Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Birds of Prey

Collapse
X
 
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Birds of Prey

    Hi. I'm still in the process of working on this, but I came up with an idea for a "loose reworking" of the 2002 WB series Birds of Prey, and wanted to share it with people in order to get some feedback, and figured this might be a good place to do so.

    Birds of Prey
    Concept and Premise
    Concept:
    "Birds of Prey" is a brand-new television series based on characters and concepts owned by DC Comics. The series follows the eponymous "Birds of Prey", a team of superheroines who fight crime in the city of Platinum Flats, California, and is a "loose reworking" of the 2002 Birds of Prey television series that aired on The WB for a single season of 13 episodes.

    Premise:
    Barbara Gordon is a genius-level technical wizard who once fought crime on the streets of Platinum Flats as the vigilante known as Nightwing until she went up against a villain called Bane, who physically overpowered her and broke her spine, paralyzing her from the waist down and leaving her with no choice but to fight crime from the sidelines and serve as a mentor to her younger partner, Helena Kyle, AKA Flamebird. When a former college roommate of hers, a Metahuman named Carolyn Lance - who had unknowingly followed in Barbara's footsteps by becoming a costumed vigilante - the Black Canary - herself arrives in Platinum Flats with her daughter Dinah, who has just escaped 6 months of abuse and torture at the hands of a crime boss named Al Hawke and his associates that resulted in the activation of her own Metahuman abilities, Barbara and Helena find themselves working with Carolyn to protect Dinah and stop Al Hawke's two agents - Savant and Creote - from killing them all. In the process, they discover that there are members of Platinum Flats' criminal underworld who want both Carolyn and Dinah dead or captured for their own ends and who will stop at nothing to see those goals accomplished.

    Characters
    Main:
    • Barbara Gordon/Nightwing: A genius-level technical wizard, Barbara fought crime in Platinum Flats as the costumed vigilante known as Nightwing. However, her career patrolling the streets of the city came to a violent end when she went up against a villain called Bane who physically overpowered her and broke her spine, paralyzing her from the waist down and leaving her no choice but to fight crime from the sidelines and serve as a mentor to her younger partner, a Metahuman named Helena Kyle who fought alongside her under the codename of Flamebird. Barbara hides her and Helena's crimefighting behind the facade of a technology company called Clocktower Automated Security Enterprises (C.A.S.E.), using the profits from the business to pay for the gadgets that Helena uses out on the streets of Platinum Flats and the computer systems that she uses to track criminal activity in the city.
    • Helena Kyle/Flamebird: The daughter of a prostitute named Selena Kyle, Helena discovered her Metahuman powers - superhuman strength, cat-like agility, and the ability to channel fire - when one of her mother's clients - a man named Vincent Karlo - murdered her mother over "insufficient services" and then tried to rape and kill her; the activation of her powers allowed her to fight him off and escape. Shortly thereafter, Helena snuck into Barbara Gordon's clocktower residence to steal some food and was caught when Barbara returned from one of her nightly crimefighting missions, resulting in Helena discovering her identity as Nightwing. Although Barbara was reluctant, Helena was able to convince her to train her and let her fight alongside her, adopting the codename Flamebird.
    • Carolyn Lance/Black Canary: A Metahuman born with the ability to produce supersonic waves using her vocal cords, Carolyn Lance first met Barbara Gordon in college, and later went on to follow her former roommate into the 'vigilante business', using her powers and a homemade costume to protect the citizens of her hometown, Opal City, Missouri, while also trying to keep her 'double life' secret from her husband and their young daughter Dinah. However, things caught up to her when her husband died under mysterious circumstances and she returned home to find her daughter missing, a bomb strapped to the bottom of the young girl's bed, and a message from one of Opal City's most notorious crime bosses - Al Hawke - taking credit for both her husband's death and her daughter's disappearance, and warning her to back off investigating his criminal enterprises. Carolyn spent the next six months searching for her daughter - bankrupting herself in the process - and is eventually able to reunite with her, only to discover that the abuse and torture she'd suffered at the hands of Al Hawke and his subordinates had activated her own Metahuman powers. Unwilling to return to their home and without the funds to support themselves as she helped train her daughter to use her powers, Carolyn remembers that Barbara had taken in a young Metahuman and was raising and training her, and so she and Dinah head for Platinum Flats, unaware that they're being trailed by two of Al Hawke's most trusted agents, Savant and Creote.
    • Dinah Lance:Carolyn's 14-year-old Metahuman daughter, whose psionic Metahuman powers were activated by the 6 months of abuse and torture she suffered at the hands of Al Hawke and his subordinates. Unsure of what her powers mean and therefore reluctant to use them, she forms an almost-immediate friendship with Helena after she and her mom arrive in Platinum Flats.
    • Jessie Reese: A junior detective with the Platinum Flats Police Department, Jessie serves as Barbara and Helena's law enforcement 'contact', the person they rely on for information about criminal activity. He also has a bit of a romantic attraction towards Helena, even though she continuously rebuffs his advances. He also has a secret connection to the Hawke crime family of Opal City, Missouri, and therefore an unknowing connection to Carolyn and Dinah.
    • Brian Durlin: Brian Durlin grew up as a member of Opal City's upper class until everything came crashing down following the stock market crash of 2008. It turned out that the privileged lifestyle he'd grown accustomed to had come about as a result of insider trading his parents had done, leaving them in jail and him without a penny to his name. It was then that Al Hawke came calling. He offered to bankroll Brian's lifestyle in exchange for favors and errands, and Brian, eager to get back to the posh lifestyle he'd been living, agreed. He eventually rose within the Hawke organization to become Al's personal bodyguard and 'fixer', and was the person Al tasked with killing Carolyn Lance's husband and kidnapping her daughter Dinah. He was also one of the people who abused the young girl most frequently. When Carolyn manages to find her daughter and they both head for Platinum Flats, Durlin, along with another of Hawke's top agents, a Russian KGB operative named Aleksandr Creote, are dispatched to pursue and kill them.
    • Aleksandr Creote: A KGB operative who somehow ended up in Opal City and became a member of Al Hawke's criminal entourage, forming a tightknit bond with Brian Durlin. He was one of several people who had a hand in torturing and abusing Dinah Lance, and was severely injured when her Metahuman powers activated, with the 'psionic shockwave' that resulted rendering him all but mute. When Dinah is reunited with her mother and they head for Platinum Flats, Creote, along with Durlin, is dispatched by Al Hawke to pursue and kill them.


    Recurring:
    • Wade Brixton: A guidance councilor at Platinum Flats High School who meets Barbara online and begins a romantic relationship with her.
    • Gibson Kafka: A Metahuman who possesses perfect photographic memory. He runs No Man's Land, a "metahuman bar" that Helena likes to frequent.
    • Harleen Quinzel: A major player within the Platinum Flats criminal underworld, Harleen Quinzel hides her illicit activities behind the facade of a legitimate business, Harlequin Technologies. Determined to use Metahumans - whom she secretly despises - for her own twisted ends, Harleen learns of Al Hawke's desire to kill Carolyn Lance and her daughter Dinah and reaches out to his agents, Savant and Creote, when they arrive in the city, offering to help them accomplish their goal.
    • Al Hawke: The head of Opal City's Hawke crime family. He figured out that Carolyn Lance was the vigilante known as the Black Canary and ordered the death of her husband Kurt and the kidnapping of her daughter Dinah in order to send her a message about backing off her pursuit of him. Ruthless, uncompromising, and unaccepting of failure, Al has a secret connection to Jessie Reese, and is also able to find out that Carolyn and Dinah are headed for Platinum Flats, prompting him to send two of his most trusted agents, Brian Durlin and Aleksandr Creote, in pursuit of them.


    In coming up with the ideas for the series, I started with the 2002 BoP series as a "baseline" and then added, subtracted, or changed things around in order to make it feel fresh and able to stand on its own without having to explicitly rely on the Batman mythos, which I felt was an element of the original BoP series that didn't necessarily need to be present, particularly in the current "superhero television" environment we find ourselves in.

    ***

    As I noted above, I'd appreciate any feedback or thoughts that people have on the concept, including things that they think I should change, add, or subtract.
Working...
X
😀
🥰
🤢
😎
😡
👍
👎