Don't shoot the messenger....
While I'm sure fans of Stephanie Brown are thrilled to see her return to the world of comic books (even if it's not in the main DC universe) I'm sure they would prefer it in one of her traditional incarnations. Prior to the DCnU, Brown started out as Spoiler before becoming Robin and then eventually Batgirl. Well in the Smallville Universe, Stephanie Brown is none of those, she's Nightwing. That does means she was probably Robin at some point in her costumed career unless Smallville is totally reinventing the wheel and there's no way they'd do that, right....? Writer Bryan Q. Miller, who 'coincidentally' wrote a 2009 Batgirl series starring Brown has the following to share on this development---
"Bruce can be somewhat of an angry man. Stephanie's personality is so can-do and unsinkable and bright, so it's very much on purpose on Bruce's part that he has a good cop going out on patrol with him every night." (Miller says it will eventually be addressed as to why Stephanie is Nightwing in this comic and not Batgirl.)
Batman and 'Nightwing' will make their debut in Smallville Season 11 in the fourt part arc titled "Detective" this August, and then in print in September. Snarkiness aside, good writing can make any new interpretation of a comic book character seem "brilliant" and "cutting-edge" so I'll probably pick up the title and check it out. But god help DC and this title if it's simply more of the derivative drivel that the television churned out in it's later seasons.
And here's a small color version of that cover.