It has really bothered me that, aside from the one Batman issue and Cass' current arc, we haven't gotten much of a reaction from anybody concerning Steph. By rights this is the sort of thing that should be playing heavily into Robin's current arc, but...perhaps it's best not to go there. Anyway, there are a lot of really great thoughts here, and I generally agree with everything you said.
Right now, I do have one thing to comment on (but it's going to be a relatively long comment, so bear with me).
Would it have gone differently if Spoiler had been, say, Tim's problematic male best friend, as opposed to his girlfriend?
This is a great question. When I read it, actually, the first thing that came to mind was the introduction and fate of Nite-Wing from Dixon's run on Nightwing. While the two characters aren't really comparable in terms of history, relationships with other characters, and flat out story range (was Tad ever even written by anyone other than Dixon?), the fact remains that he was presented as an untrained 'problem' of a vigilante who was doing his thing in some big guy's turf.
Which gives me even more of a problem with Willingham, really, because Tad didn't have nearly as much space (let alone TIME) to develop as Steph, and yet by the time he was put in prison and everything thereafter, I was honestly more sympathetic to him than I was toward Steph when she died. This is not because I think he's a better character, but because Steph's death just made me GRAH and want to throw things. Dixon worked to ENSURE that Tad didn't become a popular antihero; he made him unsympathetic and kind of annoying on purpose and, evidently, didn't want fans to like the character. But he also worked to make sure he *was* a character with realistic motives and consistant characterization and a certain degree of humanity.
Willinham, on the other hand, doesn't seem to have worked to do much of anything with Steph's character, save get her from point A to point B. When she was in the suit, even, I didn't feel like she was being Steph in the Robin suit (in the Robin title, at least), I felt like she was just OH WOW NEW GIRL ROBIN!!! with a side of incompetency thrown in just to make her something that kind of (maybe, sort of, almost) resembled the character Willingham assumed her to have been, since he obviously didn't care to read up on her. Maybe feeling that way was my problem though, and nothing to do with the story itself, but...
Anyway, for me, there just wasn't much *to* her there. And that's why I couldn't sympathize so much as feel cheated, angry, and vaguely sad. That, and the fact that it didn't click as a logical/good end to her character development from a story perspective, but that's all me versus DC editorial.
And I'm not saying it has anything to do with the fact that Tad's a very, very male sort of character and Steph's female, but the fact remains that that's how things are. That a character like Tad, who without being the same sort of person as Steph can fill a similar role (only in her very early and again in her very recent characterization, mind) in the big picture of the Batfamily makes me wonder why he gets himself into big trouble and is put neatly into prison where Steph gets herself into a different kind of trouble and ends up gratuitously tortured and killed.
I know a lot of it has to do with writers, with what had to be done according to TPTB, but I can't help but wonder *why* it had to be that way, and how gender might (or might not, obviously) have anything to do with these characters' roles in their respective stories.
And this is long enough now (...sorry, got off on a bit of a tangent, didn't I?), but anyway. Interesting post. :)
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2005-04-05 10:35 am (UTC)Right now, I do have one thing to comment on (but it's going to be a relatively long comment, so bear with me).
Would it have gone differently if Spoiler had been, say, Tim's problematic male best friend, as opposed to his girlfriend?
This is a great question. When I read it, actually, the first thing that came to mind was the introduction and fate of Nite-Wing from Dixon's run on Nightwing. While the two characters aren't really comparable in terms of history, relationships with other characters, and flat out story range (was Tad ever even written by anyone other than Dixon?), the fact remains that he was presented as an untrained 'problem' of a vigilante who was doing his thing in some big guy's turf.
Which gives me even more of a problem with Willingham, really, because Tad didn't have nearly as much space (let alone TIME) to develop as Steph, and yet by the time he was put in prison and everything thereafter, I was honestly more sympathetic to him than I was toward Steph when she died. This is not because I think he's a better character, but because Steph's death just made me GRAH and want to throw things. Dixon worked to ENSURE that Tad didn't become a popular antihero; he made him unsympathetic and kind of annoying on purpose and, evidently, didn't want fans to like the character. But he also worked to make sure he *was* a character with realistic motives and consistant characterization and a certain degree of humanity.
Willinham, on the other hand, doesn't seem to have worked to do much of anything with Steph's character, save get her from point A to point B. When she was in the suit, even, I didn't feel like she was being Steph in the Robin suit (in the Robin title, at least), I felt like she was just OH WOW NEW GIRL ROBIN!!! with a side of incompetency thrown in just to make her something that kind of (maybe, sort of, almost) resembled the character Willingham assumed her to have been, since he obviously didn't care to read up on her. Maybe feeling that way was my problem though, and nothing to do with the story itself, but...
Anyway, for me, there just wasn't much *to* her there. And that's why I couldn't sympathize so much as feel cheated, angry, and vaguely sad. That, and the fact that it didn't click as a logical/good end to her character development from a story perspective, but that's all me versus DC editorial.
And I'm not saying it has anything to do with the fact that Tad's a very, very male sort of character and Steph's female, but the fact remains that that's how things are. That a character like Tad, who without being the same sort of person as Steph can fill a similar role (only in her very early and again in her very recent characterization, mind) in the big picture of the Batfamily makes me wonder why he gets himself into big trouble and is put neatly into prison where Steph gets herself into a different kind of trouble and ends up gratuitously tortured and killed.
I know a lot of it has to do with writers, with what had to be done according to TPTB, but I can't help but wonder *why* it had to be that way, and how gender might (or might not, obviously) have anything to do with these characters' roles in their respective stories.
And this is long enough now (...sorry, got off on a bit of a tangent, didn't I?), but anyway. Interesting post. :)