are suddenly using their identity, denying their existance and running away is going to set off 'villain' alarms in anyone with even half a brain.

[auggie18]

There were other Robins before Tim, yes. And one of them attempted to murder Tim while wearing a Robin outfit. Right before Tim disappears without a word to his best friends. Superboy tries to find his friend and instead finds another person wearing a Robin costume? I get why he's being short with her.

[mrstatham]

The incident with Jason beating Tim up was after this. That was after Tim's dad had died and the incidents of Identity Crisis were going on. This was just before War Games when Bruce replaced Tim with Steph because Jack Drake found out he was Robin.

As it is, I still disagree. Steph's got no reason to answer Conner politely when Conner's been a dick and regarding her as 'just a girl in a robin costume' from the get-go. He's just being a dick, and she's responding in kind. Childish as it is, he started it by being a condescending ass based partly on her gender.

[auggie18]

Ah, right. Been a while, my timeline's a bit off.

Also, I'm not seeing him being a condescending ass by referring to her by her gender. He doesn't use the word just. He says she's a girl in Robin's costume. If she was a guy, he'd have said she was a guy in Robin's costume.

He's being a little dickish, but again. Best friend disappears, is replaced by someone else without a word. Given Superboy's history, particularly regarding Match, it makes sense that he'd worry. (Also, because the last time Batman got a new Robin, it was because the last one had died.)

[junipepper]

Calling her "Little Miss Dress-Up" was, in fact, more than a little condescending. And sexist. I really don't think he'd have called a guy in the same position "Little Mr. Dress-Up."

[lieut_kettch]

Y'know, when they announced Bab's return to the cowl, I kinda wished it'd turn out like this:




Batgirls #001 by ~cpuhuman on deviantART

Barbara Gordon returns as Batgirl once again, this time joining forces with Blackbat (Cassandra Cain) and Spoiler (Stephanie Brown) in this new team book! Barbara's years in a wheelchair has made her combat skills just a tiny bit rusty. Who better to help her get back to her old fighting strength back than the two girls who took up the mantle of Batgirl in her absence!