Character Profiles - Villains - Nite-Wing
Real Name: Tad Ryerstad
Occupation: Criminal
Marital Status: Single
Base of Operations: Gotham
Height: N/A
Weight: N/A
Eyes: N/A
Hair: Red
First Appearance: Nightwing #8 (May 1997)
Created By: Chuck Dixon, Scott McDaniel
Tad's father Randy was an abusive alcoholic and his mother perpetually used the phone and smoking. Due to his lack of parental involvement, Tad began to read comic books as a means of escapist fantasy.
Soon, he begans to resent his father, who earned money through the sale of stolen goods. Believing firmly in the world of comic books, Tad performs an act he believes to be heroic: the framing of his father. Tad contacted his father's crack-dealer of an employer and accused his father of being a snitch. As a result, his father was murdered and his mother was sent to jail.
After being sent to live with foster parents, Tad ran away and began to live on his own. Due to his lack of a job, he was usually a vagrant, and can afford to feed himself only through stealing from criminals.
Tad exercised, kept himself in good shape, and patrolled his neighborhood, doing “good.” He beat people for minor offences, and performed acts of vigilantism at its worst. One day, he met John Law, the retired hero "Tarantula", and after hearing his stories, decided to become a superhero. He had difficulty coming up with a name until he looked across the street from his apartment at an all-night deli specializing in chicken wings. Thus, Nite-Wing was born.
Unfortunately, on his first night out, he ran into a gang that shot him repeatedly. Rushed off to an emergency room, Nightwing spent the whole night defending him from Blockbuster's men, who thought it was Nightwing who was in the hospital. Tad was released from the hospital, and went back to take revenge on the gang who put him there, killing them.
Tad’s rampage continued, killing men who worked for Blockbuster, eventually even Ricky Noone, one of his major capos. One night, he was cornered by Dudley Soames, the former police inspector turned psychopath, who now called himself Torque. Here he finally met Nightwing. The two escaped Torque, and Nightwing agreed to help train Tad, not realizing how violent he could be.
Tad cornered Bludhaven’s corrupt Police Chief Redhorn, and got all the files he had pertaining to Blockbuster. Presenting them to Nightwing, the two began to attack Blockbuster’s powerbase. They were captured and separated. When Cisco Blaine, an undercover FBI agent, came to free Tad, Tad beat him to death. Upon discovering that he wasn’t a bad guy, but really a cop, Tad fled. Nightwing eventually tracked him down, and he was imprisoned in Lockhaven Penitentiary.
When Torque was captured by Nightwing, he was made Tad’s cellmate. Torque had a plan to escape, and he made Tad part of it. They drugged the food of Aaron Hellzinger, the prison guard who was the reformed villain Amygdala, and when he went berserk, the two escaped. Tad killed Soames after his escape, and was implicated in the murder of Chief Redhorn. However, Tad was innocent of that crime, set up by Blockbuster and the new Tarantula, and he contacted Nightwing to help clear himself. Tad was arrested again, along with Tarantula, and resides again in Lockhaven, serving his time for the murders of Cisco Blaine and Torque.
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