Pitch a Direction: Duke Thomas

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

A while back I wanted Duke to join the Unexpected so that would be another good team up issue waiting to happen.

[Westbats]

I really enjoyed the cast of We Are Robin, so I'd love for them to resurface in an almost sequel series...I'm sure that Duke was the acknowledged by Batman would create a little bit of tension between him and Dre. But the whole day-time aspect of Batman and The Signal made it a bit jarring for me, why would Bruce assign a high school student to patrol Gotham during the day? As well, Duke's abilities aren't well defined, by definition I would have thought his abilities would be much better suited for night work.

But here's my pitch:

Much like Kate, Luke, and Jean Paul, Batman makes Duke an agent of Batman, he's continuing to work out of The Hatch, below the Lucius Fox Center. Besides Riko and Izzy, Duke ends up bringing Dax and Shug-R into the fold. With Catwoman not operating at Gotham at the moment, the Marconi and Falcone families are stirring the proverbial pot, so Duke ends up fighting against them. He runs into Dre, who is there for the same reason, but is surprised that Batman recognizes Duke's efforts during We Are Robin and not his.

[lemonpeace]

Christopher Priest & Denys Cowan "Batman: Immortal" - this is an Elseworld story set years in the future. All the Batmembers are dead, Gotham is wiped from the face of the Earth but there is still a Batman; there is always a Batman. This Batman is mysterious, esoteric, mystical and he's been operating at peak performance for decades. At first no one knows who it is. He isn't part of the League, his cowl covers his face, and his tech is strange; some Nth metal equipment, some magic tools, alien tech, etc. I'm thinking a magical realist neo-noir but more grounded than Batman Beyond. His "Alfred" is the Immortal Man and it is revealed it is Duke under the mask. He took the offer his mother refused, became immortal and uses his immortality to carry on Batman's legacy for as long as he can.

[Korath]

Christopher Priest & Denys Cowan "Batman: Immortal" - this is an Elseworld story set years in the future. All the Batmembers are dead, Gotham is wiped from the face of the Earth but there is still a Batman; there is always a Batman. This Batman is mysterious, esoteric, mystical and he's been operating at peak performance for decades. At first no one knows who it is. He isn't part of the League, his cowl covers his face, and his tech is strange; some Nth metal equipment, some magic tools, alien tech, etc. I'm thinking a magical realist neo-noir but more grounded than Batman Beyond. His "Alfred" is the Immortal Man and it is revealed it is Duke under the mask. He took the offer his mother refused, became immortal and uses his immortality to carry on Batman's legacy for as long as he can.

Now, that would be very interesting ! The idea to make use of magic and esoterim, combined with the fact that this Batman would be a meta, could be extremely interesting. Hopefully someone will get to toy with something like that one day !

Somehow, I've toyed for quite some time now with the idea that in the 30th Century and even after that, there is a secret Church of the Bat, meant to help and protect peoples from the shadows, with its only public face a lone warrior only known as the Signal. But I never thought about him still being an immortal Duke Thomas. It could be interesting to see him, kind of like a fish out of water with all this crazy technology, but still able to kick asses.

[lemonpeace]

Now, that would be very interesting ! The idea to make use of magic and esoterim, combined with the fact that this Batman would be a meta, could be extremely interesting. Hopefully someone will get to toy with something like that one day !

Somehow, I've toyed for quite some time now with the idea that in the 30th Century and even after that, there is a secret Church of the Bat, meant to help and protect peoples from the shadows, with its only public face a lone warrior only known as the Signal. But I never thought about him still being an immortal Duke Thomas. It could be interesting to see him, kind of like a fish out of water with all this crazy technology, but still able to kick asses.

Thanks man! It's funny you mentioned the Legion, that's actually what first sparked that idea. I was thinking, if we have all these immortal characters, enough to have a Counsel of Immortals in Metal, then how come we don't see many of them in the future like in the Legion of Superheroes? Then I remembered how Superman (or at least a Kal-El) was in the future at the beginning of the Totality arc and I wondered how could Batman have a direct line to the future and it all kinda went from there. It would be cool to see an aged Duke in kicking it with the Legion, teaching them what it was like as a young man learning from all these heroes who've become legend by that time. With his Intellect and connection to 8th metal and Nth metal I could see him expanding the mysterious and almost mythical nature of Batman in a bold new way. I kinda wish Snyder had used Duke as the future Batman in his 6th dimension arc but certain fans would probably lose their shit over it.