Why did DC ditch Starling (Evelyn Crawford)?

[Armor of God]

The New volume was never really a BOP book. BOP was based on the friendship between Babs and Dinah Lance and it was rooted in heavy continuity. DC thought that they could just use the BOP name to push any Tom, Dick and Harry.
There was ultimately never any stability in the original New 52 line up. The original writer himself brought in Babs and got rid of both Ivy and Katana with in 14 months. Then Marx comes in and gets rid of Starling in favor of Strix. It was a mess from day one.

[Confuzzled]

The New volume was never really a BOP book. BOP was based on the friendship between Babs and Dinah Lance and it was rooted in heavy continuity. DC thought that they could just use the BOP name to push any Tom, Dick and Harry.

Then they thought right as initially it was off to a great start, even outselling Suicide Squad starring Harley in her skimpy new wear.

There was ultimately never any stability in the original New 52 line up. The original writer himself brought in Babs and got rid of both Ivy and Katana with in 14 months. Then Marx comes in and gets rid of Starling in favor of Strix. It was a mess from day one.

Editorial forced the writer to include Babs as they got too greedy and wanted the book to sell at the level of Simone's Batgirl book. Including Babsgirl though only diluted the original storyline and took away from the other four ladies. And she didn't bring about any sales uptick that DC expected after her solo sold like gangbusters.

Not sure about Katana, but Duane S. had long term plans for Ivy but he was pushed out of the book before he could realize them. Marx had no intention of following any of his dangling storythreads and went about doing her own thing (she would go on to write a New 52 Ivy origin story later but it had nothing to do with Ivy's role in BoP).

[Carabas]

The New volume was never really a BOP book. BOP was based on the friendship between Babs and Dinah Lance and it was rooted in heavy continuity. DC thought that they could just use the BOP name to push any Tom, Dick and Harry.
There was ultimately never any stability in the original New 52 line up. The original writer himself broughtin Babs and got rid of both Ivy and Katana with in 14 months. Then Marx comes in and gets rid of Starling in favor of Strix. It was a mess from day one.

You have a woefully inaccurate view of how Duane Swierczynski's run was shaped.
For starters, he never wanted Batgirl in the book at all, and really didn't want to get rid of Ivy and Katana. It also didn't help that editorial forbade him from re-using the long-term antagonist e had set up in the first arc, which pretty much meant he could throw all of his prepwork and finished scripts in the trash.
A lot went wrong with the New 52, but almost nothing of that was any writer's fault.

[MajorHoy]

You have a woefully inaccurate view of how Duane Swierczynski's run was shaped.
For starters, he never wanted Batgirl in the book at all, and really didn't want to get rid of Ivy and Katana. It also didn't help that editorial forbade him from re-using the long-term antagonist e had set up in the first arc, which pretty much meant he could throw all of his prepwork and finished scripts in the trash.
A lot went wrong with the New 52, but almost nothing of that was any writer's fault.

And, actually, wasn't it said he didn't even plan on creating Starling at first?
Wasn't there a different character he wanted to use, but DC said "No!"?

[Carabas]

And, actually, wasn't it said he didn't even plan on creating Starling at first?
Wasn't there a different character he wanted to use, but DC said "No!"?

Yep, that too.
But not getting a character that you want when planning a book is far less severe and more common than not being able to do 90% of the stuff that actually got greenlit and you were relying on to be availble.

[Armor of God]

Then they thought right as initially it was off to a great start, even outselling Suicide Squad starring Harley in her skimpy new wear.



Editorial forced the writer to include Babs as they got too greedy and wanted the book to sell at the level of Simone's Batgirl book. Including Babsgirl though only diluted the original storyline and took away from the other four ladies. And she didn't bring about any sales uptick that DC expected after her solo sold like gangbusters.

Not sure about Katana, but Duane S. had long term plans for Ivy but he was pushed out of the book before he could realize them. Marx had no intention of following any of his dangling storythreads and went about doing her own thing (she would go on to write a New 52 Ivy origin story later but it had nothing to do with Ivy's role in BoP).

They thought wrong obviously based on how it all turned out in the long run. Now you can blame editorial or aliens from mars but that era of BOP has been tossed in to dust bin of comics history. No point in making excuses and I honestly dont even get the Suicide Squad comparison, BOP was at that point a more mainstream franchise unlike the Squad whose last ongoing run ended in the early freaking 90's and Harley didn't shoot up in popularity until the Conner/Palmiotti run.

[Carabas]

Now you can blame editorial or aliens from mars but that era of BOP has been tossed in to dust bin of comics history. No point in making excuses...

Oh it was editorial. No point in blaming the writer when this sort of crap was happening in a ton of books at the time.

[MajorHoy]

Yep, that too.
But not getting a character that you want when planning a book is far less severe and more common than not being able to do 90% of the stuff that actually got greenlit and you were relying on to be available.

Oh, I wasn't lamenting so much that he couldn't use Zinda, just commenting that he only created the character because he couldn't get Zinda but wound up creating a new fan-favorite character in her place.

[Lee Stone]

And, actually, wasn't it said he didn't even plan on creating Starling at first?
Wasn't there a different character he wanted to use, but DC said "No!"?

Strange.
It never struck me how much she resembles Debbie Harry in that art.

[Koriand'r]

Based on the dated concept art,dude. #Weinstein. As far as the character goes it is still all the more relevant to portray her differently. This doesn't mean she has to be dressed like a Nun either. She is an Action Adventure character after all. I don't know how I would go about it myself.

You keep saying it's outdated but Good Girl art will never go out of style.

As for Starling, besides Lady Blackhawk she was the best addition to the Birds of Prey to date. Think about what I just said. I'm including Big Barda, Vixen, Poison Ivy, Power Girl, Judomaster, Strix, Hawkgirl, Katanna and several other more established characters in that statement. Starling was just that memorable and compelling. She single-handedly made the first issues of New 52's Birds of Prey interesting. So her placement in limbo really is a mystery.

[MajorHoy]

. . . Starling was just that memorable and compelling. She single-handedly made the first issues of New 52's Birds of Prey interesting. So her placement in limbo really is a mystery.

Again, not a "mystery".
Editorial wanted Batgirl to be in this; editorial wanted to the Batgirl & Black Canary pairing to shine again; Christy Marx seemed willing enough to throw Starling under the bus once Swierczynski was gone as writer.
A lot of clueless people just let that title sink into the abyss.

[Koriand'r]

Again, not a "mystery".
Editorial wanted Batgirl to be in this; editorial wanted to the Batgirl & Black Canary pairing to shine again; Christy Marx seemed willing enough to throw Starling under the bus once Swierczynski was gone as writer.
A lot of clueless people just let that title sink into the abyss.

Oh I get all of that, the "mystery" is how DC can be so shortsighted. Sometimes it's as if they don't like money. I'd seriously buy a solo Starling ongoing.

[MajorHoy]

Oh I get all of that, the "mystery" is how DC can be so shortsighted. Sometimes it's as if they don't like money. I'd seriously buy a solo Starling ongoing.

You would, but . . . would it sell better than characters like Batgirl or Green Arrow after more than a few issues?
DC may think that would be unlikely.

[The Odd Man]

We need a Starling: Rebirth one-shot to either explain away her heelturn, or to just ignore it completely. I would toatlly welcome her back into a new BoP title.

[millernumber1]

You keep saying it's outdated but Good Girl art will never go out of style.

As for Starling, besides Lady Blackhawk she was the best addition to the Birds of Prey to date. Think about what I just said. I'm including Big Barda, Vixen, Poison Ivy, Power Girl, Judomaster, Strix, Hawkgirl, Katanna and several other more established characters in that statement. Starling was just that memorable and compelling. She single-handedly made the first issues of New 52's Birds of Prey interesting. So her placement in limbo really is a mystery.

For me, Starling is only memorable because she compared so negatively to Zinda, Charlie, Barda, Manhunter, and heck, even Infinity grabbed me more than Starling.

Again, not a "mystery".
Editorial wanted Batgirl to be in this; editorial wanted to the Batgirl & Black Canary pairing to shine again; Christy Marx seemed willing enough to throw Starling under the bus once Swierczynski was gone as writer.
A lot of clueless people just let that title sink into the abyss.

I didn't let it sink because I was clueless. I genuinely didn't like what I was reading. Batgirl made it worse, not better, agreed, but Starling just didn't work for me at all.