Originally Posted by
Badou
Dick broke up with Bea before Taylor started his run, but the difference is that characters of Bea's level don't matter. That's the hard truth. They add nothing to a character like Nightwing overall. They are there to fill out page space, but they don't elevate Dick's story or create lasting impact. It is the same with characters from all sorts of creator's runs. Dick's sister from Taylor will fall to irrelevance too at some point, which I am fine with. Since I don't think characters like that matter in the end. So seeing Dick in a romance with a character of Babs' level is always going to elevate the impact because of how large a character she is and the history they share.
With current comics it is very rare to create new original characters that have any kind of lasting impact because most readers want to see already established characters interacting, and there are way too many established characters now to fit in the ongoing books DC has. Readers like seeing characters that have weight and history to them doing things together because it feels like it matters more. The perfect example of this is the Red Hood and the Outlaws series. If that series was just Jason creating a team of original characters it probably wouldn't have lasted as long, but because the characters were Roy, Starfire, Artemis, and Bizarro the Outlaws brand has persisted.
I'm not saying that creators shouldn't keep trying to create new characters, maybe some will beat the odds and stick around, but the stories and interactions that readers gravitate to are ones with major established characters. I've said this before but what Nightwing needs is not more original characters that readers will forget about, but actually well crafted stories with some top tier established villains. That is what will elevate the character's stories, and characters like a Bea, Svoboda, Clancy, and so many other in the end have little to no impact overall.