WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Nightwing Annual #3, by Dan Jurgens, Inaki Miranda, Nick Filardi and AndWorld Design, on sale now.
While everyone knows how to properly pronounce DC Universe fixtures like Metropolis and Gotham City, one of the most mispronounced locations in the DCU isn't Wonder Woman's Themyscira or Green Lantern's Oa but Gotham's sister city Blüdhaven, often simplified as Bludhaven. Nightwing has made the New Jersey city his on/off home and base of operations for years. While his relationship with the city has been complicated and tragic over the years, the superhero has recently shown, at least, that he can correctly pronounce its name, even in the heat of battle.
In the latest Nightwing Annual -- set before the superhero's traumatic brain injury that would severely affect his memories and personality -- Dick Grayson is seen battling a cadre of goons working for the city's longtime crime boss Blockbuster. The gangsters remark that Nightwing is back in Bludhaven, pronouncing the city as it has normally been assumed by fans for decades as "Blood-haven." Even while knocking them senseless, Nightwing takes the opportunity to point out the umlaut in the city's traditional spelling actually means the city should be pronounced "Bleudhaven," while remarking that everyone gets this distinction incorrect.
Bludhaven was introduced by Chuck Dixon, Scott McDaniel and Karl Story at the start of Grayson's ongoing series in 1996's Nightwing #1. Located just south of Gotham, Blüdhaven was founded as a coastal whaling town and struggled to transition from its fishing roots to be a modernized, manufacturing city into the 20th century. As a result, crime rates dramatically increased, with the city's government and police department heavily corrupt. After investigating a murder that linked Gotham to Blüdhaven, Nightwing realized the urban decay there was worse than its sister city, especially as it lacked a superhero defender of its own.
Grayson moved to Blüdhaven to patrol the streets of the city as Nightwing while joining the local police department to clean it from within the system and get a direct scoop on crimes and corruption as they occurred. This quickly made him an enemy of corrupt Detective Soames and Blockbuster himself, as recurring foes during Nightwing's time in the city.
During the Infinite Crisis, the Secret Society of Super-Villains dropped the radioactive Chemo in the heart of the city, destroying it and wiping out most of its population, forcing Nightwing to relocate to New York City, haunted by his experiences in Bludhaven for years to follow. Pre-Flashpoint, the last major appearance of Bludhaven had been its use as the main staging ground for Darkseid's invasion of Earth during Final Crisis.
After the reality-altering events of Flashpoint and the subsequent New 52 and DC Rebirth eras, Blüdhaven was restored, with no real explanation how the formerly devastated city had been fixed and repopulated seemingly overnight. Whatever the cause for its return may be, Nightwing has finally confirmed how to properly pronounce his old stomping grounds, decades after its introduction.