Steph's First Offical Time as Batgirl...

[espanolbot]

Oh yeah, and Didio has confirmed that Smallville has been rewritten to have Nightwing be Barbara Gordon, not Stephanie. Because *grits teeth* Dick and Barbara are more Iconic, so as the more Iconic characters they (or rather She) has to be used before characters like Stephanie Brown can be introduced.

Bear in mind, this is a series that, when it was on the air, decided to have their first Speedy be Mia Dearsden and their first Flash/Kid Flash be Bart Allen. So yeah, we have always been at war with Eurasia, there has only ever been one female Bat character that wasn't Kate or Babs.
http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2012/07/sdcc-12-dc-confirms-stephanie-brown-wont-appear-in-smallville/

Still, at least Korra has been renewed for a total of over fifty episodes,
http://espanolbot.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/legend-of-korra-sdcc-season-two-info.html

Comments

[icon_uk]

Jeez, the logic of her using the Nightwing ID, and her being, apparently, Bruce's first sidekick didn't appeal to me THAT much, but even I think that blows for Steph fans...

I'm also delighted Korra got expanded, though I wish they'd known that for sure before the end of the first season crammed QUITE so much

[drexer]

Have you considered also that this implies Didio thinks Barbara is a more iconic Nightwing than Dick?

(Probably they would have changed it to a male Nightwing as well if it didn't meant redrawing the whole issue though, but this just demonstrates the clusterfuck of those actions)

[arbre_rieur]

"Have you considered also that this implies Didio thinks Barbara is a more iconic Nightwing than Dick?"

I think he's referring to Barbara as Batgirl.

[mrstatham]

We'd have to be at the panel to be sure, but given Miller's already talked about Batman having a female sidekick, it would be Barbara, and I don't think she's going to be Batgirl, unless they've revised it so Barbara is Batgirl and Dick comes in later.

[icon_uk]

Which was the way they did it in "The Batman" cartoon, which always seemed weird to me, but which they sort of made work.

[lencannon]

Why

to what END are they doing this? No one is going to hear "Barbara Gordon is in Smallville" and run out and buy the book. Sorry, it isn't that she isn't popular. She is! But she's also everywhere. Desperate fans were ready to fall over themselves to buy this out of continuity book for the chance to read a character they miss.

DC is just antagonizing the fan base and it is pretty messed up. Really, really, really mean. The lack of respect shown to fans has pretty much convinced me I'm done with their line.

[q99]

DC seems to think "If someone is the most popular in a role, they must be the only one in the role. Period."

And I have no idea why they don't see having a variety as good.

[mrstatham]

I was saying to a friend yesterday that it does reach a point where some of the choice DC make do seem like outright malevolence as opposed to being just another business choice. We've known DC have had this going for about a month, now - and a number of sites reported it as being a comeback for Steph.

But you could bet that, chances are Didio would've just LOVED to sneak this in under the radar and wouldn't have said shit unless Johnston hadn't spilt the initial beans.

[drexer]

Like I said in no_scans, and others said there as well, and the tumblr-sphere says too in varied ways and forms; it just feels like everyone is just at the end of their patience and DC is simply throwing a lot of their readers away by treating them this badly. It's not a PR disaster, but it is an awful business disaster because they're driving away a sizeable portion of fans that belong to subgroups that they desperately need to appeal to with the transformations of the medium.

[drexer]

Also, just to comment on Korra because I feel like I need to think about something else(even if it's not something that makes me feel very good either).

I'm getting a bit afraid for LoK because it seems to me from the news I've seen that the writers do not admit for most of the errors they did in the finale and with Mako, and I feel like the next season might just escalate the problems. Specially because now they feel so self-assured that they certainly wont be adding more minds to the creative team.

[damselfish]

Wait, I though there were going to be new writers for S2? As in, a REAL writer team. Like the one that made ATLA so good.

[espanolbot]

They're getting more writers in, yes.

[drexer]

They are? Then the last information I saw was wrong. Can you get me a source though, just to see who's joining them?

[espanolbot]

I think that it was the SDCC panel, but I'll look it up just to be sure if I can...

[q99]

The thing about the decisions they make is it isn't that, individually, most are that horrible. But collectively, it builds up a 'don't trust this company / if you like a new character expect to be disappointed / they jerk us around' mindset.

[stolisomancer]

Dear Bryan Miller,

As a fan of your Batgirl series at DC, I would like to make a suggestion.

As DC seems to be backpedaling from the Stephanie Brown character as quickly as possible, please consider this:

If you made a pitch at Marvel for a (limited, most likely) series that starred a feisty, resourceful non-powered young blonde superheroine, trying to juggle the responsibilities of college, life, and her personal missions, set somewhere that was not New York, with just the vaguest possible hint that Stephanie got tired of waiting and jumped dimensions, and made sure to cap off the pitch by saying "This would really piss Dan Didio off," Joe Quesada would sign off on that so quickly that your head would spin.

Think about it.

[thanekos]

Sounds like a legacy Buried Alien.

[stolisomancer]

Oh, Mark Gruenwald. Subtle you ain't.

[icon_uk]

But fun you always were...

[stolisomancer]

Additional features of theoretical series may include but not limited to:
* Best friend/partner of Asian ancestry, unresolved sexual tension theoretically optional
** Although if Phephanie Prown over here was shackin' up with her female ninja best friend, it is my contention that you would trigger the rare "ultrasonic squee" fan reaction
*** That is a "squee" that only dogs can hear
* Handicapped mentor who compensates for physical deficiencies through training, determination, and applied intelligence
* Weird relationship with police contact
* Punching hologram vampires
* Archvillain is actually the heroine's bastard of a father
* Gooperangs
** The gooperangs are important

[bariman]

Electro-magna-gooperangs!

[q99]

I'm honestly surprised Marvel hasn't picked up more good writers and artists recently, the way DC sheds them.

[stolisomancer]

Brian Wood's done some work for Marvel lately, but more and more of the newer talent seem to be moving into creator-owned work, only going to Marvel or DC when they need quick funds to keep the lights on. Somebody on SA made the observation earlier that, at SDCC, Image announced more books with Marvel's top writing talent than Marvel did.

Which is to be expected, really.

[q99]

The non-big two sector does seem to be growing, and I hope that continues.

[mrstatham]

It really does come to something when I'd WANT Joe Quesada to do something to piss DC off.

[jlbarnett]

people need to make notes of responses so they can get out.

To become iconic a character has to be used.

[domino_blue]

And thus DC makes a ass of themselves again, seriously why not just let the writer use what ever character he or she wants?

[auggie18]

See, this is funny because I was actually gonna buy the Smallville book for the sole purpose of seeing Stephanie Brown.


WHELP NOT HAPPENING NOW

[curlyjo1]

See, wasn't it nice of them to save you some money? *rolls eyes*

[mrstatham]

I was thinking the exact same thing. I was going to buy this specifically for Steph. But hey, more money for Locke and Key and Marvel stuff, I guess. Clearly DC don't want the money I'd be giving them for a specific character.

[littlepunkryo]

The thing I don't get is - this was a chance for them to get some of the people they pissed off (Steph fans! Even some Cass fans who want to support female characters who aren't her!) to give them money again. So many people who stopped buying DC because of the reboot said they were gonna buy this. And now they aren't. I'm not sure the "Icon Babs" fans are gonna be falling all over themselves to get Smallville when they can get Babs in books they's already buying that ARE in continuity like Steph fans were.

[jeyl]

Hold on a second, I'm trying to think of what to say. DCwomenkickingass reported this and it's all so confusing to me.

Er... @*(!@.... E$@)*$(%&(71 AND #(!&#($&R(%^$&!)(&!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

.......I know I met Gail today but.... I want Stephanie back as Batgirl so badly...

[rainspirit]

I'm kind of hoping that DC editorial boners up this situation even more than they already have, just to see how deep down the rabbit hole they're willing to go. It'd be amusing to see if they'd allow a female Nightwing that's NOT Stephanie Brown.

[espanolbot]

They have allowed a female Nightwing, it's Barbara though.

[mrstatham]

The thing is that they've talked about bringing Dick in, now. And given they're already doing revisions to make what WAS Steph look like Barbara, Dick could be Nightwing.

[kurenai-tenka.livejournal.com]

There are no words.

Well, there are, but they're not nice ones.

[rdfox]

I already posted my response over on nsd. I won't post it here because I don't want to overdo it (and I don't feel like digging up the links to my image macros again).

[shadowpsykie]

Dan Didio… why do you hate the fans…? why did you cut Stephanie Brown out of Smallville? the “Iconic” line you said doesn’t fit when Smallville introduced a Justice League that was formed by Clark, Oliver Queen, Vic Stone, Dinah Lance… and BART Allen… Also, the Speedy that was introduced was Mia Dearden, not the “More iconic” Roy Harper…and by your definition, if Smallville’s Clark Kent is more Iconic, then why is he so different fro the Main DCU Clark in that Smallville’s Clark has FRIENDS, is in a HAPPY, Stable, long term relationship with Lois Lane, and Both are happy, and not holding each other back as characters. The REASON Smallville is doing so well is because its NOT like the main DCnU. It’s because the people who have been jaded by what is going on in the DCU had this to go to… but now that you have shown that you would even try to mess with this… how many fans do you think will stay on when even this book isn’t safe from you?

You won’t give us Cass… You won’t give us Renee… we ALMOST had Steph… Let Bryan Q. Miller, and for that matter THE HALF DOZEN OTHER WRITERS WHO WANT to use these characters USED them. let THEM WRITE. not you….

[eyz]

Yeah, that's such a silly argument. Doesn't even make the single-est sense.
I mean when you have the likes of Damian!Robin, Jason Todd and Cassie!"powerthief"Wondergirl around but no Wally or Donna Troy who have been part of the original and 80s classic Teen Titans.... -sigh-

[roguezombie]

This just seems so unnecessary. I was planning on buying the Smallville comic for the sole reason that Stephanie was going to be in it. But replacing her with Barbara just seems kind of malicious almost. And you can tell how sick they all are about being asked about Steph (and Cass), but they won't give in and even feature them in any books. As much as Marvel annoys me with their pointless crossovers, I don't ever truly hate them like I do with DC.

[eyz]

Haaaa :P
Steph <3
Still my favorite DC series since Jamie Reyes' original BB series.