5555 Nightwing has been a hero since his adolescence. Although his circumstances have changed dramatically since then, he remains devoted to justice to this day. Before he began his career as a crimefighter, Dick Grayson was part of his family's acrobatic troupe, the Flying Graysons. Dick joined the act at a very young age, having been trained in acrobatics from birth. While on tour in Gotham City, nine-year-old Dick overheard "Boss" Anthony Zucco, a well-known and feared crimelord, threaten the performers unless the circus's owner paid extortion money. The owner refused, and that night Dick watched in horror as his parents's high wire snapped, sending his parents hurtling to their deaths.

The deaths were quickly investigated by Batman, who had been in the audience in his civilian guise as Bruce Wayne. Dick became Bruce's ward, and then insisted on becoming Batman's partner in crimefighting as after discovering his guardian's dual identity A few years later, Robin became the leader of the original Teen Titans; some years later, the team changed its name to the New Titans. Robin realized at that point that he had grown up: He no longer relied on Batman and, in fact, he and the Dark Knight disagreed on crimefighting methodology. It was then that Robin became Nightwing. However, during that time Batman took on another Robin named Jason Todd whom was later on killed at the hands of nefarious clown, Joker.

Sometime later, Nightwing met-up with Tim Drake whom had been at the circus the night Dick's parents were killed and had deduced that Batman was Bruce Wayne and that Nightwing was Dick Grayson. Tim sought out the help of Batman to rescue his parents and came to Nightwing to get Batman to help. Nightwing went to Batman and explained about Tim and told him of what was going on with his parents who were captured by the witch doctor known only as the Uru Man.

Batman went to help his parents, but by the time he got there Tim's mother had been killed and his father paralyzed. It was afterwards that Batman decided with much prodding from Nightwing that Tim be named the next Robin since Nightwing felt that Bruce needed a Robin. Bruce accepted and began to train Tim to become the new Robin along with Nightwing filling the big brother role.

Since that time, Nightwing has also left the New Titans behind, and when Bruce Wayne was recovering from his broken back, Nightwing helped the new Robin, Tim Drake, stop Azrael's rampage in the guise of Batman; Nightwing also substituted briefly for Batman himself.

Dick has since taken up residency in Blüdhaven, which is in some ways more in need of a hero than Gotham. Dick is his own man now, independently wealthy from a trust fund dating back to his days with Haly's Circus, and he has set up camp in Blüdhaven with the intention of cleaning up the town.

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