Stephanie Brown: Spoiler, Robin, Batgirl Appreciation 2020

[millernumber1]

Welcome to the Batgirl: Stephanie Brown reread, Week 29! (Schedule starts here: https://community.cbr.com/showthread...=1#post4916669) Today, we're on Convergence: Batgirl #2 of 2, "The Love Song of Stephanie Brown", written by Alisa Kwitney, pencilled by Rick Leonardi, inked by Mark Pennington, colored by Brian Buccellato, cover by Rick Leonardi.



Notes: Here we go! The conclusion of “The Love Song of Stephanie Brown” - and it is indeed a love song, specifically a TimSteph love song, which I think actually does explain some of the tepid or hostile response from the fans - there is sadly a very torn opinion of both Tim and TimSteph as a ship in Steph fandom. I am pro both Tim and TimSteph, though I don’t think either are perfect - but why would we love characters or ships if they were perfect?

However...this ending is a bit anticlimactic. Steph “wins” by persuading Catman to surrender (because Grodd had already killed his entire city already) - and pretending to do a victory dance so they can fool Brainiac into ending the fight before Grodd kills everyone. Cass is okay, and Tim and Steph get back together, but can’t really do much because of how much Grodd injured them. There’s a lot of little bittersweet twists of plot like that which kind of prevent this from being a nice, sentimental romance comic, just as there are weird twists which prevent it from being a nice, thrilling action comic.

I’ve read one of Kwitney’s prose novels and a couple of her graphic novels - they have a bittersweet tone to them, and a strong romance element, so it’s no surprise that this comic is both of those things. Problem is, it doesn’t really fit with the characters involved - Kwitney’s clearly done her homework, but doesn’t have the execution down.

Some of that may be the circumstances of the comic itself. When I met Kwitney at Baltimore Comic Con, about 4 years ago, she was very generous with her time, chatting for about an hour about all kinds of comic things. She mentioned that she got the job while on vacation, and Marie Javins told her not to mention she was on vacation to anyone else, because the timeframe for Convergence was ridiculously short. She also knew that she wanted to use Tim and Cass as part of Steph’s main cast, which shows her research, though again, it just doesn’t fit with any other versions of these characters super tightly.

That being said, this is a TimSteph comic with nice Cass and Steph friendship, and Kwitney’s interaction with me made for a very nice memory, so I give the comic a lot more slack than I think most of the fandom did. I do hope that it’s not the last time we see a full story devoted to Steph as Batgirl, though!

Cover: It IS really nice to see Steph’s Batgirl title font used again. That particular “BATGIRL” is uniquely Steph’s. Grodd takes up way too much space here, and it’s just not a super interesting cover otherwise, though.

Discussion Questions: What do you think of Convergence: Batgirl as a bittersweet teen romance comic, instead of a superhero comic?

[Hypo]

Steph and Cass will be in the Batgirls story as part of Future State:

[millernumber1]

Steph and Cass will be in the Batgirls story as part of Future State:

Oooh, source for the art?

[Hypo]

https://www.gamesradar.com/dc-future...ine-of-titles/

[millernumber1]

https://www.gamesradar.com/dc-future...ine-of-titles/

Awesome, thanks!

[Frontier]

Steph and Cass will be in the Batgirls story as part of Future State:

I am actually pretty down for post-apocalyptic Steph .

Good thing the short hair is just temporary .

I wonder if something happened to her eye? It's covered up.

[millernumber1]

Also, Robin Eternal features both Steph and Tim!

[Frontier]

Also, Robin Eternal features both Steph and Tim!

Yeah, we've got a Batgirls and a Robin story, both with Steph .

Of course, she's in the slammer with Cass in the former and having relationship drama with Tim in the latter, but I'm sure she'll make the most of it .

[millernumber1]

Yeah, we've got a Batgirls and a Robin story, both with Steph .

Of course, she's in the slammer with Cass in the former and having relationship drama with Tim in the latter, but I'm sure she'll make the most of it .

Adversity makes for good stories!

[Rac7d*]

Also, Robin Eternal features both Steph and Tim!

Tim still Robin in the future???

[Frontier]

Tim still Robin in the future???

No, it seems like the Robin is Tim but they're teaming-up.

[Digifiend]

Good thing the short hair is just temporary .

The short hair does make sense considering the flash forward in her last Batgirl issue, which showed her as Nightwing with short hair. This is similarly a decade or so in the future, right?

[Frontier]

The short hair does make sense considering the flash forward in her last Batgirl issue, which showed her as Nightwing with short hair. This is similarly a decade or so in the future, right?

Better the temporary future than the present .

[millernumber1]

Tim still Robin in the future???

Well, it does say Robin is Eternal

[Frontier]

Well, it does say Robin is Eternal

Robin to the very end .