2012 Comic Book News Archives

July 17, 2012: Barbara Gordon Replaces Stephanie Brown in "Smallville: Season 11"

Smallville: Season 11 Amongst the announcement that Batman would finally be introduced to the world of "Smallville" in an up-coming story taking place in the "Smallville: Season 11" comic book title, fans were interested to learn that Nightwing would not only be a female, but that her secret identity would be that of Stephanie Brown. However DC Comics announced during one of their panels at Comic-Con last week that they've decided to make a change, and now Nightwing's alter-ego will actually be Barbara Gordon.

    Apparently, the California office of DC Entertainment which handles Smallville Season 11 because of the television connection, hadn't realized that [the DC Comics people in] New York would object to Steph's appearance.

    DC Co-Publisher Dan Didio confirmed at the DC NewWave panel that the change was because they wanted Smallville to use the "most iconic" version of the Nightwing character.

There's extra intrigue to be added to the story, when you factor in writer Brian Q. Miller's tweet noting: "SDCC amendment ­ have just been informed that I will no longer be on the Friday @dccomics Superman panel."

    That leaves only speculation. Perhaps DC didn't want the controversy over Steph's removal to become a big deal at the Superman panel. Or perhaps DC Editorial, which has been pushing a new, grittier Superman in the new 52 in which Lois and Clark are separate didn't want to share the stage with a comic that includes Lois and Clark as a firmly established couple.

Check out the complete article discussing this news at Wired.com.



2012 Comic News

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