Dick Grayson (Nightwing)

Richard John Grayson-Wayne also known as Robin and Nightwing is one of the major characters from the DC Comics.

As the first Robin, Dick Grayson was the most famous sidekick in all of fiction. As he ventured forth on his own, he formed the Teen Titans and became their leader. When the boy became a man, he became the independent hero known as Nightwing.

Personality
A world class acrobat, martial artist and detective, Richard was barely fifteen when his parent's deaths caused his world to change. Richard always looked forward, contrast to Bruce who always remembered his parent's deaths, and celebrated the lives of his parents. This undaunting optimism was put to the test many times, especially when Richard was forced to face the ghosts of his past, the Court of Owls and even the Joker.

Master Martial Artist
Although Nightwing, like Batman, doesn't have any real superpowers, he has peak athletic strength and endurance of a man who regularly engages in intensive physical exercise. Dick is an expert crime fighter with a range of impressive skill taught to him by Batman amongst other experts. Dick is a master martial artist mastering dozens of fighting styles, including Eskrima, Aikido, Savate, Muay Thai, Boxing, Capoeira, Kendo, Tae Kwon Do, Jeet Kune Do, Bojutsu, Hapkido, Ninjitsu, Tai Chi, Jujitsu, Judo, Kenpo, Wing Chun, Krav Maga, and Kobubudo. Dick was trained for years by Batman and then had further training from Richard Dragon. Dick is considered one of the best hand to hand fighters on earth. He has made his own style of fighting to play to his strengths.

Dick is also a master at stick fighting, often using escrima sticks. He uses these as offensive and defensive weapons; he also uses them for long range attacks by throwing them at his opponents. He has taken down Ra's al Ghul and stalemated against Cassandra Cain and Deathstroke.

Peak Human Conditioning
Dick is at peak human levels in strength, endurance and stamina but his most valuable asset is his incredible speed and agility, being extremely quick and versatile.

Peak Human Agility and Speed
Dick is a skilled acrobat from his childhood in the circus and is considered the best human acrobat in the DCU, only rivaled by Deadman. His acrobatic skills combined with his agility makes him very hard to hit in a fight, and he combines these skills with his fighting skills to perform moves that no other human on earth could perform. Only three people in the world can do a quadruple flip, being one of those three. He is also said to be faster than Batman and much more fluid.

In his childhood Dick regularly played with his childhood friend Raymond a game called parkour train racing for fun. During the game Dick demonstrated not just impressive agility but also speed as they race around on top of speeding trains. In addition, Dick moved fast enough to save a man from being ran over by a moving train. During his time as Robin, when he was still a rookie, he jumped out of a helicopter with his hands tied behind his back and escaped from his binds in mid air using his acrobatic skill and speed. He then was fast enough to get back in the helicopter to kick Tusk out of it.

Nightwing can easily keep up with and even catch his former mentor. Furthermore Nightwing can easily dodge bullets, knifes, blades and such and is even fast enough to deflects them back in mid air. He is also fast enough to catch up with a train, a speeding getaway car and with the flying assassin Scarab despite him being too high up and according to Red Robin making it impossible for him to chase down but not for Dick - he even manages to plant a tracer on him.

Dick's agility has allowed him to hold his own against people out of his league, like, Blockbuster. Dick even comments on how fast Blockbuster was, but he still manages to evade punches from Blockbuster and maneuvers around his body. This allows Dick to put some hits on Blockbuster. He even manages to create a small crater by smashing Blockbuster's head into the ground, by the use of his speed. Furthermore, Dick performs feats of agility like these on a daily basis.

Not only is Dick agile, but his body is very flexible as he can perform feats such as, to use his flexibility and agility to maneuver around many cars after jumping from a moving train, and then get to the same place he was on the train.

Peak Human Strength
With his strength, Dick has thrown a refrigerator, broke through a bus window while underwater and thrown people through concrete walls. For example, his attacks are powerful enough to make Blockbusterbleed and even knocking him off.

Peak Human Endurance
Nightwing was able to withstand punishment from the powerful demon Acheron and to recover quickly from it. When he was knocked away by a Superman clone he was able to recover quickly from the attack as well. He also withstood repeated attacks from Blockbuster despite being exhausted beforehand and not fighting back. Furthermore he can go without sleep for 4 straight days and hold his breath for 7 minutes.

Genius Level Intellect
Dick is highly intelligent and a master detective. He was officially mentioned as being the second to Batman in detective ability in the second volume of the DC Comics Encyclopedia. He is part of a small group (Batman, Tim Drake, Oracle, and Alfred) who can use the Bat-computer to full effect. Dick has also had training in escapology, criminology, stealth, and disguise by Batman and others. He can also speak many different languages fluently, such as Spanish, German, French, Russian, Japanese, and others. Dick is also extremely proficient in disarming explosives. Barbara stated that Dick was able to solve 4 cases from "America's Most Wanted" in one morning. He has been able to solve the Riddler's riddles before Batman many times, even as Robin. Dick was also able to find and deduce the hidden clues in the Wayne Manor left behind by Bruce as a message that he's trapped in time. Furthermore he once hacked alien technology using Tamaranien language.

He also once turned an alarm clock into a transmitter so he could secretly communicate with Batman while working as an agent for Spyral. Thanks to his ability to read people he also understood quickly how to use one of Spyral's abilities called "Hypnos" which allows the user to manipulate people and their memories which according to Helena Bertinelli usually takes years to master.

Indomitable Will
Scarecrow said that Dick's willpower is second only to Batman. He was considered a candidate for Abin Sur's Green Lantern, which ended up going to Hal Jordan. He's resisted Scarecrow's fear toxin and at times resist mind control for example he brook free from Brother Blood's mind control and was able to resist Groom's mind control.

Leadership
He is a brilliant tactician, a strong leader and has a natural ability to read people. He has lead teams like the Teen Titans, the Justice League of America, and the Outsiders. Unlike Batman, he has exceptionally good people skills and may be one of the DC Universe's most effective leaders. During his time as Batman, Donna Troy asked him to be a Co-Leader of the new Justice League she was forming.

Other Abilities
Like Bruce, Dick is an expert escapologist, escaping a maze before the Flash. He is a master of disguise, stealth, and is a master marksmen. According to Bruce in the New 52, he has a gift for reading motion and it was shown that he is capable of reading gesture and body language and uses it in connection with his analytical skills to find out if someone is lying.

He also built his own "Night Car" and a high tech "Wing Glider" which is fast enough to keep up with the Batmobileand programmed it with a remote GPS device.

Equipment
His Nightwing costume has an excellent protection against damage, made of Nomex fire-proof, triple-weaved material that has been lined with kevlar and is also insulated against electricity. His suit is made for his fighting style of "move more get hit less" and has less armor to facilitate this, though he can add armor when facing fast and strong foes. The suit is light sensitive, darkening when there is more light in the area. His mask included a built-in radio transmitter/receiver and Starlite night-vision lenses. It has a computer link and analysis. The lens can zoom and magnify his vision. It also has electromagnetic vision, which includes thermal, sonar, and x-ray vision. He also wears ear dampeners in defense against sonic attacks. Each one of his gauntlets and boots contain eight compartments in which he can store items. He sometimes wears a utility belt They have built into them a self-destruct feature such as the ones in Batman's utility belt. Each gauntlet's sections contains a lot of equipment, such as sonic or smoke pellets, modified batarangs (Wing-Dings), knockout gas capsules, and throwable tracers. The right gauntlet also contains a 100,000-volt stun gun, and a air driven launcher that shoots darts.

His boot compartments carry important equipment such as flares, a rebreather, a mini-computer equipped with fax, modem, GPS and a mini-disk rewritable drive. Also items like lock picks, a first-aid kit, a mini-cellphone, flexi-cuffs, antitoxin assortment, a pair of small knives, brass knuckles,signal flares, wireless listening devices and a small halogen flashlight. Nightwing carries in the back of his costume a pair of Escrima sticks. He always carries his grappling gun.

Nightwing's guantlets emit electric shocks, at least 15,000 volts (which he used on Saiko). The suit has gone through many upgrades, and now is bullet-resistant, able to take less damage from bullets. It is also fireproof and shock-resistance to some extent.

Richard also has a specialized muscle car called the "Nightbird" which is built with many parts like those on the Batmobile, such as bulletproof armor and wireless network connections.

Nightwing's parents also left him a trust fund which was turned into a small fortune by Lucius Fox. Nightwing has used it for maintaining his Nightwing equipment; for purchasing the rights to Haly's Circus, saving Dick's former home from financial troubles; and for secretly buying the apartment building at 1013 Parkthorne Avenue at Blüdhaven which was the home of the first Tarantula.

Trivia

 * Dick actually met his Robin successor Tim Drake at a very young age during the Year Three storyline. Tim greatly admired the Flying Graysons as a child and idolized Dick, even posing together in a picture with him at one point. Drake would later use his knowledge of Grayson's acrobatic style to independently deduce Batman's secret identity during A Lonely Place of Dying.
 * Dick's parents left him a trust fund that Bruce Wayne's business partner Lucius Fox later turned into a small fortune. Although it is not comparable with Bruce Wayne's wealth, it has been enough for maintaining his Nightwing equipment; for purchasing the rights to Haly's Circus, saving Dick's former home from financial troubles; and for secretly buying the apartment building at 1013 Parkthorne Avenue in Blüdhaven. This address was also the home of the retired hero Tarantula (Jonathan Law).
 * Dick has an admitted weakness for redheads. Both his big loves, Barbara Gordon, and Starfire, are redheads.
 * Dick's birthday has been alternatively given as late October (roughly a week before Halloween) and the first day of spring.
 * Dick has called Alfred Pennyworth his "best friend" on multiple occasions.
 * Dick's parents were killed on June 27th.
 * In pre-Crisis Earth-Two continuity, Dick Grayson was a distant cousin of Robotman sidekick Chuck Grayson. Post-Crisis, it was never established if Dick and Chuck were related.
 * Dick's favorite breakfast is buckwheat pancakes.