Publication history of Dick Grayson

Before Dick can go to the police, Batman appears to him and warns him that the two gangsters work for Tony Zucco, a powerful crime boss, and that revealing his knowledge could lead to his death.

The 1964 comic The Brave and the Bold #54 introduces a junior version of the Justice League of America (an all-star superhero team of which Batman was a part).

One part of this effort is writing Robin out of the series by sending Dick Grayson to Hudson University and into a separate strip in the back of Detective Comics.

This tale retroactively erases the notion that anyone else before Grayson and Bette Kane ever held the titles of Nightwing and Flamebird, except for the birds and the legendary figures named after them.

The villain captures Judge Lawrence Watkins (in a previous version of the story, it was Gotham's newly elected district attorney Aldrich Meany)[1] and Batman, and has each suspended from a hangman's noose in a "double gallows death-trap".

After several cover stories about how Jason had nowhere else to turn, and that Gotham had become too dangerous for him to continue fighting crime alone, Bruce finally tells Dick that it was because he missed him.

Journeying to Kravia, Nightwing (in his third costume) helps to topple the murderous Kravian leader and prevent an ethnic cleansing, while learning his parents' true connection to the Prince.

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.

This ruse includes Nightwing aligning himself with his long-time enemy Deathstroke to track the manufacturing and distribution of Bane's Venom serum and to keep tabs on the Society's activities in Gotham and Blüdhaven.

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.

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.

Scheduled for an experimental lobotomy by Arkham himself, he is spared by the Club of Villains taking hold of the asylum, wanting to use him and Jezebel Jet, Bruce's fiancé at the time, as bait.

Dick then investigates more into the Black Mask case and discovers a plot involving an invisible man, Man-Bat and the Huntress, which he manages to thwart at the last minute.

Tim Drake then returns to Gotham City with the new JLA, giving Dick proof that Bruce Wayne is alive and well, but trapped inside the past.

After helping Bruce quell an uprising at Arkham Asylum, posing as the Joker to be a man on the inside, Dick is attacked by an assassin named Saiko who quickly figures out he is Nightwing.

We've got everyone from Deputy Mayor Kavanaugh, who was introduced in "Night of the Owls" but you'll be seeing more of him in this arc; Sonia Zucco is coming back to the Bat world and she'll be in the book going forward; you've got a new detective who may or may not be framing Nightwing.

While the other circus members survived since the Joker used a different toxin on them, they blame Dick and decide to leave after Raya and Jimmy's funeral, though deep down they know it is not his fault.

Dick becomes bitter from his loss and after he used excessive force to bring down some criminals that tried to plunder valuables from the remains of the circus, Damian Wayne, who had been monitoring him, is able to talk some sense into Nightwing that helped him recover.

He then helps the rest of Batman Incorporated in defeating Talia's Leviathan terrorist organization, before she is finally killed by Kathy Kane (the original Batwoman), who is revealed to be still alive as an agent of Spyral.

After the Crime Syndicate invade Earth Prime and defeat the Justice League, Nightwing is captured, and his secret identity revealed to the world.

During his captivity, Nightwing is imprisoned in a containment unit built to hold Doomsday, with his heart monitored to set off a bomb should he attempt to escape.

The Nightwing title concludes in April at issue #30, and will be replaced with a new title, Grayson, in July, where after surviving the Murder Machine and the world believing that he is dead with only Batman knowing he survived in the aftermath of the Crime Syndicate's invasion, Dick gives up his life as Nightwing and goes undercover by becoming an agent of Spyral, the secretive counter-intelligence organization that previously helped Batman Incorporated, where the former Batwoman Kathy Kane works.

Mother intends to trigger a global collapse with the reasoning that the survivors will rebuild a stronger world after being broken by tragedy and without the hindrance of parents to force their ideals on them, but Grayson and the rest of the Family are able to defeat her.

At the conclusion of the story-line, Dick meets with the restored Batman, assuring Bruce that, unlike Mother, he never forced his ideals on them, but simply gave them all an example that they chose to emulate, while avoiding following it so exactly that they became like him.

In the Robin War crossover, when the Court of Owls plant a bomb in Damian Wayne (who comes back from the dead), they are able to blackmail Dick into officially joining their organization, although all sides are aware that Grayson intends to try and use his new position against them.

[21] Dick returns to being Nightwing in his black and blue costume, starting with the DC Rebirth relaunch in 2016, and he will use his new skills and expertise in espionage moving forward.

[27] After Shawn is revealed not to be pregnant, she ultimately breaks up with Dick, who focuses his efforts on taking down criminals such as the Blockbuster, the returning Raptor, the Judge, and Wyrm.

With Bludhaven suffering from an increase in crime from the vigilante's absence, a detective named Sapienza comes across Dick's abandoned hideout in the subway and decides to become the new Nightwing.

[33] Returning to his role as Bludhaven's protector, Grayson is informed by Barbara Gordon that he has been bequeathed a fortune by Alfred Pennyworth, accumulated during his years of service to the Wayne family.

[34] He decides to use this newfound wealth to establish a philanthropic foundation to revitalize Bludhaven, while continuing to fight corruption and crime as Nightwing.