This is a feature called "I'll Sell It Ya." This is about the arguments made in comic books for why characters act differently about things in the past. I have a couple of features, Abandoned an' Forsaked and Abandoned Love, that both deal with the idea of dropping past comic book plots and character approaches, but the first one of those deals with instances where the original story was then retconned to make way for the new one and the second feature, Abandoned Love, is just about when stories are dropped. Here, we will spotlight the explanations given for why the old approach was dropped. You might not like the reasons, but these are the reasons.

Today, we look at Batman's reasoning for why he didn't let on to Robin that he didn't believe that Spoiler was actually killed during the War Games crossover.

Okay, so Stephanie Brown had briefly taken over from Tim Drake as Robin, but Batman had then fired her for disobeying his orders one too many times. To prove her worth to Batman, she stole a file he had on a theoretical plan he had where he would take over the Gotham City mob. The problem was that she had incomplete information and did not realize the important role that Matches Malone (Batman's criminal alter ego) needed to play in the scenario, so when she kicked things off and Matches wasn't there to play his part, it all fell apart and Black Mask took the opportunity to use the chaos to his advantage.

Black Mask ended up killing Orpheus (who Batman had planned to be his front to be in charge of the mob, as Orpheus was a superhero who was undercover as a villain) and then captured Stephanie and tortured her in Robin #130 (by Bill Willingham, Jon Proctor, Robert Campanella and Rodney Ramos) until she gave up the plan...

She escaped, but ultimately in Batman #633 (by Bill Willingham, Kinsun and a bunch of inkers), she died of her injuries...

Then, however, we learned a number of issues later, in Batman #644 (by Bill Willingham, Giuseppe Camuncoli and Sandra Hope), that Stephanie ACTUALLY died because Doctor Leslie Thompkins wanted to prove a point to Batman (Yes, that's just as ludicrous as it sounds)...

So that was the status for a few years, as fans freaked out because Stephanie was not given a memorial in the Batcave despite her being Robin for a time. It made Batman look pretty bad, as if Spoiler's time as Robin was just a joke or something like that.

Eventually, though, Spoiler returned! How did she survive and what reason could Batman possibly give for not telling Robin hat his girlfriend wasn't really dead?

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Spoiler returned in Robin #173 (by Chuck Dixon, Chris Batista and Cam Smith)...

Then next issue has the explanation for why Spoiler is still alive and why Batman knew about it and didn't tell Robin...

It obviously didn't fit with what happened in Batman #644, but what happened in Batman #644 was so ludicrous that I think we could all probably support something like "A magic imp changed reality" if it meant overturning such a terrible story.

However, Batman's reason for not telling Robin sure seems a bit spotty, no? "I wasn't sure." Really, Batman? You weren't sure? You are pretty sure that his dead girlfriend isn't really dead and one of your closest allies isn't secretly a sociopath and you just left it at that? And if you weren't sure, then why not give her the memorial?

Dixon was dealt an awful hand here, so I can't knock his attempt too much (Spoiler being alive was so great that I could live with it all), but that argument isn't particularly great.

Okay, folks, if you have suggestions for a future I'll Sell It To Ya, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!