"If it's too coarse or too vile or too awful for Gotham, it winds up here."
Nightwing (Nightwing #1, October 1996)

For the longest time, there were two kinds of people in Blüdhaven - 1) those who couldn't leave for whatever reason and 2) those who wanted to be there to exploit those in group number one.  As Gotham was slowly brought under a semblance of control under the Batman's guardianship, the dregs that didn't end up in either Arkham Asylum or Blackgate Prison eventually found their way south, to a place where they were free to hone their skills as villains, free from the watchful eye of the costumed vigilantes who had invaded Gotham ten years earlier.

Everything changed one summer when a drought caused the estuary to back up, bringing upstream into Gotham the bodies of twenty-one members of Angel Marin's mob, their necks snapped like they were kindling.  Unable to leave Gotham himself to investigate, Batman sent in his most trusted lieutenant, the man who had once worn the green, red and yellow garb of Robin, the Boy Wonder.  But now Robin was a man grown and after several years of seeking to establish his own identity separate from that of his mentor and adopted father, Nightwing was ready to settle down and finally find a place to call home....

Initially, Nightwing tried an approach similar to the one employed by Batman when he first arrived in Gotham - find someone within the police department to be a point of contact.  But Nightwing was soon to learn that Blüdhaven's police department was even worse than Gotham's used to be, for there was no Jim Gordon working from the inside to weed out the corruption on the force.  Dudley Soames, Nightwing's initial contact, was the right-hand man of corrupt Chief Redhorn, who himself was in the hip pocket of Blockbuster, a Neron-enhanced sometime Batman foe who was trying to establish himself as the power in Blüdhaven.  The rest of the department followed the head.  If the rank and file cops weren't too busy looking the other way while crimes were committed, they were busy committing crimes themselves.

Not that Blüdhaven was without cops who were on the side of law and order.  Mr. Hogan, who runs the local cop watering hole Hogan's Alley and who gave Dick his first job in Blüdhaven, was one such cop before he retired.   Chief Addad, the new head of the department, brings a Jim Gordon-like determination to his crusade to clean up his department.  Amy Rohrbach was part of an underground group of honest cops doing their best to fight the corruption from the inside and was rewarded for her integrity with a recent promotion to captain.

Even with these diamonds hidden in the rough, pulling the weeds out of the department garden was almost too tough a job for someone trying to work his way through the corruption from the outside, so Nightwing decided to use his considerable skills to tackle the problem from the inside - as one of Blüdhaven's finest.  Initially partnered with then-Sergeant Rohrbach, who introduced him to the underground society of honest cops, Dick Grayson now patrols Blüdhaven's streets by day at the side of  Gannon Malloy.

Life is slowly getting better in the 'Haven.  With the help of a journal kept by Mary Redhorn, wife of the murdered police chief, many of the crooked cops were finally culled from the department.  However, the department is now severely understaffed with dedicated cops like Addad, Rohrbach, Malloy, Grayson and their fellow overworked cops doing the best they can to stem the tide of crime on the streets.

So come on over, tour our fair city.  Stay awhile.  Just make sure you are securely locked in after dark.   After all, our new and improved police department tries its best, but the job can be overwhelming at times.

Just click on the links to the right to take a tour around the City of Blüd

Now for the legal stuff: Nightwing, Batman and all related characters/places are the property of DC Comics and are used here without permission. I gain nothing from this except for the satisfaction of sharing with all of you my love for this character.

BLUDHAVEN
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