WARNING: The following contains spoilers for DCeased: Hope at World's End #5 by Tom Taylor, Trevor Hairsine, Gigi Baldassini, Stefano Gaudiano, Rain Beredo and Saida Temofonte, on sale now.
DCeased: Hope at World's End takes us back to the first days of the Anti-Life virus outbreak. The original DCeased miniseries ended with the surviving heroes leaving the Earth behind, but the digital-first series Hope at World's Ends shows us the days before that. Before they were forced to abandon Earth for a new alien world, the surviving superheroes and villains fought valiantly to save their loved ones and the planet before all was lost.
In the last issue of the series, we saw how Damian Wayne first decided to suit up as Batman. While the young Robin wasn't certain he was ready to follow in his father's footsteps, Superman eventually convinced him that Bruce had made the right choice. Now, in Hope at World's End #5, Damian goes on one of his first missions as Batman by traveling back to Gotham City. And while there, he ends up reuniting with an old friend: Stephanie Brown, the hero known as Spoiler.
Hope at World's End #5 begins with Cassie Sandsmark finding Jonathan Kent and telling him that Damian Wayne has stolen Wonder Woman's Invisible Jet. The two young heroes rapidly go after him, only to learn that Damian is headed to Gotham City to find his mother, Talia Al Ghul. With the help of his friends, Damian rescues his mother and they all visit the Batcave together, where Jason Todd buried the body of Bruce Wayne. Damian wants to pay his respects to his father and say goodbye.
Once they are all in the cave however, Stephanie Brown emerges from the shadows, saying she initially came here to find Batman. "It looks like I found him," she says, looking at Damian in his new Bat-costume. Then, after offering her condolences, she takes Damian in her arms, a comfort that allows the usually stoic young man to shed a few painful tears for his deceased father.
While we haven't seen Stephanie Brown all that much in recent years, the character was once the star of her own solo Batgirl series in 2009-2011. In that Bryan Q. Miller, Lee Garbett, Dustin Nguyen and Pere Perez series, Damian Wayne had a recurring role that led to a fun relationship between the two. Steph and Damian had a heartwarming older sister/little brother dynamic and the two became quite close over time. However, with the arrival of the New 52 relaunch, Barbara Gordon returned as Batgirl and Stephanie Brown was largely cast aside after her time training as part of Batman's new team ended in Detective Comics at the start of the DC Rebirth era.
However, DCeased: Hope at World's End honors this previous history between the two characters by bringing Stephanie and Damian back together in the most touching way possible.
After Stephanie reunites with Damian, she proves how much she cares about him and how great a character she is by ditching her Spoiler costume to suit back up as Robin. In 2004's Robin #126, by Bill Willingham and Damion Scott, Stephanie picked up the Robin mantle after her then-boyfriend Tim Drake left it. However, her time as Robin was short-lived as she seemingly died in the wake of "War Games," a Gotham City gangwar that she inadvertently started.
While she hasn't been Robin since then, Stephanie is officially back as the Girl Wonder in the DCeased Universe, showing her support of Damian by volunteering to become his Robin. "If you're Batman, you need what Batman has always needed, so he isn't reduced to a muscle bag of repressed feelings in Kevlar..." she tells him. "You need a Robin."
As the world falls to the Anti-Life virus, a new Dynamic Duo emerges to bring hope. However, Stephanie's prospects for survival continue to remain unclear. While DCeased: Dead Planet revealed that Damian was still alive and operating as Batman several years into the future, that story made no mention of Stephanie as Robin. That means that Stephanie's adventures as Robin could come to a dark end again, and this time, she might not survive.