HEAR ME OUT: Nightwing
Because I CAN and WILL write an essay about the love of my life.
I’m gonna be so real with you: I tried to write this multiple times. And multiple times, I got too excited, I had to close out of Google Docs, I’m not even kidding.
Listen: there are times when you sign up to read a blog written by yours truly and she is eloquent, elegant, and has something to say. BUT SOMETIMES YOU JUST GOTTA CALL IT WHAT IT IS: THIS MAN IS HOT AND CUTE AND KIND AND EVERYTHING AND HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO STAND A CHANCE?
“He’s fictional, Nina”—I know.
There isn’t a single cell in my body that does not mourn that fact every single day of my existence. I crashed out the other night and I had to make myself hot chocolate with alcohol in it just so I could stop crying and go to sleep because I, like many other adults on this godforsaken, Nightwingless planet, had to go to WORK in the morning.
So I present to you, my stream of consciousness essay:
3 Reasons Why Nightwing Is Hot and No Real Man Could Ever Measure Up
Reason #1: He’s kind.
This man has gone through unspeakable trauma. Depending on the canon, this man watched his parents fall to their deaths between the ages of nine to eleven. THE BOY WAS BARELY EVEN IN DOUBLE DIGITS—
AND STILL.
This man goes out every single day without superpowers to do the best he can. Not the best humanity has to offer: the best that he has to offer. His best not only keeps the whole world safe (like, literally, whenever Nightwing dies in the DC universe, the world ends.), but it keeps the world hopeful.
Unlike the World’s Okayest Dad (Bruce Wayne), Dick Grayson keeps the world safe not by instilling fear, but by instilling hope.
In Nightwing: Fallen Grayson, which is (as far as I know) a pretty good conclusion to the Heartless saga, the main thing that Richard Please-Be-Real Grayson uses against Shelton Lyle is the fact that the people of Bludhaven actually like him.
Now, removing the fact that I, too, would die for Richard Grayson in half a heartbeat, this man not only fights in a mask, but without it. He used the funds he inherited from Alfred (Best Dad) to create the Pennyworth Foundation and turn Bludhaven into a safe place. Literally: he builds haven. A community within the city where the homeless can find shelter. It even has its own library.
Which brings me to—
Reason #2: He’s brave.
In a world where 90% of the men I know can’t even commit to a relationship, Richard Seriously-What-God-Do-I-Have-To-Pray-To Grayson reveals himself as a billionaire committed to stopping corruption within the city he loves. He says as much, knowing that the most powerful people in the aforementioned city are corrupt.
He immediately gets a hit put out on him.
Does this man stay at home like any reasonable human would? No. Of course not. Because this man’s bravery borders on recklessness and a very real lack of self-preservation. This, he decides, is the perfect moment to go to a ribbon cutting ceremony for the Haven he decided to build.
He did, predictably, get shot at.
And after Wally West speeds him to safety, Richard immediately puts on his suit and heads back into the fray because he’s worried for the safety of other people, and he will not let his own fears override his desire to help people.
This is not the only time we see this. In fact, after being drugged with a modified fear toxin in Nightwing: Time of the Titans, he develops a fear of heights. Still, for months, he continues to leap off buildings to save people.
(please god, I promise I’ll go back to the Church if you just—)
THEN—because that isn’t enough—he continues to overcome his fear of heights through two volumes. Even going so far as to travel to Nanda Parbat to train it out of him.
Which, of course, leads me to the last reason I’ll discuss, which is far from the end of the list I keep in my heart, but we’ll have to survive.
Reason #3: He’s secure.
A man with the ability to think about his feelings and actively take steps to better himself?
That’s how you know it’s fiction.
No, but seriously, imagine a man having to surround himself regularly with people who are objectively more powerful than he is and not be insecure?
DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY MEN HAVE TOLD ME HOW INTIMIDATING I AM?
I am just a girl in love with a fictional character.
A man once roofied me and tried to follow me into a club bathroom, and I scared him off by arguing with him about Nightwing. He was all “Superman, this, Superman, that—clearly you just have a crush on Grayson.” And I said,
“If you don’t have what it takes to form a reasonable argument with me, that’s your problem, not mine.”
(I’m sure the bouncer by the club bathrooms had more to do with my safety than Nightwing did, but WE TAKE OUR WINS WHERE WE CAN GET THEM.)
Anyway, the point still stands: Nightwing would never find me intimidating, and the fact that people do this on a daily basis is beyond me. I’m 5’2”. There are children taller than I am. But what intimidates people isn’t my stature (obviously), it’s the fact that I have one (1) brain cell, which is more than a woman is supposed to have, according to the patriarchy.
When Nightwing meets a challenge, he does not falter. He does not flinch. Even when he loses, he takes a moment to figure out what didn’t work and what did. Then, he tries again with adjustments.
He has his flaws, and he tries to be aware of them as much as possible. He isn’t perfect, but he’s open to criticism while knowing what he brings to the table. We love that for him.
God knows I do.
