With over decades of serving Gotham under his belt, it’s understandable that Bruce Wayne has needed the help of more than a few talented young people to help him wage an endless war against the villains of Gotham. Though many of Batman’s greatest apprentices have begun their career by donning the mantle of Robin, Duke Thomas is a different case altogether.
While he may have unofficially taken the name of Robin during the We Are Robin movement, once Duke began his training with Batman they both understood that Duke was something more than just another Robin. He was The Signal. Or at least he would be.
10 He Trained To Out Riddle The Riddler
Although Duke was still very young during the events of Zero Year, that didn’t stop him from trying to save Gotham all by his lonesome. After The Riddler had taken over the city of Gotham, he announced that if anyone could tell him a riddle that he couldn’t solve, he would then return power to the powerless Gotham. A confident student, Duke decided to begin training himself in all manner of puzzles and brainteasers so that he could do his part to save the city. Though it was Batman that eventually saved the city, Duke would never forget the calling he felt to save the city.
9 He Lost His Parents To The Joker’s Toxin
Several years after the events of Zero Year, the Joker finally made his return to Gotham. With a new plan in mind to finally break the Bat, whose secret identity he had figured out, Joker decides to do his part in creating a new Bat.
By recreating the circumstances of Bruce’s transformation into Batman, Joker plans to break the Bat. He kidnaps Duke and his parents and while Batman is able to save Duke from Joker, Duke’s parents succumb to the toxins that Joker exposed them to and lose their minds.
8 The Foster Care System
After Batman saves Duke, his parents disappear, lost to psychosis and to the police. Duke, like many children orphaned by the criminals of Gotham, is sent into the foster care system. Knowing that his parents are out there, alive somewhere, Duke begins to sneak out of his foster homes in order to look for his missing parents. Alone and frustrated, the once competent student begins to let his grades slip and starts picking fights at school. His parents may be missing, but Duke knows that they aren’t dead and still hopes to find them. With or without the help of the police.
7 The Search For His Parents
Though the police have been little to no help when it came to helping locate Duke’s parents, he still holds onto the hope that his parents will be found. Even if he has to find them without the help of the police. After hearing that several of the victims of Joker’s attack have been found wandering aimlessly around the sewers of Gotham, Duke follows the only real clue that he has.
Recalling how clean and composed his mother had been prior to their capture, Duke struggles with the idea that his parents may, in fact, be wandering around in the dirty sewers of Gotham. Though Duke has little luck finding his parents, he does manage to stumble across a group of homeless people that have made a home of the sewers. As they discuss their plans to bomb important landmarks in Gotham, Duke is caught and subsequently attacked.
6 We Are Robin
Fortunately for Duke, just as he is attacked, the Robins begin their attack on the disgruntled sewer-swelling would-be terrorists. As the Robins attack, Duke fights his way out of the sewers alongside them. After nearly making his way out of the sewers, Duke is struck and knocked unconscious. After waking up in the police custody, Duke is questioned regarding what he is willing to do to find his parents, to which he responds that duty belongs to the police. Duke exits the interrogation room only to find that it’s not a police interrogation room at all. Outside he finds a biker jacket with a yellow R, a cellphone in the pocket, and a motorcycle. With this, Duke has become one of many Robins now patrolling the streets of Gotham.
5 Not A Robin, Something Else Entirely
After Bruce regains his memory and re-dons the mantle of Batman, he offers young Duke a position as his protege. While Duke accepts, he does so only under the condition that he will not become one of the many Robins that have passed under Batman’s tutelage.
Unbeknownst to Duke, however, is the fact that Batman had no intention of training Duke to become yet another Robin. While he would be trained in a similar fashion to all of Batman’s other proteges, Duke Thomas would become something else entirely.
4 He’s A Metahuman
While most of Batman’s proteges throughout his over eight decades of service to Gotham have not been bestowed with superpowers just like Bruce, Duke is the exception when it comes to this fact. Though Duke is not initially aware of his status as a metahuman, throughout the course of his training with Batman, Duke eventually realizes that he has abilities and struggles to understand them in his mini-series Batman And The Signal which was released back in 2018.
3 Possibly An Immortal
Though Duke is still beginning to understand his abilities, there are a few things that Duke as already aware of and capable of. For instance, after meeting his father, who now goes by the alias Gnomon, Duke is told that he shares his father’s “infinite blood” which could possibly mean that Duke Thomas is immortal.
Though Duke makes this discovery during the course of his 2018 mini-series, Batman And The Signal, from his father, they are certainly not on the same side of the law, as Duke finds himself in direct conflict with his immortal father.
2 He Can See Into The Past, Future, And Into Different Dimensions
As a metahuman, Duke has several abilities that regular members of the Bat-family do not have. For instance, Duke has photo-kinetic vision which allows him to do things that Batman would need to spend a lot of money to replicate. He can enter a room and see events that have already passed in the room based on how the light is or was displaced. These “ghosts” allow Duke to piece together events that may otherwise be lost. Along with viewing the past, Duke is able to view things that will happen in the future but only a short time in the future, which can help him react better while fighting opponents. With the amplification of certain Nth metals, Duke can even see across dimensions and hear audio as well.
1 Talented With A Green Lantern Ring
While Duke has spent the majority of his crimefighting career under the tutelage of Batman and many of his former proteges, his training isn’t entirely restricted to the Bat-family. During the events of Dark Nights: Metal, Duke and Green Lantern, Hal Jordan, begin exploring the depths of the Batcave in an attempt to decode the clues that Bruce had surrounding the mysteries of Nth metal. During this little adventure through the Batcave, not only do they find a captive Joker, but after borrowing Hal’s power ring, Duke shows himself to be capable of creating complex machines while wielding the power ring for the first time.