The Batgirl of SDCC is back to ask about Stephanie Brown

So last year you may remember that DC’s SDCC was somewhat put off-message by a woman, dressed as Batgirl, questioning how DC treated its female characters. It turned into a PR crisis.

Earlier today that same woman asked at the DC Superman panel about the rumor that Stephanie Brown was being removed from Smallville Season 11 and replaced by Barbara Gordon.

Here is how it went down according to CBR:

The next fan to the microphone, dressed as Stephanie Brown, asked if in “Smallville Season 11” Stephanie would be showing up officially or if the rumors she had been taken out were true.

“The first rumor wasn’t known by us and I have not heard of the second in the halls of DC, so I can’t comment,” moderator John Cunningham told her.

“But there was art!” the fan responded.

“Are you going to believe art or are you going to believe us?” Lobdell asked as the audience laughed and Cunningham gave her a Night of the Owls mask for her question.

Hmm, an executive for DC responded to Stephanie Brown “showing up” as a “rumor”?

A rumor. Something not confirmed. Okay. So it is a “rumor” that TV Guide ran?

Secondly “not known by us”? I just did a search on the number of articles that were printed with this “rumor” on June 14 (almost a month ago surely enough time for a “rumor” to be refuted). I saw stories from CBR, Newsarama, Wired etc. etc. I must say I’m a little flabbergasted that a VP at DC Comics is saying this news “wasn’t known by us”?

Did they not wonder if this question would be asked?

By the way CBR wasn’t the only one who wrote this up. Here’s Comicvine’s reporter Mat ‘Inferiorego’ Elfring:

11:50: Question time. How much influence will World of Krypton from 86 have on these books. They says none really. They want to make Krypton feel alien. Oh no, my least favorite question person ever… Why isn’t Stephanie Brown isn’t in the new 52? They say they don’t know about anything like that. She gets snappy. She does this every year.

“My least favorite question person ever”? “Snappy”? when did “news reporters” start giving commentary on the audience?

And I find “she does this every year” hysterical. As if two years out of 40 is “every year” and, here’s the point, as if she doesn’t have a fair question that many, many people would like answered. And an answer that doesn’t include as a snappy retort by creator.

Oh well, maybe next year?

Update: Kyrax2, the SDCC Batgirl, has stated on Twitter “Scott Lobdell has been nothing less than gracious to me.”