Duke Thomas: The Signal Appreciation 2020

[J. D. Guy]

Sorry for the low quality '^^
this is the post:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CE6urFEgBVD/
the comment was:
fatosflash: aeeeeh Duke has a Mc toy
my answer:
rebeca_armus: @fatosflash BatBurger saw how popular he is becoming since he appears in the day, they concluded that the signal is a good example for kids as a hero that don't works in bedtime, use body protections and is not scary, he is the only with powers, so he has a special appeals, The Signal is also a chance for representative, so they thought... "MONEEEYYYYY".

Thanks! I only got some of what that was in the image before, so thanks for explaining.

[lemonpeace]

Wanted to make a edit to the sentence structure, 'cause I was motivated for a sec, but see that I cannot.

yeah sorry, I wanna wait until i have the page fully laid out before I open it up to be edited since it's the main article. I'm speedreading We are Robin and his early stuff so I can catch up and finish it up by the weekend. everything else is open to be edited tho if your ever motivated again.

[lemonpeace]

Black Lightning & Signal teaming up was such a missed opportunity under Bryan Hill's Outsiders run.

[J. D. Guy]

yeah sorry, I wanna wait until i have the page fully laid out before I open it up to be edited since it's the main article. I'm speedreading We are Robin and his early stuff so I can catch up and finish it up by the weekend. everything else is open to be edited tho if your ever motivated again.

Ah, okay. There was something there that I just wanted to adjust so it could be read smoother, but so I wouldn't need to go over it again and possibly miss what I first found, I thought I would just go over it while editing rather than just through your screenshot. With that said, I kinda stopped reading at that point. (It's also harder to point out the edit I was gonna do than just doing it.)

For the record, edits can be rolled back/reverted, from what I understand.

[J. D. Guy]

Black Lightning & Signal teaming up was such a missed opportunity under Bryan Hill's Outsiders run.

That's a trip when something that actually happened ended up being a missed opportunity, isn't it?

[Frontier]

Black Lightning & Signal teaming up was such a missed opportunity under Bryan Hill's Outsiders run.

This kind of makes me wonder if they ever introduce Duke in Young Justice if they might make him Black Lightning's next protege instead of involving him with the Batfamily.

[lemonpeace]

did a expansion on Duke's powerset over in the DC thread, I really liked this one so I'm reporting it here too

ok, so I used the Superpower wiki plus all the information I have on Duke's powers and DC lore to reworked my Duke concept. I like this one better but be warned, it's very shonen:

a reflective Nth lined blindfold - the darkness of the blindfold makes it easier to focus on absorbing and storing sunlight internally, while the reflective surface provides external light that he can manipulate to perform his photokinetic abilities. this synergistic balance of his light and dark powers makes it easier for Duke to enter a "flow state" with a finer tuned use of his powers, which acclimates him to manipulating both on a grander scale. Duke based the tech for the blindfold on Luke Fox's smart fabric designs and had it engineered by Mister Terrific through his connections to Batman.

this kinda material

enhanced combat awareness - Due to Duke's naturally enhanced vision, his brain is uniquely fine tuned to process complex information with great precision and superhuman speed. Duke trained with Midnighter and Orphan to read body language and calculate movement with near perfect efficiency; though he lacks the years of training to outclass Cassandra Cain or Midnighter. His precision is best used without his blindfold (obviously) but the blindfold does not hinder him. I'd say post-training, he should be about equal to Red Hood with the blindfold and relative to Cassandra Cain and Midnighter without it.

negative mass manipulation - Duke can manipulate negative mass within his shadows and cause negative spatial distortion. By manipulating the negative mass, his shadow can cause objects they push to pull and go towards the user instead of away, and vice versa with pulling becoming pushes. He can turn the absence of positive mass in his shadow (e.g in the shadow created from touching hands) into negative mass and using it to repel a heavy object of positive mass. he can use the negative mass of his shadows to create negative space, increasing the distance between him, his shadow, and anything that comes in contact with them. so if he gets shot he can timing it to use the shadow of the bullet on impact to "catch" the bullet in negative space. so the bullet is getting closer but the distance is paradoxically getting longer. he can using this delay to move out of the way of the object or "freeze" it place. he can do this to melee attacks too but, with size as a factor, the ability is far less reliable at freezing the attack itself like it could with a smaller object. the negative space generation only works on shadows created on or from Duke. Duke can not create negative mass from external darkness. Duke can reduce the negative mass of his shadow, giving it mass and shape.

light projection - with the aid of the reflective surface of the Nth metal blindfold Duke can use his photokinesis to project any image in, on, and through the negative space or simply radiate blinding light.

umbra-photokinetic constructs - using his ability to solidify shadow and project light through his shadow, Duke can create life-like constructs of hard shadow and light. John Stewart trained him in technique, discovering that Duke's contructs work similar to Green Lantern rings and are tied to Duke's focus and emotional clarity. Due to training with John, Duke picked up his habit of creating his constructs from the inside out; making them very sturdy. He can use external shadows to increase the size and complexity of the constructs but he can only generate contructs from shadows generated from himself.

refined shadow control - Duke can use his shadow solidification to create midair footholds under his feet to walk on thin air. Duke can use the push-pull feedback loop of his shadows to amplify the impact of his hand to hand strikes and augment his movement speed.

fear induction - Duke's manipation of negative space and mass within his shadow puts a strain on the human body and causes fear and disorientation in targets engulfed in his darkness.

[Sergard]

Please don't mind me. I'm just here to share some art.

artist: Mari





artist: Javechan

[J. D. Guy]

Please don't mind me. I'm just here to share some art.

artist: Mari





artist: Javechan

I'm always up for Duke fanart! Like them both, but the second one is especially stunning and captivating! (Even if it is a blend between his pre-Signal and post-Signal costume, hence the helmet yet also the lack of a reflective chest emblem).

[Korath]

DUKE CONFIRMED IN FS !

https://www.gamesradar.com/dc-future...vers-revealed/

[J. D. Guy]

DUKE CONFIRMED IN FS !

https://www.gamesradar.com/dc-future...vers-revealed/

So it seems he does have a role in the Outsiders portion. Alas, though, it seems the focus won't be on him, but on Katana and a suped-up Black Lightning who have to go to his rescue.

[lemonpeace]

DUKE CONFIRMED IN FS !

https://www.gamesradar.com/dc-future...vers-revealed/

MWAHAHAHAHAHA HELL YEAH! I need that art asap, i wanna see black lightning Black Lightning and what Duke looks like

So it seems he does have a role in the Outsiders portion. Alas, though, it seems the focus won't be on him, but on Katana and a suped-up Black Lightning who have to go to his rescue.

I didn't expect it to primarily focus on Duke but I'm glad my boy is in this big event and playing some kind of role; it's great visibility. Now I'm hoping we get a less bat heavy Future State suit for Duke but I'm not gonna try not to get my hopes up.

[Tsukiakari1203]

Duke is awesome!

[Sergard]

DUKE CONFIRMED IN FS !

https://www.gamesradar.com/dc-future...vers-revealed/

And in "Outsiders," Katana has reunited with Black Lightning, but her old friend and ally has changed...big-time! Now composed of literal black lightning, Jefferson Pierce arrives with a dire warning about Duke Thomas and his mission to liberate Gotham from the oppression of the Magistrate. They'll have to work together—and we really mean together—to have any hope of defeating the forces working against them!

Is this a reference to Batman and the Outsiders where the team didn't really work together?


Also, here's some fanart from Twitter.

artist: slitheryss

[skyvolt2000]

Is this a reference to Batman and the Outsiders where the team didn't really work together?

Yes that is SHADE of the HIGHEST order.

I SUSPECT that the editor might have added that.