One thing about this being a very AO3 and Tumblr fandom influenced series means that Duke follows some of the pitfalls of said fandom, where there are folks there who are interested in him but where it can be a toss-up on how well-versed they are regarding Duke and how well-synthesized their fanon takes on his character are. (The very fact that Duke is characterized as this absolute day-one newcomer who's jovially misinformed and "out of his depth" at the wackiness of the other Batfamily is a huge trait often ascribed to Duke's character in these fandomspaces. While it can be fun on a content-by-content basis, this runs the real trend of fabricating a new character out of Duke that's absent his canonical perceptive sense of emotional and intellectual intelligence, playing Duke as considerably more gullible and naïve than this empathetically street-smart, studious, and capable young man actually is.)
I'm not familiar with the process of "how" on any personal level; I just know it's a commonly done enough process that the artists who do the reformatting make it work.
This was an apprehension I had for a split-second, I'm not gonna lie, but I think that interpretation of Duke is so far removed from who Duke is in canon, if anything just due to the amount of adventures he's appeared in at this point, that i think it's fine if they lean into the fanon characterization for this. sure, it may cause some fans to misinterpret him if they only base their understanding of Duke purely off this Webtoon, but anyone who digs into his canon stories would start to recognize that he's not that. as long as the canon stays consistent with what he's done and continue to push Duke's progression forward, it shouldn't be a problem. it's just a fun slice of life style series that's out of continuity, I think it's more important that he's included at all. I may not be a huge fan of Duke's characterization in Outsiders but I will always maintain that it did a lot for Duke in terms of exposure, and for someone like Duke who is still new relative to the other Bats the name of the game is still exposure exposure EXPOSURE. the more eyes he gets, the more familiar people are with him; the more people are familiar with him, the more DC and their writers will know or care about him; the more they care, the more likely to include him in other thing, which will lead to more canon stories (and canon-accurate appearances in media) that can change that narrative over time.
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."
Last edited by J. D. Guy; 09-10-2021 at 03:29 AM.
One of the episodes has the whole family fighting over desserts, no one is getting the 'real' characters here.
Fighting over a cookie rather than literally trying to cripple one another is a nice change for once.
I've been wanting a series like this for a while now. Just light-hearted fun. Each character doing their own thing, but still part of the family. And most importantly, Bruce NOT being a sociopath, but a guy whom actually shows concern and care for his family. You know, being the father figure he's meant to be, but not overly strict either.
I probably should have quoted one of the previous comments but I was meaning however Duke was portrayed was something that was applicable to the whole cast. I am actually happy with this take, and hope seeing this gives more writers encouragement to break from the routine Bat drama.
I feel like for as long as I have been reading DC (roughly New 52) I don't have a sense of 'who' Batman/Bruce is, other than always being messed with by some villain and always having some bigger gadget.