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AlthoughNightwingis one of the most popular Bat - Family members right belowBatman , he might be able to farm in popularity if the Dark Knight stop slip his villains . Many people debate theCourt of Owlsto be Batman - centric villains , and it ’d be hard to blame them consider how they ’ve been used in stories of late , but the Court has always had a much strong tie to Nightwing .
The Court of Owls first appeared in theNew 52canon of DC Comics where they were a painful thorn in Batman ’s side . They are a secret social club that ran Gotham through the shadows for centuries , even taking up hall and veil their bases in buildings own by Wayne Enterprises . This eventually culminated in theNight of the Owlsstoryline , which get word a full - on attack from the Court on the Bat - Family and many people in Gotham , such as James Gordon . All of this sounds like they would make a complete baddie for Bruce , but over the course of the write up , readers learn that they have such a stronger connection to Nightwing .
InBatman # 7by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo , it ’s exhibit that Nightwing was originally meant to be one of the Court of Owls ' hatchet man , known as a Talon . He learns this when Batman so helpfully shows him that he has a Court of Owls engraving on one of his back teeth . But that ’s only the start of the personal connections . The intact reason Nightwing has this etching is that it was presumably given to him when he was a child , live at Haly ’s Circus , whichthe Court of Owls had a hired hand in . The Court would pick the in effect acrobats from Haly ’s Circus and aim them to be Talons , with Dick Grayson being only one of the many select .
Nightwing is in motive of his own rogues ' heading . He has a few villains here and there — Blockbuster , Lady Vic , Brutale , to name a few — but he still struggles to really find a strong stable of opposition that his adopted father Batman has . Even his archrival , Deathstroke , is consider by many to still be a Batman villain . The Court of Owls has had a much larger impact on Nightwing ’s life . Dick ’s enceinte - granddad , William Cobb joined the Court originally and was one of the reasons Nightwing waslined up to become a Talon . Since Dick was adopted by Bruce Wayne before he could be snatched up by the Court of Owls , they instead choose another immature boy , one of Nightwing ’s best childhood friends , Raymond McCreary . Raymond was n’t as good of an acrobat as Nightwing though and despite the brutal training he underwent , he was eventually refused entry to the Court and abandoned on the street .
Batman has a strong roll villains , some of the good in laughable history , and all of them relate to him in some mode . Joker pushes his moral code , Riddler challenge his intellect , and Two - Face reflects the wave-particle duality of his identities . Nightwing does not really have many baddie who are related to him in any such way . Blockbuster is simply some Maffia bosswho survive in the same city as Nightwing . Lady Vic is an assassinator and there is n’t much relation between them . The Court of Owls , however , has as big of a personal connection toNightwingas anyone ever could , which is why they were always his villain and notBatman ’s .