| abstract | - Richard John "Dick" Grayson is a fictional 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. Batman (Bruce Wayne) takes him in as his legal ward (retconned as an adopted son in some cases) and eventually as original incarnation of the crime-fighting partner Robin. He is written by many authors as the first (and prodigal) son of Batman. Many, including OMAC, state that he is the one that Batman cares about the most. Throughout his adolescence, Batman and Robin are inseparable. As he grows older and spends more time as the leader of the Teen Titans, however, Grayson retires as Robin and takes on his own superhero identity 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, he leads the Teen Titans and later the Outsiders. In the first volume of his eponymous series (1996–2009) he becomes the protector of Blüdhaven, Gotham's economically troubled neighboring city, the locale the character is most closely associated with. He has also served stints protecting the streets of New York, Chicago and Gotham in other runs over the years.
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