Dick Grayson

Dick Grayson is a fictional character, a superhero that appears in comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger and illustrator Jerry Robinson, he first appeared in Detective Comics #38 in April 1940. The youngest in a family of acrobats known as the "Flying Graysons", Dick watches a mafia boss kill his parents in order to extort money from the circus that employed them. Bruce Wayne, secretly the superhero Batman, takes him in as his legal ward, retconned in some cases as his adopted son, and eventually as his crime-fighting partner, Robin. He is written out by many authors as the first son of Batman as well as his prodigal son. Many, including OMAC, state that he is the one that Batman cares about the most.

Throughout Dick's adolescence, Batman and Robin are inseparable. However, as Dick grows older and spends more time as the leader of the Teen Titans, he retires as Robin and takes on his own superhero identity as Nightwing to assert his independence (others would fill in as Robin). His Nightwing persona was created by writer Marv Wolfman and artist George Pérez, and first appeared in Tales of the Teen Titans #44 (July 1984). As Nightwing, Dick leads the Teen Titans and later the Outsiders. Following the events of the Zero Hour miniseries, he temporarily replaces Bruce Wayne as Batman, beginning in Robin #0 (October 1994) and extending throughout the Batman: Prodigal storyline. In an eponymous series, launched in 1996 and continuing until 2009, he becomes the protector of Blüdhaven, Gotham's economically troubled neighboring city. Following the destruction of Blüdhaven, at the command of Deathstroke, Nightwing relocates to New York. Following "Batman: Knightfall", Dick Grayson takes up the mantle of Batman while Bruce was recovering from a broken back as he considers Dick his prodigal son.

After the events of "Batman R.I.P." and Final Crisis, Dick moves operations to Gotham to protect the city following Bruce's apparent death. Despite Bruce's will instructing him not to, the chaos in Gotham following Bruce's disappearance prompts Dick to take up his mentor's identity once again as Batman. With Bruce's return, Dick once again picked up his previous identity as Nightwing.

As Robin, Dick Grayson has appeared in several other media adaptations of Batman, including the 1943 and 1949 fifteen chapter Batman serials in which he was played by Douglas Croft and Johnny Duncan, respectively, and the 1966–1968 live action Batman television series as well as its motion picture, where he was portrayed by Burt Ward. In the 1995 film Batman Forever and its 1997 sequel Batman & Robin, he was played by Chris O'Donnell. In the 1990s' Batman: The Animated Series and The New Batman Adventures, he was voiced by Loren Lester. The latter series was the first adaptation to portray Grayson's evolution into Nightwing. In May 2011, IGN ranked Grayson #11 on their list of the "Top 100 Super Heroes of All Time".