Memento audere

Okay, so I’m supposing this is in response to my post about the different kinds of Dick Grayson’s in runs, and I’ll answer it under that assumption.

The contenders for the most intelligent, in my opinion, probably starts with Watterswing at the forefront. Watters has had him display both quick wits and in depth knowledge of niche subjects, as well as an aptitude for detective work, that can’t be beat. I don’t really want to go further into it than that since his run is still ongoing, but if you know you know. I’d also throw Devin’s Nightwing into the ring. I didn’t call it out much in my other post, but particularly in the Titans (1999) run, Dick was playing 5D chess all the time. There were constant throwaway bits like the one with the biology research and him rebuilding the tower’s tech after it collapsed, that arc with the kids, the play to protect Argent, etc.

And, for that matter, Wolfman’s Nightwing also deserves consideration. Dick in NTT was a strategic and technical mastermind. That issue of him identifying Donna’s backstory can’t be forgotten either. Really, any Nightwing involved with the Titans pre-Rebirth deserves mention, because Titans has always been Dick’s opportunity to show off his intellectual prowess.

And then, of course, there’s Tomasiwing. It might be kind of surprising that I’m only bringing him up now, but frankly I don’t think his intellectual feats were notably better to some of the other things described here. He was smart, yes, but what made Tomasi’s Nightwing so competent was that he was smart and not a spaz. For better or for worse.

A tier below those guys would probably include Seeley, Humphries, and maybe Dixon. Particularly in the Grayson run, Seeley’s Dick showed a capacity for quick thinking and strategy, and Humphries’ Nightwing also deserves some credit for his work with the Judge. And, again, Dixon’s Dick did some good detective work and, y’know, built his own vehicles. But all of these guys, for lack of better words, give off more “street smart” vibes, whereas the highest tier have a mix of “street smarts” and Capital I Intelligence.

I guess that leaves Jones, Higgins, Percy, Lobdell, Jurgens, and Taylor, as our lower tier mainline Nightwings. Higgins and Percy were nothingburgers, I’m sorry. They were guys that did things I guess. I’m not really sure I can comment on the Dick in either the Lobdell or Jurgens run because they were recovering from a TBI. That feels unfair. And lastly, probably at the bottom, Jones and Taylor both had dumbasses on opposite ends of the spectrum. One was a frat guy and one was the silly good boi, and neither showed off much intellectual vigor past one or two surface moments.

Dick’s return from Spyral was, generally speaking, controversial. Getting decked, being called an eternal disappointment, all around angst from everyone but Damian. But in the Grayson annual, Dick also happened to run into Clark, and Clark’s very first reaction was to hug him.

While there are plenty of meta reasons one can cite for the poor reactions of Dick’s family (namely New 52 Disease), its always been a favorite headcanon of mine that the reason Clark was so receptive was because he’d heard Dick’s heartbeat after his ostensible “death”. Dick “died”, and this belief was allowed to propagate through the community after he was revived and sent to Spyral, but you also have to remember that Clark has the capacity to hear human heartbeats from around the world. He has the ability to differentiate heartbeats, at that. And I’d bet, somewhere between mourning Dick and attempting to carry on with normal life, he heard the heartbeat.

He might’ve dismissed it as being delusional at the time, or a product of grief, or a coincidence. Maybe he did his best to ignore it. Then he lost his powers for a period of time, other shenanigans happened during that era, etc etc.