Bruce Wayne

From Stephanie Brown Wiki

Relationship: Mentor

Name: Bruce Wayne

Aliases: Batman, Matches Malone

Stephanie Brown liked Batman even as a young girl, solely because her criminal father The Cluemaster hated the caped crusader for constantly capturing him. And Stephanie hated her father.

Eventually, she decided to foil the Cluemaster herself in the guise of "The Spoiler". She worked with Batman to to this, though he didn't want her to come along to bust her father's mall robbery, she did anyway. It was fortunate, since she saved Batman from getting shot by her father. Cluemaster threatened to throw acid in this mysterious vigilante's face, so Batman was forced to reveal Stephanie's identity to the man. Stephanie used her father's momentary shock to begin thoroughly beating up her father. She began to strangle him with chains yelling "He destroyed my life!" but Batman told her if she killed her father, she would be the one who destroyed her life. Stephanie stopped and let Batman take her father at these words.

Stephanie continued operating as a superhero, something Batman didn't approve of ...that is, until Robin #84, in which he needed her help to find Tim. He gave away Tim's secret identity to her so she could find him, which made Tim very upset. In Tim's absence, Batman trained Spoiler a bit, but abandoned her during the "Bruce Wayne: Fugitive" arc. In Gotham Knights #37 after his prolonged absence, he sprung a surprise test on her. She failed, and he fired her as his apprentice and told her to stop being Spoiler. She didn't stop, and when Tim quit as Robin, she offered to replace him in Robin #126. He accepted, and when Alfred asked him if this was to make Tim jealous so he'd come back, he refused to reply.

He trained her for six months, and then went out in the field with her. When Batman went up against the female assassin Scarab, he told Stephanie to stay in the Batplane. After hearing that Batman got blinded, Stephanie disobeyed orders and went to save him. But the Scarab captured her and Batman was forced to let the Scarab go in exchange for Stephanie's life.

He fired Stephanie for disobeying orders and told her she couldn't be Spoiler either.

Stephanie later died in an attempt to prove herself to Batman. On her deathbed she asked "Was I really Robin?" and he replied, "Yes, you were."

In Robin #174, Stephanie is revealed to have never been dead, and Batman admits he suspected this all along. He tells Tim this is why he never gave Stephanie a memorial, and welcomes Steph back to the Bat Family. He even appears to have revealed his identity to her.

Batman got killed later on, but not before warning Stephanie to keep Tim away from his troubles and to "test" him in order to make him a better Robin and a better candidate to protect Gotham in Batman's absence. Stephanie followed these orders reluctantly, though her secrecy caused a lot of tension between her and Tim. She wondered if she should forget Batman's orders, afraid that making Tim a better Robin will make him a worse person. Tim found out about this deception, and Stephanie assured him that Batman did it because he loved Tim and didn't want him to get hurt. But Tim remained angry at Stephanie, and told her he didn't want to see her as Spoiler again, ending "Congratulations. You did what Batman asked. You made a better Robin."

Stephanie continued being Spoiler, and eventually became the new Batgirl.

More about Bruce Wayne: [here]