A year after the ratings success of “Smallville,” which tells the story of Clark Kent before he becomes Superman, the same production team is launching a new, youth-oriented drama based on another comic-book legend, Batman.

Actually, “Birds of Prey,” debuting at 9 tonight on The WB, asks the question of what would happen to Gotham City if Batman disappeared. The answer is that a trio of female crime-fighters pops up to take over his role as Gotham’s guardian.

The trio has its origin seven years in the past, after Batman defeats his nemesis, the Joker. The villain escapes from police custody and wreaks havoc on Batman’s associates. He hires an assassin to kill Selina Kyle, the former Catwoman, then shoots and paralyzes Barbara Gordon, then Batgirl. A young girl named Dinah has visions of both events, and is haunted by them.

Flash forward seven years to New Gotham City, which becomes an even more corrupt place after Batman disappears. The wheelchair-bound Gordon (played by Dina Meyer, “Beverly Hills 90210”) is a teacher with a secret life. As Oracle, who’s talented as a weapons and cybernetics designer, she’s the brains behind a crime-fighting duo.

Providing the muscle is Helena Kyle (Ashley Scott), secretly the Huntress, the daughter of Batman and the Catwoman. A defiant screw-up in the civilian world, she’s got her father’s sense of justice and her mother’s superhuman abilities.

Dinah (Rachel Skarsten), now a teen, takes a bus to New Gotham, seeking the two woman from her visions and her destiny. After a chance encounter with Huntress, she finds, with the use of her mental powers, the pair’s lair in the Gotham Clocktower. She helps the reluctant duo solve a series of high-profile “suicides” in the opener and gets taken under Gordon’s wing for training.

“Birds of Prey,” from the producers of “Smallville,” is a stylish, action-fantasy thriller, in which Gotham City has the dark, moody look it enjoyed in the first, best “Batman” film. It features well-developed characters who all have issues with which to deal.

Conceding the time slot to “The West Wing,” “Birds of Prey” must best the glitzy “Fastlane” on Fox, the competent “Twilight Zone” remake on UPN and two lower-level reality shows, “The Bachelor” on ABC and “The Amazing Race 3” on CBS. This well-design effort deserves to be the one from that second tier that survives.