I'm intrigued by Clownhunter, I think he fit in perfectly with Duke during his We are Robin era (I feel like Duke's character has been gradually dulled since then). I would love to see them team up and have Clownhunter bring that edge out of him while Signal can bring that refinement that comes with being a Batman protege.
THE SIGNAL (Duke Thomas) is DC's secret shonen protagonist so I made him a fandom wiki
also, check out "The Signal Tape" a Duke Thomas fan project.
currently following:
- DC: Red Hood: The Hill
- Marvel: TBD
- Manga (Shonen/Seinen): One Piece, My Hero, Dandadan, Jujutsu Kaisen, Kaiju No. 8, Reincarnation of The Veteran Soldier, Oblivion Rouge, ORDEAL, The Breaker: Eternal Force
"power does not corrupt, power always reveals."
I wouldn't mind if Clownhunter was a former member of the We Are Robin crew. There were a lot of members so its easy to retcon him in.
What attracts me about Clownhunter is precisely the reason he was created: to give a voice to the citizens of Gotham who are sick of living in a city that is turned continuosly into a Hell because Batman is incapable of putting an end to the chaos by doing what it has to be done. Batman threatened him to stop him if he ever took another life. Once again, Batman looks more worried about the bad guys over the innocent they kill. What about all the innocent lives Clownhunter saved by giving the clowns what they desserved when Batman was incapable of stopping them? They really don't mean anything to Batman, right?
Clownhunter represents Gotham's citizens who had enough of Batman and the chaos he brings with his failed crusade for justice, so if Batman moves against Clownhunter, all Gotham will surely turn against Batman, because they will see this as Batman removing an obstacle for his "beloved twisted game".
I still think hes going to get killed maybe by Punchline
or vice versa, go hard anti-villain with Clownhunter. I think a confrontation between them is inevitable if Tynion plans on getting any significant mileage out of their respective characters. As a Duke fan, I just hope Tynion plans on giving both of them complete arcs before his time is up on the title; and doesn't make the same mistake as Snyder of leaving it up to other writers. New characters are cool, but complete characters are better. I think Clownhunter and Punchline could be cool but DC writer do tend to forget to actually fleshed out new character correctly to be used effectively.
Last edited by lemonpeace; 10-08-2020 at 07:34 PM.
THE SIGNAL (Duke Thomas) is DC's secret shonen protagonist so I made him a fandom wiki
also, check out "The Signal Tape" a Duke Thomas fan project.
currently following:
- DC: Red Hood: The Hill
- Marvel: TBD
- Manga (Shonen/Seinen): One Piece, My Hero, Dandadan, Jujutsu Kaisen, Kaiju No. 8, Reincarnation of The Veteran Soldier, Oblivion Rouge, ORDEAL, The Breaker: Eternal Force
"power does not corrupt, power always reveals."
Sans Outsiders, which is its own topic/can of worms, I can see what you mean about Duke's edge haven been slowly, and I'd argue unintentionally, dulled over the course of his transition into The Signal. Because Duke has always had an edge. It wasn't an edge like some other characters or even like what a lot of people think of when they here "edge" to describe someone. But Duke did have a sense of decisive roughness and angles to him that writers have unknowing "sanded down" since We Are Robin and Superheavy has ended. And that was never supposed to be some flaw of his character/person that needed to be progressed passed, either, so that being dulled kinda diminishes some of his natural spark. We still see it (that one pick where The Signal is the focus on a splash page, for example(, and some fan-takes still portrayed it boldly, but it isn't as frequent or bold as it once was. This isn't helped by the overall dearth of Duke's presence.
The way I see it, having Clownhunter and The Signal together interacting on the regular would be worth it alone. But sharing that kind of symbiotic relationship where the former brings the latter's angles and sense of decisive roughness more to the front again while the latter rounds out the former with what the former lacks in his life would make for a compelling and strong connection between the two characters. I'd be all for someone taking that type dive with the two of them.
True, and like you say, it wouldn't be a difficult addition to make.
In spite of Joker War's strong parallels to Endgame and the apparent sense of We Are Robin within the entirety of Clownhunter, it was a missed opportunity not to reference anything from that time period directly.
Part of it, I see, was Snyder not wanting to tow the line, with DC and with the more close-minded readerbases. I'd love to hear a more candid Snyder's take on the whole thing, start to finish, just to see as much about what was going on from his end as possible. (So like that snippet from the interview, but more Duke and also Harper centric, and more open about everything involved.)
Still, I agree with the general sentiment. Some might be worried about "over-exposure", but that's never a worry in practice and so ends up just being a flimsy excuse. What usually happen is that they don't get used enough to gain a sense of regularity to their being and their presence, and so when the writer who made them goes, they disappear. Or worse, they get treated in a frankly disrespectful manner before getting thrown in the narrative trash bin by someone else who comes along later.
Honestly I don't see Clownhunter sticking around past Tynion's run. But if people wanna use him and evolve him beyond his initial niche, I'm ok with that.
Kid missed 3 very prominent clowns.
Joker, obviously.
Punchline.
And...