The Nightwing Tom Taylor and Bruno Redondo’s series was historic in many ways. It won multiple Eisner Awards and was consistently one of DC Comics’ best-sellers. Now its final story arc, Fallen Grayson, has changed the history of forever Dick Grayson on a grand scale.
Taylor and Redondo’s main antagonist is a villain named Heartless. In addition to being a serial killer who steals the hearts of his victims, Heartless also enjoys the suffering of others. He takes particular pleasure in killing parents in front of their children. In the Fallen Grayson storyline, Dick Grayson is blamed for Heartless’ crimes, ruining his image as a philanthropist and discrediting the honest police officers and politicians who help him clean up Blüdhaven.
In Nightwing #117, Dick Grayson returned to Blüdhaven just in time to prevent an assassination attempt on the city’s mayor. The killer was Tony Zucco, the same career criminal whose extortion gang killed Dick Grayson’s parents. However, Dick Grayson had a revelation about the night of his parents’ deaths while he was in hiding. In particular, he realized that he had been the target of the faked accident.
Nightwing #117 ends with this revelation, but offers no explanation as to why Dick Grayson was specifically targeted. The most likely explanation is that Zucco wanted revenge on Dick’s father, John Grayson, who had an affair with Zucco’s wife before marrying Dick’s mother, Mary. However, previous issues of Nightwing suggest another disturbing possibility.
Is Heartless the murderer of Nightwing’s parents?
The Nightwing Annual 2022 revealed the entire background of Heartless, also known as Shelton Lyle. A privileged child, young Shelton was a psychopath who tortured animals. Strangely, he showed no joy, anger, or other emotions while doing so. The first time he showed emotion was the night his butler took him to the circus and Shelton saw the Flying Graysons fall to their deaths. This was the catalyst for Shelton’s fixation on watching children watch their parents die. It also made him obsessed with Dick Grayson and watching him lose everything.
It’s possible that Shelton later sought out Zucco as an associate due to his connection to Dick Grayson. However, it seems far more likely that Shelton hired Zucco to do his dirty work for years after he grew tired of killing animals. Certainly Shelton’s father was equally unethical in his business dealings as the head of an insurance company and may have hired someone like Tony Zucco to pressure victims and sell his policies. The final chapter of Fallen Grayson will tell the story, but this seems a likely way to tie Heartless even more closely to Nightwing as an arch-enemy.
Nightwing #117 is now available in all comic shops.
