Random Happenstance

I'm out this week, over the hills and far away; but before I go let's double-down on a pair of books I quite liked, then absolutely hated where they went. From 1998, Green Lantern #107, "The Choice" Written by Ron Marz, pencils by Jeff Johnson and Chris Batista; inks by Bob Wiacek and John Lowe; and from 2004, Robin #126, "A Life More Ordinary" Written by Bill Willingham, art by Damion Scott.

After a young Hal Jordan returned to the past, Kyle Rayner realizes he left him a present: a copy of his power ring. The Green Lantern Corps was all but defunct at that time, and Kyle sees this as a chance to rebuild it by going out into space and doling out some rings. Still, he needs someone to keep an eye on earth while he's gone, so at Warriors he asks earth's (then) surviving GL's if they want the job: Alan Scott, John Stewart, and Guy Gardner. Surprisingly, all three decline for reasons of their own; leaving Kyle to wonder if he should give it to Wally or Connor, but the obvious choice is almost literally under his nose: his girlfriend and former super-hero Jade, Jenny Hayden!

Jenny as much as laughs off not being Kyle's first choice for the ring...but she probably should've been. She was probably more experienced than he was at that point. After a test run with the ring, when Kyle starts another fight with super-strong bruiser Sledge, Jenny distracts him by...being distracting. Although the couple is sad at having to be apart at this stage in their relationship, they both know Jenny had this. And she did! While Kyle was in space she took over the book, but would lose her ring in #112. And she'd later break up with Kyle and die, although she'd be back; but I don't think she's turned up in the New 52. Some wonder if she would, since in the new continuity her dad Alan is gay: he could still have kids, sure, but it seems less likely he'd pass on powers maybe.

We have another replacement hero in this issue of Robin: Stephanie Brown, the Spoiler. Tim Drake was retired, the result of a promise made to his dad. Steph intends to continue as Spoiler, until she sees Tim kissing another girl: it wasn't Tim's idea, but Steph doesn't see that, of course. Hurt and confused, she does the only logical thing: she sews up a homemade Robin outfit and breaks into the Batcave. And somewhat surprisingly: Batman accepts!

Alfred takes Bats aside to ask if he's lost his damn mind: giving his former Robin's girlfriend his job seems like it could be seen as a slap in the face. Alfred's pretty sure this might be a ploy to try and leverage Tim back into the fold. And Bats had disparaged Spoiler's amateur status before; but suggests while she might not be a natural, she had determination. He gives his new partner another variation of the "my way or the highway" speech Batman gave a lot, to the effect of the first time she disobeys an order will be the last. It takes a couple issues for that Chekhov's gun to fire: in #128, Batman and Robin face Scarab, an armored assassin that had been murdering teenagers that met the description and possible skill-set of Robin. Seeing Steph in the costume, Scarab jumps to the conclusion that she must have succeeded and killed the previous Robin! Although Steph manages to plant a tracer on Scarab, when Batman is blinded by white phosphorus she breaks orders and charges in...and is promptly captured, used as a hostage for Scarab to escape. True to his word, Batman fires Steph, telling her the security locks will be changed when she leaves, and he didn't expect to see her out there as Spoiler, either.

(Bats tells her there's no shame in not measuring up, which is what passes for an encouraging word from him; and also: this is grade-A bullcrap, since disobeying orders was virtually in the Robin job description. See how many issues with Dick or Jason or even Tim you can read before they disobey Bats. Still, I think this was in the middle of a particularly dickish time for Batman and he may have been largely insufferable for a while.)

Spoiler would return...immediately, in the not-especially-well-regarded War Games crossover, which would conclude with her death. Or maybe it was faked? There was some backlash on that one, but it would still be a bit before Steph would take the Batgirl title. Which she would later lose as well, in the New 52; but at least she could be Spoiler again.

Both of these were fairly standard, replace the hero for a bit-style stories. You get to show someone learning the ropes, to underline what big heroic shoes need to be filled, maybe get some new dynamics to play with; then bring back the original to great acclaim. How many times have you seen it? Captain America replaced by the future USAgent; Batman replaced by Azrael or Dick Grayson; Superman replaced by the Reign of the Supermen; you could probably name a dozen more. Yet most of those took more than three or five issues! And the replacements weren't usually killed off right after, either. I've mentioned before that DC's writers at the time seemed to be at a bit of a loss for what to do with Spoiler, like she was a carry-over from the 50's Batwoman/Batgirl plots: a dizzy dame playing where she oughtn't. Jenny maybe fares worse, since I'm not sure she's given a motive stronger than 'girlfriend' here. These issues had some promise, that absolutely wasn't fulfilled.