For fans of the 2002 WB series “Birds of Prey,” the wait for closure has been a long one. The show, which followed Helena Kyle, Barbara Gordon and Dinah Lance protecting a post-Batman New Gotham, was canceled after just 13 episodes, leaving a number of dangling threads and one very conspicuous unanswered question: where, exactly, did the Dark Knight go?
Writer and colorist Matt Truex has spent the last four years crafting his answer.
“Birds of Prey: Revolution,” published this month on Truex’s website, dailyknockoff.com, is a 70-plus-page original fan comic illustrated by Maicou Oliveira, with cover art by Mickaël Journou and lettering by Nikki Powers. For Truex, the project was a long time coming.
“Something like this has been a dream project of mine for a long time,” Truex said. “I love writing and comics in general, and have been obsessed with the ‘Birds of Prey’ TV series since the night it premiered back in 2002. Having this as my passion project over the past few years has been a purely creative venture and a true joy.”
The road to publication was genuinely long. Truex first developed the plot roughly four years ago, writing the script over a month or two before connecting with Oliveira.
“I was lucky enough to find artist Maicou Oliveira pretty soon thereafter and contracted him for the book,” Truex said, “so most of the past four years have been him drawing and me coloring between other projects.” The arrangement had its pleasures. “I was very spoiled getting these beautiful pages from him once or twice a month for a while. I miss that part of the process.”
The project imagines what the show’s series finale might have looked like had it reached the end of a full five-season run. Truex is quick to credit the original series finale as underrated, but says one unresolved promise always nagged at him.
“For a short-lived show, the original series finale is spectacular,” Truex said. “Easily one of, if not the, most rewatched episodes of television of my life. That said, there was an implicit promise baked into the series all the way back to the pilot that, at some point, the question ‘where the hell is Batman?!’ would have been answered. They didn’t have the time to get there, unfortunately, so that’s where the idea of this story came from. What would the show’s series finale have looked like after five seasons, and how might they have finally answered the Batman question fans were so desperate to learn the answer to?”
The story centers on Helena Kyle, the Huntress, portrayed on screen by Ashley Scott. As the daughter of Batman and Catwoman, the character served as the emotional core of the original series, and Truex made honoring that legacy his first priority.
“That iteration of the character was very unique to the series, so honoring her came first and foremost,” Truex said. “The writing fun was coming up with a story that saw her at the top of her game at the beginning, get emotionally wrecked by the anger and betrayal that accompany Batman’s reappearance, and then build herself back up again. Showing the character’s evolution from vigilante to full-blown superhero is the biggest thrill of the piece in my eyes.”
For readers unfamiliar with the series, Truex structured the story with accessibility in mind.
“Think of it as if you’re watching an Avengers sequel or something like that,” Truex said. “You’ll know the basics, Batman and Alfred are there, of course, and learn the rest of what you need along the way. But the themes are pretty universal, so I think people can easily pick up on the core of the characters and enjoy it for what it is.”
Truex also has a recommendation for the uninitiated: “If you’ve gotten this far, at least pop on the pilot and check it out. If you ever responded to ‘Buffy,’ ‘Smallville,’ ‘Alias,’ or other shows of that era, ‘Birds of Prey’ might be the nostalgic kick you’ve been looking for. Just don’t forget to read our story after!”
The project arrives at a moment when the nature of fan creativity is being actively debated, and Truex is unambiguous about where he stands on AI-generated content.
“I hate that we live in a timeline where you have to ask that question, but it’s an important one,” Truex said.
His conviction informed every financial and creative decision made on “Revolution.” He paid Oliveira for every page of the story and watched them grow into the material over time.
“He took his time drawing it, looking at the reference and notes I gave him, and got better and better at portraying the characters as he went,” Truex said. “I then struggled against my mediocre skills to color his pages as professionally as I could and learned a ton along the way. Whether a reader likes the finished product or not, there is no argument in my mind that it is art.”
The alternative, Truex said, would have been no alternative at all.
“Could I have saved that money and come up with some version of this in an hour or two with a script and a few AI bots? Sure. But I would have gained nothing. The whole exercise would be as worthless as all the rest of the AI trash out there.”
He framed the issue as a call to action for anyone who cares about the creative arts.
“If people are a fan of the arts, any art, it’s more important than ever to prioritize and patronize creators like Miacou, cover artist Mickaël Journou, and the story’s letterer, Nikki Powers,” Truex explained.
The original “Birds of Prey” series premiered in September 2002, just three weeks after “Firefly,” another genre show canceled in its first season that has since been lavished with comics, merchandise and a forthcoming animated continuation. The contrast is not lost on Truex, but it only sharpened his motivation to fill the void himself.
“Birds of Prey: Revolution” is available to read in full at dailyknockoff.com.
