User blog comment:WoTee129/Young Justice Misplaced Predictions/@comment-4473295-20120131024716/@comment-71.167.25.115-20120131032045

Yeah, I'm pretty sure you're right about that, but that doesn't mean it wasn't considered. Dan Didio really wanted Nightwing to get the Ax at the end of Infinite Crisis, but the others working on the project (Geoff Jones, Eddie Berganaza, and Jeanine Schaefer) knew killing off Dick was the wrong way to go, so they killed Superboy instead. The artist Phil Jimenez, though, had this to say in support of Didio's plan.

"Dick has so many connections to other characters. In many ways, even more than Superman or Batman, Nightwing is the soul, the linchpin, of the DCU. He's well respected by everyone, known to the JLA, the Titans, the Outsiders, Birds of Prey - everyone looks to him for advice, for friendship, for his skills. He's the natural leader of the DCU. His loss would devastate everyone and create ripples through the DCU. If it wasn't him, it had to be a hero that really impacted so many."

In many ways, he's right. But this is also why they couldn't have possibly killed him. It would've been the biggest backlash in the history of the DCU.