There has always been a rich vein of material that the creators and writers of television shows can mine, comic book. From the kids favorite Superman in the fifties through the campy incarnation of Batman in the sixties a decade doesn’t go by where some comic characters are not elevated to TV stars. Now, the old dime comic is a thing of the past; mostly replaced by the graphic novel. This has also allowed their authors to explore darker more emotional themes. Gotham City, the home of Batman and his contemporaries made an all too brief reappearance on television back in 2002 with the short lived series ‘Birds of Prey’. Like so many series of quality lately it was never given a chance to spread its wings and take off, so to speak. There was a lot of potential here in character development and story lines that were never afforded the opportunity to develop properly. I lasted only a mere thirteen episodes before the corporate ax fell leaving the fans dismayed. Let’s face it; this wasn’t the greatest transition of comic book characters to TV but there was untapped potential here. It takes a little bit of time for the cast and crew to meld together and get things right. It is reasonably certain that if given a chance to continue this show would have achieve much better than these episodes did. The main characters were interesting, and let’s face it, not difficult to look at. The stories were cliché but that was mostly due to the amount of exposition involved. The writers were still introducing the audience to a new variation of a familiar setting.

What did upset a lot of die hard fans was the fact that this series played fast and loose with the beloved comic and graphic novel characters. Generally, fans of this genre are rabid about remaining true to the way things were ‘documented’ in the comics. One thing that was a major problem for the die hard fans of this comic world was the deviations made from the canon of the comics. There are few fan bases as loyal to these fantasy worlds as the comic fan. Just go to any comic convention and this will become apparent with the first conversation you overhear. A lot of the characters here, including the main ones, are more of an amalgamation of DC comic characters. The have bits and pieces of several incarnations of the characters instead of picking one series and sticking to it. This was done to a lesser extent with the far more successful series ‘Smallville’ but there they kept enough of the general mythos of the characters to get by. Fans tend to want to see their favorite heroes and villains brought to life not a new interpretation of them. In defense of the creators and writers here comic is the modern equivalent of old world myths. Every culture had many of the same personas populating their particular Pantheon. In the world of comics things got so out of hand, especially in the DC universe, that the writers were forced to thin out the herd of variations and inconsistencies by rebooting the universe. I can understand being true to the comics you grew up with but this is in the final analysis a TV show and it should have had a chance to build its own universe, characters and rule set.

This variation is set in New Gotham City. There is nothing new about its look; it is a broken down dismal city with crime everywhere. Batman has abandoned the city after his arch nemesis the Joker murdered his one true love, Selina Kyle, better known by her nom de voyage, Catwoman. In that fatal fray his friend and crime fighting partner, Bat Girl, Barbara Gordon (Dina Meyer), was left parallelized and confined to a wheelchair. With Batman gone Barbara feels obligated to continue fighting crime the best way she can. She reinvents herself as Oracle, the mistress of all information in the city. From her lair in an abandoned clock tower she works behind the scenes to root out evil. By day she works as a teacher in Gotham High but at night she sits surrounded by computers hacking into any source of vital information out there. Always looking out for her is Bruce Wayne’s former butler, Alfred Pennyworth (Ian Abercrombie). Helping her is Helena Kyle (Ashley Scott). She was born to be a heroine since Batman and Cat Woman were her parents. She is a metahuman, a mutation that has super abilities. In her guise as the Huntress she is strong, amazingly agile and has heightened senses and speed. After the death of her mother and her father leaving town Barbara took her in to care for and train her. While Barbara is usually cool and calculating Helena is the opposite. Her feline personality traits often get her into trouble due to her quick temper and impulsive nature. She is often found in a local bar that is a hangout for various metahumans. In the first episode the third ‘bird’ enters. Dinah Redmond (Rachel Skarsten), is a teenager who wanders to New Gotham. She was drawn there by powerful precognitive visions. Her abilities, besides precognition, is being a touch telepath, able to tell things about people or objects by touching them, and telekinesis, moving objects with her mind. Dinah is having a rough time of it. Not only does she have the usual teen angst and rebellion she has to deal with her growing powers and ultimately with the fact that her mother is Caroline Lance (Lori Loughlin), better known as The Black Canary. Dinah is also overly anxious to become a real super hero and join Huntress in the field.

When Helena was arrested for graffiti she was sent to mandatory sessions with a psychologist and placed in the care of Dr. Harleen Quinzel (Mia Sara). Unknown to Helena the doctor is really Harely Quinn, the former lover of the Joker. With so many female characters you need a male or two around for some balance. Detective Jesse Reese (Shemar Moore) is usually busy investigating the plethora of crime in the city. He frequently comes into contact with the Huntress and the two begin a flirty relationship although Helena is determined to keep her real identity from him. Barbara also gets a chance to have a relationship with Wade Brixton (Shawn Christian), a guidance counselor at the high school.

This series had the potential to be a lot more than represented by the episodes here. It was refreshing to see strong female leads especially one who is physically challenged. The characters were just starting to develop and have their back stories revealed. It would have been interesting to see how they various threads and plots would have developed. Warner Brothers is releasing this ill fated series to DVD so if you are a fan you can finally get rid of those old VHS copies. If you haven’t seen it this is your opportunity to enjoy it.