Nightrunner is a fictional character

Character (arts)

A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...

 created by David Hine

David Hine

-Biography:Hine has been working in comics since the early 1980s. For Crisis he drew the series Sticky Fingers in 1989, and wrote and drew a number of short pieces in 1990 and 1991...

 and Kyle Higgins

Kyle Higgins

Kyle Higgins is an American comic book writer and film director. He is best known for his work on the Batman franchise at DC Comics.-Career:...

 for publisher DC Comics

DC Comics

DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...

. A comic book

Comic book

A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...

 superhero

Superhero

A superhero is a type of stock character, possessing "extraordinary or superhuman powers", dedicated to protecting the public. Since the debut of the prototypical superhero Superman in 1938, stories of superheroes — ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing years-long sagas —...

, Nightrunner first appeared in Detective Comics Annual

Detective Comics

Detective Comics is an American comic book series published monthly by DC Comics since 1937, best known for introducing the iconic superhero Batman in Detective Comics #27 . It is, along with Action Comics, the book that launched with the debut of Superman, one of the medium's signature series, and...

#12 (February 2011). Nightrunner is a 22 year-old Algeria

Algeria

Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...

n Sunni Muslim

Sunni Islam

Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam. Sunni Muslims are referred to in Arabic as ʾAhl ūs-Sunnah wa āl-Ǧamāʿah or ʾAhl ūs-Sunnah for short; in English, they are known as Sunni Muslims, Sunnis or Sunnites....

 French citizen that lives in Clichy-sous-Bois

Clichy-sous-Bois

Clichy-sous-Bois is a commune in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. The vast majority of its population is made up of Muslims of North African heritage . It is located from the centre of Paris.-Geography:The commune has an area of with of woods...

 in the eastern suburbs of Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. He was recruited by Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson

Dick Grayson

Dick Grayson is a fictional superhero that appears in comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger and illustrator Jerry Robinson, he first appeared in Detective Comics #38 in April 1940....

 for Batman Incorporated as the Batman of Paris, Le Batman Of France.

Publication history

Nightrunner was introduced in a two-part story that spanned from "Detective Comics Annual" #12 to "Batman Annual" #28 in December 2010 (cover-date February 2011), The main story written by David Hine and penciled by Agustin Padilla, and the Back-up origin story written by Kyle Higgins and illustrated by Trevor McCarthy. David Hine created Nightrunner to mirror the current social and political situations unfolding in the French projects of Clichy-sous-Bois,.

He also appears in a one-issue story arc in "Batman and Robin" #26, where he assists Dick Grayson and Damian Wayne with a breakout of the Black Garden, Paris's version of Arkham Asylum.

Origin

Bilal Asselah, a French-Algerian was raised by his single mother on the outskirts of Paris, France. Though peaceful, on Bilal's 16th birthday, he and his friend Aarif were caught in the middle of a French-Muslim protest, and beaten mercilessly by the police force. After they both healed, Aarif gave Bilal a gift including the music of Leni Urbana, an urban representative of the Muslim people in France, urging Bilal to listen to her words. That night Aarif was killed by police after he set fire to their station. After hearing of his friend's death, Bilal would forever be changed. Though he sympathized with the protesters, he found faults on both sides and decided to take a cue from Batman's origins: becoming a symbol, without racial or religious bias that could make a difference for what's right and just. Already a superior parkour athlete, he donned the mask of Nightrunner in order to help the people's cause and bring justice to Clichy-sous-Bois.