I really thought Rose Wilson / Ravager was going to be DC's answer to Laura Kinney / X-23 (much as the resurrection / reinvention of Bucky Barnes as the Winter Soldier and that of Jason Todd as the Red Hood ~2004-2005 shared some creative design space). But then the New 52 happened, and all the rebooting that ensued, and she kind of fizzled out.
I'd say Jaime Reyes aka Blue beetle III.
There have been other attempts like Naomi, Jessica Cruz, sideways but Jaime was the most successful and the closest to Kamala i could think off.
I don't think that that's a bad decision, she has never been a big character in the comics, and popularity in other media rarely translates into comics sales and that most of her appearances in other media are afiak not much like the comics version is also not helping.
And sofar they didn't even really manage to make characters like Rave, Starfire, Cyborg and Beast Boy suscessfull as solo characters, so what are chances for Bumblebee.
Raven & Beast BOy have OGN. Raven's OGN is selling pretty well on Amazon and marks the FIRST Dc Rebirth era book to sell highly among TEENS. Let that sink in. Other than 10+ year old Shazam by Jeff Smith & John's Green Lantern book. Dc was shut out. Miles Morales and the gang had teens and then came X-Men Dark Phoenix that helped Marvel even more.
Fans have to STOP letting a comic book store be the end all for a character's success. Remember that store is on an AGENDA drive game.
As we have seen a LOT of stores don't want POC lead books (under the DC or Marvel logo).
Moon Girl lasted 47 issue WITHOUT the comic book store (and so many trolls) wanting her around. Yet she got 8 volumes that many books WISH they could have those sales.
Bumblebee does NOT appear in comics. She has not been seen in now 2-3 years? So how can she help comic sales if she is not around.
THis is NOT limited to her-Dc does this mess to a LOT of POC, females & LGBTQ.
One side mainly outside media-can make ANYONE at Dc interesting. The other side-mainly comics can NOT.
Aside from Cyborg-no other POC can boast appearing in both medias at the same time.
You can't do the best of Bumblebee and she has NOTHING after 49 years.
Surprised no one said Jaime Reyes. He made it into Batman: Brave and Bold cartoon, Smallville and was the star of Young Justice season 2.
"Cable was right!"
Everytime I read this thread title I starting singing Breakout by Swing Out Sister...
But these are not regular comics (and the Beast Boy one is not even out at this point), and these YA comics are are something DC has just started this year, maybe they will do Bumble Bee at some point when they continue with this format who knows.
The Teen Titans Catoon started more then 15 years ago, and despite the big popularity of the series, they never really managed to have an successful long lasting regular comic series for any of the main protagonists except Robin in all this time, therefore I really doubt that Bumble Bee would have had any chance in this format.
Well, not exactly. The creative team has gone on record as saying that they thought it was only going last around 6 issues. What happened is that it got a lot of press outside of the Wednesday Warrior crowd and folks started checking it out in trade and digital. It had a hook that made it interesting to casual fans and just came along at the right time. Had it came out a couple years later, it might not have done as well.
I don't think DC really has a recent breakout star. Jaime Reyes is probably the closest to what the OP is asking. Harley Quinn doesn't count, she's been real world famous for at least 25 yrs.
Jon Kent.
Popped up in 2016 with Convergence and Rebirth, and has since expanded into Young Justice animated series, Elseworlds comics, and has even been confirmed for the upcoming Crisis on Infinite Earths for Arrowverse (and is expected to be part of the new Superman and Lois series as well).
Breakout stars then Damian Wayne and maybe Jason Todd as Red Hood.
Some people are actually making a defense for Bumblebee being a popular character? How are you coming to this conclusion? Where is her large, dependable, very loyal fanbase? In all my years following DC Comics and the fandom, I've somehow managed to miss them. Where are her merchandise sales? Where are her comics?
Also, I am once again hearing this notion of racist comics shops. I know there is absolutely nothing I can do to stop some people from saying stuff like that, and I'm certain it will continue to be said, but comics shops will generally sell whatever comes through their doors that will sell. If you're going to present people as racists over and over again, you better come up with some hard evidence of that.
You would have a better shot at painting some fans as racist, which I'm sure some are, but I'm going to wager there are relatively very few of those. For the most part, people just want to read what they want to read. And, for the most part, people don't like having things pushed on them, or what they perceive as pushed on them. And if they complain because of that, it doesn't necessarily make them some racist.