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

[Lal]

Well, each of the bat boys has his own unique weapon. Dick has the escrima, Jason the guns and the all-blades, tim has the bo staff and Damian has swords. I thought Duke had a cool weapon in future state, and for some reason I remembered him with more unique weapons.

I'm not saying that he's a knock off nightwing. By making him signal we dodged this bullet, but in this cover you could have really easily replaced with Nightwing, and it would look exactly the same.
I just hoped that they could make him more unique.

[lemonpeace]

Well, each of the bat boys has his own unique weapon. Dick has the escrima, Jason the guns and the all-blades, tim has the bo staff and Damian has swords. I thought Duke had a cool weapon in future state, and for some reason I remembered him with more unique weapons.

I'm not saying that he's a knock off nightwing. By making him signal we dodged this bullet, but in this cover you could have really easily replaced with Nightwing, and it would look exactly the same.
I just hoped that they could make him more unique.

i think you are misinterpreting what I mean. I'm not saying you are saying Duke in general is a knock of Nightwing, I'm saying in this cover the Nightwing connection isn't really strong considering neither stick based weapons nor the posing, as presented here, are particularly unique to Dick. I mean, if you took Duke out and swapped him with a lot of different characters this cover wouldn't change much, the posing and use of the weapons aren't particularly idiosyncratic here. even within the Batfamily alone, they all do/have done perching poses, and both Stephanie Brown and Tim Drake have been seen using their staffs as escrima sticks. thats why I said I can see the resemblance if you really reach/are looking for it, but the connection is pretty superficial at best.

as for the uniqueness of his weapon, again, they are usually bladed



the blades are just retracted in that particular cover. they also link so they can function as nunchucks (or a grappling hook), so in terms of unique weapons I would say Duke's batchet sticks are as unique to him (and dissimilar to Dick's weapon) as Steph and Tim's staff weapons. I do agree his Black Lightning soulbreaker sword from Future State was a very striking and distinct weapon, but it was very situational weapon, and the batchet sticks work just as well as Duke's signature weapon. now if they somehow find a way to upgrade him to something close to his Future State sword (maybe a Soulbreaker he can channel his shadow and light powers through), especially if he gets the overall design, I wouldn't mind them leaving the batchet sticks behind.

[Customizer]

I didn't like it at all.

spoilers:

It's hard to care about anything about the story, when they build up Duke in the beginning just for him to have his ass beat in a ridiculously one sided manner. Riko's heel turn make sense, but her stomping Duke does not. After chapter 10 of Jace Second Son and now this, I'm getting tired of seeing this plot device of a Black male character getting his ass beat in a on sided fashion against some nobody. Especially a dude that trains every day in martial arts and has been through the **** he has. Even with your guard down, a martial artist would still have instincts to dodge/counter/defend. But naw, he just gets written to be a human punching bag for some emo chick that still can't get over her pathetic jealousy. How are you supposed to take Duke seriously when the man can't even defend himself?

end of spoilers

You weren't alone in your initial assessment .

I've been reading comics / graphic novels for decades. With regard to the "capes" genre there are certain prerequisites that need to exist for me to take a character seriously as a hero and to pass my personal hero test.

Duke failed that test within the first few pages. I won't gloss over the obvious because I don't have to as a consumer.


With that said....the comic wasn't bad.

I didn't finish it with a desire to read more though. The referenced panel was within the first few pages for goodness sake lol.

No thanks...I'm good. Other characters and titles deserve my money. I suppose if you aren't looking for an alpha hero type then....it's OK.

I must admit it reminded me of the Falcon getting the same treatment in his title.

[lemonpeace]

Titans apparently just gave us Duke's first appearance outside of the comics!!

[Korath]

Titans apparently just gave us Duke's first appearance outside of the comics!!

Yeah ! Now that's what I want !

That and longer hairs for him to be more distinctive.

[Will Evans]

Yeah ! Now that's what I want !

That and longer hairs for him to be more distinctive.

What’s with this obsession with longer hairs?

[Rac7d*]

Titans apparently just gave us Duke's first appearance outside of the comics!!

This is the worst Bruce Wayne, he is preying on children rather then the kids stalking him

[lemonpeace]

What’s with this obsession with longer hairs?

well for one, his original hairstyle was a longer look (even in Future's End) until post-Endgame when they decided to chop it off once he became a more prominent figure. how it see it, it's not a matter of an "obsession" so much as it's a solution to comics generally being pretty uninspired with black male hair (usually a short cut or a baldie) which leads to sameiness out of uniform. a longer and/or more distinctive hairstyle could give a more unique silhouette and would make him standout more. plus it'd lessen the likelihood of situations like in On The Outside where the colorist or letterer or artist mixed up two black characters who realistically should look drastically different (Duke Thomas and Jefferson Pierce) because their hair makes them look the same out of costume. think about Jackson/Kaldur'ahm or Static's hair, their hair is pretty iconic to their character and that's a contributor to their success because they are more visually distinct and easily identifiable; in or out of costume.

[J. D. Guy]

Titans apparently just gave us Duke's first appearance outside of the comics!!

Wonder what his role will be? Will he be connected to Bruce as in canon, or will they take "liberties" and excise it like some fanworks tend to? Is he here for the long haul or not? What point in his character trajectory is he going to be in this adaptation? And will he have or develop his powers?

So many questions. And so much pressure.

[J. D. Guy]

What’s with this obsession with longer hairs?

As mentioned, it's not really an obsession, even if it something worth feeling strongly about.

Male characters and Black characters tend to have very limited range of expression in the depictions of their hair type and hair style. And Black male characters tend to suffer the worst of this intersection. It gets very unimaginative most of the time, with, as lemonpeace said, very limited takes that boils down to either bald (even when the character is still a kid or teenager, and when they don't have any reason or impetus given for it) or short crew-cut with maybe a generically done fade (and a pattern on the sides of the temple if we're lucky).

This speaks to a number of issues, one of them being the lack of skill most artists have when it comes to depicting Black features, especially Black male hair.

[Drako]

Wonder what his role will be? Will he be connected to Bruce as in canon, or will they take "liberties" and excise it like some fanworks tend to? Is he here for the long haul or not? What point in his character trajectory is he going to be in this adaptation? And will he have or develop his powers?

So many questions. And so much pressure.

No role at all, at least not now.
He just appears in a picture in the batcomputer alongside Carrie Kelley and Steph Brown.

[Frontier]

Gotta admit, I thought his first media appearance would be in Young Justice.

[ZuLuLu]

No role at all, at least not now.
He just appears in a picture in the batcomputer alongside Carrie Kelley and Steph Brown.

A Future "We are Robin" subplot using more established characters

[J. D. Guy]

No role at all, at least not now.
He just appears in a picture in the batcomputer alongside Carrie Kelley and Steph Brown.

Darn. This kinda got my hopes up, to be honest.

Gotta admit, I thought his first media appearance would be in Young Justice.

Same, actually.

[Aahz]

Hi has there after "We are Robin" ever been any clear indication on how old Duke is (or was during an particular story line)?