Six Degrees of Dick Grayson

So I was puttering around with Scribblenauts Unmasked a while ago, and got to wondering; is there anyone in the DCU that cannot be connected back to Dick Grayson in six steps or less? And if there is, how obscure do we have to go to find them?

Only limitation I'm putting into place is no pre-Crisis Dick, since Rebirth seems to have significantly muddied the waters as to whether or not there's any distinction between nu52 and non-nu52 Dick.

I'd start us off, but I'm really drawing a blank here. Even the weird or really obscure teams aren't that hard to connect back to Nightwing; the Global Guardians had a few members that joined the JLA, meaning that there's at most one or two steps between them and Dick, the Omega Men worked with Kyle Rayner, leaving a whole one step back to Nightwing, and the Doom Patrol had Gar Logan as a member, so once again all of one step back to Dick. Even characters from the distant future have easy connections- the Legion of Superheroes can make two single-step jumps back to Nightwing with either Superboy or Superman.

I can get 4 steps using some Mother Panic characters:

Mother Patrick>Violet Paige>Kate Kane>Dick Grayson

Beyond 4, I don't know.

An impressive concept! And even given the small number of crossover specials, I wonder if you couldn't do the same with most Marvel characters.

Enemy Ace?

Good call- Enemy Ace simply doesn't have a lot of contact with the rest of the DCU. That being said:

• 1. Hans Von Hammer, the Enemy Ace.
• 2. Gregori Arcane (the Patchwork Man I), nephew of Hans Von Hammer
• 3. Abigail Arcane-Holland (Daughter of Gregori Arcane)
• 4. Alec Holland (Swamp Thing, Husband of Abby Arcane-Holland)
• 5. Batman (worked with Swamp Thing)
• 6. Dick Grayson.

The frightening part is, I didn't even have to go all that obscure for that one.

And connecting Dick to just about anyone in the Marvel U wouldn't be that hard for one simple reason- in the Amalgam crossovers, Tim Drake/Robin III hooked up with Jubilee. From Jubilee to Wolverine, to basically the entire friggin' Marvel Universe because he's done a teamup with basically everyone and then some.

edited 23rd Mar '17 3:28:29 PM by TeChameleon

So what this really amounts to is finding a character who's never teamed up with Batman.

Or any of the Teen Titans. I'm not sure if Dick was with the Justice League while he was Batman but he's on good terms with most of the major members at least.

Dick has led the Justice League, at least for a short while. Even if Batman is left out of the equation entirely, it's tough to find a character that hasn't teamed with Nightwing, or at least admired his butt in passing (seriously. "Could that butt look any better in those tights?" was actually a running gag for quite some time with Nightwing). He's also led the Outsiders and the Teen Titans.

Forget the Green Lantern Rings, the most dangerous weapon in the universe is Dick Grayson's contact list.

Anyhow, like I said, the challenge here is finding someone who can't be connected to Dick within six steps. I'm not entirely certain it can be done.

edited 23rd Mar '17 6:31:35 PM by TeChameleon

You would to go to the Marvel universe fringe to find one, and even that isn't a sure thing.

Actually, Batman met the Enemy Ace (or his ghost anyway, kinda) in a story from the 70's ( "Ghost of the Killer Skies" by Dennis O'Neill and Neal Adams), so that'd be Enemy Ace-Batman-Dick Grayson.

Given how frequently DC characters team up, I wonder if you couldn't play this game with a lot of 'em. Still...howzabout Brother Power the Geek?

edited 23rd Mar '17 9:48:14 PM by Robbery

In Batman and Captain America, Batman and Captain America swap sidekicks for a bit, so Bucky helps Batman while Robin joins Cap; this Robin is Dick. Thus in order to find a Marvel character who can't be linked to Dick, you have to find somebody who has never fought or teamed up with Captain America.

Batman has had a crossover with the Punisher and Spider-Man so anyone whose three or less hops from them is six from Dick, and in the JLA/Avengers crossover every hero who was, is or will be in either team was summoned to fight against every villain of either team, so technically speaking Nightwing is one degree of separation from all the Avengers and Justice League and their villains, even those who have as of this day yet to join.

edited 24th Mar '17 1:37:49 AM by Shaoken

Also, Batman teamed up with the Hulk, and Superman with Spider-Man, so you can link Dick through them. There also the 80's team-up of the New Teen Titans and the X-Men, which puts Dick in the same book with Wolverine, and thus puts him but two jumps away from pretty much everyone in the Marvel Universe.

How many people are in Dick Grayson's contact list? There's the Batfamily, the Teen Titans, the Justice League, and that's not even all. If all of Dick's friends teamed up, they'd be unbeatable.

Brother Power, the Geek, has met Batman. In fact, I'm pretty sure that's close to his only superhero interaction >.0 So, anyhow, another single-step to Dick.

And it's not just the JLA and the Titans on Dick's contact list; amongst his closest friends are the fastest man alive (Wally West), Themiscyran royalty/daughter of the Titans of Myth (Donna Troy), Atlantean royalty (... I think. Don't remember whether or not Garth was ever officially adopted/put into the line of succession by Aquaman), Tamaranian royalty (Koriand'r), the heir to the Queen Industries fortune (Roy Harper), the heir to the Dayton fortune (Gar Logan), multiple contacts at S.T.A.R. Labs (Karen Beecher, Vic and Silas Stone), even quite literal conduits to higher planes of existence (Rachel Roth). And that's just his immediate and former teammates from the Titans who he could ring up out of the blue! He has some serious resources on tap.

... basically, if anyone ever got Dick upset and/or frightened enough to start calling in favours on a large scale... I'm not sure there's a word in the English language for how screwed they'd be

I can't remember the exact example, but there was a wallbanger entry about a plotline that had Dick Grayson cut off from his allies and highlighted how ridiculous the plot was considering just how many contacts he has. He really is the most well connected hero in the DC universe.

"Dude, I am close personal friends with the microbes living in your blood. They really want you to abandon your evil plot and let me go. I'd listen to them."

Dick's even better connected than Rick Jones. And much more interesting.

edited 25th Mar '17 9:56:06 AM by Robbery

How could Dick Grayson possibly be cut off from all of his allies? They'd instantly set up a search party. And find him. Because I don't know the number of his allies that have Super-Speed, telepathy, Super-Senses, or any number of abilities that would help to locate him.

Okay, how about Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man?

Doom Patrol villain?

Two or possibly three steps (not sure if Gar was with the Patrol when they faced A-V-M-Man).

• 1. Doom Patrol
• 2. Gar Logan
• 3. Dick Grayson.

... like I said, I'm honestly not sure It's possible.

Howzabout The Jester, or The Red Bee (two obscure Golden Age heroes), or 'Mazing Man?

• 1. Red Bee
• 2. Starman (Jack Knight)
• 3. Batman
• 4. Dick Grayson

edited 31st Mar '17 8:15:19 AM by Jhimmibhob

Even without using the Batman connector, Nightwing can still connect to both the Red Bee and the Jester-

• 1. The Jester
• 2. The Jester II (Grandson of the original)
• 3. Uncle Sam (Jester II tried to steal his powers)
• 4. The Ray (On the Freedom Fighters with Uncle Sam)
• 5. Robin III (Tim Drake- recruited Ray to Young Justice)
• 6. Nightwing

And

• 1. Red Bee
• 2. Red Bee II (Great-grandniece of the original, in the Freedom Fighters with...)
• 3. The Ray
• 4. Robin III (Tim Drake- recruited Ray to Young Justice)
• 5, Nightwing

I wasn't even sure that 'mazing Man was part of the DCU proper, but apparently he was part of the 'Justice League of Anarchy', and as such has worked with Harley Quinn, the Creeper, Plastic Man, and a few others, leading to all of one step a few different ways between him and Nightwing. Or, simply:

• 1. 'mazing Man
• 2. Harley Quinn
• 3. Nightwing

edited 1st Apr '17 10:31:01 PM by TeChameleon

Here's one I'll bet nobody's ever heard of: Burp the Twerp, the Super So-and-So. He's an incredibly minor Golden Age character created by Jack Cole. This one's so obscure, I'll just do it myself: 1. Burp the Twerp, 2. Plastic Man (who met Burp at the end of his own appearance in Secret Origins back in the 80's) 3. Dick Grayson.

Let's see..I know you can do Speed Saunders, cuz Speed met Wonder Woman's mother Hyppolyta during WWII...how about Hop Harrigan?

Hop worked with the All-Star Squadron, which included a bunch of JSA members. That's a pretty short hop back to Dick- via Batman through Wildcat, or via Wonder Woman through Hippolyta, or any of the various and sundry JSA members that Dick knows.