The WB Network | Review by Dan Taylor
I suppose it was inevitable.
With the success of SMALLVILLE,
last season's Superman-Meets-Dawson's-Creek
reinvention, it was only a matter of time
before Warner Bros. (owners of DC Comics
characters) plundered the vaults for another
title to turn into a weekly WB series.
And if you're gonna plunder
the vaults, why not tap the deep, dark legacy
of the Caped Crusader?
BATMAN projects have been
all the rage the last few years, though
few of them are close to seeing the light
of day. Newspapers and magazines have been
filled with everything from new cinematic
projects (BATMAN: YEAR ONE, BATMAN BEYOND,
BATMAN VS. SUPERMAN) to a Brodway musical
penned by Jim Steinman and directed by Tim
Burton. Unfortunately, about the only places
to get a dose of the Dark Knight these days
have been at the newsstand or on Cartoon
Network.
But all of that's about to
change with the upcoming premiere of BIRDS
OF PREY, a Batman spin-off that still has
plenty of the old boy's feel even if he's
nothing more than a shadowy presence in
the storyline.
BIRDS takes place in New Gotham,
a town forever changed by events that occurred
on a rainy night seven years ago. In the
aftermath of a battle with a "shadowy
madman known as The Joker," socialite
Selina Kyle is murdered in front of her
daughter Helena (Ashley Scott) while Batgirl
(Dinah Meyer) is shot and left for dead
by the Clown Prince of Crime himself.
Kyle, for those of you not
hip to the Batman mythos, is none other
than Catwoman, the sexy jewel thief and
lover of... you guessed it, Bruce Wayne
aka Batman. Which makes Helena the offspring
of Gotham's greatest defender and one of
its arch villains. So much for mixing business
with pleasure!
With his galpal knifed and
sidekick paralyzed by the Joker's bullet,
Bats goes a little, well, batty and takes
a powder. Batgirl (aka Barbara Gordon) takes
the whole thing a bit better, and though
confined to a wheelchair, embarks on a new
crime-fighting career as Oracle, a computer
whiz who has teamed up with Helena, now
known as Huntress. Oh, and there's a psychic
teenager named Dinah (Rachel Skarsten) who
has arrived in New Gotham looking for Huntress
and Oracle after seeing them in her visions.
Whew...
got all that? Good, 'cause the show's producers
waste no time in establishing this framework
and throwing us right into a mystery involving
the apparent suicides of prominent businessmen.
Are the deaths connected? Is the whole thing
somehow related to the events of seven years
ago? More importantly, are we gonna get
Meyer out of the wheelchair and into the
Batgirl costume each week?
As a big fan of both SMALLVILLE
and Batman, I wasn't sure what to expect
with BIRDS. The show is definitely "superhero"
oriented, yet still works in plenty of off-beat
touches that should make it worth a weekly
visit. The interpersonal relationships might
seem better suited to DAWSON'S CREEK or
7TH HEAVEN, but throw in some sly nods to
comic history and the Batman mythos and
we've got a keeper on our hands.
Geeky nitpicking aside, BIRDS
OF PREY is probably the best superhero show
to hit the tube since the late, lamented
version of THE FLASH. Do I smell a sweeps
week appearance by the Caper Crusader or
a SMALLVILLE crossover???
One question, though.
We've always been told that Batman's only
real super "power" is his keen
detective skills. So how come the Dark Knight
Detective never figured out that Helena
is his daughter?
