Now These Are Changes I Can Get Behind

Nightwing 0
DC Comics
Tom DeFalco and Kyle Higgins, writers
Eddy Barrows, artist

There's nothing wrong with Nightwing's origin story, and so it is left mostly intact in this DCnU version. Young Dick Grayson is the third part, along with his parents, Richard and Mary Grayson, of the Flying Graysons, trapeze aerialists with the traveling Haly's Circus. On a trip to Gotham City, the circus runs afoul of a protection racket run by small-time thug Tony Zucco, who decides to make an example of the Graysons. The parents fall to their deaths, and the boy is taken in as the ward of Bruce Wayne, secretly the Batman, and eventually becomes Robin, the Boy Wonder. Later, Dick adopts the costumed identity of Nightwing when he becomes an adult.

The first change this DCnU version makes is to age Dick to 15 when his parents were killed. That age is slightly more believable than the original 8 Robin was supposed to be at the time of his debut as Batman's crime-fighting partner. Plus, it is a necessary change within this new reality where costumed heroes have operated openly no more than about five years.

The next change also goes to believability in the modern age. Rather than taking the orphaned Dick Grayson in as his ward, Bruce Wayne arranges to have Dick housed at the Wayne Care Center. Bruce still takes a personal interest in Dick; Bruce sees his own loss mirrored in what has happened to the young circus performer. And he sees himself in Dick's quest for justice as the boy tries to track down Tony Zucco on his own.

The last major change made to this origin story is the biggest to my mind. In the old DC continuity, Bruce saw himself in Dick's tragedy, so he took the boy in. Then he saw a similar need for justice and chose to reveal his secret to Dick as a way of providing direction for the boy's anger. The end result of that revelation led to Dick becoming Robin. Later, Jason Todd followed a similar path to becoming the second Robin. And finally, Tim Drake deduced the secret identities of Batman and Robin after Jason Todd's death at the hands of the Joker, earning his place as the third Robin.

In this DCnU version of Dick's origin, Dick figures out Bruce's secret on his own, a testament to the natural observation and detective skills the boy possessed, qualities necessary to make his transformation into Robin successful. Dick has ample time during the day to observe Bruce and question his motivations, and he also has a number of nighttime encounters with Batman while conducting his own pursuit of Tony Zucco. Comparing these two individuals is what brings Dick to the conclusion that they are the same man. I like this change and acknowledgement of the young man's skill.