Birds of Prey is a
television drama series produced in 2002. The series was developed by
Laeta Kalogridis for
The WB and is loosely based on the
Birds of Prey DC Comics series. Despite the weekly
ratings of 7.6 million viewers and the network's largest audience in the 18-34 demographic at the time,
[Birds of Prey DVD news: Press Release for Birds of Prey - The Complete Series | TVShowsOnDVD.com] the series was cancelled. Thirteen episodes were produced in total.
The daughter of Batman and Catwoman. She is half-metahuman, with 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. This change is usually triggered by strong emotion, but can also be used to grant Helena enhanced night vision. She was raised by her mother, without ever knowing who her father was, until the night Catwoman was murdered in cold blood on the street, right in front of her. After this she was taken in by Barbara Gordon, who raised and trained her.
Originally one of Batman's many sidekicks, Barbara was shot by the Joker as revenge for Batman's dismantling of his criminal operation, leaving paralyzed and forced to give up her life as Batgirl. To compensate, she renamed herself Oracle, using her expertise in computer hacking and weaponry to fight crime. Oracle calls upon Huntress to handle the field work she is no longer capable of doing. By day Barbara is a teacher at New Gotham High, but by night she fights crime from a secret location 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 the Joker's revenge. She proves herself to the two and is taken in as a member of their team, with the condition that she train 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. The discovery of Dinah's relation to the Black Canary led Oracle to believes that she may also have inherited her mother's hypersonic ability, although it is never demonstrated.
