So guys, its been a little while but remember about four months ago, this was posted

http://www.comicvine.com/dick-grayson/4005-1691/forums/nightwing-in-jli-relaunch-745860/#33

four months ago the original poster @squalleon, posted a tease from R.B. Silva with the hash tags

"Done. #redtornado #dccomics #rbsilva #dcuniverse #justiceofleague #justiceleagueinternational #nightwing #draw #art #comics"

It was also hinted in the post that "The team consists of Nightwing,Booster Gold,Hawkman,Shazam,Black Canary,Batgirl and of course Red Tornado"

Now we KNOW a few things

1. Nightwing will be affected in some major way during villain's month but will not be killed (September)

2. During Villiain's Month a lot of the hero's mysteriously disappear and the few hero's that remain must decide how to handle things (possibly teaming up to stop the villiains)

3. October will bring a new creative direction to Nightwing

4. Nightwing Annual also in October features NW and Babs teaming up

5. Nightwing is obviously around, Booster Gold has returned and needs help to correct something involving space and time, Babs is teaming up with Nightwing in Oct, Black Canary is in the birds of prey with Babs so they have already been working together, Shazam is not part of the JL, and Red Tornado has been hinted but as far as I know hasn't been actually seen, and after/ during Trinity War some hero's will be changing teams or leaving teams all together so Hawkman could switch teams.

So based on all those things here is what I am guessing

The Trinity War will be resolved but it will be to late for the 3 different JL to figure out that the Seceret Society is actually pulling the strings. The Secret Society takes advantage of the weakened state of the JL and sends a majority of the hero's away.

( if you look at the solicit for JL Dark 24 it says everyone but Constantine has disappeared, JL 24 says the "the Justice League is Dead", JLA says the JLA is dead but one member under covers secrets.)

so we know that all of the justice leagues are "dead" and will be MIA in September and its pretty obvious that the hero's that remain will fight the villains. i am guessing by teaming up to stop the secret society. so this creates a perfect chance for Nightwing ( the character that will under go major changes) to found a new team to stop the Secret Society. in a sense Nightwing will become the leader of the world wide resistance to the secret society and finally get his very own team. trying to avoid the destruction that 3 competing JL caused in the trinity war, Dick founds and International league were all hero's work together hence Justice League International a united front instead of hero's divided like the world has seen before.

after a team up in September, Babs and Dick will remain fighting together (Nightwing annual in Oct) joined by the other members that helped in the resistance and by the end of Nightwing Annual, Babs will convince Dick that the team the made is needed sense Babs "quit the bat" and needs a new home.

they decide not to go back to Gotham and start somewhere new like NW did previously, but not far away like Chicago since Babs wants to be close to her dad cause she is all he has left, so the move to BLUDHAVEN, which is just south of Gotham. Now before you whine " Ritchie B! Bludhaven was destroyed!" Well hold ur horses friends in the last JLA. BLOCKBUSTER was revealed to be alive! so maybe in the New 52 Bludhaven was never destroyed! Dun Dun Done!!!

Great job putting all this together!

*suspenseful music*

Great theory! A lot of it seems based on solicits, however, which concerns me because at least a couple have been misleading as of late (the latest Nightwing and Teen Titans issues, apparently).

Also, I know this has been pointed out elsewhere but the proposed JLI team doesn't look very international. On that same note, not sure if I like the idea of Babs and Dick being on the same team....

Finally, I'm not sure that Higgins is going to let Dick leave Chicago so easily. He's only been there for 3 or 4 issues but is developing a strong supporting cast and a rivalry with Prankster that could conceivably last for a while.

@vernierhawk001:

while I agree that the JLI team doesn't represent my top choices for a new team, however i can see where it could be construed as one. maybe not from a lot of different places around the world but they could represent trusted people from the different teams.

Nightwing- from the JL (was offered membership)

Hawkman- from the JLA

Shazam- Im guessing he will be part of JLD because JLD is more magic based

Booster Gold- From the original JLI

Red Tornado- Im guessing an escaped android from the secret society

Batgirl- just has nothing better to do?

Black Canary- looks good? works well in teams?

anyway

when it comes to the theory, it is based on solicits but not exactly what they say more reading between the lines.

the main reason i believe that Dick will get a team is that it has already been confirmed that he will be the main hero in Forever Evil. if you look at Forever Evil its clearly a villain team and as much as I love NW, there is no way he can take on an entire villain team by himself so he will NEED a team. this hasn't been stated by DC but there is simply no other way. if this team lasts beyond Forever Evil, I don't know but I am certain he will team up with other heroes in villains month.

as far as Bludhaven, its a complete guess. however everything Higgins has said is that Chicago is a "temporary" place for NW and from the very beginning. Now can his success in Chicago change that certainly. As far as a great permanent place for NW, Idk the Prankster is good but I don't really care for the other people like the mayor or Tony Zucco. I can also see Zucco escaping in the confusion the Prankstar causes and going to Bludhaven. I mean the Prankster has already revealed the corruption in Chicago and exposed Zucco so I dont see Zucco staying in Chicago. I dont see Dick staying either, he only rented an apartment for a few weeks and Dick Grayson staying in Chicago and NW staying in Chicago is going to get suspicious. plus the Prankster arc is almost over and what does NW have to stay for? the mayor is exposed, Zucco will almost certainly flee, and the Prankster will be defeated. So what is there in Chicago to stay for? and honestly I dont see the Prankster as a "villain" more of an extreme anti-hero because its not like he is doing any of this will ill intent he just has a really messed up sense of justice. So a long term rivalry between Prankster and NW wont work because they need a third corrupt entity and for them to go about taking down that entity in another way.

This would be incredible.

@ritchieb: T.O. Morrow works with Cyborg's dad and has hinted several times that he is working on Red Tornado

Not a fan of the lineup.

The team would be interesting for a mini arc but it doesn't really catch my eye. Perhaps that is because I can't see any meaningful interaction with each other. Scratch that. What I meant to say is that I don't see how NW can relate to them in a meaningful way that will build the cohesiveness that we loved from the old TT or any other team book he's been in. Canary is probably the only one I am interested to see him interact with. Maybe Red Tornado. And Babs.....maybe it would be cool to have her on the team if she drops the Bat completely and becomes an updated version of Oracle. But....I still think having them on the same team is a bad idea. Yeah, the more I think about this, I only want to see that team on a limited run.

Honestly, I'm confused on the whole concept of Forever Evil. Will it be a separate series or something springing from the pages of the villians month books. Idk.....*I should start saving up money now*

Thanks! I vaguely remember something about chicago being temporary now that you mention it. I had forgotten before. And its funny because I actually am not particularly thrilled with the members of the chicago supporting cast that you mentioned. I was moreso thinking of his roommates, of the information-dealer guy, of the split-personality girl, etc. Your assessment of the Prankster is probably accurate

@vernierhawk001:

agreed it will never be the old teen titans. and they probably wont have that kind of magic in a while. but i think dick and babs would be interesting and see what happened between them, if anything, in the new 52. I like Booster Gold, I think he is cool. I liked Nightwing and Red Tornado in Young Justice. Black Canary would be good. the only ones I really dont like is hawkman and shazam. but hey I cant get everything I want so its a good start and DC is doing a good job shuffling the teams around so it may not be a perfect but its not a horrible start.

as far as Villain Month, it is my understanding that in September all the New 52 will be replaced with villain books. for example it will the title will say " Batman " and then have the Joker written over it. so the book will be about the Joker and not involve Batman at all. DC is basically putting a hold on all the books for a month and doing villains instead. kind of like they did last September with all the Zero issues. remember they stopped all the stories where they were then did zero issues, to tell all the hero origins. its exactly like that.

as far as Forever Evil, as far as I can tell it will be an ongoing series which will be basically like the legion of doom or the light in young justice. it will start and September and continue on from their and its basically (at least in September) most of the heroes will disappear and the villains will rule the world. it seems to also involve another dimension sense they hinted to owlman and superwoman. thats all i can piece together right now

@ritchieb:

So I guess there are a couple of reasons I'm against Babs being on the team. 1) What will she bring that Grayson doesn't (I'm assuming her hacking skills). and 2) I don't want this to just be a setting for DC to hash out....whatever is going to occur/has occured between the two of them. Isn't that better left for other books? Most of Dick's team books (to my knowledge) have given him a chance to expand his world and interactions with other characters (and we all know he espescially needs that now). Grayson greatly benefited from life and relationships outside of Gotham before. Having Babs there seems almost like a crutch....something that could "stunt his growth". Now if there is a legitimate reason that she is on this team (and if the team is only temporary as I hope) then I wouldn't have a problem. Also, Babs already has a team book (BoP). DG is the only BatFamily member who doesn't.

Gotcha. Thanks for the run-down. I ran into an article somewhere that broke it all down before I saw your reply but I appreciate the effort. I didn't realize Forever Evil was its own mini-series. Seven parts, right? So....will Nightwing be continuing as a separate title?

@vernierhawk001:

I think its more a crutch for Barbra then Dick. and honestly its kind of a mute point anyway. this whole post was only a prediction. so it may not even come true. and even if it does there is no guarantee that that the team they originally planed for will be the team it actually gets launched with.

as far as i understand Forever Evil and Nightwing will both be ongoing but Nighwing (the character) will be the central hero in Forever Evil

Yeah. I didn't mean to argue the point....just getting some stuff off of my chest. I appreciate the work you put into putting the pieces together. No hard feelings, I hope :)

It will be really interesting to see how DC sorts this out

@vernierhawk001:

oh no hard feelings. i was just saying that it would be impossible to figure out right now, and honestly any team would be better then no team because like i said DC does a good job of shuffling teams around

Cool. Gotcha

@ritchieb: i don't see shazam joining the jld since johns hinted (in an early interview) at a relationship between billy and cyborg (theme is their youth) in jl for the near future.... also, after constantine #05, i'd assume billy would want to stay as far away as he can from John Constantine and his JLD team =D.

@baberaham_lincoln: yea but Billy is very close to Superman, kinda the same reason the wont have Nightwing and Bruce on the same team. Not to mention that Billy is very gullible and John Constantine is very manipulative so he could easily string billy along. but idk I didnt read Constantine 5 what happened?

John stole Billy's voice so he could keep Shazam out of the Trinity War.

@the_tree: well that wasn't very nice of John

@ritchieb: He couldn't handle the power, and Billy later ended up taking his voice/powers back.

I wouldn't be surprised if Billy joined the JLD because he said this:

And I could see it being a sort of ironic foreshadowing.

@the_tree:

it does make the most sense out of any league, he is magic based after all. I could be wrong because I dont really read JLD but I dont think that the JLD has any heavy hitters, at least not the way JL has Superman and JLA has the Martian Manhunter, so Shazam could fill in for that piece for the JLD.

Is Nightwing going to try and confront Superwoman on his own!?

On a sidenote: DC ought to consider planting their new team's headquarters in Bludhaven, since Wing's obviously settled down in Chicago. They can retool Haven into something entirely new and station it closeby to Metropolis and Gotham, maybe somewhere in between. That way, you get elements of both cities junctioned into one magnificent setting!

I actually hope Bludhaven was destroyed and they just decide to help restart it finally only bc i want the Bludhaven stories to stay in canon

@smoothjammin: Could be interesting,about the image,looks like they may be incorporating Nightwing's "Bird Symbol" Like I've been wanting them to for months now,but no stripes,no stick holders,overall 1 (big) step forward,two steps back,costume wise.Could be a interesting story too.

Nightwing? Batgirl? Hawkman? Black Canary? are you sure this isn't the birds of prey being rebooted

Have to agree. Dick's time in that city were a good addition to the character (Though it had its lowpoints) I don't see any reason to erase them from his history when so much else has already been lost. It'd also be nice to see him return at some point, think about the past (That way he has an excuse to go over old adventures for the fans and show what exactly is still canon) and help with the rebuilding efforts.