Tiana Toomes (Earth-616)

Tiana Toomes was born to Lenora and Frankie Toomes, however, her father later left them. Tiana's grandfather, the Vulture, started to take care of the family by giving them stolen money, hoping to make amends for the actions of his son. Tiana and her mother were often visited by Toomes, who wanted to spend time with his granddaughter and convinced Lenora to accept the money. After her mother died due to a surgical error, Adrian offered Tiana his guardianship, and she came to admire her grandfather. As she grew, Adrian gave her a suit based on his Vulture suit and encouraged her to pursue her dreams.^[4]

She first met Spider-Man (Miles Morales) after she beat up a group of Tombstone's henchmen in a junkyard. Thinking he was another superpowered henchman of Tombstone's, she attacked him, but once he convinced her that he was one of the good guys, they talked about how she had been tracking Tombstone since leaving Detroit. After the brief encounter, Starling flew off to follow another lead, but gave Spider-Man her number in case he came across Tombstone first.^[5]

Starling caught up with Spider-Man at Tombstone's penthouse in Brooklyn Heights. She faced a large number of Tombstone's henchman, who started to shoot at her, but she deflected the bullets using her wings as shields. After grabbing one of the guys and almost dropping him off the building, Spider-Man intervened to pull him back up, claiming that wasn't the right way to deal with it. As they finished taking out the group together, Tombstone busted open the roof door and began shooting a gatling gun in their direction. Starling flew right at Tombstone and one of the bullets penetrated through Starling's stomach, knocking her to the ground.^[3]

Despite her injury, Starling grabbed Tombstone by the shirt and flew him straight up in the air, planning to drop him to his death. Seeing this, Spider-Man fired his webbing to Tiana's feet and, when she did drop him, he tangled himself with Tombstone, hoping Tiana would come back to save them both. Despite being visibly upset, Tiana did rescue them from the fall and lowered them down to the ground.^[3]

Tombstone was arrested for the assault, and Starling and Spider-Man got a chance to talk alone on a rooftop. Starling unmasked herself, revealing to the web-slinger that she was the granddaughter of the Vulture and hoping that Spider-Man would also reveal his identity to her, but when he failed to do so, she simply bid him farewell.^[3]

After learning the truth about her grandfather from the other Spider-Man (Peter Parker),^[1] Starling was glad when Miles asked her to accompany him on his regular patrol. After defeating the Frost Pharaoh together, Miles finally revealed his identity to her and the two kissed before she left.^[6]

When the government enacted "Kamala's Law", which outlawed individuals under the age of 21 from superheroing, Starling joined the secret meeting of the Champions held by Ms. Marvel. Tiana expressed pessimism in this ordeal and nearly got in a fight with fellow hero Nova. Later, when C.R.A.D.L.E., led by Justice, ambushed them, Starling was one of the few who managed to escape.^[7]

Once the Champions successfully repelled "Kamala's Law",^[8] Tiana finally reached out to her grandfather to tell him she knew about his criminal past. She told him she still loved him and would therefore not turn him in, but the two of them could never talk again.^[9] He respected her wishes for a while, but eventually decided Tiana's closeness with one of the "spider-people" would only bring her sorrow, and reached out to her to inform her he was going to kill her boyfriend to protect her. Upon hearing her grandfather's plan, she threatened to shoot him, but he called off her bluff. As he prepared to leave, Miles appeared and brutally assaulted the Vulture, forcing Tiana to intervene to stop Miles from killing him. After the Vulture escaped, she confronted Miles about what had just happened and learned of his new vampire powers, that had been proving very hard to control. Determined to help him get through this, she accompanied Miles when he met with his mentor Misty Knight, his therapist Dr. Kwan and the Black Panther to discuss some possible breakthrough to cure his condition.^[10] The Black Panther gave Miles a vibranium suit that would help him control his powers, but Tiana wasn't happy with this solution, since it wouldn't actually cure anything. Before they could discuss it further, however, the Vulture returned with new upgrades and attacked Spider-Man.^[11] Seeing the Vulture intent on killing her boyfriend, she tackled her own grandfather and punched him, before he calmed down and finally listened to her. Once more, she asked him to leave her alone, and he complied, telling her he hoped she would one day find it in herself to forgive him.^[12]

An alternate version of the Vulture's Wings.^[3] Carries a laser gun of some sort.^[13] Her suit has built-in strength-enhancing fiber and micromotors.^[14]

• Tiana chose the name Starling because she claims that the bird of the same name has a bad reputation, but is only trying to survive, like everyone else.^[6]
• As a teenaged, African-American relative of the Vulture who becomes a love interest to a Spider-Man, Tiana shares some similarities with the Liz Allan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

• Tiana is an aspiring artist, a passion that her grandfather endorses.^[3][1]
• Tiana's origin is very similar to that of another grandchild of Vulture, introduced in Marvel Knights: Spider-Man #4. Tiana and the unnamed boy are either cousins or siblings.