3. The Rogue Gallery
Of course any hero, be it Achilles or Ambush Bug, is ultimately defined by their villains. Though I may have stressed the human nature of the Batman being a major part of his appeal, Batman’s rogue gallery was a distorted reflection of the Bat’s nature, as most of Batman’s villains at the end of the day are (primarily) human as well. Yeah, Mr. Freeze used a freeze ray, but it’s still based on cold fusion. Every other Bat-rogue is just some guy who got scarred in a freak accident and decided to make a career out of it. Really, the only meta humans are Clayface and Killer Croc. The only Batman villain other than the Joker and Harley Quinn to appear in Birds of Prey is Clayface, doing his best homage to The Silence of the Lambs when Helena questions him in Arkham Asylum. It sort of makes sense actually, as Clayface used to be an actor before his freak chemical accident, explaining why a guy whose face looks like a scrotum would need to emulate Anthony Hopkins, but with a Cajun accent interestingly enough, for as many villainy points as possible.
As ridiculous as it all sounds, this scene with a legitimate Batman villain is actually not half-bad, which is a shame as it is entombed in an episode following Clayface II, the son of Clayface, who can inexplicably turn people into clay by touching them. Just when we thought we were getting some solid villainy we fell right back into the villain of the week trope that served Smallville so well. Random corpse found murdered in a freaky way, track homicide method to the only individual in the world that kills people that way, fight scene to something by tatu (or something by Michelle Branch if you’re stuck with the iTunes version), repeat. Incidentally, some of the Birds of Prey villains were literally leftovers from Smallville, as meteor showers are one of the most common causes of the meta-human gene here as well. Pair this up with the obligatory clock tower self-contemplation scene tacked onto every episode standing in for Clark’s barn and it’s no surprise that the two shows had so much in common.
But hey, if the meat grinder villain-machine worked for Smallville, why didn’t it work for Birds of Prey? Part of the appeal of Batman has always been in the exploration of the limits of humanity, both in himself and his villains. To strip this explanation away in favor of a meta-human X-factor detracts from this exploration in it’s entirety. Villains here don’t have an interesting origin story, just one line explaining they ingested something that should’ve killed them or are simply insane, and that’s it. It’s one thing for the meteor freaks of Smallville, as Superman is an alien, thus raising the bar for potential nemesis formidability. Yeah, the Huntress has a super human gene, thus requiring meta-human foes as well, but cat eyes, an ability to scale and descend buildings with ease (which I honestly think was included so that no one had to develop a working bat-grapple) and increased fighting abilities aren’t exactly “super” powers. This is probably why every meta-human fight in the show, even with totally-not-hydro-man Slick Waters (played by an always appreciated Silas Weir Mitchell) always devolves to a fist fight.
