Exclusive DC preview: Grayson Annual and Secret Origins offer a double dose of Dick

Christmas comes early for Dick Grayson fans this Wednesday as DC releases two new stories featuring the former Batman protégé turned secret agent who has experienced a dramatic resurgence over the past year. Writers Tim Seeley and Tom King have reinvigorated Dick by taking him out of his mentor’s shadow and giving him a new status quo as a globetrotting action hero in Grayson, expanding the scope of the stories told around the character by putting him in different corners of the DC universe.

Readers unfamiliar with Dick’s current situation can get caught up with this week’s Secret Origins #8, which reunites Seeley and King with Grayson: Future’s End artist Stephen Mooney to recap the events that led to his new role. The issue also features origin stories for characters whose solo titles were canceled this year: former Animal Man collaborators Jeff Lemire and Travel Foreman handle Buddy Baker’s story, and the Katana creative team of Ann Nocenti and Cliff Richards detail the past of Tatsu Yamashiro, the sword-wielding heroine that plays a supporting role in the current season of Arrow.

While Dick’s background is chronicled in Secret Origins, the history of his spy partner Helena Bertinelli is revealed in Grayson Annual #1, also featuring the creative team of Seeley, King, and Mooney. Not much is known about the New 52 incarnation of the woman formerly known as The Huntress in past DC continuity, but this preview of this week’s issue reveals that at one point she was “the most wanted woman in the world.” How did she get to that point? Why is she tied up in the trunk of a car? You’ll have to read the issue to find out.