Nightwing
| Nightwing | |
|---|---|
| File:5516 2 0001.jpg Nightwing #1. Art by Scott McDaniel. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | (as Robin) Detective Comics #38 (April 1940), (as Nightwing) Tales of the New Teen Titans #44 (July 1984) |
| Created by | Robin, Bob Kane Bill Finger Nightwing, Marv Wolfman George Perez |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Richard John Grayson |
| Team affiliations | The Outsiders, Teen Titans, Justice League of America, Justice Society of America (Earth-Two only), All-Star Squadron (Earth-Two only) |
| Notable aliases | Robin, (The Boy Wonder) and later, Robin (The Teen Wonder) |
| Abilities | None; relies on his years of extensive training under the Batman, along with detective-like gadgets and weapons. He also possesses near meta-level agility/acrobatic skills and exceptional leadership abilities, having headed the Teen Titans, the Outsiders, and even the Justice League. |
Nightwing (Richard John "Dick" Grayson, formerly Robin) is a comic-book superhero in the DC Comics universe.
Character history
Origins
For many years, Dick was Batman's sidekick Robin. He was introduced in Detective Comics #38 (1940) by Batman creators Bill Finger and Bob Kane as (first) Robin. The sidekick debuted only a year after Batman and was part of an effort to soften the character of his mentor, originally a dubious, nightstalking vigilante. DC Comics also thought a teenaged superhero would appeal to young readers.
The name "Robin the Boy Wonder" and the medieval look of the original costume were inspired by the legendary hero Robin Hood, as well as the red-breasted American Robin, which continued the "flying animal" motif of Batman.
Dick Grayson was an eight-year-old half-Romany (gypsy) circus acrobat, the youngest of a family act called The Flying Graysons. In the original comics storyline, a gangster named Boss Zucco had been extorting money from the circus and killed Grayson's parents by sabotaging their trapeze equipment as a warning against defiance. Batman investigated the crime and – as his alter ego millionaire Bruce Wayne – had Dick put under his custody as a legal ward (legally adopting him as his son years later), and rigorously trained the boy in physical, fighting and investigation skills to be his assistant. Together, they investigated Zucco and collected the evidence needed to bring him to justice.
Robin's origin had a typological connection to Batman's in that both witnessed the crime-related deaths of their parents, creating an urge to battle the criminal underworld. This provided a bond and understanding between the two.
Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, DC Comics portrayed Batman and Robin as a team, deeming them the Dynamic Duo, and rarely published a Batman story without Robin, although stories entirely devoted to Robin appeared in Star-Spangled Comics from 1947 through 1952.
Teen Titans and emancipation
In 1964, The Brave and the Bold #60 introduced the Teen Titans, a junior version of the Justice League of America, an all-star superhero team of which Batman was a part. The Titans were led by Robin and included other teenaged sidekicks, such as Aqualad (sidekick of Aquaman) and Kid Flash I (sidekick of The Flash).
In 1969, writer Dennis O'Neil and artist Neal Adams returned Batman to his darker roots. One part of this effort was writing Robin out of the series by sending Dick Grayson to college and into a separate strip in the back of Detective Comics. Robin appeared only sporadically in Batman stories of the 1970s.
In 1980, Grayson once again took up the mantle of Robin as the leader of the Teen Titans, now featured in the monthly series The New Teen Titans, which became one of DC Comics' most beloved series of the era.
Nightwing
Four years later, Grayson took on the identity of Nightwing, a move that symbolized his increasingly strained relationship with Batman and his desire to take more control of his life as a crimefighter. The name Nightwing came from an alias previously used by Superman. The Post-Crisis version of Grayson had him become the first and only Nightwing, with his costume partially inspired by his father, who at one time wore a circus costume that was a variant of colleague Boston Brand's Deadman costume. He was inspired to take the name by a story Superman told him about an old hero of his native Krypton.
In 1996, DC launched a monthly solo series featuring Nightwing, in which he patrols Gotham City's neighboring municipality of Blüdhaven. The series continues, as of 2005, and has been collected in four graphic novels so far.
For several years, Nightwing led various incarnations of the Titans and became the most respected former sidekick in the DC Universe. He was even chosen by a believed-dead Batman to lead the Justice League when it once appeared that the Leaguers had died in battle. In 2003, after a disastrous battle in which teammate Donna Troy died, Nightwing left the Titans and they disbanded.
Arsenal prompted Nightwing to join a new group that would hunt villains, and he reluctantly accepted, forming the Outsiders. After an event in which "insiders" threatened both the Outsiders and the newest incarnation of Teen Titans, Dick deemed that the teams had gotten "too personal" and quit.
Skills and Abilities
Nightwing's detective and martial arts skills are second only to Batman, making him one of the greatest crime fighters alive. He carries along detective-like gadgets (micro-camera, crime scene analysis kit, built-in nightvision goggles etc.) and non-lethal weapons which include grapnels, sonic or smoke pellets, Night-a-rangs and his own shuriken type wing-dings. He also possesses near meta level agility/acrobatic skills and is one of the only three people on Earth who can do the quadruple somersault. Caping off with his truly exceptional leadership abilities, having headed the Teen Titans, the Outsiders, and even the Justice League.
Personal life
Dick's personal life has always been subordinated to his duty. He has several good friends, like his fellow Titans Arsenal, Flash III and Troia, and has acted as a older brother figure to the third Robin, Tim Drake.
His relationship with his adoptive father Batman has been a rocky journey, hitting bad patches more often than it has hit good ones.
Dick's longest romantic relationship was with alien princess Starfire. They were a couple for several years, and were even engaged to marry, but things fell apart. He later had a brief affair with Huntress and dated his longtime friend and former Batgirl Barbara Gordon.
Richard Grayson of Earth-Two
After the establishment of DC's multiverse in the early 1960s, it was stated that the Golden Age version of Dick Grayson named Richard Grayson existed on the parallel world of Earth-Two. There, Richard eventually grew up, remaining Robin, although adopting a more Batman-like look for a time, and by the 1960s had become a lawyer. In the mid-1960s he eventually joined the Justice Society of America. This version of Dick died during the 1985 miniseries Crisis on Infinite Earths.
Grayson in other media
- Actor Burt Ward played Robin in the 1960s Batman television series, which further made Robin an inseparable part of the Batman mythos.
- Dick Grayson/Robin was played by actor Chris O'Donnell in the 1995 movie Batman Forever and its 1997 sequel Batman and Robin. In this continuity, Grayson's parents were murdered by Two-Face/Harvey Dent during a similar sabotage in the annual Gotham Circus. At one point in the movie, he even suggested Nightwing as his codename, though this was little more than an homage to the comics.
- Nightwing's most notable TV appearances were on The New Batman Adventures where, as in the prequal series Batman: The Animated Series, Dick was voiced by actor Loren Lester. The B:TAS episode "Old Wounds" explained that Grayson (then still Robin) had come to blows with Batman over Batman's controlling nature and increasing ruthlessness, and that Dick had left Gotham as a result. He returned years later as Nightwing, and, though he worked with Batman several times over the course of the series, never fully reconciled with his former mentor. Batman Beyond, another TV series in the DC Animated Universe, implies that Grayson is still alive (and bitter) some fifty years later.
- Nightwing also appeared briefly in the Teen Titans animated series in the episode "How Long is Forever?" as the future identity of Robin (another argument in favor of the theory that the animated Robin of the Titans continuity is really Grayson).