dick grayson:
a complete history of comics first sidekick!
made by @nightwing2O99
richard “dick” grayson was born to mary and john grayson, two world famous acrobats known as “the flying graysons”. dick also joined the acrobatics, traveling the world in haly’s circus
mary and john are killed during a trapeze performance when their ropes snap, having been tampered with previously by mob boss tony zucco, and leaving them to fall without a net to catch them.
bruce wayne sees this happen and takes dick in as his ward, as it reminded him of when he lost his own parents. dick has to deal with his trauma in wayne manor, and this causes him to leave and try to kill the man that tampered with the trapeze lines. dick’s anger and pure bloodlust towards zucco creates robin but it does not encapsulate what robin is.
bruce tells dick that he cannot kill anyone, due to batman’s extremely important no killing rule. batman now has a sidekick, a child that was similarly angry to bruce’s childhood, that found a new way to help others. robin was a name given to dick by his mother as a child, and he now uses it to show others hope.
the name robin is a mantle also held by dick’s brothers and stephanie brown
in his first year of being robin, dick is captured by two face and beaten by him within inches of his life. this makes bruce rethink letting him be robin, and “fires” him. dick becomes reckless and goes out on his own anyways, and bruce agrees to let him be robin again as long as he’s cautious. dick is persistent and angry as robin, but this event cracks dick and bruce’s relationship a bit more.
dick also makes very close friends with superman, who becomes a mentor and pseudo uncle to him, teaching him how to be a better hero and person. superman becomes someone dick always looks up to, and also goes to for advice later on.
dick founds the teen titans (later titans) as robin with other heroes wonder girl, kid flash, speedy and aqualad. members starfire, raven, beast boy and cyborg join later as well.
he doesn’t stay robin forever though, as bruce kicks him out and he moves away to blüdhaven, a sister city of gotham.
blüdhaven has no vigilantes protecting it, so dick takes it on as his own. he brings up to clark that he doesn’t know who he is other than robin, so clark gives him the name nightwing, a name from a kryptonian myth.
nightwing becomes his new identity, even when bruce brings in a new robin in jason todd. dick still fights with the titans and in his new home city.
as nightwing, his fighting style is even more acrobatic and fun as he plays off of his own movements rather than batman’s. he uses it as an homage to his parents even if nobody else knows.
he helped bruce when jason died, as well as when tim drake, the third robin, insisted he become robin again. dick knew his time as robin was up so he gave it to tim instead.
tim is robin for a while, until talia al ghul brings the son she had with bruce to meet him. damian, bruce’s only biological child, was raised by talia and the league of assassins so he does not believe in batman’s no kill rule.
when bruce is suddenly killed by darkseid, dick dons batman’s mantle and teaches damian otherwise. damian and dick become very close in bruce’s absence, while tim looks for signs that he may still be alive. damian begins to finally trust dick and learns more about being robin.
after bruce is found and alive, dick is forced to fake his death after being killed by lex luthor and joining the spy operation “spyral”. he becomes agent 37 while his family, other than bruce, believes he is dead.
after coming back from spyral, dick is shot in the head on a rooftop with batman and loses his memories for a while. he gains them back and returns to his nightwing status after leaving it for a long time.
currently under nightwing, dick keeps in contact with his close friends and family as well as mentoring the new superman and other heroes.
reading list- robin to nightwing and everything in between
1/2. (optional)
- batman: the long halloween
- batman dark victory
1. robin year one
- his first year as robin
- (can read detective comics #38 if u want to see his very first appearance with batman)
2. the new teen titans (1980-1984) (1984-1994)
- starts with dick as robin through 1984, then he later becomes nightwing in the judas contract2 1/2. (optional)
- batman: knightfall
large batman event post ntt, dick’s involvement is small but important
- batman: prodigal- dick grayson’s first time as batman (good but not necessary to him, again)3. the titans (1999-2003)
-titans team lead by dick and featuring old titans, as well as new ones
4. nightwing (1996-2009)
- first solo run for nightwing (has issues throughout would definitely look for tws on some issues)
- rec: peter tomasi 147-153 aka the great leap
- titans 1-11
(post infinite crisis arc, which he wasn’t really affected by)
5. batman: battle for the cowl
bruce “dies” leading to the bats to have to decide who becomes batman afterwards
- Batman: Battle For The Cowl #1-3
- Gotham Gazette: Batman Dead? #1
- Gotham Gazette: Batman Alive?
6. batman and robin (2009)
- dick grayson’s most iconic run as batman with damian wayne as his robin after bruce died
- batman and robin 1-12
- the return of bruce wayne: batman 13-16 + batman: the return #1
- batman and robin 17-25
- batman: streets of gotham
new 52 continuity below
7. nightwing (2011-2016)
- short solo run7 1/2. forever evil
- short event before next arc (but necessary to understand next arc)8. grayson
- issues 1-16
- grayson #15 ties into robin war
- batman and robin eternal 1-26
- grayson 17-20, annual 3, nightwing rebirth #1
new 52 continuity above
8 1/2.- future state (optional)
- future state: nightwing
- future state: teen titans9. nightwing (2016- ongoing)
- titans (2016) 1-6 + titans rebirth #1 to begin reading before
other appearances
- action comics
- detective comics
- robin (2021)
-batman: the black mirror
-nightwing: old friends, new enemies
-batman/superman: world’s finestmy favorite dick grayson appearances
-batman/superman:
worlds finest #6
-batman black andwhite #5:
the man who flies
-nightwing (1996) 147-153 aka the great leap