Hi Gail I wanted to ask if you think the definite (as quoted from Martz at ECCC)" we're staying away from her" stance by DC editorial on Stephanie Brown is more or less to give Barbara as Batgirl room to shine/grow as they figure out Steph's new timeline/c

Okay, this is not going to be fun to hear, but the answer is no, from everything I have seen.   This sucks, but Stephanie's book was not at the sales level they were hoping for with a Batgirl logo on it.  This gets lost over and over in the timeline, but her book was already going to end before the new 52 thing happened.

When that happens, there is usually a period where the character is deliberately held back for a while. It is NOT to be mean, honestly. It is to prevent bringing a character back in a method that doesn't change enough from what they were when they were canceled.

There is even a not-too-pleasant term for it, "waiting for the smell to wear off.". If they don't do that, if they don't reposition properly, they are almost certainly setting that character up to fail again. Aquaman is the best example of when this works. 

So my feeling is that they did not have an idea that repositioned Cass and Steph ENOUGH to give them the best chance to succeed. That all sounds like corporate bullshit, but it is absolutely true. If we wait a little, and get just the right showcase, you can have a new Aquaman,instead of a new, say, Hawk and Dove.

Now, in this case, the exception is that with the new 52, a bunch of us wanted to showcase those characters…they could get renovated a little bit with most of the rest of the line. But in both cases, the characters were not available, because t hey had already been scheduled for what COULD be a great launch platform. It's a bit frustrating because it's coming slower than we all hoped.

However, it's not necessarily bad news. Some stuff might actually be falling into place for some of the benched characters this very week.  I can't say how or what creators, but I know people are fighting for them.

Wish I could be more helpfu