15 Most Notoriously Controversial Storylines In Comic Book History

8. Nightwing Raped by Tarantula

For a period of time, Dick Grayson AKA Nightwing was a protector of his very own city, Blüdhaven. There he became friends with John Law, who fought crime as the Silver Age hero Tarantula. Eventually former FBI agent Catalina Flores took over his identity as Tarantula, but her actions were condemned by Nightwing and she fell on the wrong side of the law. Tarantula was caught up in one of Nightwing's villain's revenge schemes, which resulted in the death of Flores' idol: the original Tarantula, John Law. Flores then took the fight to the villain Blockbuster alongside Nightwing, who she was developing feelings for, even going as far as manipulating Dick's break-up with his on-again off-again girlfriend Barbara Gordon AKA Batgirl. During the final confrontation with Blockbuster, Nightwing stepped aside and allowed Tarantula to kill the villain, which sent Nightwing into a state of shock, and he collapsed on a roof due to his injuries and exhaustion. On the rooftop Tarantula forced herself on Nightwing, who was unable to fight her off in in his weakened condition. While the scene itself was controversial, discussions about the scene afterwards with the writer Devin Grayson unintentionally stirred the pot. She stated that she never wrote the scene as rape, but as a non-consensual love scene, which was a brush-off and not what the many offended fans of Dick Grayson were hoping to hear. Unfortunately, this wasn't even the first time Nightwing had been sexually assaulted, as way back in Teen Titans, the character of Mirage posed as his girlfriend Starfire in order to have sex with him.