Duke Thomas: We are Robin, The Signal, Final Knight Appreciation 2021

[Korath]

Have I missed something? I got Secret files and the upcoming FS: Urban Legends. Where else is he appearing or cameoing?

He'll be in Tom Taylor's Dark Knights of Steel I think.

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

No. The outsiders, in some kind of paraphrase of their name, helped people get outside of Gotham, and were outside.
The Resistance was the batfamily, resisting the magistrate.

Attachment 112605Attachment 112606

Oh ok. I guess I got them mixed up.

[lemonpeace]

Very cool, but it sounds like a lot of overlapping with Dick (whose defining characteristics are charisma, leadership and emotional intelligence). They never worked together outside of Robin war, right?
It does seems like he works more with public / crowds.
I liked that in the future he didn't had a mask. That we was more relatable to the people.
But wasn't he a part of the outsiders rather than Gotham resistance?

i definitely see the overlap with Dick but I feel there is a nuanced distinction there and with Duke the traits are more specialized, like Dick vs Cassandra Cain in hand to hand proficiency or Dick vs Tim Drake in detective ability. Nightwing is more of a jack of all trades, sorta like a Batman 2.0 but more emotionally stable, so his leadership and emotional intelligence very much work as an extension of his "Golden Son" aesthetic (which is not to discredit his aptitude for leadership or emotional intelligence in any way). whereas I feel for Duke's those traits are more singularly focused because he doesn't wear as many hats as Dick. he also represents a different take on leading, more representative of the significance of grassroots movements than the idealized aspirational figure Dick represents. Duke charisma comes from his wit and relatability, Dick's comes his charm and exceptionalism; which is not to say that one doesn't possess either trait, just that they emphasize different aspects. at least that's how I interprete the characters.

I'm sure they've probably shared page space on some mission or story arc but they've definitely have not had a focused team up since Robin War. We saw Red Hood training Duke back during his nameless era, I would love to see him training with Dick during that time or see him as the Signal work with Nightwing. I would like to see how they bounce off each other at this point in Duke's development vs back during Robin War.

As for Outsiders, I should clarify my meaning. Duke was the face of resistence by the people of Gotham against the Magistrate. Remember, Duke went public and was holding rallies to turn public opinion against the Magistrate. he was smuggling protesters that were being targeted by law enforcement to Katana on The Outside but it was more of a two-man allyship. they weren't really The Outsiders, as a team, until the end when Katana and Black Lightning reunited with Duke to save him from the assassination attempt. Dick was the leader of The Resistance with the masks/supers.

Have I missed something? I got Secret files and the upcoming FS: Urban Legends. Where else is he appearing or cameoing?

I think they are talking about his regular appearances since the end of last year. He finished Outsiders and I think he had some background cameos in Superman or Justice League. then he had a cameo in the main story of Death Metal, where they pretty much put a spotlight on him, and he had a back-up in Robin King. Then he had Tales from the Dark Multiverse, Future State: Outsiders, he appeared in one of the Infinite Frontier splash pages, he had a cameo in Lady Shiva's Urban Legends and a name drop in the Outsiders story in Urban Legends, then he had Secret Files, and now he's had his first appearance in outside media and a central role in the upcoming Urban Legends. this is the kinda of push for visibility Duke has sorely needed, and if the trend continues we could see him get bigger and better looks like maybe his own story in Truth & Justice or Urban Legends, or a limited series, or even hopefully an appearance in the next season of Young Justice.

[skyvolt2000]

New Duke action figure in stores.

https://www.fisher-price.com/en-us/p...lti-pack-gxd67

[lemonpeace]

interesting note from Duke's entry in the most recent DC Encyclopedia: Duke has yellow eyes. I think that would be a great way of spicing up his character design if they depict him like that consistently (have it be a golden yellow color like they were in We are Robin). it's also interesting because it's a trait he'd share with Gnomon.

[Perfidiously]

Duke with yellow eyes would be a great design choice.

Man, I'm so excited for his upcoming appearances. I've been thinking about We Are Robin lately, and I miss him.

[Fergus]

He'll be in Tom Taylor's Dark Knights of Steel I think.

That's the Else-world set in medieval times yeah? Saw a tweet from Taylor mentioning something like that.
Sounds like a cool concept.

Was disappointed that Duke wasn't amongst the robins hunting Damian in the latest issue of Robin.
I know he went another route but i wish writers would include him when they do Robin get togethers.

[Fergus]

New Duke action figure in stores.

https://www.fisher-price.com/en-us/p...lti-pack-gxd67

Thanks for the head up. Will seek it out for my son.

This is pretty awesome and promising. That Duke was selected for promotion alongside bats and Nightwing.

I know it's just a little step but it's a step nontheless and the fact that it's directed at younger consumers is a great thing.

Get them while they are young

[Darkspellmaster]

That's the Else-world set in medieval times yeah? Saw a tweet from Taylor mentioning something like that.
Sounds like a cool concept.

Was disappointed that Duke wasn't amongst the robins hunting Damian in the latest issue of Robin.
I know he went another route but i wish writers would include him when they do Robin get togethers.

Yeah you would think he would be in there with the others given who we have. And he was a robin too for a short time.

[Lal]

It looks like Duke's one shot wasn't well received based on the sales chart -
https://www.comichron.com/monthlycom...1/2021-07.html

His book was in place 132, with 23,000 copies - that's basically cancellation level.

I guess his chances to get a mini right now are pretty slim. An Urban legends arc seems like a more promising direction.

Of course it could all change in the "shadow of the bat" event this winter, but I wonder how he would fit in. The fact that he's a separate hero from the batfamily doesn't really help him, and I'm not sure that the Outsiders angle really helped him so far either.
It also didn't help that in his one shot it was implied that he's better suited to Gotham than all the other Robins. Antagonizing the fan bases of the more popular Robins is a stupid move made by the writer. The last thing he needs is fans rejecting him and asking for him not to be included in other books.

[Aahz]

It looks like Duke's one shot wasn't well received based on the sales chart -
https://www.comichron.com/monthlycom...1/2021-07.html

His book was in place 132, with 23,000 copies - that's basically cancellation level.

Especially with the Huntress one selling 39,000 copies.

Btw. I still find the idea that Duke (as the by far least experienced) is the only Batfamily operating by day strange, just with support of the we are Robin kids, strange.

That makes him an relatively easy target (especially now with the cops and magistrate going after the Batfamily) and leaves him without much backup.

[Lal]

I agree.

He needs to interact more, not be isolated.
The daylight niche is cool, but it seems bizarre that he does it alone, as he is right now the least experienced of the batfamily.

Fans asked Taylor for Tim and Jason in Nightwing's run and received both. Nightwing now sells more than the Justice League, so that's great exposure. But no one asks for Duke because of all the "better than Robin" nonsense that just isolated him and antagonize fans.
Same with the Robins reunion in Robin's book this week and with the Robins' series.

[Rac7d*]

I agree.

He needs to interact more, not be isolated.
The daylight niche is cool, but it seems bizarre that he does it alone, as he is right now the least experienced of the batfamily.

Fans asked Taylor for Tim and Jason in Nightwing's run and received both. Nightwing now sells more than the Justice League, so that's great exposure. But no one asks for Duke because of all the "better than Robin" nonsense that just isolated him and antagonize fans.
Same with the Robins reunion in Robin's book this week and with the Robins' series.

do we have complete sales for that book wit was released 4 days ago

[Lal]

do we have complete sales for that book wit was released 4 days ago

His book was released July 6, so almost two months ago.
https://www.comichron.com/monthlycom...1/2021-07.html

[Aahz]

He needs to interact more, not be isolated.

That's pretty hard do with him not having his own book.

I feel a big problem is that it feels like most of the development of his relationships with the other Batfamily members happened of panel.
I mean there was for example that issue in Tom Kings Batman run were Bruce was telling him, Dick, Jason and Damian that he would marry Selina, where was directly treated by other 3 like one of them, even if they had basically next to no on panel interaction with him since the met him the first time in Robin War.

The daylight niche is cool,

It isn't really a niche imo, it is not like other Batfamily members haven't operate during daytime.
I also don't really get how this is going to work with Duke still attending school (or does his guardian only believe that Duke is still doing that ?).