Profile: Leslie Thompkins

Leslie Thompkins
First appeared: Detective Comics #457, March 1976

Current status: accused of letting Stephanie Brown, aka Spoiler, die in the War Games crossover by not giving her any medical attention, for the purpose of teaching Batman a lesson about being a vigilante/superhero, and left the country.

What’s wrong with how this was done? Considering that Leslie, a professional doctor, has long respected the Caped Crusader’s role as a crimefighter, that’s one thing that shows why it doesn’t make any sense. Then, there’s the part where she tried to get Batman to shoot her dead, because she didn’t have the courage to do it herself, which also made no sense and was definitely bizarre and out of the blue, and, most offensive of all, it repeats the same sick manner in which Jean Loring was pegged as a killer by taking the blame away from a male character and heaping it all on a female instead.

If the writers thought they were being clever by shocking and surprising anyone with such a sick storyline, they only showed why surprises and shock are not good storytelling techniques and gimmicks anymore.