Nightwing beyond

The grandson of the original man-bat, James langstrom was born with the ability to change between human and man-bat form without any change in his mind. Bruce had kept in touch with the family and knew the boy.

One day when he was 12 he showed up in the bat cave asking batman for help because his family had disappeared. Terry and Bruce investigated but found no leads, it was almost as if someone our something had erased them from the earth. James wanted to fight crime along side batman but bruce and terry convinced him to just guard the cave and train until they said he was ready. Bruce adopted him and enrolled him at the same school terry’s little brother was attending.

A few years latter a mad man cut gotham off from the rest of the world and set off something similar to the big bang from static shock at the prison causing most of the prisoners to escape with new found powers, on that day terry needed all the help he could get and james emerged as the new Nightwing to join the gotham knights (a group of friends and former enemies terry brought together to save the city).

He doesn’t really need the mask, he wares it for the same reason he wares that particular belt, to honor the first Nightwing.