Birds of Prey.

Mark Evanier has a post on DC Comics changing its logo. As Mark notes, for those of us of an age, there is only one DC logo that looks right.

The original NY Times article which you may or may not be able to read here, notes that the logo will be applied across DC media, including, the article says, the release of the short-lived TV series, "Birds of Prey" on DVD.

I was intense fan of BoP during its run, and eventually located a dealer who was offering the complete series as a bootleg DVD set. As an aside, this person, another rabid BoP fan, was so nice and so little profit-driven that unsolicited he replaced most of the set he had originally sold me with higher-quality versions as he came across them.

One of the things I really liked about BoP, but which probably contributed to its demise, was its unwillingness to cater to the general public. You were either a fanboy/girl who got it, or you were part of the hoi polloi that didn't. The writers and producers didn't seem to care one way or the other.

Birds of Prey is the story of Helena Kyle, aka, "The Huntress," the daughter of Batman and Catwoman. Helena is partnered with Barbara Gordon, who, if you're a comic book fan, you might remember as Batgirl, but is Batgirl no longer (most of the time). After a pre-series attack by the Joker, Barbara is confined (most of the time) to a wheelchair, and has taken the code name, "Oracle."

The two women are joined by Dinah, who, as the series evolves, we discover is the daughter of the Black Canary, who makes a guest appearance late in the series. Batman is off-stage throughout the series, having left Gotham City for reasons never fully explained. The three women are served by Alfred, though, but don't live in stately Wayne manor. Gotham City has been hit earlier by some type of disaster, where most of the old town has been destroyed, and the rebuilt metropolis (small "m") is now known as "New Gotham." Metahumans, which is the preferred DC term to protect the "S" branding and identity, prowl the streets.

See what I mean? If you're a comics fan, you probably understood all that, as it loosely follows most of the threads of DC Universe continuity (possibly not current continuity. I don't know the DC Universe as well as I once did when I could read off the entire roster of the Legion of Super-Pets without taking a breath).

But ask the Average Bear (who is next to my computer as I write this) and he'll probably say, "Batman has a daughter? And where's Robin?"

Mr. Robin, he's now Nightwing, but that's another story. There's a very good BoP fan site here where you can learn more. I wouldn't recommend the series to anyone but the most hard-core of comic book fans (except for those fans of the extremely easy-on-the-eyes Ashley Scott, too. You knew I was going to get that in somewhere, didn't you?), but if/when it does come out in "official" release, and shows up at your friendly neighborhood video store, you might want to rent an episode or two. You could be pleasantly surprised.