Richard John "Dick" Grayson was once Batman's sidekick Robin, before becoming Nightwing and even taking on the mantle of Batman when Bruce was thought to be dead, but once again becoming Nightwing after the events of Flashpoint. He was 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 watched a mafia boss kill his parents in order to extort money from the circus that employed them. Bruce Wayne, secretly the vigilante Batman, took him in as his legal ward after witnessing their deaths, and eventually as his sidekick, Robin.

Throughout Dick's adolescence, Batman and Robin were inseparable. However, as Dick grew older and spent more time as the leader of the Teen Titans, he decided to take on the identity of Nightwing to assert his independence (other teenaged heroes would later fill in the role of 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, Dick led the Teen Titans and later the Outsiders. Following the events of the Zero Hour miniseries, he temporarily replaced Bruce Wayne as Batman, beginning in Robin #0 (October 1994) and extending throughout the Batman: Prodigal storyline. In an eponymous series, launched in 1996 and continuing until 2009, he becomes the protector of Blüdhaven, Gotham's economically troubled neighboring city. Following the destruction of Blüdhaven, at the command of Deathstroke the Terminator, Nightwing relocated to New York.

After the events of Batman R.I.P., Dick has moved operations to Gotham to protect the city after Bruce's apparent death in Final Crisis. Despite Bruce's will wanting him not to succeed Wayne permanently as Batman, the chaos in Gotham following Batman's disappearance prompts Dick to take up his mentor's identity once again and has returned to operating as the new Batman. His Nightwing mantel would be passed on to Chris Kent.

As Robin, Dick has appeared in most other media adaptations of Batman, most notably the Joel Schumacher films, Batman Forever and Batman & Robin, where he was portrayed by Chris O'Donnell. The Batman animated series of the 1990s is the first one to portray his evolution into Nightwing.