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

CinderSteph!

Gabzy, have I mentioned that I love your artwork? Seriously, this is adorable. <3

royalprat:

Drew this on the bus ride to a business competition today uvu

This art is gorgeous! :-)

teland:

discowing:

This scene is great:

• At this point, she’s untrained, yet she takes down her pro villain dad.
• Knows how to use her environment even before Batman taught her to.
• I’m pretty sure she never wanted to kill Cluemaster, only hurt him, and she’s very emotional here, but still she knows Batman is right in this case, so she releases him.

[Detective 649]

Yessss! I don’t half get tired of watching Steph beat the unholy hell out of her father. I *love* her anger — and I love the fact that, in the end, she’s built more on Batman’s mold than on the she-Jason mold that everyone sees. She *does* have a lot in common with Jay, but, damn it, my Steph never gets closer to crossing the line than this, and she damned well *sees* the line — and believes in it.

More than any of the other Robins, I think.

*smacks Bruce on general principles*

I do think at the end of the day Steph believes in that line more than Jason does, but I also think it’s interesting that for someone who gets characterized as the “light” side of the Batfamily so often, she has more doubt about it than some of the others. Look at how she recaps this moment in Secret Origins 80-Page Giant:

“Batman convinced me not to kill him. I guess it was better that I didn’t.”

To me, that doesn’t sound 100% sure, especially the “I guess”. And who can really blame her? She’s seen how much pain her father’s caused her mother (and her) over the years. I don’t believe it would be right, but it’s hard to condemn her for just wishing he’d be “out of Mom’s life for good”.

And she questions that line again even more strongly in Detective Comics #796, during her Robin days:

As Bruce himself points out, Steph didn’t consciously “go for the kill”, but once he points out what she did, she doesn’t seem the least bit apologetic or regretful about her actions. Indeed, she seems downright confused by Bruce’s condemnation: “I don’t get it. I really don’t.”

My take has always been that Steph, unlike Jason, will willingly abide by the “No kill” rule - can see the wisdom in that approach, even - but she doesn’t, perhaps, inwardly embrace it quite as wholeheartedly as some of the other Batfam clan members.

And I think a large part of that comes down to the fact that Steph grew up with a huge distrust - even an outright dislike - of the legal system. Remember what she says to Tim in Robin #111 when she’s explaining why she never reported the guy who sexually assaulted her to the cops?

“I didn’t like my dad, but I grew up in his world. On a gut level, I still knew the police, all authorities, as something to be avoided.”

Now, many assault victims never report the crime, for a variety of reasons, but it’s interesting that this is the explanation that Steph gives. She doesn’t say that she never went to the cops because she was ashamed, or because she was in denial about what happened, or even because she thought it would have further negative consequences. She says she didn’t go to the police because she saw them as the bad guy, “to be avoided at all costs”.

And I do think Steph grew out of that mentality to some degree - note that she talks about it in the past tense, and she certainly seemed quite friendly with Detective Gage during her Batgirl run- but not entirely. Look at what she says to Cass here in Batgirl #53:

She starts out talking in past tense once again - “I didn’t know who to hate most—Dad or the cops… or just the whole damn world for letting it happen” - but then brings things starkly back to the present, asking “When’s it going to stop, Cass? What’s it gonna take to get people like the Penguin out of our lives?”

Quite clearly, she doesn’t think the answer to that is the legal system, and while I certainly don’t think she’s suggesting that the answer is to kill people like the Penguin, you do get a strong sense of her frustration with the status quo, and with the system that allows that status quo to remain.

The thing is, there’s a strong cynical side to Steph, and when people erase that in favor of painting her as all sweetness and light, they’re oversimplifying her, IMO. Steph’s positivity and optimism are essential parts of who she is, but so are her anger and her frustration and her instinctive distrust of authority. It’s all part of a much more complex picture than fandom sometimes sees, I think.

perletwo:

gothambeat:

girafot:

Stephanie (as spoiler)~ Finally got some time to color this. I gave up on the background.

This is so pretty!

- OMG Steph has a normal human figure. Is that even allowed in comics these days? …also, much much love. Especially the coloring.

^That was the first thing I noticed!

Well, other body types are ‘normal’ too, but it’s just so refreshing to see proportions more like the average girl’s - and less like the exaggerated figure most comic women have.

This is such gorgeous art! Steph looks beautiful. :-)