Birds of Prey

In 2002 the WB aired a series called Birds of Prey, and it was a cool idea--female superheroes, based on the world of D.C. Comics. I watched the first episode when it aired, but lost track of it. I have now watched the full first and only season on DVD, and for the most part it was cheesy good fun.

The premise is that New Gotham has been without Batman for several years. He's been gone so long that people don't even remember him. But Batgirl (Dina Meyer) is still around, although she was shot and paralyzed by The Joker. She is now known as Oracle, and from her space-age wheelchair she watches over the city, surrounded by computers in a secret lair at the top of a clocktower.

She's assisted by Huntress (Ashley Scott), who is the daughter of Batman and Catwoman. She is a metahuman (the D.C. equivalent of Marvel's mutant) who prowls the city and kicks criminal ass. As the show begins, they take in a teenage girl, Dinah (Rachel Skarsten), who is both psychic and telekinetic. It is revealed later on that she is the daughter of D.C. heroine Black Canary.

None of these women have bird names, but the show was strangely called Birds of Prey (though they never refer to themselves as such). The show ran for 13 episodes, and it captures the simple pleasures of superhero comics without ever transcending them. There are a couple of story arcs across the season. Huntress has a growing bond with a detective (Shemar Moore), and Harley Quinn (Mia Sara), who is a psychiatrist by day, is a burgeoning crime queen by night.

The shows appeal to the comic geek in all of us. There's an episode where a guy can turn into water, and his name is--wait for it--Slick Waters. A crime kingpin ends up being played by two different actors, and the change in appearance is chalked up to plastic surgery. The dialogue is the kind of winking stuff that plays well in word balloons but sounds wincingly ridiculous when said aloud.

Despite that, I found myself involved in most of the episodes. Some familiar faces from D.C. show up, such as Clayface, and good old Alfred Pennyworth (played by Seinfeld's Mr. Pitt, Ian Abercrombie) and the action is well-paced. My favorite episode concerned an underground fighting ring that pitted metahumans against each other in an arena--it was called "Gladiatrix." Yes, this show was especially suited for teenage boys. Scott, in particular, with her eyes set just a little bit too wide apart, cut quite a figure in her long black leather trenchcoat and low-cut tops.

I am curious, though, why Harley Quinn has never shown up in any big-screen Batman film. Seems like a missed opportunity.