How do you feel about Duke Thomas?

[darkseidpwns]

Jon Kent will go the way of Chris the way the superman line is run

Chris didn't have company support, just some creator support and even that was half hearted as Johns himself tossed him back in to the Phantom Zone at the end of Last Son. Jon has both company and creator support, he's a priority character and being the son of Supes and Lois, they cant afford him to fail.

Duke is in 2-3 books a month featuring Batman, He's very much the status quo now

He's only a certain creator's status quo, take Batman as an example, people are looking forward to Catwoman and Bane whereas no one talks about Duke unless to mock him for standing behind a monitor and moaning. Now even reviewers are pointing it out. That 4 page preview of Bane has already gotten immense praise, more than anything involving Duke.

Duke is not going to go away, the batman line very rarely discards characters especially ones who have been created by their top talent.

Remember Sasha Bordeaux? remember Micheal Lane? remember Harper herself? Duke will be discarded the moment Snyder's influence ends

Even Luke Fox who had the pretty terrible association of replacing the amazing david zavimbe (because the batman of africa wasn't gotham centric enough or whatever) and he still pops up now and again

Luke has a legit tether to the franchise and he's got a very cool visual, both of them dont make him a spectacular character but they afford him more luxury in a visual medium than anything Duke has. Duke just looks atrocious, even looking at him in costume makes you want to gouge your eyes. When your characters flunks even the basic visual test then his success in comics is hard pressed based just on that. In this medium a cool costume can do wonders, Duke's previous one was boring while this one is bad which also sums up his character succinctly.

[jbmasta]

An annual would be a good way to give Duke something that would define the character in relation to Batman, something to justify including him storywise in the main title. Hopefully King has something good planned for Duke once the Bane storyline has concluded.

Has Duke even got a superhero name yet?

[darkseidpwns]

For the record Rucka's Tec was Kate's first story and she flew from the first issue. Duke's first story was WAR and he failed, doubling back on failure does not equal success, it just means double failure.

[Aahz]

Remember Sasha Bordeaux? remember Micheal Lane? remember Harper herself?

Remember the Batman INC members? They also completely vanished after Morrison left.

[darkseidpwns]

Remember the Batman INC members?

Yeah but those guys were always in service to the story not the other way around. Still even the French Muslim guy Nightrunner caught the internet by storm back in the day, people loved him but DC shied away because of the potential for controversy. So even he took off in his first issue unlike Duke, just that the company wasn't willing to invest. Knight and Squire also got their series but they too got it due to demand from the fans, sure it wasn't strong enough in the end but it was there. There is no demand for Duke, everything he's getting is down to vested interest.

[Skeleton13]

I don't like "Duke" being FORCED down our throats in almost every bat book. It's like...we just can't get away...but...please go away, "Duke."

Put this kid on the Teen Titans, maybe Power Rangers or something, and I'm sure he'll do great things.

But no, I don't care to see "Duke" at all when I'm reading Batman. He's a ridiculous distraction, far as I care. We have Damian and Nightwing, don't need this transparently contrived "Duke."

At the very least, keep "Duke" out of Batman and the other bat titles, and let him appear in ASBR exclusively, if he *must* appear in the bat books at all.

Really annoying...

[Nite-Wing]

Nightwing isn't in Gotham anymore
Damian isn't in Gotham anymore(well really we don't know since he's been mostly MIA)

The current status quo of heroes is
Duke
Batwoman
Cass
Spoiler
Bluebird
maybe red hood

[JediKage]

Duke has hardly gotten what I call a major push. He still isn't doing much this is a terrible rollout to my mind.

Same for Cyborg quite frankly waiting years for a solo while being in the Background of the JL is not a push to my mind.

But its not exactly surprising certain characters are held to a different standard.

[MajorHoy]

There in lies the problem with your examples, they were MIA until someone figured out what to do with them. Duke is being pushed incessantly by his creator for years and is still failing.

Either you're really, really young or you are prone to exaggeration.
Care to define what you mean by "pushed . . . for years"?
I thought Duke was first introduced during Zero Year in 2014, which, yes, is more than one year ago, but it's not even up to three years ago yet.
Did he start appearing with any regularity earlier than that?

[millernumber1]

Remember Sasha Bordeaux? remember Micheal Lane? remember Harper herself? Duke will be discarded the moment Snyder's influence ends

Luke has a legit tether to the franchise and he's got a very cool visual, both of them dont make him a spectacular character but they afford him more luxury in a visual medium than anything Duke has. Duke just looks atrocious, even looking at him in costume makes you want to gouge your eyes. When your characters flunks even the basic visual test then his success in comics is hard pressed based just on that. In this medium a cool costume can do wonders, Duke's previous one was boring while this one is bad which also sums up his character succinctly.

I do remember them! I was just reading the Batman and Detective Annual crossover with Azrael, and realized that it's the dude from Morrison's Batman run. Given how dark and gritty he is, I'm surprised the n52 didn't keep him.

I actually think Duke's future costumes in Batman #35 and Detective Comics #27 look pretty cool. I think his current costumes have looked pretty dumb, in We Are Robin ("Street Robin!" C'mon, Riko was the best-looking of the Robins, and Duke just wasn't trying), Superheavy (why does Duke under Snyder's hand seem to love dumb-looking motorcycle-style helmets?), and now All-Star Batman (more helmets!).

Has Duke even got a superhero name yet?

I am really on board with the bird-themed names - Bluebird and Lark - and wish Snyder would stop playing coy and just name Duke Lark now.

Yeah but those guys were always in service to the story not the other way around. Still even the French Muslim guy Nightrunner caught the internet by storm back in the day, people loved him but DC shied away because of the potential for controversy. So even he took off in his first issue unlike Duke, just that the company wasn't willing to invest. Knight and Squire also got their series but they too got it due to demand from the fans, sure it wasn't strong enough in the end but it was there. There is no demand for Duke, everything he's getting is down to vested interest.

Yes! I just reread Kyle Higgins and Trevor McCarthy's Nightrunner story in the Gates of Gotham trade, and that was an awesome character with so much more story potential than he got. I don't think Duke has zero demand, but there does seem to be a disconnect between fans and creators on him.

[Lemurion]

I haven't read enough of Duke to have a strong opinion. He may turn out to have a great story in him, he may not.

[Deffinition]

he's ok, but There are so many characters now in the bat family that I think if you take a hiatus from reading the books you just return with about 30 new characters, no idea who they are, what their backstory is (normally orphans) and that's it

[darkseidpwns]

Either you're really, really young or you are prone to exaggeration.
Care to define what you mean by "pushed . . . for years"?
I thought Duke was first introduced during Zero Year in 2014, which, yes, is more than one year ago, but it's not even up to three years ago yet.
Did he start appearing with any regularity earlier than that?

Almost 3 years is still 3 years buddy and I think you're the last guy to talk to me about exaggeration when you go around Batman threads complaining about Bruce riding an air craft. He's concurrently appearing in 2 books after he already got an ongoing series that failed (while he was also appearing in Batman), this is failure, he failed to catch on.

[darkseidpwns]

Nightwing isn't in Gotham anymore
Damian isn't in Gotham anymore(well really we don't know since he's been mostly MIA)

The current status quo of heroes is
Duke
Batwoman
Cass
Spoiler
Bluebird
maybe red hood

Damian's only MIA because Duke loving creators have made him MIA. These people can write 50 books with Batman , heaven forbid if Robin shows up in one more, the excuse doesn't fly, there is no editorial restriction either it's an entirely self made excuse.

[MajorHoy]

. . there are so many characters now in the bat family that I think if you take a hiatus from reading the books you just return with about 30 new characters, no idea who they are, what their backstory is (normally orphans) and that's it

How many orphans (aside from the obvious Bruce) are actually part of the Bat-family?
I'm not even sure half of them would qualify (unless you expand "orphan" to include someone with a living parent that's not part of their life).
* Tim's not an orphan, is he? (I'm lost with how many retcons they've pulled with him these days.)
* Batgirl's not an orphan.
* Kate Kane isn't an orphan (yet).
* Damian is DEFINITELY not an orphan.
* Isn't Stephanie's mother still somewhere?
* Is Harper's father still alive?
* Luke Fox isn't an orphan.
* Cass we don't know about in terms of a possible mother (do we?)
* Duke's parents were still alive last I remember (though not competent).
* Gotham Girl was just made an orphan (but wasn't one when she was first introduced).