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"This one Wednesday is like a normal day for the whole school, but today was different."

Absolute Batman #20 - "The Straw Man" (2026)

(*for the Post-Crisis/pre-Flashpoint era)

Steph spent over a decade as a supporting character, which means until she finally got her Batgirl run, her appearances are scattered across various bat-books, and hard to track (let alone order) if you don’t know where to start. Which is what I’m here for!

This will run through a basic explanation of Steph’s entire timeline up to Flashpoint, including every appearance in chronological order. (Well, minus some pointless cameos where she appears for a single panel/line.) If you’re just reading for Steph, there are many issues listed where you could just skim through the non-Steph portions.

For the very abbreviated version:

Steph first appears in Detective Comics vol 1 #647-649 as the Spoiler, working against her dad.

She returns and becomes a regular supporting character in Robin vol 2 (1993), which includes getting together with Tim, and going through a teen pregnancy.

Steph starts to appear more across other Batfamily books, particularly Batgirl vol 1 (2000) (while still being a regular in Robin).

For a short time, she is welcomed into the inner circle and trained directly by Batman, before being rejected again.

After Tim is forced to quit, Steph becomes Robin briefly.

Shortly after being fired, she is killed.

Steph returns with a very brief explanation, and floats around as a Robin supporting character again.

Finally, she becomes Batgirl and gets her own run in Batgirl vol 3 (2009), which lasts until the reboot.

Full timeline and issue listings below the cut! I’ve tried to make it possible to just grab the listed issues, ignore any (lower-case s) spoilers, and get a fresh read for yourself OR to read in full for a thorough timeline.