The daughter of Bruce Wayne, Batman, and Selina Kyle, Catwoman. She is a metahuman, and possesses cat-like abilities inherited from her mother (also a metahuman in the Birds of Prey continuity): enhanced agility, strength, healing and a sixth sense for danger, as well as the ability to shift her eyes to a feline form, granting her enhanced vision and the ability to see in the dark. She was raised by her mother, without ever knowing who her father was, until the night Selina was murdered as an act of revenge by the Joker. After this she was taken in by Barbara, who raised and trained her.
Shot by the Joker as revenge for Batman's dismantling of his criminal operation, Barbara is paralysed and forced to give up her life as Batgirl. To compensate she becomes Oracle, using her expertise in computer hacking and weaponry to fight crime, calling upon Huntress to handle the field work she's no longer capable of doing. By day Barbara is a teacher at New Gotham High, but by night she fights crime from her secret lair in the New Gotham clocktower.
Also a metahuman, Dinah is drawn to New Gotham, and Helena and Barbara, by visions of the tragedies that befell them on the night of Joker's revenge. She proves herself to the two and is taken in as a member of their team, partly so Barbara can train her in the use of her metahuman abilities. In addition to her precognitive dreams, Dinah is a touch-telepath, able to read the thoughts of anyone she comes in physical contact with and later manifests the power of telekinesis, the ability to move objects with her mind. During the course of the series, Dinah discovers that her mother is actually Carolyn Lance, the Black Canary, also a metahuman and legendary superhero, who gave Dinah up for her own safety when she was a child.
A detective that encounters Huntress while investigating a rash of bizarre suicides. He is simultaneously drawn to her and disapproving of her disrespect for the law. Nevertheless the two are thrown together by cases involving metahuman abilities. Reese's father is Al Hawke, head of a powerful crime family and sworn enemy of Carolyn Lane, Dinah's mother.
Faithful Butler to the Wayne family. In Batman's absence he transfers his services to Helena and Barbara, and is often present at the clocktower, taking care of their day to day needs. He shares a close bond with Barbara, often listening to her problems or giving her advice on personal situations.
A psychiatrist Helena is ordered to see after being convicted of vandalism while chasing a thief. Unbeknowst to Helena, or the other Birds of Prey, she was the lover of the Joker, and has come to seek her revenge on New Gotham for what it did to her 'Mr J'. Though she presents herself as a respectable professional, one called upon by the authorities to work with violent and dangerous felons, Quinzel is herself insane, using her contact with the criminal world to mastermind her revenge.
Plot outline
The series is set in New Gotham city, several years after it has been abandoned by Batman, with Barbara Gordon, and Helena as the Huntress, having taken over his war on crime. The two are joined by Dinah after she assists them in defeating the Scarecrow, Alfred Pennyworth, who serves Helena as heir to the Wayne estate and Detective Jesse Reese, a police officer confronted with crimes and abilities he cannot explain.
A central feature of the series is the concept of metahumans: Individuals born with powers that cannot be explained, such as Helena and Dinah. No two metahumans have the same ability (or set of abilities) and there exists a whole sub culture of metahuman society that the outside world knows nothing about.
It is this world that Detective Reese is drawn into, reluctantly teaming up with Huntress and the Birds of Prey to defeat metahuman criminals. At first he is disapproving of Helena's vigilantism, even trying to arrest her, but eventually he realises there is a need for the Birds of Prey to take down criminals the police can't handle.
During the course of the show the Birds of Prey often find themselves confronted with schemes masterminded by Dr. Quinzel, though they are unaware of her involvement until the final episodes of the series. Her attempts to discover what Helena is hiding, and the duplicitous nature of their therapy sessions together, form a large part of the series arc, beginning in the pilot episode, and being resolved in the series finale.
Barbara Gordon's paralysis and subsequent donning of the mantle of Oracle however, and the notion of the two characters as a team, comes from the graphic novel The Killing Joke (which has a scene very similar to one of the opening moments of the first Birds of Prey episode) and subsequent Birds of Prey comics.
The concept of Bruce Wayne giving up his alter-ego and going into seclusion after the death of a loved one is somewhat similar to The Dark Knight Returns and the destruction of Gotham City (as indicated by the constant references to "New Gotham") was also a stroyline (No Man's Land) featured in the comics.
Declining ratings led to the series cancellation, but as several episodes of the thirteen episode order were yet to be filmed, the producers were able to wrap up the storylines in the last three episodes.
An original pilot exists, darked in tone than the one eventually screened, and featuring Sherilyn Fenn as Harleen Quinzel. When the show was picked up for series Fenn was unavailable and her role was recast with Mia Sara. The scenes with Quinzel were subsequently refilmed, but are almost identical to the originals. One storyline that was substantially altered between the two different pilots is that of Barbara and her love interest Wade. In the original version Barabara is shown breaking up with him, while in the aired version, the two are just beginning to date. The scenes of their breakup were retained, and later used in a subsequent episode.
The characterisation of Catwoman as a metahuman, with her own set of enhanced abilities, is closer to the film Catwoman, released several years after this series, where the main character possesses super powers. In the comics, none of the women to use the name Catwoman have had special abilities.
In France the series is known as Les Anges de la Nuit. Translated this means 'Angels of the Night'.
The map of New Gotham is identical to one used in the Batman comic book cycle "No Man's Land", which told the story of the destroyed Gotham and is also the name of the metahuman bar in the show.
Although Barbara, as Oracle, does not wear a superhero costume, she is shown wearing her Batgirl costume in a couple of episodes, including flashbacks and one episode in which Barbara temporarily regains the ability to walk.
According to Warner Home Video, DVD release of the series in North America in the near future is unlikely due to the cost of licensing the music used on the program.[1]
The Russian group t.A.T.u.'s song "All The Things She Said" was featured in episode 13 of the series.
There is a "Smallville" reference in the first episode, when Huntress and Oracle explain that the meteor shower was a possible orgin of metahumans to Dinah.
There is another "Smallville" reference in the third episode, where Detective Martin starts listing off the various metahumans he's encountered. He mentions "perps who can shoot electricity from their hands, perps who can jump 10 stories straight down and land on their feet, perps who can turn into bugs." The perp landing on their feet is there to connect the situation to Huntress, but the other two were the first two villains in "Smallville".
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