Robin, Nightwing, Birds of Prey to End

While fans are still up in the air about whether or not Batman will actually die at the end of Grant Morrison’s “Batman: R.I.P.” arc, DC has confirmed three casualties for Newsarama.

According to the publisher, the February-shipping issues of Robin, Nightwing and Birds of Prey will be the final issues of the respective series.

As well as being the final issues, Robin #183, Nightwing #153 and Birds of Prey #127 will end eras for Batman-related titles, as each stretches back at least nine years.

Birds of Prey (which debuted in 1999) is currently written by Tony Bedard and follows the adventures of Barbra Gordon, the former Batgirl (now “Oracle”), Black canary and a rotating cast of DC’s female heroes; Nightwing (which debuted in 1996) is written by Peter Tomasi, and Robin (which debuted in 1994) is currently written by Fabian Nicieza.

The three series – coincidentally all originally written by Chuck Dixon, fleshed out the world of Batman in the comics, showcasing the original Robin, Dick Grayson, as Nightwing, Tim Drake as Robin and Barbra Gordon in Birds of Prey.

The three titles were roughly in the middle of DC’s lineup, sales-wise, with Nightwing seeing sales of over 50,000 copies to comic shops for September, while Robin and Birds of Prey saw sales of 32,000 and 21,000 copies, respectively.

DC declined to say if the series’ cancellations were due to sales, or if the three titles would be replaced by three new titles in 2009.