Salon.com: Holy Batbabes!
The premiere episode of "Birds of Prey,"... is 70 minutes long for a reason: The show's creators have a lot of explaining to do. Roughly, the setup is this: Seven years earlier, Batman and his sidekick Batgirl (Dina Meyer), aka Barbara Gordon, daughter of the Commissioner, fought the Joker in the tunnels underneath the dockyards of New Gotham (how or why the city changed its name is never explained.)
The Joker lost, but took his revenge on Batman by killing his lover, Selena Kyle (aka Catwoman) and shooting Batgirl. In an uncharacteristic Batmove, the Caped Crusader skipped town, and Batgirl, now confined to a wheelchair, took in Helena Kyle (Ashley Scott), the love child he never knew he had.
Batgirl has reinvented herself as the Oracle, a computer genius who keeps tabs on the city's evildoers from her high-tech clock tower and has trained Helena to fight crime as the Huntress. Helena is a surly 20-something Goth superhero with anger-management problems, daddy hangups and abandonment issues, as well as a penchant for black latex and sheer tops.
As the story begins, the two are joined by Dinah (Rachel Skarsten), who fills the gee-whiz Robin role. Dinah is a teenage "metahuman" who ran away from home to find them after having seen them in her dreams. Got all that? Good; there's a Batquiz tomorrow.
The dark angels are also assisted by Batman's Bosley-esque butler, Alfred, who narrates the story, occasionally does their laundry and stocks their fridge. The top villain in New Gotham is Dr. Harleen Quinzen (Mia Sara), the Huntress' court-appointed therapist and a psychopath with a dream: To pin New Gotham under her stiletto and watch it writhe.
Monday, October 14, 2002
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