Nightwing (Or, Why I Will Never Stop Loving Superheroes)

Let me tell you 'bout Nightwing.

"Even the villains thinks I'm gorgeous."

Nightwing is the super-hero alter-ego of Dick Grayson, the original Robin. Yeah, the kid you read about in all those old comics with the scaly pants? That was him. After a fight with Batman ( and after giving puberty the butt-whuppin of a lifetime), Dick quit the Robin scene and tried to find himself. Surprisingly enough, the answer came from a close friend of his mentor; Superman. The Last Son of Krypton told him the story of a Kryptonian superhero that went by "Nightwing". Dick loved it so much, he couldn't help but accept the mantle as his own.

I'm pretty sure the one from Krypton probably had a better debut outfit, though...

So, why Nightwing? He's a great example of why I love superheroes, and why I will love them until they put me in a pine box. Growing up, Dick Grayson was exposed to all manner of horrors and atrocities. In some cases, that can turn out a pretty psychotic individual. But not Dick. Maybe it was Batman, or Alfred, or the caped community that fostered him, but Nightwing has never, ever failed to do the right thing, no matter what the personal cost or sacrifice he has to make. A prime example is the loss of Bludhaven.

"GERONIMOOOO!"

Bludhaven was Nightwing's Gotham, his Metropolis, set to the torch by the Secret Society of Super-Villains when they use the walking radioactive biohazard Chemo to nuke the whole damn city. Nightwing, who was out of town at the time, returned to find his city a blasted crater, it's people dead or dying, and pure chaos across his streets. But does Dick give up?

Like Hell.

"LINE STARTS HERE FOR THE BEATING OF A CENTURY!"

It's that spirit I admire, and it's something superheroes have in spades. It's that profound ability to never concede defeat, the virtue of persistence, that I try to emulate. It's fine to lose, to be beat up. It's never okay to be beaten. You can't surrender. You can't back down. You can't bow to the tide of pain and loss. You have to rise over it, and then the next wave of tragedy, and then the next. I know a thing or two about being beaten up and losing hard, but that idea of a person who can stand against the rising tide, and keep coming back, no matter how many hits they take, is something I strive to be.

...By picking fights with other heroes. SUBTLE, DOC.

I won't ever have a cape, or a mask, or an alter-ego that kicks ass across my neighborhood when the sun goes down. But I can do everything I can behind a microphone, every day, on-air, to make someone's life better. The only way I can do that is if I keep coming into work, no matter how bad the day's been, no matter how awful things are. I'll never be Nightwing. But I can be Doctor Jones.