Dick Grayson

Richard John "Dick" Grayson is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, commonly in association with Batman, Teen Titans and Justice League. Created by writer Bill Finger and artist Bob Kane, he first appeared in Detective Comics #38 in April 1940 as the original and most popular incarnation of Robin, Batman's crime-fighting partner. In Tales of the Teen Titans #44 (July 1984), the character, after becoming a young adult, retires his role as Robin and assumes the superhero persona of Nightwing (created by Marv Wolfman and artist George Pérez). Grayson has donned the cape and cowl to replace Bruce Wayne as Batman. His most notable spell as Batman follows Bruce Wayne's supposed death in Final Crisis, and sees Grayson adopt Damian Wayne as his Robin. The youngest in a family of acrobats known as the "Flying Graysons", Grayson witnesses a mafia boss named Tony Zucco kill his parents to extort money from the circus that employed them. After the tragic murder, Bruce Wayne takes Grayson in as his legal ward and trains him to become his crime-fighting partner Robin, The Boy Wonder. He is written by many authors as the first son of Batman. As well as being Batman's crime-fighting partner, Grayson has a history of working closely with former Batgirl Barbara Gordon and would establish himself as the leader of the Teen Titans, DC's first team of teenage superheroes. As a young man, he retires as Robin and takes on his own superhero identity, becoming "Nightwing". As Nightwing, he continues to lead the Teen Titans, the Titans, and later, the Outsiders. In the second volume of his eponymous series (1996–2009), he becomes the protector of Blüdhaven, Gotham's economically troubled neighboring city and the locale the character is most closely associated with. He has also been depicted as a protector of Gotham City and New York City, both of which he continues to return to over the years. Grayson has also taken on the identity of "Batman" on a few occasions. In the aftermath of Batman: Knightfall, he was not offered the role of Batman while Wayne was recovering from a broken back because he felt that Nightwing was a hero in his own right and not Batman's understudy, but after the events of the Zero Hour miniseries later that year, Grayson temporarily fills in as Batman, beginning in Robin (Vol. 2) #0 (1994) and extending throughout the Batman: Prodigal storyline in 1995.