Nightwing is an American comic book featuring the character Nightwing and published by DC Comics. The character first appeared in Tales of the Teen Titans #44 in 1984, but he received his own ongoing series, which debuted in July 1996.

Publication history

The series was launched in response to the character's growing popularity, beginning with Nightwing: Alfred's Return #1 (1995). A one-shot comic book where Dick Grayson travels to England to find Alfred Pennyworth, who has resigned from Bruce Wayne's service after the events of Knightfall. After he found Alfred, they thwart a plot by terrorists aiming to destroy the Channel Tunnel before returning to Gotham City. This was followed by a miniseries from September to December 1995, written by Dennis O’Neil with art by Greg Land, where Dick contemplates retiring as Nightwing. However, a family document reveals a connection between his parents' murder and the Crown Prince of Kravia, prompting him to travel there. Dick ultimately helps to overthrow the corrupt ruler while uncovering more about his family's past.

"Titans Reunited"

In 1996, following the success of the miniseries, DC Comics launched a monthly solo series featuring Nightwing (written by Chuck Dixon, with art by Scott McDaniel), in which he patrols Gotham City's neighboring municipality of Blüdhaven. Upon the request of Batman, Dick journeys to the city of Blüdhaven to stop the gangster Black Mask. He then becomes the arch-enemy of the gargantuan genius Blockbuster. Dick decides to stay in Blüdhaven until he destroys Blockbuster's drug cartel. After Cyborg is put in danger by a galactic threat, Dick reunites the Teen Titans to rescue him. They reform as the Titans, but Dick is pulled away to Gotham City when it is declared a No Man's Land. Following the recuperation of Gotham, Dick stays active as both the leader of the Titans and stays in Blüdhaven, but after the JLA disappears, Dick is named the leader of a new League. Following the deaths of Lilith and Troia, Dick officially disbands the Teen Titans, though Tim Drake would re-found them years later. Dick then returns to Blüdhaven and becomes more and more like Bruce, straining his relationships and eventually blurring the line between being a police officer and a vigilante. The vigilante known as the Tarantula then kills the Blockbuster, and Dick refuses to save him, something that haunts him to the point of temporarily retiring from crime-fighting. At length, Nightwing shakes himself from his depression and takes responsibility for his inaction. He captures the Tarantula and turns himself in to the police. Amy, however, feels the world needs Nightwing free and so prevents him from being charged.

Infinite Crisis and 52

Due to a crisis of conscience, Dick adopts the new villainous persona of the Renegade in order to infiltrate Lex Luthor's (Alexander Luthor Jr. in disguise) Secret Society of Super Villains. This ruse includes Nightwing aligning himself with his long-time enemy Deathstroke in order to track the manufacturing and distribution of Bane's Venom serum and to keep tabs on the Society's activities in Gotham and Blüdhaven. He also begins training (and subtly converting) Deathstroke's daughter the Ravager. Deathstroke takes revenge on Nightwing when Blüdhaven is destroyed by the Society. The Society drops the supervillain Chemo on the city, killing 100,000 people. Dick tries to rescue survivors, but is overcome by radiation poisoning, only to be rescued himself by Batman. Nightwing confides that he let the Blockbuster die and asks Batman to forgive him. Batman tells him that his forgiveness does not matter; Dick has to move beyond the Blockbuster's death. Inspired by his mentor, he proposes to Barbara Gordon, who tearfully accepts his proposal with a kiss. Batman then entrusts Nightwing to alert other heroes about the danger that the Crisis poses. Dick flies to Titans Tower, but due to the chaos resulting from the Blüdhaven disaster, the OMAC onslaught, and other Crisis-related events, the only hero who answers his call is Conner Kent. They are soon after joined by Wonder Girl. Together, they locate and attack Alexander Luthor, Jr.'s tower, the center of the Crisis, only to be repelled by Superboy-Prime. Prime is ready to kill Nightwing when Conner intervenes, sacrificing himself to destroy the tower, ending the destruction of the universe. During the Battle of Metropolis, Nightwing suffers a near-fatal injury from Alexander Luthor Jr. when he attempts to save Batman's life. Originally, the editors at DC intended to have Dick Grayson killed in Infinite Crisis as Newsarama revealed from the DC Panel at WizardWorld Philadelphia: It was again explained that Nightwing was originally intended to die in Infinite Crisis, and that you can see the arc that was supposed to end with his tragic death in the series. After long discussions, the death edict was finally reversed, but the decision was made that, if they were going to be keeping him, he would have to be changed. The next arc of the ongoing series will further explain the changes, it was said. Saved by the Justice Society, Nightwing recovers with Barbara at his side. As soon as he is able to walk again, Batman asks him to join him and Robin in retracing Bruce's original journey in becoming the Dark Knight. While Nightwing is hesitant, due to his engagement with Barbara, she encourages him to go and returns his engagement ring so he can make an honest decision for himself. Barbara feels that it is important he rediscover himself, and until he does, they are not yet ready to be married. They part on good terms, though, before he departs. Dick leaves her an envelope containing a photograph of them as Robin and Batgirl, along with the engagement ring on a chain and a note promising he will come back to her one day. Soon after his journey with Batman and Robin ends, Nightwing returns to Gotham, following Intergang's trail. He works with the new Batwoman and Renee Montoya to stop Intergang from destroying Gotham, shutting off dozens of fire-spewing devices spread across the city.

"One Year Later"

One year later, Dick Grayson returns to New York City (his previous home base with the Teen Titans) in order to find out who has been masquerading as Nightwing. The murderous impostor turns out to be the former Robin, Jason Todd. Grayson leads the Outsiders once again, operating undercover and globally. Nightwing follows an armored thief named Raptor, whom he suspects is responsible for a series of murders. Later, Raptor himself is murdered in a manner similar to the other victims by an unseen contract killer, who proceeds to bury Grayson alive. Nightwing frees himself, wondering the relation between his experience and a mysterious voice who tells him that he is "supposed to be dead". Nightwing is having trouble finding things to keep him busy during the day due to the cast on his right arm. Incapacitated from his injuries, he tries without luck to find jobs, which forces him to take a job as a low-paid acrobatic instructor at a local gym, and continues to research into the mysterious assassin. At one point, Dick agrees to attend a party for Bruce and their relationship seems to flourish. Bruce praises Dick for his success on the Raptor case, and also mentions to look into the Landman Building which hosted ex-Lexcorp scientists; most likely those who worked on the Raptor project. Dick also continues to keep a close brotherly relationship with Tim Drake, and helps Tim deal with his many losses during the last year. After dealing with the Raptor issue, NYC is plagued by a villainous duo called Bride and Groom. Nightwing begins pursuit of these two after some grisly murders, including that of the Lorens family (close friends of his after the Raptor incident). Dick began to get obsessed with finding them, not knowing how far he was willing to go to take them down. Eventually, he formed a makeshift team with some "villains" to find them. They located them, and after killing some of his "team," Nightwing chased them to a cave, where Bride began a cave-in and the two are trapped there. Nightwing, along with a group of former Titans, are summoned again by Raven to aid the current group of Teen Titans battle against Deathstroke, who was targeting the latest team in order to get at his children, the Ravager and the resurrected Jericho. Nightwing and the other former Titans continue to work with the current team soon after the battle with Deathstroke so as to investigate the recent murder of Duela Dent. When the Outsiders were targeted by Checkmate, Nightwing agrees that his team will work with the organization, so long as their actions in Africa are not used against them in the future. The mission, however, does not go as well as intended, resulting in Nightwing, the Black Queen and Captain Boomerang being captured by Chang Tzu. Later, Batman is called in by Mister Terrific who then rescues Nightwing and the others. Afterwards, Nightwing admits to Batman, that while he accepts that he is an excellent leader, he is not suited to lead a team like the Outsiders, and offers the leadership position to Batman. Batman accepts the position; however, he feels that the team needs to be remade, in order to accomplish the sorts of missions that he intends them to undertake. As such, he holds a series of try-outs for the team. The first audition involves Nightwing and Captain Boomerang, who are sent to a space station under attack by Chemo. During the mission, a confrontation erupts between Nightwing and Boomerang, who has grown tired of fighting for redemption from people like Batman and Nightwing. After taking a beating from Nightwing, he manages to throw him into a shuttle heading for Earth and quits the team. Afterwards, Nightwing furiously confronts Batman. Batman does not deny his actions, and states that this is the sort of thing that the new Outsiders will have to deal with. At this, Nightwing resigns completely from the Outsiders, which Batman feels is best, judging Nightwing too good for that sort of life. In order to help himself regain a sense of purpose, Nightwing opted to stay in New York again, and play the role of the city's protector. He takes on a job as a museum curator; and uses the museum as his new base of operations. During his short time there, Dick finds himself once again confronted with Two-Face, who years ago delivered Dick's greatest defeat. This time, however, Dick soundly defeats Two-Face.

"Titans Return"

Nightwing joins a new team of Titans, with the same roster of the New Teen Titans, to stop an as-yet unnamed offspring of Trigon from enacting his vengeance over Raven and the Titans of every generation. Nightwing yet again leads the team, and they manage to stop the sons of Trigon from accomplishing their first attempt at global destruction and again a few days later. Following the defeat of Trigon's sons, the Titans are approached by Jericho, who had been stuck inhabiting the body of Match, Superboy's clone. The Titans managed to free Jericho, but found themselves once again in trouble, because Jericho's mind had become splintered due to all the bodies he had possessed in the past. Torn between evil and good, Jericho possesses Nightwing's body in order to keep from being captured. During this time, Jericho forces Nightwing to relive all of his greatest pains. Soon afterward the JLA arrived, intent on taking Jericho in, but they fail to apprehend him. Following this, Nightwing decides to leave the team again, due to the events of the "Batman R.I.P." storyline and Batman's apparent death, as Nightwing feels his attention is better aimed at protecting Gotham City. Before leaving, Starfire asked Dick if he still has any feelings for her. Starfire reveals Dick's answer to Donna Troy that he has moved on.

Supporting characters

Enemies

Like Batman, Nightwing has faced various villains ranging from common criminals to outlandish supervillains. While the character has primarily fought other Batman villains, he also has established villains that primarily oppose him. In addition, certain Batman villains have specific enmity with Dick Grayson.

Dixon rogues

Higgins rogues

Seeley/King Grayson rogues

Other rogues

Critical reception

Nightwing Vol. 3 (2011 – 2014)

Erik Norris's review of Nightwing #1 on IGN was generally positive but with some reservations. He acknowledged that while the issue wasn’t a phenomenal debut, it was a solid and reassuring start for fans of Dick Grayson. Norris appreciated how writer Kyle Higgins demonstrated a strong understanding of the character, as shown previously in Batman: Gates of Gotham. However, he didn't consider it groundbreaking, and the review reflected a cautious optimism for the series going forward. IGN Jesse Schedeen’s reviews of issues #13 to #17 highlight both the emotional depth and the action-packed moments that define the series. He consistently praises Kyle Higgins’ writing and Eddy Barrows’ artwork for their ability to balance the character personal struggles with thrilling sequences. Melissa Grey's reviews of issues #18 to #25 are generally mixed. She notes that while these issues tackle significant emotional themes, such as Dick Grayson's mourning of Damian Wayne in issue #18, the heavy dialogue sometimes weakens the impact. As the series progresses, Grey points out that the art often struggles to capture the emotional nuances effectively. However, in issues like #25, she praises the balance of darker tones with hopeful themes, appreciating how the art contributes to the overall storytelling.

Collected editions

Most of the original ongoing Nightwing series was collected in several trade paperbacks while the series was being published. Beginning in 2014, the series was reprinted, with new editions including material that had previously been omitted.

Volume 1 and 2 (Post-Crisis)

Volume 3 (The New 52)

Grayson

After the events of Nightwing (vol. 3) #30, Dick Grayson left behind his superhero life to become an agent of the fictional spy agency Spyral.

Volume 4 (DC Rebirth, post-Rebirth, Infinite Frontier, and Dawn of DC)

Following the events of Grayson #20, Dick Grayson returns to Blüdhaven, and life as Nightwing.

Other collected editions