Nightwing
Nightwing (Eng. "Night Wing") is the title of a series of comic publications that the US publisher DC Comics has published since 1995.
Nightwing is the old Robin who nowadays as Nightwing in a city - next to Gotham - ensures law and order.
The Nightwing comics are a mix of adventure, detective and superhero comics. There are also differently emphasized science fiction elements.
The popularity of the Nightwing comics has also led to numerous merchandising products based on them being adapted over time. For example, there are Nightwing T-shirts , action figures and fridge magnets and even a Nightwing themed roller coaster in the “ Six Flags ” parks belonging to the Time Warner Group . A film adaptation of the Nightwing material has been planned by Warner Brothers for years, but has so far not got beyond the preliminary stages (creation of exposés and scripts).
Release dates
The first edition of the Nightwing series, which continues to this day, was launched in 1996. Since then, Nightwing has appeared on a monthly basis in the USA. So far the series has reached a little over 130 issues (2007). Since its inception, the series has been one of the best-selling comic series in the DC-Verlag's program with regular placements in the top 50 best-selling comic books in the monthly sales charts of Wizard magazine.
Nightwing is an offshoot of the comics about the crime hunter Batman , in which Nightwing's alter ego Dick Grayson originally co-starred as Batman's companion Robin for decades. After the makers of the Batman series had decided in 1969 to first let Robin grow up and send him to college, later authors finally drew the consequences of this development in 1983 and let Grayson finally abandon his identity as Robin around his independent personality, detached from Batman as a detective and criminal hunter developing Nightwing. The Nightwing figure proved to be one of the main characters of the Titans adventure series over time so popular that the DC-Verlag after a moderately successful, written by the British Alan Grant , Special 1995 ( Nightwing: Alfred's Return ) and an extremely successful by Dennis O'Neil's texted miniseries 1995/96 ( Nightwing: The Ties that Bind # 1-4) decided to dedicate a series to the character. Past writers for the ongoing Nightwing series include Chuck Dixon , Devin Grayson, and Marv Wolfman . The cartoonists who could be engaged for the series include Scott McDaniel and Greg Land . Nightwing and Batman still work occasionally in Gotham today, even if their breakup casts a slight shadow over their friendship.
action
Nightwing tells the story of the adventurer Richard "Dick" Grayson, who under his camouflage identity as "Nightwing" experiences numerous adventures. The original location of the series was the fictional city of Blüdhaven (phonetically based on blood haven ) on the American northeast coast, in which Grayson originally came to investigate a series of murders, but then decided to stay there permanently in order to help the city plagued by crime and corruption Help deal with their problems. With issue # 101, the series was relocated to New York City after Nightwing finally hunted down the main villain of the first 100 issues, the criminal Roland Desmond aka Blockbuster, and killed almost all of his friends in Blüdhaven in a fateful accident Life come.
Nightwing's adventures revolve around traditional detective topics such as solving murder cases and break-ins, dealing with a corrupt police agency, socially critical topics such as dealing with the American urban ghetto, which produces sociopaths and the insane, and adventure themes such as a trip to a gorilla- inhabited city in an African city Jungle. At the same time, however, emphasis is placed on the intrapersonal aspects of the main character and their gradual maturation into an independent personality. In issue # 1 of the series, Grayson moves into an apartment house in Blüdhaven, whose residents form the core of the ensemble of the minor characters in the series. He starts working as a bartender . In later editions of the series, Grayson attended the police academy and became a civil servant at the Blüdhaven Police Department (BHPD), but later gave up this job in favor of a private life .
role models
A first variant of the Nightwing fabric, which later became the model for the Nightwing stories about Dick Grayson, was developed in the sci-fi comic Superman in the 1960s .
In issue # 158 of Superman ("Superman in Kandor"), which appeared in January 1963, author Edmond Hamilton and illustrator Curt Swan introduced a new identity for Superman's: In this issue, Superman travels with the help of a minimizing ray into the, of an evil one Alien named Brainiac shrunken, alien city of Kandor. Kandor, who is kept in a bottle by Superman in his arctic refuge, the fortress of solitude , is, as he finds out, haunted by all kinds of crimes. To get to grips with this, Superman disguises himself in a futuristic black, gray and blue costume and hunts down the fiends of the shrunken city as a crime fighter Nightwing.
The Nightwing identity is a clear imitation of the cover identity of Superman's friend Batman. Superman is supported in this - and a number of other - adventures in Kandor by his young friend Jimmy Olsen, who, in imitation of Batman's junior partner Robin, takes on the cover identity of Nightwing's dazzling assistant Flamebird. In a later story, Superman's cousin Van-Zee takes on the Nightwing identity from him ( Superman Family # 181 from May 1977) while Ak-Var takes on the Flamebird identity.
In a later version, however, Superman was never Nightwing, but only knows him as a historical crime fighter from the history books of his lost home planet Krypton. In the modern day Superman and Nightwing comics it has been stated on various occasions that Dick Grayson, after giving up his identity as Batman's partner Robin, turned to Superman in search of a new superhero identity who gave him the “Legend of Nightwing “And thus induced Grayson to adopt the name and disguise of Nightwing (or a similar disguise).
Further Superman adventures in which the man of steel acts in his disguise as Nightwing can be found in Jimmy Olsen # 69 from 1963 (introduction of Nightwings dog Nighthound), World's Finest # 143 from 1964 (Superman and Olsen travel together with Batman and Robin to Kandor).
Adaptations
The Nightwing character was featured in various episodes of the animated series The New Batman Adventures , Justice League Unlimited , Young Justice and Teen Titans .
The Nightwing also appears in various Batman cartoons, such as Batman: Under the Red Hood , Batman: Bad Blood , Batman: The Killing Joke or Batman: Hush .
The character was mentioned in the movie Batman Forever . There Chris O'Donnell , who appears in the role of Dick Grayson, at the beginning of his partnership with Batman first considers the name Nightwing as a cover identity. Instead, he decided to use the name Robin.
In the video game Arkham City , the Nightwing appears in the challenge maps.
Minor characters
Aaron Helzinger
Aaron Helzinger , alias Amygdala, (Greek αμυγδαλή "almond") is a neighbor of Dick Grayson (Nightwing) in the Nightwing adventures that take place in Blüdhaven. Helzinger, who made his debut in Shadow of the Bat # 3 from 1992 (author: Alan Grant , illustrator: Norm Breyfogle ), is a gigantic and superhumanly strong man who can be released from the Arkham Asylum mental institution after he has been cured from a serious mental illness .
Since his youth, Helzinger has suffered from uncontrollable rage , which manifests itself in violent outbursts, as the almond-shaped nerve plexus in the brain known as the amygdala , which plays an important role in people's emotional self-control, is damaged in his case. The attempt to correct the mistake surgically fails and makes Helzinger an uncontrollably aggressive mental patient who reacts to the slightest external impetus with unrestrained outbursts of violence. In combination with his gigantic body size (for example, he has almost shovel-sized hands) and his unusual physical strength, Helzinger is admitted to the Arkham psychiatry. Because of the cause of his attacks of aggression, Helzinger is nicknamed Amygdala. Helzinger was originally created as a villain for the Batman series published by the same publisher as Nightwing . There he appears for several years as one of Batman's most physically dangerous adversaries, who - even not very intelligent - is used as a henchman by other, wiser villains who abuse the trustworthiness and naivety of the basically good-natured Helzinger in his resting states in order to keep him for theirs Purposes. For example, the ventriloquist uses amygdala once as an accomplice in a robbery on a toy shop ( Detective # 659). Another time, the director of the facility, Jeremiah Arkham, has him compete in a duel against Batman, who has infiltrated the prison as an alleged inmate, in order to humiliate him by defeating the amygdala in front of the other inmates. Otherwise Amygdala takes part in inmates' baseball games ( Showcase'94 # 3 & 4), is sedated with sedatives and electric shocks, fights the monster Clayface ( Batman # 550) and regularly participates in prisoner riots.
After the start of the Nightwing series - which needed original supporting characters - Helzinger is written out of the Batman series by letting him recover from his ailment. The explanation for this is given that the doctors in Arkham succeeded in implanting Helzinger - whose inability to take his medication regularly was his main obstacle to healing - his medication surgically, so that in the future it should be impossible for him to forget to take it and put it in his maddened way of relapsing. In addition, the encounter with the clergyman named Highfather exerts a positive influence on him ( Jack Kirby's Fourth World # 8). Released as "cured" from Arkham, Helzinger appears in Nightwing # 16 in his home town of Blüdhaven, the neighboring community of Batman's hometown Gotham City, the location of Arkham, and rents an apartment in the same house as Nightwing's alter ego Dick Grayson. He initially distrusts Helzinger and has doubts about his actual cure, but eventually becomes friends with his peculiar neighbor, who turns out to be a kind-hearted, if somewhat naive and simple-minded, contemporary in the course of the series. In Blüdhaven you can see Amygdala working as a night watchman and prison guard, playing baseball with children and gradually intensifying his friendship with Grayson. Most recently he appears in Nightwing # 89, where he is the only one of Grayson's neighbors to survive an attack by the blockbuster gang on Grayson's house.
Bridget Clancy
Bridget Clancy was the landlady of Dick Grayson during the Nightwing adventures set in Blüdhaven. Clancy, who made her debut in Nightwing # 2, November 1996 (Writer: Dixon, Artist: MacDaniel), was an Asian young woman who grew up in Ireland and later immigrated to the States. While studying medicine , she is the landlord and caretaker of an apartment house in which Nightwing's alter ego Dick Grayson has also moved into. For the early years of the Nightwing series, Clancy was a loose friend of Grayson's. Clancy was finally written out of the series: She left Blüdhaven when, after a household accident, she fell in love with the young ambulance who gave her first aid .
John Law
John Law was an old man who lived in Dick Grayson's apartment house in Blüdhaven. Law was an aged actor who became famous in his role as the screen hero "Tarantula", which has earned him numerous admirers, such as the young street fighter Tad Ryerstad (Nite-Wing), who was always close to Laws. To Grayson, Law, who debuted in Nightwing # 14 in November 1997 (Writer: Dixon, Illustrator: MacDaniels), was a grandfather friend and counselor. Law eventually died in a bomb attack on the Grayson / Nightwing apartment building ( Nightwing # 89).
Yoska Graesinka
Yoska Graesinka is an old man from Romania who lives in Dick Grayson's apartment house. Graesinka, who made his debut in Gotham Knights # 20 in October 2001, thought himself to be Grayson's grandfather at times. He eventually died in a bomb attack by the blockbuster gang on the Nightwing apartment building ( Nightwing # 89).
Opponent (selection)
Major recurring opponents of Nightwing include:
Blockbuster I.
The first blockbuster (Blockbuster I), alias Mark Desmond, was first introduced in a Batman story in the comic book Detective Comics # 345 from November 1965 (author: G. Fox ; illustrator: C. Infantino ). There he appears as a superhumanly strong, almost unstoppable "mountain of a man" who apparently commits crimes indiscriminately without Batman and Robin (later Nightwing) being able to stop him.
Only when the two superheroes Blockbusters discover the secret identity and the origin of his enormous physical strength do they manage to defeat him: As it turns out, behind the giant is the weak young chemist Mark Desmond. Desmond had given himself a self-developed serum, which was supposed to give him a little more physical strength, and thus inadvertently turned into the mentally limited, but irrepressible blockbuster. His criminal brother, Roland Desmond, used the trust his dumb brother placed in him to make him commit crimes in order to enrich himself, Roland. Batman and Robin arrest Roland while Mark disappears. Later on, Batman and Blockbuster meet several times. The dull giant is mostly manipulated by criminals like the Secret Society of Super Villains to commit his crimes without wanting to do evil himself. A help in the fight against blockbusters is that Batman's alter ego Bruce Wayne once saved the life of the young Mark Desmond, so that blockbuster Wayne also trusts: Batman can calm blockbusters when he takes off his mask and reveals himself as Wayne. After Blockbuster Batman helps save some miners from a collapsing mine, the latter leaves him to be looked after by a family. Blockbuster is later recruited into a team by the government organization Suicide Squad , which is supposed to stop the alien monster Brimstone.
Blockbuster II
The second blockbuster (Blockbuster II), aka Roland Desmond, is Nightwing's main adversary in the first one hundred issues of the series. Like the first blockbuster, his brother, he is a gigantic (over two meters tall), stocky man. Atypically, the colossus not only has tremendous physical strength, but also a sharp mind.
As the head of the most powerful criminal syndicate in Blüdhaven, he rules the city's underworld when Nightwing arrives in issue # 1. When Nightwing begins to disrupt Desmond's "business", he turns the giant into an enemy, who from then on tries again and again to have the vigilante killed. To this end, he initially hounds simple thugs and later professional hit men like Brutale , Stallion , Lady Vic and Shriek on Nightwing, who ultimately fail.
Roland Desmond becomes a blockbuster in the April 1989 comic book Starman # 9 (author: R. Stern ; illustrator: T. Lyle ) after his brother, the first blockbuster in Legends # 3 from 1987, "died". In this issue, the cunning petty criminal Roland Desmond transforms himself into the gigantic blockbuster through the excessive consumption of steroids , like his brother once did. Like this he is superhumanly strong but only possesses the mind of a toddler. To compensate for this shortcoming, Blockbuster enters into a pact with the demon Neron in the 1995 comic book Steel # 15, who gives him a brilliant intellect in return for his soul. After appearances in the series Steel and Impulse in 1995/1996, in which he took on the title heroes of these series, he was built into the Nightwing comics as the main villain in 1996 . The first issues of the series describe how Desmond asserts himself in the power struggle against other criminals (Black Mask, Angel Marin) as ruler of the underworld of Blüdhaven until Nightwing enters the scene.
A large part of the Nightwing comics of the first years is then about how Nightwing tries to smash Desmond's criminal empire. In addition to repeated, unsuccessful attempts to get rid of Nightwing, Desmond also has to cope with his own problems. He suffers a severe heart attack and has to travel to the “Gorilla City” deep in the African jungle, which is inhabited by intelligent monkeys, in order to find a suitable donor heart for his huge body. He also has to survive the private war that his former accomplice Torque instigates against him. In Nightwing # 100 there is finally the final showdown between blockbuster and Nightwing, whose secret identity Desmond has now found out. The reason for this is the death of Desmond's mother, for which the latter blames Nightwing and the impending collapse of his organization due to Nightwing's persistent disintegration work. After a brutal duel, Nightwing is able to defeat Blockbuster. Before he can hand him over to the police, however, the colossus is shot by his new "partner" Tarantula .
Brutal
Brutale is the operational name of the mercenary Guillermo Barrera. Brutale - which looks like a matte brown gargoyle - made its debut in Nightwing # 22 from July 1998 (author: Dixon, illustrator: MacDaniel). He is a short, former policeman from the South American state of Hascaragua, who worked as an "interrogation specialist" for the local military junta to extract information from political dissidents by means of torture , whereby his surgical skills were of particular benefit. After the fall of the junta, Barrera fled to the United States, where he began selling his services as a mercenary and hit man to the highest bidder. He appeared in numerous Nightwing adventures - often in a team with the racket Stallion - as a henchman for the villain Blockbuster. Brutal trademarks are bladed weapons of all kinds (throwing knives, razor blades, daggers , scalpels and other sharp-edged objects) that he wears in unmanageable numbers on his body and uses against his opponents.
Guillermo Barrera has a guest appearance on the live action series Arrow.
Deathstroke
Double dare
Double Dare (Eng. "Double risk, double use") is the "stage name" of the identical twins Aliki and Margot Marceau. The two pretty sisters from France, who are first introduced in Nightwing # 32 from June 1999 (author: C. Dixon, illustrator: S. MacDaniel), are trained acrobats and trapeze artists. For many years they have been part of the “Cirque Sensationel” artist troupe , which is part of a traveling circus. They impress the audience not only with their artistic skills, but also with their good looks. They later begin to use their artistic and equilibristic skills as burglars. They first act in Paris before finally relocating their activities to the greater Gotham City / Blüdhaven area, where they work for the penguin, among other things. Nightwing, for whom the sisters have a pronounced weakness, tries on various occasions to hunt down the thieves. However, he also occasionally protected them from the wrath of Blockbuster after they stole from him.
Dynamite tar
The Dynamiteer is a "professional saboteur " who carries out explosive attacks for a fee . His trademarks are the use of dynamite, from which he owes his name, as well as a ski mask with a zipper in the mouth area that traces the lips , from which one can read his mood (so the smile of the man behind the mask is recognizable by bared teeth on the zipper). He is first introduced in Batman # 560 from 1998 (author: C. Dixon, illustrator: W. Rosado).
In his debut story, the dynamiteer carried out a series of bomb attacks on a building in Gotham City, which had recently been devastated by a major earthquake, on behalf of the politicizing rock musician Nicholas Scratch. The purpose of these attacks is to wreak further havoc in order to fuel Scratch's plan to abandon the city and move it out of the United States. After a dramatic hunt, Nightwing and Robin finally manage to defeat and arrest the Dynamiteer. Immediately after it was handed over to the police, the dynamiteer fell into the hands of the insane Lyle Bolton, who kept him and several other criminals trapped in the ruins of Blackgate Prison for several months. From there, Dynamiteer and the others are finally freed by Nightwing ( Nightwing # 35-37): Together they defeat Bolton and end his reign of terror . The Dynmaiteer must of course remain in the institution even after the end of Bolton's rule over Blackgate.
Hella
Hella is an insane ex-cop that Nightwing occasionally comes across. Hella, first introduced in Nightwing: 80 Page Giant # 1 from October 2000 (author: C. Dixon, illustrator :), is the youngest offspring of an immigrant family of Irish descent whose members have served as police officers in the Blüdhaven police force for generations . When Hella's family dies in a bomb attack by criminal Angel Marin , in which she is severely burned, she goes insane. In revenge for the death of her loved ones, she (equipped with heavy firearms, a mask behind which she hides her facial burns and explosives) begins a bloody personal vendetta against those responsible. Nightwing ends this campaign of revenge for the time being, but ends up on Hellas' hit list himself ( Nightwing # 70).
Lady Vic
Lady Vic (short for "Lady Victim"), alias, Lady Elaine Marsh-Morton, is an English professional criminal with whom Nightwing occasionally deals. Vic, who made her debut in Nightwing # 4 in January 1997 (author: Dixon, illustrator: McDaniel), hires herself out as a mercenary, according to the tradition of her Norman clans, to raise money for the maintenance of her family's mansion in Great Britain. In her work, she relies on her skills in the Far Eastern martial arts and uses ancient cutting and stabbing weapons ( swords , Zulu Asegai, Kris, etc.) and a Webley-Fosberry 45 revolver from her family's collection. Your loyal assistant and factotum is your butler Bivens . She had to do with Nightwing again and again in connection with her work for the criminal Roland Desmond, for whom she took part in an expedition into the African jungle in search of a lost gorilla town, carried out various break-ins and, above all, tried to kill Nightwing several times . Vic also belonged to the group "Tartarus" led by the terrorist Vandal Savage , which carried out several attacks on the Titans adventure team led by Nightwing .
Mouse and Giz
Mouse and Giz are a duo of computer hackers who sell their services to the highest paying. Mouse, aka Pamela Sweigeld, made her debut in 1995 Robin # 18 (author: Dixon, artist: Mike Weiringo), Giz in Catwoman # 28 (author: Dixon, artist: Jim Balent ) January 1996.
Mouse was originally the secretary of Schuyler Ollsworthy , the chief of Gotham City's building department. In order to avenge the bad treatment of Ollsworthy - whom she secretly loved - by Gotham's mayor Kroll, she committed attacks on public buildings disguised as a mouse, an animal that is particularly susceptible to sabotage in American belief , in order to emphasize the importance of the work of her boss (building security ) to clarify. After her arrest by Batman's junior partner Robin , she teamed up with professional hacker Giz, a former employee of the criminal Penguin, with whom she has been a criminal team ever since. The two worked briefly with Catwoman, Slyfox and Steeljacket ( Catwoman # 28-30) and later appeared repeatedly as the henchman of the criminal Roland Desmond, which is why they clashed with Nightwing several times ( Nightwing # 43-47 and 68-70) .
Nite wing
Nite-Wing , aka Tad Ryerstad, is a violent sociopath who is up to mischief in Nightwing's former hometown of Blüdhaven. Ryerstad is obsessed with the delusion of "clearing" Blüdhaven of the crime, but contributes much more to the further escalation of the situation in Blüdhaven through his brutal methods and his ill-considered approach. The character made his debut in Nightwing # 8 (May 1997) as Tad Ryerstad and in Nightwing # 21 as Nite-Wing (June 1998) and was created by Chuck Dixon (author) and Scott McDaniell.
Ryerstad grew up in an orphanage in the slums of Blüdhaven after he ran away from his broken, alcohol and criminal home. Since he could not remember his real name, he called himself Tad in reference to the nickname tadpole (dt. "Tadpole"), which he had been given because of his small height in the orphanage, he chose the surname Ryerstad after a local beer brand . After he left the orphanage, he lived undisturbed in the ruins in the slums of Blüdhaven from the age of 12, where he “further educated” himself by secretly going to the cinema and reading penny magazines. The loveless childhood and years of neglect made Ryerstad eventually grow into a behavioral sociopath who was particularly inclined to speak of himself in the third person and developed a sense of mission that led him to believe that he was called to "clean up" Blüdhaven . First as a simple thug, later - inspired by the movie hero Tarantula - disguised as a masked avenger, Ryerstad decided to patrol the city's slums as a crime fighter. Based on a 24-hour deli grill that specialized in chicken wings, he called himself Nite-Wing in his actions. A mix-up with Nightwing brought him seriously injured to the hospital, where the members of the blockbuster gang - believing he was Nightwing - carried out further assassinations on him, so that Nite-Wing has since regarded them as his mortal enemies.
After a brief partnership with Nightwing, who separated from Ryerstad when he realized his madness, Nite-Wing began systematically to murder street gangs and the henchmen, such as Ricky Noone , of Roland Desmond, the king of the underworld of Blüdhaven. After he murdered the undercover agent Cisco Blaine in one of these actions , he was arrested by Nightwing and turned over to the authorities who locked Nite-Wing in Lockhaven Prison. Together with the bizarre disfigured former police officer Dudley Soames (Torque), Ryerstad finally succeeded in sparking a prisoner revolt and escaped. Once at liberty, Nite-Wing and Torque fell out, with the result that Ryerstad shot Soames while fighting over a weapon. Found guilty of - by the blockbuster gang - falsified evidence of the murder of the Blüdhaven police chief Redhorn, Nite-Wing finally managed, with Nightwing's help, to prove his innocence. For the murders of Blaine and Soames, despite his innocence in this case, he was arrested again and sentenced to another prison term.
Shrike
Shrike (English name of the strangler ) is the name of various members of the League of Shadows, founded by the terrorist Ra's al Ghul. The first Shrike - whose identity has never been clarified - made his debut in Robin: Year One # 4 (Writer: Dixon, Artist: Javier Pulido). The name Shrike alludes to the habit of stranglers to impale their prey on thorns, branches and the like - similar to Shrike, who mainly works with sharp-edged weapons (swords, knives, nets with hooks, etc.). As one of al Ghul's agents, he ran a martial arts school (Vengeance Academy) in a poor district of Gotham City where he trained young people to be assassins. When Dick Grayson (Batman's assistant Robin) tried to infiltrate the school under a false name, the situation escalated into a tangled argument in which Batman and the criminal Two-Face (who Shrike wanted to kill to collect a bounty) became involved Shrike shot dead by Two-Face. Shrike's school closed and the students dispersed.
Years later, Boone , Shrike's favorite student from the "Vengeance Academy", assumed his master's identity ( Nightwing Secret Files & Origins # 1, October 1999) and, after meeting Ra's al Ghuls daughter Talia, joined the League as the new Shrike al Ghuls league Shadow for which he worked as an assassin in East Asia for a long time. Two attempts to kill Dick Grayson (who in the meantime had become the Nightwing hero) in revenge for the inglorious end of his master - in his eyes due to Grayson - failed. After al Ghul's death, Shrike placed himself in the service of his daughter Nyssa, the new leader of the group.
Stallion
Stallion (English "stallion"), alias Randy Hanrahan, is a beefy bat with which Nightwing hits each other several times. He first appears in Nightwing # 14 from November 1997 (author: C. Dixon, illustrator: S. McDaniel). There Hanrahan is presented as a former football player who had to give up his career with the Dallas Cowboys after a knee injury and has since found his livelihood through jobs. Hanrahan, an extremely stocky and muscular man, adopted the code name Stallion as an expression of his macho attitude. His hallmarks are a wide-brimmed cowboy hat , which he never takes off, and a shirt with a horse's head silhouette.
Since Stallion does not tend to think for himself, he seldom pursues his own plans. Instead, he offers his services for cash to the highest bidder: Hanrahan initially works briefly as a bouncer and collector of money for the criminal casino owner Oswald Cobblepott , before he works as a "man for the rough" for the underworld boss Roland Desmond for a long time. In the blockbuster gang led by Desmond, Stallion usually forms a team with the South American Brutale and the professional criminal Lester Buchinsky. For Desmond, Stallion tries several times in vain to murder Nightwing, whom he is subject to in several brutal duels. He also committed burglaries and took part in an expedition through the African jungle .
Sylph
Sylph , aka Sylvian Scofield, was a murderer who Nightwing had to do with. Sylph, who made his debut in Nightwing # 48 from October 2000 (author: Dixon, illustrator: Land), was the daughter of an inventor who had been cheated by three businessmen of the patent for a special fabric he had developed (Achilloron textile) that they brought in a million dollar fortune that they did not share with him. In revenge for the disgraceful treatment of her father, Sylph committed murder attempts on the fraudsters, using an advanced special fabric that enabled her to use her own clothing as a weapon by using the electronic thread bandages of the fabric as weapons and tools how organic tentacles obeyed their thoughts. Sylph eventually died when she got caught in her own make while fleeing from Nightwing and broke her neck.
Torque
Torque (Eng. "Torque") was the nickname of the bizarre-disfigured former police officer Dudley Soames, who was one of the main opponents of Nightwing in the first years of the series. Torque, who debuted in his alter ego as Soames in Nightwing # 1 of October 1996 and as Torque in # 27 of January 1999 (author: Dixon, illustrator: MacDaniels), owes its name to the fact that his head was after an attack by the criminal Roland Desmond is rotated 180 degrees so that his face is towards his back and the back of his head is towards his chest.
Inspector Dudley "Deadley" Soames was a corrupt police officer in Blüdhaven. When Nightwing came to Blüdhaven to solve a series of murders, this aroused the displeasure of the Blüdhaven police chief Redhorn. Redhorn hired Soames to murder the young detective in order to keep the corrupt authority out of his influence. Soames decided, however, that it was more useful to keep Nightwing alive for the time being and entered into a partnership with him, with the ulterior motive of using Nightwing in the gang war that was raging in Blüdhaven as his tool. After Nightwing's fight against the criminal Roland Desmond's cartel achieved ever new, ever greater successes, Desmond - for whom Soames worked in parallel to his work as a police officer - ordered him to eliminate the young crime fighter at all costs. After the failed attempt to murder Nightwing with the help of the insane Jonathan Crane, Desmond tried, in turn, to kill Soames as punishment for his failure. With the help of his bear-like physical strength , the gang leader turned Soames' neck over and left him apparently dead. However, Soames miraculously survived his neck break and was saved by the arriving emergency doctors. With strong drugs and a cruel rehab program, it was possible to restore the life forces of the disfigured man - his head was now turned 180 degrees and had his back to look at. Thanks to special glasses equipped with single-lens reflex lenses, which enabled him to keep an eye on his chest in spite of his twisted anatomical direction, Soames - who now mockingly called himself Torque - was able to continue to move.
To get revenge on Nightwing and blockbusters, Torque started a new gang war, but was defeated and arrested by Nightwing in an attack on the Blüdhaven Police Department. He was finally able to escape from prison together with Nite-Wing by both instigating a prisoner riot. A dispute between the two about how to proceed escalated into a scramble for a weapon, as a result of which a shot was fired that fatally injured Soames.
tumult
The tumult (real name unknown) is a gigantic African American who commits acts of sabotage for a fee. He made his debut in 1998 Batman # 560 (Writer: Dixon, Artist: Rosado). In his work, the commotion, whose hallmark is a brass fogged face mask and he otherwise a construction worker grabs clothes ( overalls , work gloves, etc.), preferably on a heavy jackhammer back.
In the past, Tumult's clients included the politicizing rock musician Nicholas Scratch, who tore down damaged buildings in Gotham City after an earthquake in order to cause further chaos until Nightwing and Robin were finally able to bring him down ( see Batman: No Man's Land ). After his imprisonment he came under the control of the insane Lyle Bolton, who is obsessed with locking up other people. Together with dozens of other professional criminals he could get hold of, Bolton locked tumult in the vaulted cellars of the ruins of Blackgate Prison, abandoned by his regular guards , which Bolton now ruled more as the new "director". With Nightwing's help, Tumult and the other inmates finally managed to instigate a prisoner revolt, end Bolton's reign of terror and liberate the prison. After the end of Bolton's regime, Nightwing's tumult was turned over to police, who repossessed Blackgate ( Nightwing # 35-37).