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I See What They Did There

Why Did DC Comics Change The Hair Color Of A Girl Dressed As Batgirl For Halloween?

by Jill Pantozzi | 4:37 pm, November 2nd, 2012


Ok, so I already gave away the change in the title so we can’t play a game of “Spot the Difference” but what I can tell you is the image on the left is part of a page from Dustin Nguyen and Derek Fridgolfs’ digital-first Lil’ Gotham comic. On the right is what DC Comics sold on release day. The only alteration is Batgirl’s hair color. The image is not of Stephanie Brown/Batgirl but rather a person dressed as the character among a group of other folks dressed up as DC heroes and villains for Halloween. We’ve posted the full images after the jump and we leave it up to you to discuss. 

(via Robot 6, Kyrax2)

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  • http://twitter.com/AbelUndercity Abel Undercity

    I guess the most generous explanation would be so that the reader doesn’t think it might actually be Stephanie?

    Also, I literally lol-ed at the sight of Darkseid with a Slurpee.

  • Anonymous

    I just don’t get why it was so important to make sure no one could think that was actually Stephanie – I mean they didn’t seem to care if you thought Klarion next to her was real or not. And part of the purpose of the whole comic was the confusion that costumes cause. So I really don’t get why they needed to make a change and couldn’t let people speculate on whether or not that was her.

  • Em0d

    I think they wanted to make sure people understood she was someone dressed as Batgirl, not actually Batgirl, that’s all.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1467679395 Julie Kessler

    It’s ’cause DC is a gigantic bag of dicks.

  • http://www.facebook.com/wil.sisney Wil Sisney

    The real question, I think, is how does the burger kid expect to get on the bus he’s waiting for?

  • http://www.thenerdybird.com/ Jill Pantozzi

    Playing Devil’s Advocate: what about all the other characters then? Shouldn’t they be physically altered as well?

  • rebecca

    the hair looks red to me in the original anyway…

  • rebecca

    the hair looks red to me in the original anyway…

  • Em0d

    I think I could make a better guess if I knew the context, does Batgirl appear at all later on? Her character design on the image pre-hair dying looks very close to what was drawn here: http://comicsbeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/lilgotham_cover_rvsd.jpg

    I don’t have a sample for Klarion, so I can’t tell if he would need to be altered as well to make sure there isn’t confusion.

  • EleniRPG

    Ooh, ooh! I spotted another difference! They added a partial head in the bottom left corner.

  • http://www.thenerdybird.com/ Jill Pantozzi

    THE PLOT THICKENS!

  • Jeff Roberts

    Wow, I bet Darkseid is going to get a hell of a brain freeze from that SlurpieI

  • Nick Gaston

    …because DC is being run by obsessive, paranoid, thin-skinned Silver Age fetishists?

  • Timothy Tankersley

    Surely dressing up as a supervillian for halloween in the DC universe would be like dressing up as James Holmes, if James Holmes was still free and killing people?

  • http://www.facebook.com/jordan.ruttle.1 Jordan Ruttle

    The crop is also different, it’s lower in the second image.

  • http://twitter.com/EliasAlgorithm Elias Algorithm

    So DC automatically goes in thinking their readers are idiots. Explains a few things.

  • http://twitter.com/EliasAlgorithm Elias Algorithm

    They did. Good catch!

  • http://melancholywise.tumblr.com/ Sophie

    I you look at how the other parts of costumes that are obviously supposed to be yellow are coloured you’ll notice that the colours match up (also pay attention to little aqualad’s hair). I think it’s safe to assume that was meant to be blond.

  • http://melancholywise.tumblr.com/ Sophie

    Okay DC, this is starting to get ridiculous.

  • Nick Gaston

    I thought the same thing when I saw a clip from a “Smallville” episode set at a con, with someone wearing a Joker costume visible in the background…

    …or, there was the worse alternative. That it wasn’t a costume. 8o

  • Cave Johnson

    Well, this article gives ample evidence for such a thing.

  • Canisa

    Well, Darkseid’s foot does look just a little bit odd, so I guess they’re covering it up?

  • http://www.facebook.com/laura.truxillo Laura Truxillo

    But there’s a serious no-no against giving any kind of hope about Stephanie’s existence, apparently.

  • http://twitter.com/marionlawless Mr Lawless

    I’m surprised they aren’t all wearing nu 52 costumes.

  • http://twitter.com/BrightBlueInk Inky

    I’m not a comics reader (well, not superheroes, anyway) so when I first saw the controversy on Tumblr I was stumped, and I still am. DC apparently hates a previous blond batgirl, or something?

  • Katharine B

    Hmm. I don’t read this one, but looking at that little trio, it could almost be the Doctor, Amy and Rory in costume. Maybe to get away from that a bit?

  • http://twitter.com/EliasAlgorithm Elias Algorithm

    It isn’t the article. The article’s fine, just pointing out the incongruity. Find me a woman that doesn’t love Batgirl (in my experience, they usually love Oracle, but I know a lot of disabled women and I don’t want to get into THAT argument again when there’s nothing I can do about it). But red-headed girls REALLY love Batgirl. Not that raven-haired girls don’t, but this change just seems arbitrary. C’mon, look at that panel and tell me you really thought Darkseid was waiting for a bus in Gotham.

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