Duke Thomas is the Signal. He’s one of the newest members of the Bat-Family, first appearing in Batman (2011) #21. He played a major role in Scott Snyder’s run, and was taken in as Batman’s newest sidekick after he inspired a city-wide Robin movement in the We Are Robin series. Duke was taken in and trained by Batman, eventually unlocking his own metahuman powers of light and later shadow. After extensive and intensive training, Duke rose to become his own hero as the Signal, Gotham City’s protector during the daytime. However, he should have been more than Signal. He should have been Robin.
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If you look back at the timeline of events and planned storylines with how Duke was introduced and set up, it becomes clear that he was being primed to become Batman’s newest Robin. We might have a very different Robin today, but all of that fell apart after Damian Wayne died, then came back to life. Damian is a fantastic Robin, but his death and rebirth actually ruined Duke’s chances to become Robin, and that’s an incredible shame.
Born to Be Robin
Duke’s path in his early appearances follows the perfect trajectory to becoming Robin. For starters, his intelligence and ingenuity as a child are established when he interacts with Batman in the “Zero Year” event, and being a child prodigy is a requirement to being the Boy Wonder. Second off, he was kidnapped along with his parents by the Joker during the “Endgame” storyline, where the Clown Prince of Crime intended to recreate the Wayne murders using the Thomas family. Although his parents didn’t die, he did lose them to being permanently Jokerized, which instilled the same rage and desire to save Gotham as it did for Bruce, and fundamentally tied their origins.
He later joined the We Are Robin movement, quickly becoming one of the leaders. When the entire organization fell apart after working with the actual current and former Robins, Duke became good friends with Damian and was taken in to be trained by Batman himself. Duke had every opportunity and incentive to become the next partner for Batman, and yet, even years later, he never went from being a member of We Are Robin to actually being Robin. The solution, simply, is that when Duke’s character and his arc were first being planned, the assumption was that Damian would stay dead.
Damian’s Return Ruined Duke’s Future
Grant Morrison created Damian with the arc in mind for him to be ripped away from Batman. Damian was killed in Batman Incorporated (2012) #8, which was released on February 27, 2013, just six months before Duke’s debut. It’s entirely possible that Damian was meant to stay dead, and Duke was introduced to become the next Robin to fill his role. However, any plans for Duke were thrown out the window during September of 2014, when Robin Rises: Omega was released. This storyline saw the resurrection of Damian Wayne, which was neither written nor planned by Morrison. By the time Damian was brought back in 2015, Duke’s character arc was already well underway, which was the worst thing for him.
Damian’s resurrection was a massive event, and so it wasn’t as if DC could simply retire him from being Robin after a major story like that. Heck, “Robin Rises” was the storyline that introduced the Hellbat suit, which is a fan-favorite Batman armor. Damian had to continue being Robin after that, which unfortunately left Duke without that option. So, Duke had to develop his own identity as the Signal. Although there have been a few bumps for him along the way, Damian has remained Robin. I love Damian as Robin, but I can’t help but wonder: if Damian stayed dead, would Duke have actually become the newest Robin?
This is one of the biggest what-ifs in comic books, right alongside the original K-Metal and what it would look like if Bart Allen remained the Flash. Overall, there’s no way to know if Duke was planned to be Robin, but it certainly looks like he was on that path, and as much as I love Damian, it is a darn shame we haven’t seen Duke there yet.
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Image courtesy of Focus Features.
