Renegade

Growing up, Dick traveled the country with his mother, Mary, and father, John, as “the Flying Graysons,” a world-famous trapeze troupe that performed with Haly’s Circus—until a cruel twist of fate intervened. When the circus was set to perform in Gotham, a mobster named Tony Zucco attempted to extort Mr. Haly for protection money. When Haly refused to pay, Zucco had his thugs sabotage the circus’ trapeze with acid. When John and Mary began their act, the wires snapped and sent them plummeting to their deaths—all while Dick watched helplessly. Fortunately, Bruce Wayne happened to be in attendance that night, and quickly sprang into action as Batman while the big top erupted into chaos. Knowing all too well the trauma of being suddenly, violently orphaned, Bruce decided to take Dick under his wing so they could set about avenging the Graysons’ murders.

After a regimen of intense training, Dick set about crafting a costume and a superhero identity for himself. He chose the name “Robin” after both his mother’s favorite bird and his favorite mythical hero, Robin Hood, and he officially became Batman’s sidekick (and Bruce Wayne’s ward). The Dynamic Duo was born. As Dick grew up, however, a rift began to form between him and Batman. With the aid of some fellow sidekicks, Dick formed the Teen Titans, a teenage answer to the Justice League, which forced Dick to split his time between Gotham and the team’s base of operations in New York. Not one to accept any half measures, and increasingly impatient with Dick’s distraction in the field, Batman wound up “firing” him from his job as a sidekick.

Dick finally decided he had outgrown his role as Robin. He knew he wanted to do something new, he just wasn’t entirely sure what that something would be. The transition was made easier by Bruce Wayne taking in a new teen sidekick to mentor—a boy named Jason Todd—to whom Dick gave his blessing, as well as his old costume as a gesture of faith. Shortly thereafter, Dick quit his role as leader of the Teen Titans to do a bit more soul-searching. He soon reintroduced himself to the team as Nightwing, complete with a new blue-and-gold, high-collared costume. The Teen Titans would continue under Nightwing’s leadership until Crisis on Infinite Earths, which rebooted DC’s continuity, including Dick’s transition from Robin to Nightwing. Dick learned he had been replaced as Robin by accident, sparking a dramatic falling-out with Batman that left their relationship a rocky one for years to come.

Dick met Jason Todd for the first time after the CRISIS shake-up in 1988’s, well after he’d already started working as Robin full-time in the new continuity. Shocked and betrayed by the unceremonious replacement, Dick retreated from Gotham to focus on the Teen Titans full-time yet again. Jason was killed by The Joker later that year before he and Dick could ever reconcile their relationship. After learning of Jason’s death, Dick made his way back to Gotham City, where a new drama unfolded. Dick was forced to simultaneously confront Batman’s erratic grief over the loss of Jason and the return of an unexpected ghost from his past. Tony Zucco, the man responsible for his parents’ murder, had been given parole and was set to walk free once more, forcing Dick to decide how far he was willing to go in seeking vengeance. Thankfully, before things could get out of control, fate intervened. A young man named Tim Drake had been able to deduce Dick’s identity as the first Robin thanks to a lifetime of obsessive study. Tim had been in the audience at Haly’s Circus the night Dick’s parents were killed and had spent his young life obsessed with the city’s caped heroes. He noted the disappearance of Jason and Batman’s sudden unhinged behavior. After putting two and two together, Tim tracked Dick down and made an impassioned case for his return to Batman’s side, famously stating that “Batman needs a Robin."When Batman’s spine was broken by the villainous Bane in Knightfall, Dick was not Bruce’s first choice as a replacement. Instead, the Caped Crusader looked to a new hero called Azrael to fill in.

To say Azrael made of mess of things during his tenure as a substitute Batman would be putting it lightly. He did such a terrible job that Bruce had to come out of recovery early to strip him of his cape and cowl. Bruce banished Azrael from the Batcave and looked to Nightwing for help. Dick finally took up the cowl for the first time. As Batman, Dick worked closely with Tim, now well-established in his role as Robin, in protecting Gotham while Bruce recovered. Dick, however, did not return to being Robin. Instead, he began training Tim to step in as Bruce’s newest sidekick.

2005 saw the resurrection of Jason Todd as the villainous Red Hood. As Red Hood, Jason manipulated a team of villains to stage a troubling demonstration for Batman, whom he blamed for not avenging his death. As Jason forced Bruce to watch from across the bay, the Secret Society of Super-Villains dropped the chemical monster Chemo onto Blüdhaven, effectively nuking the entire city from the air. The effect was devastating, leaving nothing but rubble and ash, with thousands of people dead—and Batman believing Nightwing to be among them. Fortunately, Dick had not been in the city at the time of the bombing, so his life had been spared. Unfortunately, however, the city he had poured his heart and soul into for so long was no more. Following Infinite Crisis, Dick relocated from the ruined Blüdhaven to New York City. He remained there for several years, taking day jobs that ranged from fashion model to museum curator, until yet another crisis forced him to return to Gotham once more.

Back in Gotham City, a young hero named Stephanie Brown inadvertently sparked a gang war that ravaged the city and forced Dick to return home to assist during the chaos. A different tragedy struck the Titans. A crazed, robotic Superman clone attacked and killed one of Dick’s oldest friends, Donna Troy (formerly known as Wonder Girl). This prompted Dick to disband the Titans for good rather than see another one of his friends hurt or killed in the line of duty. After the Titans dissolved, Dick’s friend and fellow Teen Titans alumnus Roy Harper (a.k.a. Arsenal) convinced him to form a different group of superheroes that would avoid the tragedies that had befallen the Titans, by keeping every member at arm’s length. Dick begrudgingly acquiesced, and together he and Roy formed their own iteration of The Outsiders, a team of superheroes first formed by Batman, that was willing to work below the radar on black-ops missions. The team remained together for several years.

When Bruce Wayne was plucked from time and believed to be dead, a power vacuum was left in Gotham. Someone needed to step in as Batman before the city destroyed itself. There were many contenders for the throne—Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Bruce’s newly revealed biological son, Damian Wayne, and even Two-Face. Dick Grayson, despite having reservations about filling in as Batman once more, emerged from the fray victorious. He took on the League of Assassins and trained Damian as his Robin, and together the two of them began a tenuous partnership. Dick and Damian were Gotham’s sole protectors before Bruce was “resurrected.” Rather than force Dick to step down, however, Bruce allowed him to continue working with Damian as Batman and Robin within Gotham while Bruce acted as the Batman in the world at large and in the Justice League.