Duke Thomas Fan Club Headquarters 2024: The Signal, Outsiders, We are Robin

[lemonpeace]

well, I'm not gonna lie, 2023 was another lowkey affair for our boy unfortunately. his buzz is still going strong, his name still rings bells and he's made a couple appearances here and there but no major motion for the young king sadly. because of this I find myself on these boards less and less (luckily manga and webtoons have been going crazy for me lately). So this year I decided, in lieu of a standard appreciation thread, I decided to take inspiration from the Charles Xavier thread over on the X-forums and decided to make a Duke fan club thread instead. just in case I don't feel like doing an appreciation thread next year lol

let's see how this works. and here's hoping for a milestone year for Duke Thomas.

~~~~~

The Duke Thomas Fanclub Roster
President: lemonpeace (your's truly)
Vice-President: TBD

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

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

Powers:
Duke is a metahuman with the ability to absorb, redistribute, and manipulate both light and shadow. Duke's powers come from the metagene, a genetic trait inherited from both of his biological parents; Elaine Thomas and the immortal Gnomon. his powers were initially strictly photokinetic in nature but, after experiencing the touch of Ishmael, Duke's powers "evolved" to include the ability to manipulate darkness as well as light.

Duke's most notable abilities are his precognition and his retrocognition, which he calls his "Ghost Vision". Duke's sight is atemporal, meaning he can see freely across time depending on how he manipulates the way he processes light. Duke can perceive the "ghosts" of where light has been in his vicinity, allowing him to see a few minutes into the past. he can also glimpse into the future by seeing the "ghosts" of where light will be before it gets there. Duke's precognitive abilities plus his training from Batman and all of his former Robins allow him to react to attacks faster than normally possible and even catch projectiles in midair.

Duke's photokinesis can be used to perform a variety of other visual and practical tasks. He can see the entirety of the known Electromagnetic spectrum and beyond, detect someone through walls, ceilings, smoke and most materials, he can focus his vision to see a target at a great distance or extremely small objects down to the subdermal level, and his powers can be used to achieve invisibility. 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. He can use shadows to travel and/or have others traverse distances and coordinate attacks. Duke can also manipulate the darkness he uses to augment his hand to hand combat.


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
The Next Batman (2021) #1 & #3 written by Brandon Thomas art by Sumit Kumar
Batman: Urban Legends (2021) #8 & #9 written by Brandon Thomas art by Cian Tormey
Batman: Urban Legends (2022) #18 & #19 written by Brandon Thomas art by Alberto Jimenez Alburquerque

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

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Duke Thomas appreciation threads:

Link to the 2018 thread
Link to the 2019 thread
Link to the 2020 thread
Link to the 2021 thread
Link to the 2022 thread
Link to the 2023 thread

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! :-)

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

He's a character I'm interested in. I'm hoping Brandon Thomas's various one offs get collected.

I liked that he skips over Robin and has his own I'd. That's what I'd like to see more legacies do as Robin, Kid Flash, Wonder Girl are more limiting ids. They are more of a stepping stone than a end goal to me.

[Frontier]

Happy New Year to Duke and his fans .

[Will Evans]

Why is this fanclub headquarters labeled as 2014?

[lemonpeace]

Why is this fanclub headquarters labeled as 2014?

typo smh but I don't remember putting a year on this thread because I was hoping this one would be valid for multiple years instead of the annual appreciation thread. so either I meant to put 2024, accidently put 2014, and forgot (which i doubt) or the mods tried to add 2024 and put 2014 on accident. either way, it's a typo.

[Will Evans]

I initially thought Outsiders would be good for Duke going forward. But Now with the changing of the brand, that’s gone out the window.

[lemonpeace]

I initially thought Outsiders would be good for Duke going forward. But Joe with the changing of the brand, that’s gone out the window.

the move with the Outsiders is still so perplexing to me. DC had all the pieces to use the Outsiders as a vehicle to build up Duke, Black Lightning, and Katana with a clear direction/mission statement. I don't get the sense in putting those characters on the backburner to relaunch the brand with a completely different team and mission, instead of continuing with the team they had and just relaunching Planetary with Luke Fox and Kate Kane as Planetary with Luke Fox and Kate Kane.

[lemonpeace]

Duke's has an upcoming story in DC Power!

Written by N.K. JEMISIN, JOHN RIDLEY, BRANDON THOMAS, LAMAR GILES, SHAWN MARTINBROUGH, CHERYL LYNN EATON, and ALITHA MARTINEZ

Art by JAMAL CAMPBELL, EDWIN GALMON, KHARY RANDOLPH, DENYS COWAN, TONY AKINS, ASIAH FULMORE, and ALITHA MARTINEZ

Cover by CHASE CONLEY

Variant covers by JAMAL CAMPBELL and DENYS COWAN

1:25 variant cover by JAMAL CAMPBELL

$9.99 US | 104 pages | Prestige | One-Shot | (all covers are card stock)

ON SALE 1/30/24

DC Power returns for round two with brand-new stories spotlighting Black characters from across the DC Universe by an all-star cast of writers and artists! N.K. Jemisin and Jamal Campbell return to the Hugo Award–winning world of Far Sector for an epilogue featuring the first meeting between Jo Mullein and John Stewart! The Signal, Duke Thomas, finds inspiration from an unlikely ally. Crispus Allen searches for purpose outside of being the Spectre—and goes to Renee Montoya for guidance! Thunder and Lighting (Anissa and Jennifer Pierce), cause sparks to fly at a community event crashed by the Condiment King; Raphael Arce learns the secret origin of the original Bloodwynd; Val-Zod, Earth-2’s Superman, contemplates the balance between his pacifist philosophy and protecting the people of his universe; and Nubia teams up with…Mr. Mxyzptlk?! All these stories and more, just in time for Black History Month!

We also got the reveal of Duke's creative team in the upcoming DC Power special via Twitter



it looks like Brandon Thomas continues his stealth run with Duke Thomas, and I believe this issue makes him the 2nd most profilic Duke-centric writer behind Lee Bermejo with We are Robin. it looks like my pipedream of having the Excellence creative team work on Duke is finally coming to fruition all i need now is for DC to give them boys a proper limited series for Duke and it'll all come full circle.

[lemonpeace]

Duke Thomas & Cassandra Cain in Future State by @graypark214 on Twitter

[NOCTPHOENIX]

Dope ****. For real Duke really shone with the Outsiders

[lemonpeace]

"throughout The Source and Earth 0, I alone am the Honored One"

commissioned piece by an artist by the name @ScythGrizz on Twitter. edited by me.

[lemonpeace]

there is hope for our boy yet...

true to their word, Duke Thomas as the Final Knight in Outsiders!



from the preview for Outsiders #3

[skyvolt2000]

true to their word, Duke Thomas as the Final Knight in Outsiders!



from the preview for Outsiders #3

The one gripe I have about Final Knight action figure's helmet doesn't come off.

I keep seeing that figure shelf warm (along with the rest of that line) at Wal-Mart because nobody knows who those guys are.

[lemonpeace]

more info plus some preview images for Duke's story in DC Power 2024

The Signal: The Light that Shines

Spotlighting The Signal, this story by Thomas and Randolph is the spiritual successor to “The Second Signal,” from 2021’s Batman: Black and White #6. During a battle with Chronos, Duke Thomas is transported to an alternate future version of Gotham City, where he is the Batman.

[lemonpeace]

also, go read Outsiders #3! i thought it was gonna be a small cameo but Final Knight Duke Thomas actually plays a pretty big role in this week's issue