Dick Grayson

• 1. Introduction

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  Dick Grayson, the DC Comics hero who first appeared in Detective Comics #38 in April 1940, has changed more often than almost any character in superhero comics. He began as a child performer in a circus family. Since then he has carried at least five identities, led teams of heroes, and been rewritten by generation after generation of creators. Each version asks the same question in a different way: what does a sidekick become when he grows up? This documentary follows that question through the stories that shaped him, the people who loved and rivaled him, and the odd detours that kept him alive on the page. Along the way it asks why a boy hero created to attract younger readers is still one of the most closely watched figures in the Batman family.

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• 2. Trapeze Wires

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  Bill Finger and Bob Kane created Robin because they wanted Batman to appeal to younger readers. Finger named the boy after two sources. One was Dick, the half-brother of the pulp fiction character Frank Merriwell. The other was book editor Charles Grayson, Jr. The title "Robin, The Boy Wonder" and the medieval look of the first costume came from the legend of Robin Hood. Artist Jerry Robinson designed the outfit, drawing it from memory based on Robin Hood illustrations by N. C. Wyeth.

  Dick's own story opens inside a circus. He is eight years old and performs with his parents, John and Mary Grayson, in an aerial act called the Flying Graysons. The comics place his birth on the first day of spring. While preparing for a show, he overhears two gangsters demanding protection money from the circus owner. The owner refuses, so the gangsters sabotage the trapeze wires with acid. At the next performance the trapeze snaps, and Dick's parents fall to their deaths.

  Tony Zucco, a powerful crime boss, employs the two gangsters. Batman appears to Dick before he can go to the police and warns him that speaking up could get him killed. Batman then describes the murder of his own parents, and Dick asks to become his aide. After extensive training he becomes Robin. Their first targets are Zucco's gambling and extortion rackets. They finally lure the angry Zucco to a construction site and capture him. The shared loss gives Bruce a way to guide Dick's rage, and it builds a father and son bond between them.

  Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, DC Comics sold the pair as the Dynamic Duo and rarely published a Batman story without the boy. Star-Spangled Comics ran stories devoted only to Robin from 1947 through 1952. Those early tales were later assigned to an Earth-Two Robin, who became Robin at 13 during the 1950s and eventually died in Crisis on Infinite Earths. A separate Earth-One Robin began later, with parts of his origin retold.

  In 1969, writer Dennis O'Neil and artist Neal Adams steered Batman back toward darker stories. Part of that plan was sending Dick to Hudson University and moving him into a separate strip in the back of Detective Comics. Away from Batman's shadow, though, he had already helped found a team of his own.

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• 3. The Teen Titans

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  The Brave and the Bold #54, published in 1964, introduced a junior version of the Justice League of America. Robin led it, alongside Aqualad, the sidekick of Aquaman, and Kid Flash, the sidekick of the Flash. Their first foe was a menace named Mr. Twister. Later, with Speedy, the sidekick of Green Arrow, and Wonder Girl, they freed their mentors from mind control and decided to stay together as the Teen Titans. Robin's tactical skills, learned from Batman, made him the natural leader until the team disbanded some years later. The Titans gave Dick his closest friendships, including Wally West, Donna Troy and Roy Harper.

  The team returned in October 1980 in DC Comics Presents #26, with Robin, Wonder Girl and Kid Flash. Writer Marv Wolfman and artist George Pérez took charge, with Len Wein as editor. They added Changeling, also known as Beast Boy, along with Raven, Cyborg and Starfire. The timing mattered. Marvel was outselling DC Comics, and the company's new president, Jenette Khan, hoped these characters could revive sales. The bet paid off. The New Teen Titans became one of DC's best-selling books and outsold many titles starring more famous heroes.

  Success came with a cost at home. During his leadership of the Titans, Dick fell out with Batman, and the estrangement lasted for years. It set up the move that would give him a name of his own.

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• 4. Nightwing and Batman

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  The name Nightwing comes from Kandor, the Kryptonian city where Dick and Batman once met a local hero who used it. In the older continuity, a maturing Dick grew weary of being a young sidekick and took the name for himself. In the version that followed the Crisis on Infinite Earths, Batman fires him after the Joker shoots him, and he becomes Nightwing. The story says he graduated from Robin in 1984. Superman supplied the original inspiration for a style of heroism different from Batman's. Dick still came back to help Batman and the next Robins, Jason Todd and Tim Drake, with Tim becoming a younger brother to him.

  Then came Knightfall. Bane broke Bruce's back, and Bruce chose Jean-Paul Valley as his replacement. He did not want to burden Dick, and he feared Dick might chase Bane for revenge. Valley proved too unstable. Bruce recovered through a rigorous program with Doctor Shondra Kinsolving and Lady Shiva, and beat Valley with help from Dick and Tim. Bruce then left Gotham again and named Dick his successor in the "Prodigal" story. Dick learned the psychological strain of the role, faced enemies such as Killer Croc, the Ventriloquist and the Ratcatcher, and finally settled old issues with Two-Face.

  In Nightwing: Alfred's Return #1 in 1995, Dick travels to England to find Alfred Pennyworth, who had resigned from Bruce's service. Together they stop a plot to destroy the Channel Tunnel. A Nightwing miniseries followed from September to December 1995, written by Dennis O'Neil with art by Greg Land. Dick nearly retires, until family papers link his parents' murder to the Crown Prince of Kravis. His parents had witnessed the real prince being killed and replaced by an impostor. After toppling the Kravian leader, Dick concludes that Bruce never forced him to be Robin, and that he followed Bruce because Bruce was worth imitating.

  In 1996, writer Chuck Dixon and artist Scott McDaniel launched a monthly Nightwing series. Dick moves to Blüdhaven, an economically troubled neighbor of Gotham City, and stays because the city needs protection. He faces Blockbuster and Torque and even becomes a police officer. After the earthquake and the No Man's Land crisis, he divides his time between both cities. When the Justice League vanished into the past while fighting the sorceress Gamemnae, he was picked to lead the reserve League. Batman called him the only person who could have been chosen.

  The death of Blockbuster at the hands of the vigilante Tarantula left Dick with a crisis of conscience, because he had not stopped it. Blüdhaven was then destroyed when the Secret Society of Super-Villains dropped Chemo on it. In Infinite Crisis, Dick took a near-fatal blow from Alexander Luthor Jr. to shield Bruce. DC's editors had planned to kill him in that story. After long discussions they reversed the decision, but only on the condition that he would have to change.

  The change tested him in the Batman R.I.P. story. The International Club of Villains ambushed him, and he was admitted to Arkham Asylum under the name Pierrot Lunaire. Doctors drugged him, staff beat him, and a lobotomy was scheduled, yet he freed himself in time to help Batman. After Batman's apparent death in Final Crisis and the "Battle for the Cowl," Dick reluctantly became Batman and chose Damian Wayne as Robin. Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's Batman and Robin reversed the old pattern, with a lighter Batman beside a darker Robin. Dick also led the Justice League alongside Donna Troy, Jesse Quick and Jade. When Bruce returned, he left Dick in Gotham with Damian and launched Batman Incorporated.

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• 5. Circus and Spyral

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  Flashpoint, a crossover event, led DC to relaunch all its titles in 2011 as the New 52. Bruce was once again the only Batman, and Dick was a few years younger, adopted at 16. The new version of Dick was gifted at reading body language and deduced Batman's identity at their first meeting. In the new Nightwing series, Dick inherits the deed to Haly's Circus from the dying Jack Haly. He starts a relationship with Raya Vestri, a childhood friend and acrobat. He also discovers a Book of Names in the circus with his own name on the last page.

  The truth is darker than a family legacy. The circus has been training assassins, and the killer Saiko, another childhood friend, had used Raya as an accomplice. Dick had been picked to become a Talon for the Court of Owls, but Batman adopted him first, and Saiko took his place. Bruce later tells him that the current Talon is his great-grandfather, William Cobb. Dick faces Cobb during the "Night of the Owls" event.

  The "Death of the Family" event destroyed what Dick had rebuilt. The Joker killed Jimmy Clark, a circus clown and friend of Dick, then used Joker venom on Raya. She died despite the antidote Dick tried. Joker burned the circus to the ground. The surviving members of the circus blamed Dick and left. Damian later talked sense into him after he used excessive force on thieves in the ruins. Then Damian himself was murdered by his clone, the Heretic, and Bruce shunned Dick for urging him to move on.

  The series moved to Chicago, where Dick learned that Tony Zucco was still alive and living as an assistant to the mayor named Billy Lester. In Forever Evil, the Crime Syndicate exposed Dick's secret identity to the world and bound him to the Murder Machine, a device controlled by his heart rate. Lex Luthor stopped his heart to disarm it, then revived him with adrenaline. Afterward, Batman told Dick he needed him to fake his death for a dangerous mission. Dick refused until Batman forced the issue in a brawl. He said, "if you make me do this, things can never be the same with us again."

  The Nightwing title ended in April 2014 at issue #30. The new series Grayson, written by Tim Seeley and former CIA counter-terrorism officer Tom King, made him Agent 37 of the Spyral organization, working under Mister Minos. Dick was secretly a mole for Batman, and the series gave him a mask-free look with a "G" on his chest. In Batman and Robin Eternal, he helped defeat the villain called Mother, who believed trauma could build stronger people. Dick answered that Batman gave the Robins an example, not a mold. The final issue, #20, erased knowledge of Dick's identity from most of the world.

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• 6. Memory and Fortune

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  In 2016, the DC Rebirth relaunch returned Dick to the black and blue Nightwing costume. Through Wally West, he recovered memories of his life before Flashpoint. He rebuilt the Titans with Donna Troy, Raven, Steel, Beast Boy and Miss Martian. In his solo book he teamed up with a vigilante named Raptor to bring down the Court of Owls. Raptor tricked him into a plan that killed every member of the Parliament of Owls in Sydney. Later, in the ruins of a Paris circus, Raptor revealed he had loved Dick's mother, Mary, and resented Bruce for raising her son.

  A tip from the pre-Flashpoint Superman led Dick back to Blüdhaven. There he worked with the Run-Offs, a rehabilitation group of former villains, to clear their names. He dated their leader, Shawn Tsang, who had been the Defacer. Their relationship ended after Professor Pyg kidnapped her and a pregnancy scare proved false.

  Then KGBeast shot Dick during a patrol with Batman. With severe memory loss, he became a taxi driver named Ric and gave up the mask. Blüdhaven's crime grew, and Detective Sapienza led a team of local officers who wore Dick's old uniforms and called themselves Nightwings. Dick's grandfather William Cobb captured him during Year of the Villain, and a surgeon named Dr. Haas used a memory crystal to try to make him a Talon. Dick broke free at sunrise after a masked Nightwing named Connor Red pleaded for mercy. In Joker War, the Joker stole the crystal and convinced him he was the Joker's adopted son, "Dicky Boy." Barbara Gordon recovered the crystal, and Dick's girlfriend Bea used it to restore his memory.

  In the Infinite Frontier era, Barbara told Dick that Alfred Pennyworth had left him a fortune. Dick used it to start a philanthropic foundation to revitalize Blüdhaven. The villain Heartless, who steals hearts to stay alive, opposed him, along with Blockbuster. His allies include Tim Drake, Jon Kent and the new mayor, his previously unknown half-sister. He also adopted a three-legged pit bull puppy and named her "Haley." Tim Drake immediately renamed her "Bitewing."

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• 7. Loves and Losses

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  Barbara Gordon first appeared as Batgirl in Detective Comics #359 in January 1967. Her first kiss with Dick came in Batman Family #1 in October 1975, when she was a congresswoman and he worked as her aide. Fans found the pairing controversial because Barbara was in her mid-twenties and Dick was still a teenager. After Crisis on Infinite Earths, the age gap and her political past were erased. In Nightwing #38 in December 1999, Dick and Barbara, now Nightwing and Oracle, kissed for the first time since the 1970s.

  During Chuck Dixon's run, the two built a serious relationship. It ended in Nightwing #87 in January 2004. In 2006, during Infinite Crisis, Dick proposed and Barbara accepted. They ended the engagement on friendly terms in Nightwing Annual #2 in June 2007. They have married several times in different stories. In Batman Family #11 in June 1977, they staged a fake wedding to catch members of the criminal group Maze. They married in Convergence: Nightwing/Oracle, and they eloped during Dark Nights: Death Metal, though that marriage was annulled. In Nightwing #78 in May 2021, writer Tom Taylor put them back in a serious relationship.

  Koriand'r, called Starfire, entered Dick's life in 1980, when Raven came to him in a dream and the New Teen Titans formed. At their first official meeting in New York City, Koriand'r was an alien princess on the run from her slavers. She could not speak English, so she kissed Robin to absorb his language through skin contact. Dick, who was dating the vampire Dala Vadim, turned her down at first. After that relationship ended in Batman #351 in September 1982, he confessed his feelings in New Teen Titans #26 that December, and they went on their first date.

  Kory was later called home to Tamaran and forced into a political marriage with Prince Karras. She returned to Earth in New Teen Titans #34 in August 1987. In New Titans #99 in July 1993, Dick proposed, and the wedding came in the next issue. At the ceremony, Raven attacked Kory with a demonic seed, shattering her mind. A Tamaranian healing ritual wiped Dick from her memory. Their marriage was annulled in New Titans #112 in July 1994, and the relationship formally ended in New Titans #114 that September. Since 2022, they have been just friends.

  Dick's early romances were short and often unrequited. He had a brief crush on Alfred's niece Daphne Pennyworth in Batman #216 in November 1969. At Hudson University in the 1970s, he dated Terri Bergstrom and Lori Elton, and both relationships ended within a year. During No Man's Land, he and Huntress had a one-night stand in Nightwing/Huntress #3 in July 1998.

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• 8. Skills, Suits, and Screens

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  Dick Grayson has no super-powers. His edge comes from the aerial training of his childhood and from Batman's rigorous coaching as Robin. He also learned fighting from Wildcat and Richard Dragon, and has mastered over a half-dozen styles, favoring Savate and Escrima. He holds a degree in forensic science, and he can read blink rates and signs of nervousness in people around him. Helena Bertinelli gave him espionage training. As Nightwing he carries twin Eskrima sticks and modified batarangs called wing-dings.

  The Robin costume alluded to both the American robin and Robin Hood, and it came with crakow-style shoes that some artists later dropped. Nightwing's third costume made its first appearance in Nightwing: Ties That Bind #2 in October 1995, and cover artist Brian Stelfreeze designed it. A stylized blue wing ran across the shoulders to the hands, over a black bodysuit. The suit was made from a fire-resistant Kevlar-lined material. It darkened in bright light, so Dick could skip the black cape he disliked wearing. The Rebirth redesign swapped the wing for a thinner V-shaped bird and added a blue domino mask.

  Other worlds have treated him harshly. In Injustice: Gods Among Us, Damian Wayne accidentally kills him, and Bruce declares him his true son. In Kingdom Come, a middle-aged Dick becomes Red Robin and has a daughter, Nightstar, with Starfire. In Nightwing: The New Order, he leads a government task force that hunts the superpowered, then helps restore their powers.

  On screen, Douglas Croft played Robin in the 1943 film Batman, and Johnny Duncan followed in the 1949 Batman and Robin. Burt Ward played him in the 1966 television series, and Chris O'Donnell in Batman Forever and Batman & Robin. A planned Robin spin-off was scrapped after the failure of Batman & Robin. Brenton Thwaites plays him in the series Titans. Voice actors include Casey Kasem, Loren Lester, Jesse McCartney, Neil Patrick Harris and Michael Cera.

  Writing for The Guardian, Julia Savoca Gibson argued that "there is something special about sidekicks, and there's something even more special about Robin." Dick's next screen appearance is a stop motion animated DC Studios film, directed by Arthur Mintz, set for release on the 30th of June 2028.

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