I wrote a little essay on this topic quite some time ago, I hope you don't mind if I just copy/paste here.
For a long time now, Dick Grayson has been someone with a big influence on my life. I know that might sound ridiculous to anyone who doesn’t read comics or anything, but bear with me here for a sec.
And as many times as I tell people this, they never really get or know why. A lot of them automatically assume it’s because the animated series Teen Titans that ran back on Cartoon Network for a while was like my favorite cartoon for years. AND WHILE THIS IS TRUE… It really has nothing to do with my choice. In fact, when I look back, that show had a lot of poor representation when it came to Robin compared to what I’ve read now. Ahaha… I feel like a traitor.
From the beginning of my life, I guess you could say I’ve been pretty well acquainted with the Bat-family in one way or another. When I was a kid it was mostly through my Dad’s interest in the character of Batman coupled with constantly watching Batman: The Animated Series. I’d always held my Dad up on such a pedestal when I was younger, and so I always pictured him as my ‘Batman’ of sorts. Naturally, making me the boy wonder. It was just fun back then, it was one of those things I only thought about in my head because who doesn’t want their Dad to be Batman and go fight crime with him? Those memories stayed with me for years, and around eight years ago, the caped crusaders of Gotham re-entered my life in a whole new way.
The revival of my interest in comics and cartoons began with the premiere of Cartoon Network’s Teen Titans animated series. With daring Boy Wonder himself set at the team’s unofficial leader, I was drawn to the show immediately just by him alone, and what I remembered from when I was a kid.
And as the show went on for years, my love for the character grew. It led me to watching and reading all I could about him, buying endless comics and figures, even to online forums where I eventually met my girlfriend.. I cosplay him, and now I even want a tattoo paying homage to him!
Really though, it’s when Dick Grayson is Nightwing that he serves as a sort of personal role model and a real guide.
But, it really makes sense if you look at the character’s history! Look back all the way to Dick’s origins. The original boy wonder, his role in the comics and as a sidekick to Batman was completely solidified. I mean, everyone saw him pretty much in one way. The kid, the sidekick. Aid to the Dark Knight of Gotham. And that seemed to be fine with him, until he started entering his teenage years where everyone begins to discover who they are and become their own person.
Entering the Teen Titans, Dick had always struggled to be free from the shadow of his former mentor. Even as the Titan’s leader, he was still Robin and one has to admit, when you hear ‘Robin’ you automatically think “Batman”. He couldn’t be his own man.
Eventually he realized what he needed to do, so Dick cast away his old identity as the young squire to the Dark Knight, and stepped into his own spotlight as Nightwing! He still struggled though, and this change in his identity sparked a lot of altercations with Bruce, someone who’d supported and raised Dick almost all his life.
Dick had a tough time losing the support of one of the most important people in his life and it led to a lot more trouble down the line, but it also did him some good I think, because now he had no one he had to impress. No one’s standards to meet but his own, which were just as rigorous if not more than Batman’s because Dick wanted to prove himself by serving his own city and eventually becoming his own man and hero.
See, while not completely on the same level, I can still relate to Nightwing’s character and history so much..
With the cards I was dealt originally, for the first half of my own life, I’d only been seen one way, and unfortunately it wasn’t as Batman’s sidekick. As a kid, I couldn’t do everything I wanted. I had to act, dress, and just be someone completely opposite from who I knew I was . I was groomed as society’s idea of what I had to be like because of some.. mistake.
This, while frustrating, didn’t really start bothering me until I was a little older and I starting realizing I couldn’t take this being who I was any longer, I couldn’t live my life the way I was. This is the point where I really began identifying with Dick Grayson. Because you want things to change and you have a need to be seen as something completely different than what your peers, friends and family has known all your life.
I’ve also noticed that around the beginning of my transition was when I really started loving comics. I think this it part of what makes them such an amazing art form, and I’ve always been such a big fan of art and am an artist myself. So I can appreciate how they can effect you emotionally and a lot of characters can influence readers as if they were real, living, breathing, people. This is what Nightwing’s done for me. As I began to struggle with figuring out who the hell I was, he was there to guide me through it all, and completely understand my problems.
Essentially, like him, I had to let go and say goodbye to a huge part of who I’d previously been. While part of me was ecstatic at shedding this identity, it was also sad and really terrifying. Because as much as I’d come to hate that part of me, it still had been me. Y’know? And it’s playing a huge role in who I’m becoming now and in the future. And then you have to come to terms with it, ” I’m no longer ____. “ and ” I’m becoming ____. “
I can also relate to how this has effected his personal relationships. Like with his adoptive father and mentor, Bruce. I mean, look. This had been someone Dick was trying to please and earn respect from for years! And suddenly, due to Dick’s new identity and wanting to become his own man, different views and other issues, his relationship with somebody really important to him had been severely strained.
My parents are completely supportive of me, but I still wonder daily if they’ll really ever accept me as their son, rather than just some..replacement of who their kid used to be. Much like how I’ve imagined Bruce has experienced in some way, with accepting the fact that the kid he’d become so reliant on being the contrast to his dark persona was leaving and becoming somebody much different, stepping into the spotlight on his own. It’s hard to know when you’ve finally gained respect and recognition as the person you want people to see you rather than it be something their doing just to appease you, especially when it comes to parents. And on some level, you can help but think that you’ve disappointed them in some way. I know this is something I’d struggled with for a long time, and something Dick has struggled with a lot when it came to Batman.
Richard Grayson’s come a long way though. Through all the years and all the struggles he’s had, he’s emerged completely as his own hero and identity. He’ll always be connected to his past as the original boy wonder to a lot of people, especially those close to him. But those who see him now, will know him as the hero of Bludhaven, Nightwing. And that’s what I want. Eventually, I just want to be seen the way I want to be seen, as just another guy. Currently, that’s a challenge, and it’s one I’m more than ready to face now, and a lot of the thanks for that goes to Dick. In so many ways he’s helped me more than any counselors or doctors have or will and so he’ll always be my favorite superhero no matter what.
In addtion to having emerged from the shadows of what everyone had seen him be his entire life into his own man, and completely created his own identity. Not only that, but he did it in a way that made you love and respect him as much as you could any real person.
He’s charming, handsome, funny, a dork in his own right, caring, dedicated, genuine, friendly, daring, and just a million other things that make him an amazing person that I wish with everything that I’ll be half as awesome one day. He fights the good fight because he wants to. Because he knows what’s right, and he’s one of the only person who can do what he does with the same amount of grace and a genuine grin on his face. He never loses himself, he knows who he is and who he isn’t. He’s Nightwing. He was Robin. He is Dick Grayson. He is not Bruce, or Batman.
It took a long time for Dick to find who he was. Lots of trials and tribulations, and some turmoil in relationships and the mission alike. But in the end, he made it. He’s his own man, one that many look up to as an example just as much as Batman or Bruce, to me even more so. When I see Dick Grayson, I don’t just see the first Robin. I see Dick Grayson, acrobat, son, brother, hero, cop, original boy wonder, Nightwing, rightful heir to the Batman mantle. I see all everything he’s gone through and in that I see a reflection of my life and my own struggles that I’ve been able to get through in part because of him. Above all, I see myself.
I’m really just rambling on and probably making no sense now, but there was my attempt at summarizing why this character is just so amazing and so important to me and my life… Sorry I’m so horrible at expressing myself, everyone! Hah, in all seriousness though, Dick Grayson is one of the greatest characters I’ve ever read about in my life and there’s so much even beyond what I just wrote up that add to why he’s so amazing but,I just wanted to take a few minutes to show my appreciation for what he’s done for me. From being a role model, helping me through my own trials and transition, to being a major factor in meeting one of the most important people in my life, even just providing endless entertainment, inspiration and company when I needed it, I don’t know what I’d do without him, and all the people that helped make this character person so fucking amazing.
Thank you, Dick Grayson.
