Barbara Gordon Helena Kyle Into the lives of these two remarkable women comes an innocent teenage girl named Dinah (Rachel Skarsten, Virginia's Run) who is drawn to the Clocktower by powerful, haunting visions. Unsure of her background, but impressed by her budding meta-human powers, the two crime-fighters take Dinah in, and the trio is complete. They are now the "Birds of Prey."

In this city full of crime and corruption, there is one honest cop. Detective Jesse Reese (Shemar Moore, The Brothers) is wrestling with his own dark secret - he is the son of New Gotham's most ruthless crime lord. Atoning for the sins of his father, Reese is on a personal mission to fight crime wherever he finds it, and he refuses to turn a blind eye to the strange events that always seem to involve the mysterious Helena Kyle.

In the center of this mix of heroes and villains is Harley Quinn, a brilliant madwoman who was the paramour of The Joker. Carrying on his dream of creating a criminal empire, Harley uses her daytime persona as a therapist to achieve her savage purpose - to release all the lunatics from mental institutions and use the resulting chaos to take control of New Gotham. Though Harley crosses paths often with Barbara and Helena, they are unaware of each other's secret identities.

As the leader of the "Birds of Prey," Barbara has gone from being Batman's protégé to the leader of a new generation of crime fighters who are determined to carry on his legacy. To her own surprise, Barbara finds that the responsibility of family - even a self-made family like these three amazing women - is ultimately just as important as any mission to save the world.
The changes between the comic and the TV show are manifold. For one thing the comic Birds of Prey is set squarely in the Gotham City / Blüdhaven nexus of the DC Universe. The former Batgirl dispenses information she has mined from the confines of her watch tower apartment, in comic and series. But in the comic she gives her info to most of the heroes in the DC Universe including the non-absent Batman, and former boy wonder, Nightwing.

Oracle does have a few regular agents that she “runs” directly via the radio earrings, but her main Archie Goodwin is the Black Canary, Dinah Lance. In the comic Dinah is the older woman. She has been around the block a few times – mostly with the original Green Arrow, Oliver Queen. Huntress (who is about the same age as Oracle in the comic) is an Oracle’s occasional agent, as is Power Girl, Spoiler, and the mysterious new Batgirl.

In addition to inexplicably changing the name of Gotham City to New Gotham, the TV series has made Barbara the oldest, most mature member of the Birds of Prey team. Indeed Dinah Lance is now a teenager – more the age of Black Canary’s daughter – if she had one … hmmmm… This might be an interesting idea for the TV show to explore in the future.

The team in the comic is decidedly lacking in super-powers. Oracle is smart, a whiz on computers, and she still works out despite her handicap. Huntress has the speed and agility of Batman. Black Canary does have a super-sonic cry, but she was without the power for the most of the issues I have read and she uses it sparingly. In the TV series, Huntress and Black Canary are meta humans. Huntress has super-human agility. Black Canary is psychic. They have become X-Men.

The most interesting change is the addition of Harley Quinn as a recurring villainess. Harley was created by Paul Dini for the wonderful Batman cartoon. She is a brilliant psychiatrist who has become the ditzy, masochistic girlfriend of the Joker. She proved so popular that she was moved over to the comics and now has her own monthly book. Moving her into the live-action world of the TV series was inspired.