Duke Thomas: The Signal Appreciation 2020

[lemonpeace]

so, I’m having an adult Duke Thomas concept commissioned; the artist (Nathan Skaggs) just got back to me with the first draft sketch. I’m going with the angle that Duke took up training under Jason Todd for an extended period of time and took a lot of influence from him; given their similar bulky builds. this is the first sketch and is nowhere close to how the final draft will be but I’m so excited, I had to share! any thoughts?

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

Its a bit odd but atleast you can say he's not defined by Batman anymore.

Its different and it would take some getting used to.

[lemonpeace]

Its a bit odd but atleast you can say he's not defined by Batman anymore.

Its different and it would take some getting used to.

we're still working on the suit and coloring, his is just phase one placeholder look to get a general idea. my thinking was, Duke is supposed to be somewhat antithetical to Batman, and who is more of an expert on running contrary to Batman than Jason Todd. plus, they've trained together and have similar builds anyway so why not, ya know?

although, looking at him at this stage, he kinda look like Static from that episode where he met himself from the future LOL

[Frontier]

He looks like a Superman character to me.

[lemonpeace]

He looks like a Superman character to me.

it's probably the coloring, particularly the blue. although, Superman is kinda like the opposite of Batman in a way, so it would make sense that Duke would draw parallels to Superman as an adult if we follow his character's natural progression.

[Frontier]

it's probably the coloring, particularly the blue. although, Superman is kinda like the opposite of Batman in a way, so it would make sense that Duke would draw parallels to Superman as an adult if we follow his character's natural progression.

Yeah, it's just the type of bodysuit, color scheme, and build feel tailor made for Metropolis in my opinion.

[Restingvoice]

My first thought was Discowing
My second thought was The Invincible

[Korath]

He needs a beard man ! Duke with a beard is awesome (see White Knight).

[Frontier]

He needs a beard man ! Duke with a beard is awesome (see White Knight).

He kind of looked like Luke Cage in that book if I remember right.

[Sergard]

The hair is cool, and yellow and light blue is a good combination. I'd maybe even switch the yellow and the blue in the costume. Yellow and white is also a combination that could be considered for Duke. Because he's a "day" hero he can use bright colors - and even if he works at night, he can just cloak himself in darkness because of his ability. So I'd definitely use this as an advantage to go a little crazy on the color palette compared to the rest of the batfamily who's generally more on the darker side.

[J. D. Guy]

The hair is cool, and yellow and light blue is a good combination. I'd maybe even switch the yellow and the blue in the costume. Yellow and white is also a combination that could be considered for Duke. Because he's a "day" hero he can use bright colors - and even if he works at night, he can just cloak himself in darkness because of his ability. So I'd definitely use this as an advantage to go a little crazy on the color palette compared to the rest of the batfamily who's generally more on the darker side.

I love this first iteration, myself. I definitely love the idea of a Duke Thomas who eventually grows into having a beefy hunk bod. I do agree that inverting the yellow with the blue to make the yellow the dominate color on him should be done. Couldn't put my finger on why, but I felt something was off with the color scheme. Looks good, but how much did it look Duke, was what I couldn't place before.

Such a physique wears superhero outfits like this one well. That said, I am used to him having more fitted leather and armor-esque stuff, so this is new.

And I love his hair! Future's End Duke with that high ponytail of beautiful, thick braids was an awesome design. I wish it wasn't confined to a one-shot What-if story that hasn't been referenced in forever. That said, I also love helmeted styles for Duke. He's kind of unique in that regard, at least in DC. (Only other ones would be Red Hood and Luke, when they bother to have Luke exist, who's helmet is part of a full armor design.) So yeah, I think it'd be cool to incorporate a helmet or helmet-esque headgear into your design. Hmm. Maybe a visor or goggles in place of the standard domino mask? (That's another thing Duke isn't typically shown wearing.)

Looking forward to seeing how this design progresses!

[skyvolt2000]

My first thought was Discowing
My second thought was The Invincible

I think that outfit was used in Invincible.

The hair is cool, and yellow and light blue is a good combination. I'd maybe even switch the yellow and the blue in the costume. Yellow and white is also a combination that could be considered for Duke. Because he's a "day" hero he can use bright colors - and even if he works at night, he can just cloak himself in darkness because of his ability. So I'd definitely use this as an advantage to go a little crazy on the color palette compared to the rest of the batfamily who's generally more on the darker side.

In other words a outfit that adapts with the time of day or those glasses that change when you go in or out of a building-transitions.

[Rebeca Armus]

As Restingvoice mentioned, Duke is the lead of the We Are Robin series, and we learn a lot about his personal self there.

As well, we learned details about Duke here and there, some visual inference and some in supplimentary materials.

For example, his debut in Zero Year showed his room. We can see that among other things, Duke is into pen-and-paper RPGs/tabletop RPGs. We Are Robin's lead-in hype included a character bio that notes that Duke's drive and motivation is internal, rather than external like some people's are. This was in reference to his athletics and academics. As well, while he doesn't get the space to showcase and explore this side of himself, he is said to be into "geeky" hobbies. Duke also has writing talent, in prose and especially in poetry, though he is noted to keep that latter side of himself to himself.

His inquisitive and empathetic nature, which we do get to see of Duke and which is one of his defining traits, leads into the possible speculation that he may have gone in his mother's footsteps and become a social worker like she was prior to the Endgame storyline. This last part is my own introspection of Duke's character, though it's based on what we learn of Duke and his mom in Snyder's All-Star Batman backups and the Batman and The Signal mini.

Hi, thanks for your complete answer.
I read Robin wars, but didn't help about content for jokes. Knowing he likes to writer and poetry is perfect, It's the normal but special thing that I want. I Didn't know he is a geek XD so young and nice. I can see him and Damian playing a little of Cheese Viking together.
Really thanks ♡♡♡

[DragonPiece]

Duke in Death Metal #5 https://www.instagram.com/p/CElAWl_F..._web_copy_link

[lemonpeace]

Duke in Death Metal #5

everytime I see the bats on his shoes, I start to really dislike his suit all over again. At least Duke's definitively part of the actual event this time around. it looks like, between this panel and his backup in Robin King, Duke might be serving a similar role to Nightwing and the Gotham resistance in Dark Nights Metal.