10 Messed Up Comic Book Moments Everyone Wishes They Could Unsee

Dick Grayson, the first Robin, had grown up and established the new heroic identity of Nightwing. To further establish his independence, he moved to Gotham’s corrupt sister city of Bludhaven and began working to clean it up. Catalina Flores was a former FBI agent also living in Bludhaven. Inspired by the Golden Age hero and current author John Law, Catalina became the second Tarantula and began her own, more brutal fight against crime and corruption.

In his investigation of the murder of corrupt Police Commissioner Delmore Redhorn, Grayson discovered that the murderer was Flores and she was working for crime lord Blockbuster. Nightwing arranged for Tarantula's arrest but, because of the broken legal system in Bludhaven, she was quickly back on the streets. Grayson and Desmond were locked in a heated battle and Flores got involved. Over the course of the fight, she killed Blockbuster.

Nightwing had been driven to the absolute edge of his sanity by Blockbuster, who had discovered Dick's identity and was conducting calculated assaults on his loved ones. Grayson could have stopped Desmond’s murder but didn’t. After that murder, the hero had a complete breakdown on a rooftop, where Tarantula took advantage of the nearly catatonic Nightwing, removed his pants, and sexually assaulted him in the rain.