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

[lemonpeace]

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...]

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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

[Restingvoice]

Still my favorite look, We Are Robin Vol. 1 #1 variant by James Harvey

We_Are_Robin_Vol_1_1_Textless_Variant.jpg

[J. D. Guy]

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

[J. D. Guy]

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?

[Frontier]

Happy New Year to Duke and all his fans .

[lemonpeace]

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

[lemonpeace]

The Final Knight

[Westbats]

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?

[lemonpeace]

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.

[Westbats]

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.

That would be really cool, in that case I wonder if he'd come across divergences in his own history pre-Metal? But then again Tales of the Dark Multiverse is all about the DC Universe.

I was thinking about Tales of the Dark Multiverse: Dark Nights Metal and I'm wondering if an Endgame plan for Last Knight-Duke is for him to pierce through the veil between the Multiverses and come face-to-face with Earth Prime-Duke?

[lemonpeace]

That would be really cool, in that case I wonder if he'd come across divergences in his own history pre-Metal? But then again Tales of the Dark Multiverse is all about the DC Universe.

I was thinking about Tales of the Dark Multiverse: Dark Nights Metal and I'm wondering if an Endgame plan for Last Knight-Duke is for him to pierce through the veil between the Multiverses and come face-to-face with Earth Prime-Duke?

I considered that too. It would be interesting to see what Duke was able to learn in those two years between Metal and Tales from the Dark Multiverse. he probably could teach Duke a few things, hopefully inspire a new look; maybe even gift him the Parall-axe or that Kryptonian Dragon bone sword he had. I like to believe Final Knight!Duke was able to piece together what happened between Gnomon and Elaine while he was reality hoping, so him meeting Prime Duke could be our Duke's incentive to seek out Gnomon.