So, when Batman turns up in Smallville Season 11 later this year, he won't be alone... and the identity of his new partner is going to make some people very, very happy indeed. Hint: It's not exactly Robin, but she - yes, she - used to be one.Smallville Season 11 writer Bryan Q. Miller has revealed that Smallville's Dynamic Duo is made up of Batman and Nightwing, with the latter role being played by none other than previous Spoiler/Robin/Batgirl Stephanie Brown. "Bruce [Wayne] 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 told TV Guide.com about the partnership.

Miller, of course, would know all about Stephanie's personality; before Smallville Season 11, he wrote DC's Batgirl title for two years with Stephanie as the lead character, gaining both a large fan base and unusually across-the-board positive critical response for what he did with the former Spoiler (The DC Universe version of Stephanie Brown has apparently been retroactively disappeared in the New 52 relaunch for DC's superhero line, much to the upset of fans). According to Miller, Smallville will at some point explain why this version has gone for the "Nightwing" moniker instead of either Robin or Batgirl, so it looks like she'll be staying around for awhile...

The "Detective" arc of Smallville Season 11 starts digitally in August, and in print with #5 of the series, released in September.

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