Five Potential Villains For the Nightwing Movie

There’s a Nightwing movie coming, and there aren’t that many people more excited about that than those of us here at ComicBook.com.

And while we’ve already put some time into thinking about things like who might play Dick Grayson, and what his role might be in the larger DC Extended Universe, it seemed like the official announcement of a movie in development begs the question: who will he be fighting against?

There are, of course, a number of Nightwing-exclusive villains, given that he’s had about 200 issues of solo comics. Still, not all of them are exactly major motion picture material. As any longtime comic book reader knows, there’s a bit of a gulf between somebody who can square off with your hero for 20 pages in a monthly comic and somebody who can fill up 90 minutes of a $100 million dollar live-action movie.

So we decided to take a look at some of the better (and just generally more cinema-friendly) villains in Nightwing’s pantheon to make up a list of who he might battle in Bludhaven.

Here’s our first disclaimer, though: no Slade Wilson on this list, since he’s already going to be appearing in The Batman. Sorry, New Teen Titans fans.

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SPYRAL

Putting Dick Grayson undercover would probably not work for a first movie, as it would be the kind of thing that would preclude him being Nightwing for a big chunk of it…but who knows?

In terms of long-form Nightwing stories, few have been as well-received as the Grayson series by Tom King and Tim Seeley, and certainly the idea of pitting Dick (and Batman’s intel-gathering infrastructure) against a government-sponsored spy group is full of potential. Having the reason be that Spyral is putting together dossiers on his adoptive father and his friends in the Justice League would be an emotionally compelling reason for Dick to play along.

Blockbuster

Probably the major DC villain most closely associated with Nightwing (as opposed to the Teen Titans or Batman, whose villains he often faces off with as well), Blockbuster has it all: he’s a big, strong guy with an army at his disposal. Essentailly it’s a lot like the version of Bane from The Dark Knight Rises.

This character squared off with Nightwing when he was in Bludhaven all throughout the Chuck Dixon run on Nightwing in the ’90s, which was largely a protracted turf battle between Blockbuster and Nightwing to see who would “run” Bludhaven.

Red Hood

You know how we all saw that shrine to the dead Robin in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice? 

Yeah, we’re all assuming that was Jason Todd, better known as the Red Hood (after he returned from the dead because comics).

He’s become a bit of a franchise unto himself, having starred in his own series consistently since the start of The New 52 five years ago, as well as making appearances in video games, animated movies, and the like.

While he has never really been a big Nightwing opponent in the comics, it would make sense to pit the second Robin, a little crazy from his journey back from the grave, against the first Robin — and it would help to establish a little of the history between Batman and his sidekicks, thus setting the stage for any potential future where Nightwing were to take over the mantle of Batman.

Raptor

Just introduced in Tim Seeley’s newly-launched DC Rebirth run on Nightwing, Raptor is a freelance assassin, who was recruited to work for the Parliament of Owls and assigned to be the partner of Nightwing during the “Better Than Batman” arc.

He’s quickly been established as one of the alpha badasses of the DC Universe, so much so that after having appeared in Nightwing‘s first arc, he is now appearing in Deathstroke, throwing down with Slade Wilson — a guy few dare to mess with.

It’s another example of Dick going “undercover,” although this time as the superhero Nightwing instead of as Dick Grayson.

Paragon

Paragon, introduced during Kyle Higgins’ underrated run on Nightwing during The New 52, is a villain who would be very at home in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (or, for that matter, this season of Arrow).

Sure that superheroes are bad for society and wary of the many costumed adventurers wandering around Gotham, Paragon puts on a costume of his own and builds an army to go after Nightwing and other members of the Bat-Family.

With a cool look that would translate easily to screen, a solid concept behind him, and an army of disposable underlings, this guy seems like he’s built to be a movie villain.