It's Only the End if You Want it to Be

holyismstogoddamn:

      holyismstogoddamn:

Okay, first things first, something I’ve noticed while scrolling though the wonderful and ever popular “f* you DC” tag is the epic amount of posts relating to Stephanie Brown.

Firstly, I love Steph, I do. But these posts saying: “DC won’t use her…

So in the end, DC screws us over.

Surprise, not.

Not really a new concept here, I’ve complained about everything already stated in this post in addition to Steph and Cass (which I will continue to do thank you) as well as Wondy’s characterization “sexy new sidekick” *vomits* and many other things.

I don’t particularly care that people are annoyed that Steph is the face of the fans, it has to do with her character. She embodies the best of these characters and she’s the personification for hope to many fans, hence why she’s the poster child for “DC screwed us over”

So while you may be right that she and Cass are coming back that doesn’t stop us from being pissed about how DC has treated them, nor does it stop us from worrying about what will happen should DC get there hands on them.

It’s almost a lose-lose situation.

I’d love to have them back but if they end up like Wondy…

I’d rather DC not touch them at all.

I never disregarded Steph’s position as a “reboot” vicitm, nor Cass. I think the problem is, as I pointed out, how DC are handling their situation, that they are deliberately withholding them, because of the need to generate sales.

Steph as the poster child? My God, how that is disgraceful. Should there be such a thing as a single character representing how fans feel about the reboot? Not everyone is a fan of Stephanie Brown and I’ve met a lot of people who are tired of seeing her everywhere in fans “resentment” posts. (I’m not one of them, I think people should keep talking.)

There are a dozen more “benched” or “victim” characters aside from Steph and Cass, while I think they are every bit as important as other characters, DC know the fans are disappointed by their absence. But who, aside from using them to back up claims, puts Donna or Wally or Dinah Laurel Lance first? Very few.

And its sad because those three have little to no chance of existing, unlike Steph or Cass. Donna is too complicated according to Didio; Wally can’t exist “Within this time period. He may exist outside of this time.” according to Didio; Dinah Laurel Lance cannot exist at all because her mother hasn’t given birth to her yet.

So that is where I’m making my point, Stephanie should come back and she will, but she has a much bigger chance than anyone else.

And yes, I’m firmly in the boat that watching what the reboot has done to Wondy, Babs and even the Goddamn Batman, has been painful to watch. The worst thing is that I’ve heard rumbling about Raven and poor, long dead Garth.

I’d rather Garth stayed dead then dare to think how they’re going to “update” him, minus his Titans past. (I’m thinking some sort of insultingly dark sea-wizard in black with his eyes always glowing.)

You bring up some good points, but I’m questioning your basic premise here: Cass and Steph are less of an issue because DC is planning to bring them back.

How do you know that? Because they’re Batman characters? That means nothing. Like DC’s never gotten rid of a Batfamily member before? Who even acknowledges Betty Kane as the original Batgirl Bat-Girl these days? (Note that Bette Kane is not Betty, and DC’s attempts to conflate the two have historically been headache-inducing.) And remember the days when Jean-Paul Valley was a core Batfamily member? Yeah, neither does anyone else. And that’s not even getting into more minor Batman allies like Onyx or Orpheus. Being a Bat-character is hardly some kind of magical security clause.

Maybe DC is indeed waiting to bring back Cass and Steph. But frankly? I’m not seeing any evidence of it. First of all, Cass’s mother is now Dick’s age. That’s fortuitous to bringing Cass back how exactly? If they do bring Cass back, she’ll have to either be a very small child or else not Lady Shiva’s daughter. Either way, it seems that the Cass we knew and loved is a thing of the past. If she comes back at all, her backstory and history will have to be so severely retconned that she’ll hardly be the same character at all. And if DC did plan to bring Cass back, why would they do that? De-aging Shiva doesn’t benefit anybody (unless they’re planning to pair her up with Dick or something, which… for the love of all that is holy, DC. Just don’t), but it does make things a lot harder on them if they wanted to bring back Cass.

And Stephanie? DC has been so absurdly petty about trying to wipe away any trace of her existence that it’s actually ridiculous. Refusing to allow a cameo of a child dressed up as her to exist? Really?! I understand holding her character back for a while to build suspense. But doing something like that serves no purpose. None. All it does is show quite clearly that DC doesn’t want the barest trace of Steph in their books, whatever the reason.

I suppose there’s some, slim, chance that DC is indeed planning to bring back Cass or Steph after a while, but I see no reason to assume so.

I agree that Cass and Steph (especially Steph) do seem to get more attention than many of the other characters DC’s screwed over, and that probably isn’t fair. All I can tell you is: They’re incredibly well-known characters, they’re beloved, and people care about them a lot. And it doesn’t help that DC just keeps on giving people things to talk about, like that whole debacle where they replaced Steph with Babs on Smallville at the last second. Or the fact that people know that writers like Scott Snyder and Gail Simone and even Grant freakin’ Morrison (who DC’s historically allowed to do pretty much whatever he wants) have asked over and over to be allowed to use these characters and been denied permission. Is DC waiting for the right moment to bring them back? Maybe. But it seems far more likely to me that DC just doesn’t want them back at all. As you pointed out yourself, DiDio’s in love with the Silver Age, and now that he’s got his (magically de-aged!) Silver Age Batgirl back, I don’t think he sees any need to bring back her “replacements”.

I’m furious about what’s been done to the history of the Teen Titans. I mean, honestly, just look at the background of my blog! I’ve hardly forgotten about what DC’s done to the Fab Five or the New Teen Titans, and I’ve complained about it repeatedly. It’s a huge disrespect to some of the most incredible history and the most amazing friendships in DC’s history, and I hate that DC’s just erased it. But people are entitled to complain about the characters closest to their hearts, and if that’s Cass and Steph for most people, it’s not really fair to tell them that they’re wrong. You’re right. There are a lot of other important reboot victims who tend to get overlooked. Helena Bertinelli doesn’t seem to get half the attention she deserves either, for that matter. But that doesn’t make people wrong for complaining about Cass and Steph.