The Nightwing run of Tom Taylor and Bruno Redondo has been historic in many respects. It has won multiple Eisner awards and has consistently been one of DC Comics‘ top sellers. Now, their final story arc, Fallen Grayson, has forever changed the history of Dick Grayson in a major way.
The chief antagonist of Taylor and Redondo’s run is a villain called Heartless. Beyond being a serial killer who removes the hearts of his victims, Heartless savors the suffering of others. He takes a particular glee in killing parents in front of their children. The Fallen Grayson storyline found Dick Grayson framed for Heartless’ crimes, ruining his image as a philanthropist and tainting the honest cops and politicians helping him clean up Blüdhaven.
Nightwing #117 saw Dick Grayson return to Blüdhaven just in time to avert an assassination attempt on the city’s mayor. The assassin was Tony Zucco, the same career criminal whose extortion racket killed Dick Grayson’s parents. However, Dick Grayson had an epiphany regarding the night of his parent’s deaths while he was in hiding. Specifically, he realized that he had been the target of the faked accident.
Nightwing #117 concludes with this revelation, but gives no explanation for why Dick Grayson was specifically targeted. The most likely explanation is that Zucco wanted revenge on Dick’s father, John Grayson, who had a fling with Zucco’s wife before marrying Dick’s mother, Mary. However, earlier issues of Nightwing suggest another disturbing possibility.
Is Heartless the killer of Nightwing’s parents?
The 2022 Nightwing Annual revealed the full background of Heartless, aka Shelton Lyle. A child of privilege, young Shelton was a psychopath who tortured animals. Curiously, he showed no joy, anger, or any other emotion while he did this. The first time he showed any emotion was the night his butler took him to the circus, and Shelton saw the Flying Graysons fall to their deaths. This was the trigger point of Shelton’s fixation on watching children watch their parents die. It also made him obsessed with Dick Grayson and watching him lose everything.
It is possible that Shelton later sought out Zucco to work for him based on his connection to Dick Grayson. However, it seems far more likely that Shelton had been hiring Zucco to do his dirty work for years after getting tired of killing animals. Certainly, Shelton’s father was equally unethical in his business dealings running an insurance company and might have employed someone like Tony Zucco to strongarm targets in order to sell his policies. The final chapter of Fallen Grayson will tell the tale, but this does seem a likely way to further tie Heartless to Nightwing as an archenemy.
Nightwing #117 is now available at comic shops everywhere.
