Not to defend her, but she's a spin-off that really has spun out from under the main brand. She's not a bat-character by identification or iconography. She's even been distancing herself from the Joker to become something else entirely - she's more rollerderby or EDM than clown these days. Her main franchise now is Suicide Squad - or Birds of Prey, neither of which are really beholden to the Bat (and yes, it's Barbara Gordon, but she was Oracle when BoP was established, so that's one step removed already) So, I would say just the fact that she can stand apart from where she came from qualifies her, but that's just imo.
Birds of Prey was still quite connected to the Bat, at least in the beginning.
The series was set in Gotham for a long time, two of the three most iconic members (Barbara and Helena) are Batchracters, you had often Guest Appearances of Batcharcters (especially Nightwing) and the book was iirc even part of a few bigger Batman events.
Btw. Suicide Squad has also become dominated by Batman Villains. For example all the characters on the cover they have shown for Tylors upcoming run except King Shark and maybe Magpie are Batmanvillains.
Speaking of which, I get the feeling that Black Canary has been so closely associated with the Justice League, Birds of Prey, and Green Arrow, that I wonder how much willingness there is to have her in her own solo series at this point, as opposed to at best being co-star. Her 2015 series didn’t last too long I recall.
Hasbro and DC/WB were in a legal dispute over the Bumblebee trademark, but they came to a settlement now that allows both companies to use the name. And the Super Hero Girls brand, which the female Bumblebee is a part of, has been going strong. So it seems like there's a clear path ahead for Karen Beecher in the future.
Also the cases for back in the day, but not quite as much anymore:
Doctor Nemesis
Doctor Mid-Nite
Doctor Hormone
Doctor Fate
Doctor Occult
Doctor Thomas Hugo Strange
Doctor Solar
Doctor Strange
Doctor Manhattan
The Phantom
Phantom Eagle
Phantom Stranger
Phantom Lady
Blonde Phantom
Phantom Reporter
Phantom Magician
Green Lantern
Green Mask
Green Hornet
Green Arrow
Green Lama
Green Turtle
Last edited by Electricmastro; 09-13-2019 at 07:00 PM.
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I think of Magpie as one of those DC characters that's secretly Canadian. John Byrne created her and I was living in Alberta at the time when she first debuted and there are a lot of magpies in Alberta. Byrne grew up in Canada and was living in Alberta--don't know if he was still there when he created Magpie--so I'm sure the great number of magpies influenced him. Having grown up in Vancouver, where there are no magpies, it seemed to me they must be the equivalent of crows for Albertans.
I like the Narrows only in Bludhaven. I'm also not sure I'm happy with the increasingly cess-pit nature of Gotham. As it's gotten retconned worse, some prior stories make less sense (including Thomas and Martha's death, which made more sense when they were attending theater in a better part of town that went down hill after they died). But also, because it makes Batman's quest a futile one - things keep getting worse, even with more and more people on the job. I don't like that, and instead like the idea of real improvement over time since he donned the cowl.I like The Narrows as a subsection of Gotham that’s just sort of slipping from Batman’s grip.