APE IN A CAPE: This Steph Thing

APE IN A CAPE: This Steph Thing:

alexandraerin:

gailsimone:

alexandraerin:

gailsimone:

batgirlincorporated:

gailsimone:

Since this Smallville thing happened, I keep reading how mean dc is to make Bryan choose Babs for the book to replace Steph.

A bunch of people decide I must have made it happen even though I only found out about when you did.

Today, Bryan told me it was his idea to use Babs, when asked to…

I think you misunderstand our concerns entirely Gail. We are not angry about Bryan and his writing. We are not angry at him or his supposed choice of Babs when given the “no go” for Steph in post production. We can assume that much; he was given the order to change it, if he had chosen Babs himself, fine. Unfortunate but fine.

However, If you’re trying to difuse the notion that DC forced Babs upon him instead, well while yes that may not be true, it really doesn’t make any difference to the fact that they made the edict that it needed to change in the first place. And that’s what’s causing people to be frustrated and upset. I’ve been noticing even hardcore Barbara Gordon, Smallville, generally non-Stephanie Brown fans even Marvel canon fans have been commenting on how cold that move from DC was, how sloppy it was executed, and how the fans got a raw deal. NON-fans of the character are becoming angry and or frustrated with the company and are talking negatively about it. That takes a lot of effort to make people who don’t even care about a character agree and sympathize with their fans.

We know BQM doesn’t want to hurt fans. He was just as excited as fans were to use her, and has been sitting on this since November you’ve said something like this yourself. That’s ridiculous. Gail, we’re angry with DC editorial and the reason for them saying “no go” with Stephanie despite everything being announced and seemingly set in stone and given positive response. For them on the East Coast to not know about the goings in the West Coast digital branch is just ignorant. It was all over the internet. Aren’t there people in charge who make sure everyone is on the same page? Obviously, continuing with the “Tim was Red Robin only thoughout his career” debacle I feel there is no real organization.

 We are annoyed at the lack of communication between branches of DC Entertainment, a cruel embargo on a character that supposedly can extend to an alternate reality where she could have easily been included without any harm. There would have been no harm in allowing Stephanie Brown, who was Nightwing or a varient of at the end of her own book to have been Nightwing there, a comic where Stargirl was an established hero before Superman. Where Bart Allen is a founding member of the Justice League.  It wouldn’t have hurt the New 52 for her to have appeared as such in Smallville. 

We’re mad because the act is puzzling and reads to a regular person as a company shooting itself in the foot. There was no negativity to having her there, only positive press and placated fans who after a year finally get some form of the character they like, and it would have meant good money. It was all positive. The switch and how they went about announcing it has brought only NEGATIVE press onto the book and to DC and the book which hurts BQM. 

It comes off as DC not truly wanting the book to succeed. Some read this as Didio not wanting it to draw too much attention to it compared to the New 52 Superman, which Smallville contradicts by having an engaged Clark and Lois that works.

For editorial to unprofessionally dismiss people’s concerns about a rumor of her being swapped out after said rumor was leaked, call official press articles on TV Guide, BQM’s own twitter confirmations and discussions with fans as all rumors in itself and then say “Yeah we’re gonna change it” whilst giving really poor reasoning in the middle of a Con makes DC editorial look bad. It makes it pretty clear someone has a petty dislike for a character that again, would draw in sales to the book and whose return, even in an alternate continuty form, drew in lots of positive response from fans and good press for their own product.

The switch has brought nothing but negative press for DC comics from exposing maturity level of the editorial panel and how they conduct themselves at Cons and how they treat fans. Barbara is a casualty in this as a character too.

We are tired of Dan Didio’s unprofessional, immature personality and open contempt for fans.

I’m sorry Gail but I feel you wrote this meaning well but your perceived subject of ire from fans is just off.

Gonna have to respond better as soon as I can, agree with some points, totally disagree about some others. My main concern right now is note, or Batgirl. Batgirl is doing great. But the first I heard of this was from people trying to boycott anything with Barbara in it, including Smallville. That is just a fact. That would not hurt me, it would hurt Smallville, which is an important experiment that could lead to more non-icon titles AND more work for Bryan, who I love as a person and a chatacter. You make some other fair points, but some stuff is inaccurate…will respond as soon as I can when I am not on a speeding boat! ;)

…it’s not often that I find myself in the position of fundamentally disagreeing with someone while being unable to articulate that disagreement because I’m picturing them chasing after a group of costumed henchmen on jetskis using a commandeered speed boat.

NEVER TRY TO TYPE ON A BOAT.

…what are you doing right now? YOU FOOL, YOU’VE DOOMED US ALL!!!

Also, I typed “character” instead of “writer!”


Truthfully, I really have nothing to do with this story…I was just trying to present a counter-argument to those who wanted to boycott SMALLVILLE. I know some disagree, but I think that is the saddest possible response, as it hurts only a great book and a great author. Even Bryan thanked me for trying to make that case.

The rest, I don’t really get. I’m not trying to ‘diffuse’ anything, I corrected an Internet myth. Other than that, I am sad. I was very excited about Steph’s appearance, tried to promote it as best I could without letting the cat out of the bag, and I’m sad it’s not happening. That’s about it, as far as input from me. I’d like to read more bqm Steph, but I will still buy Smallville and I urge others to do so as well. It’s an important book for a lot of reasons.

And BQM is a great storyteller.