Richie Grayson spent his early years a part of the Flying Graysons, a trapeze act in Haly's Circus stage show. Unknown to most, the show was in financial peril despite its high popularity, and the owner made deals he couldn't live up to with the wrong kind of people. The man had no choice but to agree to a deal. When the show traveled to other cities, it would smuggle drugs along with its equipment to and from Gotham City. The owner had no stomach or guile for this kind of business, and it proved a simple matter for the elder Graysons to stumble on the truth. It was an even simpler matter for Tony Zucco, the face of the show's drug extortion, to rectify things. Before what would be Richie's final show, he saw Zucco in areas the man shouldn't be but didn't know enough to say anything. That night, the riggings failed and he also saw his parents die.

The accident was unprecedented. A mistake like that wouldn't have happened, and Richie knew it. He knew why his parents really died. He tried to tell. In all the chaos, he tried to bring attention to the man responsible. He chased the man away from the crowds, shouting and screaming until they were so far back stage that it didn't seem like anyone could hear him anymore. It seemed like he was alone with Tony Zucco. Zucco struck him with a pair of boltcutters. All that saved him was Batman's sudden arrival.

From there, Richie went to the hospital. And from there, he went to social services. He was an orphan now with no potential legal guardians on record. There was no one to take care of him. All social services did was create a place to keep him. The conditions were uncaring and restrictive, and he quickly had enough of them. He fled the institution with only Gotham's streets as his destination, but Batman stopped him before getting far at all. Batman sent him back with an assurance that he wouldn't have to stay there for long. Batman's word turned out true, as he was notified within days that he had been adopted by Bruce Wayne.

Richie wasn't sure if this turn of events was any better. As the months progressed, he didn't feel saved by Bruce Wayne. All it felt like was another kind of abandonment. His strained relationship with the man could hardly be called a relationship. Day or night, Bruce Wayne never seemed to be around. Richie had only the butler, Alfred, as his caretaker. A nice enough man, but not the one who adopted him. He became resentful when the notion sent in that he was just good publicity. He was a way for Bruce Wayne to improve his public image.

As an overly active boy, it was only a matter of time before Richie ended up in the Batcave. This was what he got for exploring the manor grounds. To Batman's surprise, his adopted son suddenly landed on top of the Batmobile in a shower of dirt, root and rock. What followed was not a calm talk about the truth of things. There was shouting and panic. Richie fled the cave, outmaneuvering Batman with his speed and acrobatics before he dove through the waterfall.

He wound up wandering Gotham, unsure of what to do with himself from there. Batman had adopted him. He felt stupid, thinking he would've known that if he had just... thought about it for a second. It was so confusing now, because he had no idea what to make of it. Did it mean that Bruce Wayne was better than he thought or just different? While wandering, he stumbled onto a mugging in progress in an alley. More shocking than that was that he decided to get involved. With the element of surprise, he stopped the mugging but not the mugger. It seemed like he was about to pay for interfering, but then Batman showed up.

Upon their return to the Batcave, the talk was awkward. Not just for Richie though. He got the idea that this wasn't any better for Bruce. He wasn't sure if it was his running away or nearly getting killed in that mugging that made this more awkward for Bruce, but the tone was definitely different than it had been the first time. But then Bruce made him an offer. He could be trained to stop muggers without having to nearly die as a result. He could learn how to bring down the drug operations that his parents were murdered to protect.

And it sounded cool.

For the following months, Richie underwent a rigorous training period. Physically, he excelled. He was a natural athlete with a strong base already. It was a simple matter for him to learn new skills. But he also began an intensive homeschooling program. This wasn't his strong point, but he worked at it nonetheless. Eventually, it was time for him to prove himself with the Gauntlet. He had to go out into Gotham and evade Batman for the full night. He succeeded, but in the process of doing it, he also exposed a major drug lab to the GCPD.

Possibly to Bruce's surprise, Richie created the identity of Robin rather than something much closer to Batman's dark theme. Despite what he had gone through, dark wasn't his thing. He also didn't see much point in being something closer to a Batboy. As Robin, he could be the good cop to Batman's bad. Not depending on darkness, he could be more effective in the daytime hours than Batman. This was enough to sell Bruce on the idea, and Richie was started slow. A lot of what he was given t handle were support functions: surveillance, daytime investigations, the equivalent of superhero gopher jobs. More and more, he proved he could handle it and was allowed an increasingly activity role until Batman and Robin became full-time partners.

Richie's years as Robin were years of continuous change and growth, and he loved it. He came into his own as a hero with all the self-confidence that carries. He had a flirtatious relationship with a newer member of the crew, Batgirl. He even helped pull together other teen heroes and establish them as the Teen Titans. But it wasn't fun for him. He fell victim to a vicious beating by Two-Face that he never quite got over emotionally, and Robin's involvement with the Teen Titans began straining his relationship with Batman.

Richie and Bruce's relationship was spiraling downward. Bruce seemed to constantly criticize his involvement with the Titans and his commitment to Gotham. Richie knew he was doing good -- in AND out of Gotham -- and couldn't stand that Bruce thought there was only the Batman way of doing things. He never made the commitment Bruce did. He never said he would sacrifice every part of his life that didn't directly apply to the mission. After Robin came in late to a fight with Clayface -- which Batman and Robin still won -- the tension between Richie and Bruce exploded. Things were said, and Richie was fired.

This came as a shock to him. No, not being fired. Part of him had expected it could come to that someday. But he never expected to have his Robin identity taken away. This is what really left him feeling lost for a time. He was 18 now, so he left Gotham and embarked on a journey to find who he would be now. All in all, it was therapeutic for him. He returned to Gotham as Nightwing, but not permanently. It just felt right that Gotham would mark the end of his journey, where he could reconnect with some people before finally moving on. People other than Bruce. But this was complicated by one factor -- there was a new Robin. What started as a visit to touch base with his past became a trial to accept the fact that he'd been replaced.

Nightwing dedicated himself full-time to the Titans. He put himself out there, becoming a more active presence in the superhero community at large. He even engages in a serious relationship with an alien princess -- not as Nightwing, but as Richie Grayson the impulsive rich kid from Gotham. However, his strained relationship with Bruce only seems to worsen every time he returns to Gotham. Other events only make this even worse. Barbara Gordon's crippling and Jason Todd's death nearly break them apart completely. Along with the part of them that blame themselves for these tragedies, there was another part deep inside that blamed each other.

It turned out to be a surprise what bridged the growing gap between Richie and Bruce. On one of Richie's visits to his homecity, he was sought out by a boy named Tim Drake. The weirdness of this only grew and grew. Apparently, Tim had figured out who Richie was and had been. But not only that, he wanted Richie to go back to being Robin. Honestly, Richie wasn't sure how to handle this situation, but he had to be honest. He refused Tim's plea, saying that there was really no going back for him. He also really wasn't sure what to do with this kid and was surprised to find out Tim took the case straight to Batman afterwards. In the end, this was what brought Richie back to the Batcave. He came to plead Tim's case, because the kid was right about some things. He may have been wrong about Richie becoming Robin again, but it was true that Batman and Gotham were better off with a Robin at Batman's side.

Nightwing's own life then went through some rocky changes. His engagement to Starfire fell through when events led her to leave Earth on a spiritual journey. But then the Titans were beginning to fracture as well. It wasn't in a bad way though. It was just that they were no longer teenagers and their adult lives were beginning. Wally had become the Flash, and that made his life less and less about the Titans. Garth's life had grown into becoming an undersea wizard and family man. Roy was rebelling somewhat against his old self and trying to build a structured like as Arsenal. Donna... was confusing. On some days she seemed lost but others seemed to secretly know exactly where she was going. Raven had fled the dimension, and Vic was easily the most stable still but... seemed to know that things were changing. So the Titans eventually dissolved with so few of them able to be full-time Titans anymore.

For a time, Richie took his act on the road. He traveled and had adventures all over the world. Many as Nightwing, some as Richie Grayson. In the end, he returned to Gotham City. He still felt a connection to the old town -- too much to take another city as his own. He wasn't against the idea of working with Batman again, but it would only be part-time. He would still be his own hero with priorities outside of Gotham too.