Birds of Prey: Gladiatrix

There's a man on the loose preying on metahuman women, who he is taking to fight in vicious one on one fights to the death. His latest acquisition: Huntress.

Why is it that I can invariably come up with two or three ways to make episodes of this show better? This one is basically a fight club, only with metahumans, and that's the beginning and end of the story. Throw in a bit of rivalry between the now well-trained Dinah and Huntress and you've got... well, not a lot. What's the point in sending Dinah out on missions if Huntress is going to treat her like a useless subordinate. Not only has she had several chances to demonstrate what she can do, but she's also pretty adept with her mental abilities at the start of the episode and shows no signs of being untrustworthy in a battle situation. Huntress comes across as more unlikeable than usual simply because of her patronising attitude to Dinah. Of course, this also eliminates one of the things we should be getting by now: great fight sequences involving both Dinah and Huntress.

Instead Huntress is captured and encaged, and when Dinah wanders along on the rescue, she is captured just as easily despite Oracle allegedly helping out. With all the gadgets at her disposal, you'd think she might have had some kind of thermal imaging to help Dinah keep her freedom. But no, it's purely an excuse to get the pair fighting each other. We know Huntress is more likely to win as she's got super-athletic skills Dinah doesn't possess. Having Oracle shout instruction is likely to be of little help, and despite Dinah's later insistence that she kicked Huntress's ass, the fight itself tells a very different story and sees her getting roundly beaten by her colleague.

There are too many plot problems to consider; the metahumans are allowed to use their powers in the ring, but considering that's just a cage, it's a wonder none of the ones with heat vision powers have thought to zap their captor before he can punish them. The solution to the drugging problem is way too simplistic and seems to work a lot quicker in reverse than it does in bringing on the rage of the subjects, and aside from a top class opening fight, nothing really impresses once the girls have been captured. Just as we see Dinah finally proving she's got the right stuff, the episode ends. It's such a waste of a premise that could be far better used.

**

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