10 Controversial Comic Book Deaths Fans Hated

9. Spoiler - War Games

Spoiler Death War Games
DC Comics

Stephanie Brown may not be as central a role in the Bat-Family as she used to, but when she did, the character was adored. Stephanie adopted the identity of Spoiler to put an end to her father's villainous ways. Being a vigilante in Gotham without Batman's oversight, Spoiler found herself in conflict with the Bat-Family and even developed a romance with Tim Drake, leading to a storyline where she temporarily assumed the Robin identity.

Unfortunately for Steph and her fans, the character was 'killed off' during the closing stages of the War Games event, where Black Mask brutally tortured her. Stephanie manages to escape, and falls into the care of Dr. Leslie Thompkins, who then intentionally decides to let her die.

Even at the time Stephanie's passing felt unnecessarily cruel, and Thompkins' involvement in her demise felt both sudden and jarring. It seems as though DC felt the same several years later, as the character was brought back from the dead (turns out she never died in the first place), and became the latest incarnation of Batgirl.

Oh, and that Batgirl series is definitely worth checking out.

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WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.