This show confuses me

[Seandream]

OK I understand that Batman is gone, but he seems to have taken everybody with him. Where are the Robins? Where are his enemies? Where is Commishoner Gordon? What is up with these metahumans? By the way I never knew Catwoman was anything besides human. Is the Joker live or dead? Barbera Gordon made it sound like he is still alive, but other characters have refered to him like he is no longer living.

[Dark Phoenix II]

They left some of that stuff out so that way it'll hook the viewer into watching the rest of the season for revelations. It's like what they did with the X-Files.

I'm presuming the Commissioner is dead or in an Assisted Living Home.

Metahumans are something the writer's threw in to make it more interesting or something...From what I understand, they don't exist in the canon. They're like mutants from the X-Men.

So far we have Harlequin as a recurring "enemy."

Harleen said in "Slick" that they took the Joker and locked him up on the other side of the country. So unless he died in prison, he's alive.

[Psychic Oracle]

Barbara rattled off a list of names during "Slick", refering to the past Robins (Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, and Tim Drake). We know in the comics that Jason Todd was killed, and that Dick Grayson became Nightwing, but we have yet to hear what the "Birds of Prey" version of their stories will be.

[jhowlett]

MetaHumans aren't really something new in the DC universe. If you check out today's heroes in DC almost all of them now have metahuman abilities. They just term it that way to avoid any legal issues with Marvel if the word 'mutant' is used.

I just wanna point out the this series runs under 3 different sets of factors...

1) Earth 1 DC Universe (Pre-Crisis of Infinite Earths)
2) Earth 2 DC Universe (post-crisis and present DC Universe)
3) "Writer's Universe"

So each story can be a mix of any of the three so we shouldn't be that critical.

The WB said it is 'based' on Birds of Prey and not a TV representation of the comic, so I shouldn't be that surprised if this change or that change or this isn't supposed to happen or where's who...'coz it'll make us dislike the show if we keep comparing it to the comic.

Remember the show's just starting and the comics have been around for a long time. So if I were you, just enjoy both for what they are and how they are presented.

[HyperGear]

My friends are clowning me for liking the show, its not really their problem the show isn't base on what Gotham City use to be.

I just hope the later episodes will show a more depth detail of plot of the show to its viewers.

[LilahMorgan]

I'm thinking the show is basing their Catwoman more on the Batman Returns film version. When she got tossed out of the window the cats started making her into a snack and she woke up not so human. Also, in the film, obviously Michelle Pfeiffer is blonde as was the woman they showed in the flashback of the pilot episode being stabbed.

Now, I'm shamefully admitting to never having read a Batman/Catwoman comic book, but from reading up on them these past few months, from what I can gather Catwoman was just a highly trained and completely human theif. And had long black hair ;)

Just my thoughts on what the producer's are basing Catwoman on :)

[Ted]

The producers have done more than admit they are referencing those films - they directly have. She's no Michelle Pfeiffer, but their Catwoman costume is just about exactly the same, AND if anyone saw their long teaser/trailer, they actually interspliced footage of the movie into it. They really pick up where the idea of Batman 2 left off.

[Helena]

I'm pretty glad that I haven't seen much of the movies. That would just completely confuse me because New Gotham seems to be way different. Thing that really bugs me though is that Batman is never mentioned. One of the Batman movies was on tonight, Batman Forever, and I caught a part of it..it was always showing stuff on the News (in the movie) and they were ALWAYS talking about Batman. Soooooo it's really confusing...I agree that much. The writers for BOP decided to just go crazy with their own ideas and whatnot.

[BoPRobinII]

The only Batman TV series that have taken place in the same universe are Batman the Animated Series/The New Adventures of Batman and Batman Beyond. The Batman movies, the original 60s Batman TV series, and BoP all take place in their own universes. However, BoP is a combination of the Batman Movie-verse, Animated Batman, and the Batman/Birds of Prey comic books. Also, the consensus seems to be that the show is set in the future, but I don't agree with that for two reasons:
1) The characters are way too young for the series to be set in the future
2) New Gotham doesn't look at all futuristic

I've come up with a BoP timeline that places the series in present day (2002) and still ties together everything we've been told about the series. As of right now, we're not totally sure where Dick, Tim, Commissioner Gordon, and some of Batman's other more famous adversaries like The Penguin, The Riddler, Two-Face, and Mr. Freeze are, or if they even exist in the BoP-verse, but I'm suspecting that that will change over the course of the series. To see my timeline, go here (http://www.birdsofpreyonline.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=305)

[Montana Magic]

This is really random, but does anyone know exactly where New Gotham is?

[Psychic Oracle]

In the DC universe, Gotham, Metropolis and Manhattan are all part of New York (according to a DC-obsessed friend of mine). But that's the comic universe. I have no idea where New Gotham from BoP is...

[jhowlett]

From what i hear...new gotham is like new jersey and new york=gotham so there's a little explanation on why batman's not there...

btw bludhaven is also a city next to either of the two so each (bop, batman and nightwing) technically have their own cities to watch...

[Hecate]

I was under the impression that New Gotham is just the renamed Gotham City because BOP is the "future" in the sense that it's after Batman's time and after the earthquake which reduced the city to "No Man's Land" in the comics (which the front for the meta-human bar is referring to). It's sort of like Smallville which is set in the present but is Superman's "past."

But basically, yeah, the show is it's own combination using meta-humans from the DC comic universe not the writers--it's what they say now instead of possessing super-powers which can be acquired many ways in addition to being born that way so it's not strictly like Marvel's mutants.

The writers have hinted that Catwoman is similar to the one in Batman Returns who must have had powers of some kind though there they weren't anything like Huntress's but then they've made a point to say that all meta powers are unique. The meta-human abilities in BOP bother me less than making Catwoman blonde--but I'm odd that way. Catwoman should be dark-haired ( like Helena--much more fitting with the comic version of Catwoman than her mother as shown in the pilot) Michelle Pfeiffer was fine but that was because her costume covered the hair so her hair color wasn't important--her features were feline and she had the character down otherwise so I overlooked the blonde. Catwoman should be dark-haired like her daughter-- recast her for future flashbacks or at least get someone better looking if they insist on keeping her blonde.

As to the other things... Commissioner Gordon (Dina Meyer has said she'd love to have Adam West play the part of her Dad) etc... that's for future episodes. They're trying to establish their own thing and work in Bat-elements and general DCU elements along the way. It's a lot of material to cover.