Nightwing's New Origin Makes His Parents' Death More Meaningful
In the latest issue of DC's Nighwing, Dick Grayson learns the secret history of his parents, including the added significance behind how they died.
Warning! Spoilers ahead for Nightwing #82
In the latest issue of DC Comics' Nightwing, Dick Grayson's origins have been changed, particularly the deaths of his parents. Now, their deaths are much more significant than the trapeze artists simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Additionally, it's revealed that Nightwing actually has a secret half-sister and her birth inadvertently resulted in the murder of his parents, which led to him being taken in by Bruce Wayne's Batman.
In recent issues of DC's Nightwing from writer Tom Taylor and Bruno Redondo, Dick Grayson is back in action after spending quite a long time out of his typical black and blue tights due to major head trauma that had caused long-term amnesia. However, he's since recovered and regained his memories, and he's determined to fix his city of Blüdhaven now that Nightwing just inherited billions of dollars from the late Alfred Pennyworth, the Bat-Family's butler who had also served as their surrogate father figure. However, things are going to be a lot harder than he initially thought. While Nightwing had hoped to work with city officials to solve the city's rampant problems with homelessness, the true identity of Blüdhaven's new mayor certainly complicates things on multiple levels.
Now, Nightwing #82 sees Dick reacting to the shock that the new mayor Melinda Zucco is not only the daughter of the man who killed his parents but that she's also his secret half-sister whose father was really John Grayson. She takes Dick to her mother, who reveals the truth. According to Meili Lin, she was once the abused wife of Tony Zucco who found a means to escape him at Haley's Circus. Eventually, she met and was protected by John and Mary Grayson, who weren't yet together at the time. While Meili stayed with the circus, she and John eventually became involved before Tony showed up to take her back. Soon after, Meili gave birth to Melinda, though Tony never said anything about his suspicions that the baby was actually John's (and John himself never knew she was born). However, years later when Tony was squeezing ringmaster C.C Haley for protection money, he intentionally chose the Flying Graysons to serve as collateral damage, rather than Dick's parents simply being in the wrong place by chance.
This change is actually a pretty big deal for Nightwing's origins. He now knows that his parents had a history with their killer, and Zucco's actions were way less random than Dick had long believed, instead of being an act of revenge and bitterness on top of the greed. Unfortunately, Nightwing might direct any resulting feelings of anger he's potentially generating against his new half-sister Melinda, as it very much looks to him that she was elected to be Blüdhaven's mayor as a means to give the crime boss Blockbuster even more power over the city than he already has. However, it's quite likely that there's more to Melinda than meets the eye.
In any case, the last handful of issues have been an insane ride for Nightwing, and it looks like the party is just getting started with Blockbuster about to enter the room Dick's standing in with fully armed guards by the issue's end. However, one can imagine that Dick Grayson has some major processing he's got to go through, especially with these new revelations about his new half-sister and Tony Zucco's prior relationship with his parents.