The Long Run #8 — Stephanie Brown

The Long Run takes place outside of our normal continuity of episodes, and features table discussion of an entire work or long selection of a series. In this episode of The Long Run we talk about the life and times of Stephanie Brown. For this special episode we read a selection of titles including many issues of Robin and Batgirl, the crossover events War Drums, War Games, and War Crimes, and several one-shots and special issues. A full list can be found here.

Stephanie Brown began as a minor supporting character during the 90s in the Tim Drake Robin series. As the daughter of C-list Batman-villain The Cluemaster, Stephanie dressed up as The Spoiler in order to foil her father’s schemes. As time went on the character garnered a following, and she evolved into a love-interest for Tim, and ultimately a full fledged member of the Bat-family.

She eventually (and briefly) graduated to the role of Robin when Tim quit, but was quickly shuffled off both the team and the mortal coil. Death, however, could not keep Stephanie down and she returned DC Comics, this time as the 3rd Batgirl. Her series received critical acclaim, and ran for two years until Stephanie finally suffered totally existential failure, blinking out of existence in the New-52 reboot of the DCU.

On the next episode of The Long Run we will be reading Hayao Miyazaki’s Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, the manga which served as the basis (and as a continuation of) the classic animated film.

Our hosts on this episode are Andrew Chard, Joe Preti, Tobiah Panshin, and Cade Reynolds.