‘Birds’ Rule the Bat Cave

A fleeing man is fatally injured when running into a truck. “Don’t let them get me,” he cries out. Then the rats come.

If the WB’s “Birds of Prey” flies, it won’t be because its first half is easily fathomed by those unfamiliar with the DC comic book of the same name. Why would it succeed?

Try self-mocking humor and gorgeous dominatrixes in leather.

Take notes:

The setting is New Gotham, where Helena (Ashley Scott) calls herself Huntress while operating from a high-tech secret lair (what you know as a cave) with her legal guardian, Barbara (Dina Meyer), who calls herself Oracle and tools around in a motorized wheelchair after a bullet from the Joker ended her career as Batgirl. By the way, Huntress is the daughter of Batman and the late, great Catwoman, and she regularly spills her guts to the Jokeresque shrink Harleen Quinzel (Mia Sara). And Oracle is the daughter of that bounder, Commissioner Gordon.

Despite her disability and being needed to run the technology at Cave Central, Oracle is no shut-in, and she hits the streets of New Gotham with her young ward. Huntress is a sort of punked-out La Femme Nikita with attitude to burn, and the rigors of crime control are making her testy.

“Would it kill you to go to the grocery store once in a while?” she grouses to Oracle. “You try fighting the forces of evil when your blood sugar is low.”

Now, they are about to become a trio, for arriving from the boonies is Dinah (Rachel Skarsten), a teenager whose telepathic gifts include the power of touch. “This is beyond weird,” says Dinah.

Amen. Even though the caped Big Guy himself is somehow absent from New Gotham, “Birds of Prey” follows in the great tradition of superhero noir. It’s grim, dark, smoky and, most important, ripping good fun as these butt-kicking Dynamic Dolls have themselves some nights on the town.

And who is minding Wayne Manor? Why, Alfred the butler, of course.

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“Birds of Prey” will be shown at 9 p.m. Wednesdays on the WB. The network has rated it TV-14LV (may be unsuitable for children under the age of 14, with advisories for coarse language and violence).

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Howard Rosenberg can be contacted at howard.rosenberg@latimes.com