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  1. #1
    duke's casettetape lemonpeace's Avatar
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    Default Duke Thomas: We are Robin, The Signal, Final Knight Appreciation 2021

    Oh my god, we finally made it out of 2020!!

    While the year was a net loss for...humanity, Duke managed to maintain some momentum and finish 2020 strong. Outsiders came to an end and, while i was left wanting, Duke came out of the series with new relationships, new powers, and on the radar of some new eyeballs. Dark Nights: Death Metal not only featured cameos of Duke on the field fighting for the survival of reality but also featured a back up starring Duke and showcasing his character. Then we closed out the year with Tales from the Dark Multiverse: Metal, which is easily only one of my favorite Duke comics, but easily one of my single-issues of the year and one of my personal favorite comics of all-time. going into 2021, we have another major Duke-centric story in Future State: Outsiders and, if the Infinite Mysteries cover is any indication, we could be seeing more from our boy down the line. while Duke isn't the fully realized or recognized hero he deserves to be, Duke is seeing renewed interest not just from fans but also from a lot of creators who seem to genuinely love and want to expand on the character; and i love to see it!

    ~~~~~



    Created by: Scott Snyder (writer) Greg Capullo (artist)

    First Appearance: Batman Vol 2 #21 (August 2013).

    Powers: Duke is a metahuman with the photokinetic ability to manipulate, absorb, and redistribute both light and shadow. Duke primary concentrates light through the eyes, manipulating the way the light is processed for a variety of visual tasks.

    Duke's most notable abilities are his precognition and his retrocognition. Duke's sight is atemporal, meaning he can see across time. By manipulating the way he processes light, Duke can perceive the "ghosts" of where light has been in his vicinity and see few minutes into the past. he can also glimpse into the future by seeing where light will be before it gets there. Duke's precognitive abilities, plus his training from Batman and all of his former Robins, give him an edge in combat, being able to react faster to attacks than normally possible and even catch projectiles in midair.

    Duke's photokinetic vision can be used in a variety of practical ways. He can see beyond the known Electromagnetic spectrum, follow and detect someone through walls, ceilings, smoke and most materials, and focus his vision to see a target at a great distance or to see extremely small objects down to the subdermal level. my boi is stacked with the practical superpowers.

    Duke's powers also allow him to absorb and redistribute darknesss. Duke can pull shadows to himself, revealing more light, or expel darkness from himself like a tide enveloping everything in darkness. Duke can also shape and move a shadow like a physical object, which he uses to augment his hand to hand combat.

    Duke's metahuman abilities come from the metagene, a genetic variation caused by naturally occurring traces of Nth metal in the bloodstream. Duke inherited this genetic trait from both of his biological parents; Elaine Thomas and an immortal metahuman named Gnomon. After experiencing the touch of Ishmael, Duke's abilities "evolved" to include the ability to manipulate darkness as well as light.

    Duke's unique metahuman physiology gives him an affinity for Nth metal, often becoming reactive in the presence of powerful forms of Nth and/or 8th metal. Particularly potent forms of Nth metal can amplify his visions, allowing longer more vivid visions into the past, across dimensions, and he can even hearing some audio.



    Essential Reading

    We are Robin (2015) #1-12 written by Lee Bermejo, art by Khary Randolph
    • Robin War (2016) written by Various Writers, art by Various Artists
    Dark Days: The Forge (2017) #1 & The Casting (2017) #1 written by Scott Snyder and James Tynion IV art by Jim Lee, Andy Kubert, and John Romita Jr.
    Batman and The Signal (2018) #1-3 story by Scott Snyder, written by Tony Patrick, art by Cully Hamner
    • Immortal Men (2018) #1-6 written by James Tynion IV, art by Ryan Benjamin & Jim Lee
    Batman & the Outsiders (2019) #1-17 written by Bryan Edward Hill, art by Dexter Soy & Veronica Gandini
    Dark Nights: Death Metal - Robin King (2020) #1 [the back-up] written by Tony Patrick art by Danial Sampere
    Tales from The Dark Multiverse: METAL (2020) #1 written by Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly art by Karl Mostert


    [stay woke Mr. Thomas, stay woke...]

    -----

    Quote Originally Posted by Gaelforce View Post
    At the end of the year, all Appreciation threads are closed and new threads for the coming year are put in place.

    Appreciation threads are for just that - Appreciation. Not for debate, not for slamming and not for bringing other characters down by comparison.~

    Commence appreciating! :-)

    Link to the 2018 thread
    Link to the 2019 thread
    Link to the 2020 thread
    Last edited by lemonpeace; 01-05-2021 at 05:38 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."

  2. #2
    Extraordinary Member Restingvoice's Avatar
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    Still my favorite look, We Are Robin Vol. 1 #1 variant by James Harvey

    We_Are_Robin_Vol_1_1_Textless_Variant.jpg

  3. #3
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    Welp. Time to re-subscribe to all the threads I was subscribed to.

  4. #4
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    lemonpeace, if you got them Robin King Backup Story pages and them Last Knight/Tales of the Dark Multiverse pages handy, would you post them, please?
    Last edited by J. D. Guy; 01-01-2021 at 12:43 PM.

  5. #5
    Moderator Frontier's Avatar
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    Happy New Year to Duke and all his fans .

  6. #6
    duke's casettetape lemonpeace's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by J. D. Guy View Post
    lemonpeace, if you got them Robin King Backup Story pages and them Last Knight/Tales of the Dark Multiverse pages handy, would post them, please?
    I gotchu





    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."

  7. #7
    duke's casettetape lemonpeace's Avatar
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    The Final Knight





    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."

  8. #8
    duke's casettetape lemonpeace's Avatar
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    What are everybody's hopes for Duke this year? I won't be so greedy as you expect an ongoing even though I really want one, but I am hoping for his own solo story in Urban Legends at least; those stories seem to be testing grounds for minis and ongoings. so he gets a solid Urban Legend, and we could see something bigger afterward. and, per usual, I'm hoping against hope for a new suit. his Last Monitor suit, his Final Batman suit, and his suit as The Final Knight all were so fucking dope it only renewed my need for a new suit. I especially love the Batman suit because it didn't need 15 bats on it for us to realize he's a Bat (yes, that's full shade).
    Last edited by lemonpeace; 01-02-2021 at 11:34 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."

  9. #9
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    (I'm still okay with the Signal suit of the present-day. I do love his Tales of the Multiverse take. The Final Knight is dope, but not sure how I'd feel about mainline Duke wearing something like that on a permanent basis.)

    I'm still holding out hope for that solo. Something/anything written by Sr. Tony Patrick.

  10. #10
    duke's casettetape lemonpeace's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by J. D. Guy View Post
    (I'm still okay with the Signal suit of the present-day. I do love his Tales of the Multiverse take. The Final Knight is dope, but not sure how I'd feel about mainline Duke wearing something like that on a permanent basis.)

    I'm still holding out hope for that solo. Something/anything written by Sr. Tony Patrick.
    while Final Knight is completely badass, I don't think that design is ideal for Duke on a regular basis. personally, I want something along the lines of his Batman look



    I like the bandage style sleeves and gloves (very reminiscent of Gnomon), I like the Blue Marvel style jacket (who's also one of my top 10 comic heroes), I like that they opted for shades rather than a clunky helmet with a Bat over his face (empathizing his visual power and getting rid of bat-face) and i lovelovelove that fact that there is only one bat and not 15 ; plus the cornrows are a nice change from standard low cuts.

    comparatively, it's simpler to draw and more individualistic than his standard Signal suit.

    As for solo material, I think we'll see at least one or two solo stories considering how much promo they're giving Duke right now (and how well they've gone over so far) and how much DC appears to be leaning into anthologies, limited series, one-shots, and back-ups. I would love more Tony Patrick stuff too, he hasn't blown me away (yet) but he's proven to have Duke's character down and i feel if given another shot he's gonna go extra hard for a truly iconic Duke story. Lanzing and Kelly clearly have a ton of passion for Duke as well, and I am curious to see how they'd bring that in-canon, so I would love more from them too. however, and I can't be sure until his Future State story drops, my personal pick for Duke might end up being something long-form from Brandon Thomas. Excellence bought him a lot of goodwill from me and if he can stick the landing with Future State: Outsiders he's easily going to the top of my list. he was literally a pipedream pick for me this time last year.
    Last edited by lemonpeace; 01-02-2021 at 03:48 AM.
    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."

  11. #11
    Harper Row fan Westbats's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Restingvoice View Post
    Still my favorite look, We Are Robin Vol. 1 #1 variant by James Harvey

    We_Are_Robin_Vol_1_1_Textless_Variant.jpg
    After I saw the glasses Duke was wearing in Tales of the Dark Multiverse I was wondering if they'd do a homage to this picture.

    Did anyone get the impression from the end of Tales of the Dark Multiverse: Dark Knights Metal that Final Knight-Duke will be the narrator for any Tales of the Dark Multiverse stories moving forward?
    I'm currently reading Batman, Detective Comics, DCeased: Dead Planet, Dark Knights: Death Metal, Daredevil, Thor, Nightwing, The Rise of Ultraman and Red Hood and The Outlaws. I'm also trade-waiting the Hickman-era of X-Men comics.

  12. #12
    duke's casettetape lemonpeace's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Westbats View Post
    After I saw the glasses Duke was wearing in Tales of the Dark Multiverse I was wondering if they'd do a homage to this picture.

    Did anyone get the impression from the end of Tales of the Dark Multiverse: Dark Knights Metal that Final Knight-Duke will be the narrator for any Tales of the Dark Multiverse stories moving forward?
    I didn't initially interpret it that way, but the popular fan takeaway seems to be along those lines. I've seen a couple people saying they see Duke as the Final Knight being the new POV for Tales from the Dark Multiverse, either following him fighting all the Dark Multiverse monsters and dopplegangers or by narrating it and actively recruiting people like Tempus was supposed to.
    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."

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by lemonpeace View Post
    I would love more Tony Patrick stuff too, he hasn't blown me away (yet)
    Tony Patrick has for. I'm confident it was his contributions that made me love Batman and The Signal as much as I do. And the backup in Robin King was pretty much an explicit course-correction and palate cleanser after Hill's tepid and overall poor usage of Duke during his run.

    I still feel that if Cully Hamner's schedule didn't ultimately effect Batman and The Signal (I believe that this was the reason we went from 6 issues to 3), we'd have gotten so much more from Patrick.
    Last edited by J. D. Guy; 01-02-2021 at 01:10 PM.

  14. #14
    duke's casettetape lemonpeace's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by J. D. Guy View Post
    Tony Patrick has for. I'm confident it was his contributions that made me love Batman and The Signal as much as I do. And the backup in Robin King was pretty much an explicit course-correction and palate cleanser after Hill's tepid and overall poor usage of Duke during his run.

    I still feel that if Cully Hamner's scedule didn't ultimately effect Batman and The Signal (I believe that this was the reason we went from 6 issues to 3), we'd have gotten so much more from Patrick.
    I agree, I don't mean to say he hasn't done a great job I meant that he was gotten the short end of the stick with all these short stints with Duke. I 100% believe if given a substantial run he'd definitely blow me away (I mean he is the writer that's done the most with Duke's immortal metahuman plot points), he just hasn't been given the space to do that. his Robin King back-up didn't knock my socks off admittedly but it was still a great story and is still in my top 3 Duke stories. I think Tony Patrick is the writer who invested the most in Duke Thomas and I would love for him to get his shot at telling the Duke story he wants to tell.
    Last edited by lemonpeace; 01-02-2021 at 11:36 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."

  15. #15
    duke's casettetape lemonpeace's Avatar
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    I can't wait for Future State next week. I'm really excited to see Duke's rise to prominence in Gotham as the Signal. would also be dope to see Duke get some power upgrades like Katana and Jefferson are getting but the direction he's on is fascinating enough to work without it (still would be nice).





    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."

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