The newest variant of Miles Morales’ girlfriend Starling from What If…? suggests the hero might have a heroic legacy in her future.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for What If…? Miles Morales was Captain America #1, now on sale from Marvel Comics
The Marvel Universe is full of young heroes, with the current crop of them recently headlining their own multi-volume title in Champions. While many of them haven’t had many alternate universe counterparts introduced yet, one of the more notable ones just got a variant that proves she might have a heroic destiny even outside Earth-616.
The Tiana Toomes variant who just appeared in What If…? Miles Morales was Captain America #1 (by Cody Ziglar, Paco Medina, Walden Wong, Victor Olazaba, Sean Parsons, Chris Sotomayor, and VC’s Cory Petit) showed how even across the multiverse, Starling will always be a hero no matter the mantle.
Tiana Toomes — aka Starling, was introduced in 2019’s Miles Morales: Spider-Man #5 by Saladin Ahmed and Javier Garrón. Despite her relatively new status in the Marvel Universe, the granddaughter of the Vulture has been using her own flight suit to leave a major impression on the current crop of new Marvel heroes. She’s been an ally of the Champions, butted heads with Ms. Marvel, and has recently become Mile Morales’ girlfriend — going on multiple dates across the city and even teaming up against Taskmaster. It’s been an enjoyable position for the character, helping force Miles to relax while establishing her skills. However, her confrontational nature — especially with other heroes young heroes during Outlawed — has positioned hers as a potential wildcard compared to Miles’ other friends from the Champions.
What If… Miles Morales was Captain America just established that Tiana can become a hero across the multiverse, suggesting her heroism is a major element of the character. In the world where Miles was exposed to a variant of the Super Soldier Serum instead of a radioactive spider, he became the S.H.I.E.L.D. supported hero Captain America. While he does have a Falcon as a partner, it’s not Sam Wilson (who in this reality has settled into a position akin to Nick Fury’s old role as Director of the spy organization). Instead, it’s Tiana who’s assumed the mantle, wearing a Falcon suit similar to Sam’s current Captain America costume. On top of being partners, the pair are still romantically entangled.
The pair made an impressive team, handling themselves well against the still villainous Black Widow of this reality and fighting against the weapons dealer the Grey Skull. There are some distinct differences between the core-Marvel Universe version of the character and her new multiversal counterpart, however. Tiana was still snarky, but she’s far more willing to work along with the authorities in this reality as opposed to her more rebellious Earth-616 incarnation and proves far more willing to take orders from others. She’s also a more established hero than the still fairly street-level Starling. As the Falcon, this version of Tiana helped save countless lives from a multiversal gate, powered by their world’s Cosmic Cube, and overall proved very capable at taking on the mantle of Falcon in this reality.
It’s an interesting connection and proved that Starling is a hero at heart with multiple realities now supporting the idea that the granddaughter of one of Spider-Man’s oldest villains is destined for great things. The concept of tying her to the legacy of the Falcon is also an interesting one as well and could tie her into the overall legacy of iconic roles outside of her connections to the Spider-Man corner of the universe. While her former Champion ally Joaquín Torres — the current Falcon — has appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Sam Wilson’s friend in Falcon and the Winter Soldier, it’d be interesting to see that legacy continue with an eventual MCU Starling, further coding her as one of the new heroes of the Marvel Universe.
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