The latest issue of Let Them Live reveals a previously unpublished Nightwing story that solidifies his status as DC’s greatest daredevil.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Let Them Live: Unpublished Tales From The DC Vault #2 by Collin Kelly, Jackson Lanzing, Jorge Corona, and Matteus Lopes, available now on DC Universe Infinite.
As a child acrobat, teen sidekick, and full-blown superhero, Nightwing has been pushing his limits all his life. After traveling to alien worlds and alternate dimensions, saving the Earth countless times, and even taking over for Batman, it’s hard to think of anything Dick Grayson can’t do.
Thanks to the digital series Let Them Live: Unpublished Tales From The DC Vault, the DC Universe is getting even bigger as never-before-published stories are finally making it to print with Ambush Bug acting as their guide. And with the anthology’s latest issue featuring Bludhaven’s protector, a glimpse is provided at just how far Bruce Wayne’s prodigal son will go to get the job done.
The issue begins with a bang with Dick Grayson jumping out of an exploding lair belonging to the Order of St. Dumas, located in the Troposphere at 30,000 feet in the air, hanging on to a graviton bomb and being pursued by jetpack-wearing androids. Having put together a multi-pronged strike team consisting of Batman, Batgirl, Robin and Cyborg to foil the Order’s latest scheme, Nightwing launches himself from the platform as his teammates take down multiple targets all over the world.
With the gravity-fueled bomb powerful enough to cause an extinction-level event, Nightwing can’t let it touch the ground and swiftly takes out one of the androids, stealing its jetpack for himself. After a dramatic midair battle involving a passenger plane, a game of tug-of-war with the bomb, and even more free-falling, Dick defeats the remaining android, retrieving the now-armed warhead in the process.
Strapping it to the jetpack, he leaps clear, aiming for the natural well deep enough to slow him down in the dead center of the underwater coral atoll field two hundred feet beneath him. Over the airwaves, Batman tells him there’s practically no way to survive from that height before Dick reveals this was all a part of his plan. No other member of the team could’ve survived the jump, which Dick knew when putting together the mission. He’d always planned for this outcome and lied to the others about it to keep them from trying to stop him.
Still in communication with Batman as he’s falling, Dick explains to Bruce how his father taught him to treat every landing as one he’d walk away from or else he’d be too scared to jump. While Bruce and Dick’s old partner, Damian are both alike and need to know exactly where they’re going—ruling them out from the jump—Barbara was perfect for the intelligence portion of the mission, and Cyborg was already a thousand steps ahead of the plan. Only Dick could take the leap because only he could see the fall as one that he could still walk away from, which he did at the cost of his suit.
This outlook reflects Dick’s overall personality and philosophy amongst Gotham’s heroes and DC’s pantheon of heroes at large. It’s not that he’s impulsive or prone to leaping before looking, but he’s got faith in his abilities and those of his team. He can be every bit as intelligent and strategic as Bruce—he’d have to be to fill in as the Dark Knight—but where Bruce thinks with his head, Dick thinks with his heart. That’s part of why he’s been such an effective leader of the Batman Family, the Titans, and even the Justice League.
The Nightwing moniker is from an Kryptonian myth that Dick learned from Superman, another beacon of hope in the DC Universe, so it’s only natural for the character to have such faith that things will always work out. While he may not be able to soar as high as the Man of Steel, this Flying Grayson’s sense of hope and confidence still drives him to leap off of tall buildings in a single bound.
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