NIGHTWING May Be Gone, But GRAYSON Is On The Way

If you’ve been following DC’s Forever Evil miniseries, you’ll know that Dick Grayson has been having a hard time lately. Kidnapped by the Crime Syndicate, his secret identity was exposed to the world. He then seemingly died at the hands of Lex Luthor in Forever Evil #6 in an attempt to stop a bomb connected to his heart from detonating. Though we won’t get the conclusion of the miniseries until May, fans of Batman’s former sidekick can rejoice over one thing: Dick isn’t dead!

Although Nightwing is ending with issue #30, Dick’s adventures will still continue. It was announced by USA Today that Dick will return on July 2 in his new ongoing series Grayson, written by Tim Seeley and Tom King, the latter of whom is a former CIA counterterrorism officer. The series will see Dick become a super spy for the spy agency Spyral, and give him the opportunity to “take off the mask and step out on his own in a world where he’s not simply being another hero like the hero he grew up with,” according to King.

Of course, a new life means sacrifice. Aside from Batman, no one else knows that Dick is alive, including Alfred and Batgirl (Barbara). Seeley pointed out that despite his legacy as a member of the Bat-Family, Dick is now out in the cold.

“He’s doing something that’s going to cause pain to his friends and family, but he believes in the cause,” King said. “That tension between having to do something good but having the cost of it being pain to his family, it drives him a little crazy.”

Dick’s new line of work is certainly different than what readers are used to seeing, and Seeley likes having Dick work for a group that says they’re serving the greater good, but are inherently manipulative. He describes the series as DC’s The Americans.

While the supporting cast hasn’t been announced yet, Seeley plans on reintroducing several familiar DC characters, including giving Dick an arch-enenmy. The series will also use Dick’s status as a “sex symbol for the ladies” to its advantage.

I won’t lie, seeing Dick as a spy wasn’t the path I saw him taking after Forever Evil. It’s certainly an intriguing idea, but all I can picture in my head is a “Dick Grayson: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D “scenario (I know they’re not part of the same company, work with me here). It’s not that it’s necessarily bad, but it’s an odd mixture of character and genre.

By the way, I know Dick probably doesn’t have the same aversion to guns that Batman does, but am I the only one who thinks it’s weird that he’ss packing heat? Don’t let your former boss catch you with one of those, Dick. He might have some choice words for you.

SOURCE: USA Today