DICK GRAYSON

Dick Grayson is an agent of Spyral.

Grayson really needs no introduction, so of course he is getting one here.

The youngest member of the "Flying Graysons", he and his parents were the headliners for a traveling circus act. The act came literally crashing down when a crime boss, extorting money from the circus owner, rigged the act to cause great damage. His parents now dead from the fall, the orphaned young teen was taken in by billionaire Bruce Wayne, aka Batman, and given a chance to train and later join with the Gotham City crime-fighter to get justice.

For several years as he grew to adulthood, Grayson as Robin, the Boy Wonder prowled the dark alleys and rooftops fighting criminals, both petty and arch, and trying to make a very dangerous city less so. Even as his mentor became a member of the Justice League, Grayson/Robin helped form the younger group known as the Teen Titans. It was as a member of that team that Grayson decided to give up the persona of Robin, more specifically the "boy" part, and took on the new moniker of Nightwing. (Nightwing was a legendary Kryptonian crimefighter that Grayson heard stories of from Superman while growing up.)

Over the next few years, Grayson became nearly as famous as his adopted father and more than once when calamity struck the Caped Crusader even put on the cowl himself and became Batman. He always willingly stepped down from that august position when he was no longer needed but he never stopped fighting injustice.

Then came the time when evil super-villains from Earth-3 invaded this universe to extend their power base. One of their first acts was to capture Nightwing to torture from him identities of other superheroes. As a result of their actions, his secret identity was revealed and he was seen to have died on world-wide television. Naturally, he did not really perish (although in the universe in which he operated, death was by no means an end).

Batman and Grayson had a serious talk about his future and where he could do the most good. One of the organizations that had come into existence was a spy bureau named Spyral and Batman had his suspicions about its real intentions. He asked Grayson to go undercover and join the group to learn from the inside what was truly what.

And thus Grayson, formerly Robin, formerly Nightwing, became Dick Grayson, Agent of Spyral.

As a pre-teen comic reader when I first met the Caped Crusader and his ward, Robin, I was a fan from the first pages because I wanted to be Batman (who didn't) and knew I was too young. But I could be Robin because he was closer to my age. I do not remember for sure but I probably could have done without the short-shorts and the color scheme was rather out there (not that I noticed such things but it was nowhere near as cool as Batman's). I also read and enjoyed the adventures Dick Grayson had in the Teen Titans (but who wouldn't when you got to work next to Wonder Girl!).

I was long into my adulthood when Robin became Nightwing but when I picked up the occasional comic and saw him as such, I applauded the growing up the publisher allowed the character. I did not follow the character too much but once in a blue moon checked him out. Then he switched from crime fighter to secret agent and I was hooked.

He did not stay an agent long but he sure was fun while he was one. He was fearless and resourceful and far more athletic and daring than just about anyone he was likely to go up against, which made sense considering he routinely opposed people like the Joker and the Penguin and the Riddler. I read every issue.