All Hail Duke Thomas

Pepper | main @peppersonironi | in this house we stan one Crazy Glow in the Dark Gothamite

[dukeofgotham]

Welcome to this blog, dedicated completely to: Duke Thomas!

I'm a DC Comics fan through and through, with a special love for the character of Duke Thomas, hence this blog ;)

I don't post original stuff too much here anymore (which might change, I'm thinking of writing a new major fic soon), but I reblog a bunch of Duke stuff.

{Link to Main Blog}

Other Duke Blogs you should check out: @batfamblog @dukes-cassettetape @duketectivecomics @duke-thomas-stan-blog

[samsheadraws]

for all the people who've asked me to draw Duke, this is for u <3

[chip-the-dip]

Here’s Cass and Dukes design

Also I had no idea what to make Signal say sooo

[hiko-the-teacup]

yaeba fangng..........

[aingeal98]

I wouldn't object to dc adding more angst to Duke's sibling dynamics like they've already layed some groundwork for tension with him and Dick and him and Jason, not to mention the nuances to his relationship with Damian. But at the same time it's kind of funny that at the moment he's such a good sibling the worst thing that can be counted against him is when he gave Cass psychic damage by telling her Lady Shiva is a milf.

[dukeofgotham]

Pretty much a backbone of the reverse robins au I’m writing — there will be complex and nuanced relationships between Duke and all his younger siblings

[3rd-best-planner-of-gotham]

Signal: Hey you are a native Gothamite right?

Me: Yeah?

Signal: Settle a debate for us, have you ever had s'mores.

Me: No I have not.

Robin: What do you mean you've never had s'mores? I'm not from America and I've had s'mores.

Me: I have lived in Gotham my whole life I've never been camping because nature is dangerous.

Signal: THANK YOU! See native Gothamites don't do camping. Because nature is dangerous.

Robin: We all have to walk around with gas masks because of villains and you all think nature is dangerous.

Me: You'll get there eventually.

[dukeofgotham]

Pepper's Reverse Robins AU Lineup

Replying to @atrixtraa's question on This Post: what is the line-up/order of the kids in my Reverse Robins AU

[Alrighty! First a quick update: I have now written the prologue and started on the first chapter of "Title TBD First Fic (Duke's Introduction)". I mean, I haven't written fic in like two years, so I was shocked that I was able to get working on this and be… actually quite happy with my prose?]

So generally speaking I am reversing the order in which the characters are introduced, and futzing with the ages a bit. There are a couple exceptions, and I'll explain them below. But here's my order:

Duke

Damian

Steph

Tim

Cass

Jason

Dick

Barbara

Duke borrows some aspects from Dick in that he is Bruce's first kid, creates the mantle of Lark, and is generally Bruce's right hand (when he grows up and creates The Signal as his solo moniker).

Damian comes in as the second Lark, but he ends up getting the other half of Dick's aspects: he gets the teen angst and rebellion and, in simple terms "daddy issues." He's the one who, alongside Jon, moves to Blüdhaven and becomes Nightwing.

Stephanie is introduced as the first Batgirl, which is what she's called when she takes down Cluemaster. When Damian moves on from Lark, she takes up the mantle. Then she dies (bonus: another aspect of Dick's that Duke takes on is that he's off-world when his sibling dies…). She's going to come back as The Spoiler later on, borrowing aspects from Jason and UtRH.

Tim is… essentially mostly himself. He sees Batman going off the rails (due to Damian behind in Blüdhaven, and Duke still off in space completely unaware), and comes in. He tries to get Damian to come back, but instead Damian eyeballs the kid and goes "eh, the suit will probably fit." Tim, when he's older, eventually takes up his own moniker (name tbd).

Cassandra comes in, and first goes by Black Bat (introduction similar to post-crisis, during No Man's Land). Steph, when she comes back, takes one look at her and goes "You'd make a good Batgirl" so that's Cass' next name. Later on, during Bruce's Lost in Time Arc, she leaves behind Batgirl to take on a new name, TBD (not Orphan. I refuse).

Jason is also essentially himself. When Tim moves on from Lark, Jason takes his cue to steal the tires off the Batmobile and get adopted. He goes by Lark. I have some ideas for his later plot, but nothing is 100% settled yet. Later on, though… he's gonna be the perfect age to team up with Red Arrow from YJ.

Dick comes in and, instead of becoming the next Lark, takes to the rooftops of Gotham as Robin. His early days will be while Bruce is lost in time, thereby taking inspiration from Damian. He goes on to create the Team from the Young Justice Cartoon.

Barbara comes in after Dick is Robin, and she takes up the mantle of Batgirl. My current eye-balling puts her during the Bruce's absence as well -- thereby taking inspiration from Stephanie's 2009 Batgirl Run (one of my favorite comics ever)

~~~~~

Couple final notes: I've thought long and hard about introducing some kind of Oracle proxy earlier on, but ultimately decided against it. Barbara as Oracle is just top tier, she's incredible in that role and easily one of my favorite superheroes. That being said, Oracle is so intimately tied to her character and struggles that Oracle can only be Babs. I don't see any of the other characters getting to the same point she does, for pretty much any reasonable reason.

To remedy this, I've decided to split up some of the aspects of her's to the other kids. I have special plans for Duke, and his specific specializations and skillset (That boy is getting a PhD) -- and Tim is also going to have a lot going on with being the Intelligence Hub of Gotham & eventually the greater hero community. Still working on possibly a Birds of Prey inspired Team, perhaps for Steph. (The one aspect of Oracle I can't really figure out is that she's essentially the Dispatcher of heroes -- if there's a problem, Oracle sees who is available and sends them. We'll see what I come up with, though)

Soooo… yeah! I currently have the early phases super well-planned, with the rest of the timeline done in broad strokes.

{Once again, Questions & Asks are highly appreciated, so don't feel like you're bothering me! I genuinely am thrilled to talk about this AU.}

[gracefuldisasters]

Stuck 5 Robins and 2 bats in an elevator

[secretsdcblog]

Itty bitty baby Duke

[dukeofgotham]

hi i just wanna say how much i LOVE your reverse robins!au &how much i wanna hear soooooooo much more about it????? rrs has never drawn me in, in fact i activefly avoid it, but rn im SO interested in your idea and concept!?

[The Original Post]

Aww, thank you so much! I really really appreciate it. I definitely feel you in not liking Reverse Robins -- Personally, it is one of those AUs that I have always liked the potential of, but never found many fics that spoke to me. Especially recently, as my fanfiction tastes have gotten far pickier over the years (which is a completely separate post/rant about fanon and DC comics fandom).

I'm currently outlining the AU -- I have the whole timeline worked out, and now I'm working on each individual installment (currently vibing with the idea of a series so that I can go back and toss in one shots, rather than one long fic. But I'm not 100% settled). If you'd like, I'd be happy to tag you when I start publishing the story! Or anytime I talk about the AU on Tumblr (Honestly convinced I'm gonna be babbling about it for a while on this here blog). In the meantime, though, have some semi-random thoughts from me about the general premise! If you want to hear more about any specific aspect, feel free to ask and I'll happily answer!

~~~~

One of my biggest issues with Reverse Robins is that they tend to place Damian first, and then instead of actually working through the implications of having a traumatized assassin ten year old with no concept of a loving family place with an early brooding Bruce who does not have the maturity that comes from raising multiple kids, nor the support of Dick (who, let's be honest, is the major catalyst for Damian's development). Instead, it gets hand-waved away that "well, it just works out here, they're all chill" and Damian matures by himself into being a good big brother to all his siblings. Sure, I like Damian as a good big brother, but show me how you get there, you know?

I think that is at least somewhat solved with Duke being first, rather than coming in second. Actually, I hold that Duke makes way more sense to be the oldest in this type of AU for the following reasons:

The way he comes to live with Bruce, i.e. his parents being Jokerized in an attempt to recreate the Waynes' murder, is way more poetic of an opening for Bruce to adopt his first kid. It mimics Dick's origin well, and, like in my original post, imagine a 24 year old Bruce seeing a kid just like him?? Good Soup.

Lark. If you didn't know, that's the name Duke was originally considering before Bruce said it was "too soft" (Batman & The Signal #1). In RR!AUs, either they come up with some convoluted reason why the kids are called "Robin" that reads as forced or they choose an alternative name, such as "Shadowbat", "Batboy/girl", "Shrike", or some such. No hate to people who choose to do either, but… meh. I'm certainly not a fan. Lark, though? Now that's a nice bird theme that sounds pretty good, and is actually tied to the first person who holds the Mantle. So by the time Dick comes along, he can choose to be "Robin" and not stray far from either of his families' legacies.

As previously mentioned, I think it works better than Damian being first. For one, Duke's personality lends more to being an older brother (yes, I am thinking of that scene in We Are Robin when he takes Damian to the movies). For another, he'd certainly be able to mellow out Damian in a way just solo Bruce couldn't (not that I don't think Damian absolutely wouldn't try to stab Duke. He totally would try.).

Duke definitely sets up "Batman's partner as his Hope/Light" better than Damian. He really is, in a way, the spiritual successor to Dick as Robin (In this AU). A lot of RR!AUs tend to feel darker, and I think part of the issue stems from there not being the same philosophy/themes behind the "Robin" characters.

I've always thought of Fanfiction as a game of chess – all the pieces can only move in certain ways, and yet there are an infinite number of ways to win the game. Likewise, Characters only behave in ways true to their characterizations, and the stories come from seeing how they move within different situations.

The fun is figuring out a Reverse Robins AU that is actually accurate to the characters -- not just copying and pasting their traumas onto each other -- while still emulating of the original canon. The second big reason that I get turned off so easily by these is that they just transpose the characterization as needed. Damian becomes the solid older brother who is always there for his siblings. Tim (or sometimes Steph) just becomes the tragic Red Hood, angry at Bruce and a lone wolf who purposefully stays distant from the family. If Steph is in it and not Red Hood, then she gets slapped with the Oracle role and personality, despite not actually fitting her. Jason becomes… well, usually he doesn't have much since no one knows what to do with him if he isn't Red Hood. Though he does tend to feel like a slightly less depressed Tim. That leave Dick, who is just a classic cheerful Robin. Very rarely will Cass appear, but usually people just keep her as a silent, personality-less cardboard cutout more reminiscent of a movie extra (or her Post-New 52 characterization). I have read I believe one RR!AU with Duke, and while he didn't appear all that much, he felt more like a watered down Dick than himself.

This is what I'm hoping to avoid, by focusing on how each individual character would actually act in this situation, and not just what would make a good story that readers can point at and go "look, that references the original!"

For instance, Stephanie taking up a Red Hood role. In my AU, she's the Third Lark, and dies amidst a gang war at the hand of Black Mask (she's not replacing anyone in this AU, and Bruce willingly took her in, so it varies from War Games in a few places). Sure, I'm taking inspiration from the comics in that she's actually going to die, come back to life, and spend some time in the League, but here's where we split. Her death happened for a different reason than Jason's -- Black Mask is a different kind of villain from Joker -- Stephanie is a different character than The Red Hood. So she's not going to go on a murder spree trying to prove Bruce's philosophy wrong, and get vengeance for Bruce not killing Black Mask. I think something more true to her character is to focus on her insecurity -- she dies, and she thinks she failed. She comes back and takes over Black Mask's operation, shutting him down, brutally managing the criminal underbelly, all in an attempt to prove herself to Bruce. All the areas where she failed before, she now has iron-clad control of. Sure, the Lazarus Pit twists her to an extent, but how it does so differs from Jason because the underlying themes of each of their stories are different.

(Jason becomes the Red Hood because he thinks it is necessary, because he thinks Bruce doesn't do enough for the city, and his own death was proof of that. Steph becomes the Spoiler because she feels she was a failure who wasn't good enough and wants to prove that she is worthy of Bruce. That she can handle Gotham and all her criminals. But she's unable to see that the only one who blames her for dying is herself -- she never had to prove herself, she just had to come home. I might not be the most clear with this, and for that I apologize -- it will make more sense in the actual story than my unedited ramblings).

So… yeah.

I have a profound passion for every single member of the Batfamily, and seeing how they'd all interact in this universe gets me so freaking excited. Thank you again for getting excited with me! I hope this post wasn't too awful to read, and that you stick around. I can wait to share more (and once agian, please feel free to ask any other questions you might have. I currently only have my sister and my google doc to rant to about this)

[ashoss]

the bat and the signal or something idk

[wakandas]

duke thomas sighting / batober

[dukeofgotham]

Might mess around a write a Reverse Robins AU where Duke is the eldest, and then the kids are all named Lark instead of Robin. Also, set it later on in the Young Justice Universe (at least, when Dick comes around I take heavy inspiration from the show)…

Oh, and it would be heavily influenced by the comics, because while fanon can be enjoyable to some, I’ve been reading DC for over half a decade and want to see accurate representation of the characters and storylines. I’m thinking lots of annotation after each chapter/fic explaining all the issues and such I adapted and my reasons for my choices (because they will be reasoned through).

It also wouldn’t be one of those “it’s reverse robins so that fixes everything and the whole family is perfect and happy” because while some things wouldn’t be problems in this AU, others would crop up. And exploring how they all work through them and come out as a loving family is fascinating to me. But it definitely wouldn’t be grimdark either.

Also, as much as I love Duke as a character, you have to admit the comics haven’t actually done much with him. So figuring out how he’d work in an AU like this sounds like so much fun to me. And really getting a chance to develop him as a character? Oh boy!

But could you imagine a version of the Young Justice cartoon Team, and how that would change if there had been some older generations of sidekicks? Or how Robin & Artemis might interact differently if Dick mentions two of his older siblings were raised by assassins? How Conner’s storyline would shift if you have Clark, who has already successfully raised a child (bc of COURSE Jon exists in this au and is Flamebird with Damian as Nightwing), and so they actually act as a family (might play around with the idea of throwing Supergirl in too)?

Imagine the potential of Stephanie, coming in first as Batgirl, then takes on the Lark mantle, then gets killed and comes back as The Spoiler? Imagine Tim, coming in to the family later, with different expectations and insecurities? Imagine Jason and Cass and how their stories get twisted due to the implications of the Family as a whole?

Imagine Damian, coming in at 10 years old with only one older sibling, who would be so easy to take care and replace as his father’s apprentice.

Imagine Bruce Wayne, just a few years into becoming The Batman, waging what seems to already be a never-ending war on the crime in Gotham, fail to stop the Joker’s latest plot. He sees a little boy surrounded by the cops, a blanket around his shoulders, as they keep his gaze away from the sight of his parents. Jokerized in Crime Alley, dressed up in formal wear, all in an attempt to recreate the Wayne’s infamous murders. Imagine Bruce, in that moment, making a decision.

Imagine Bruce reaching out.

[trippygalaxy]

(Offers up art like a sacrifice)

First time drawing Duke and im very much falling in love with his character ((also first dc art! Woop!)

[ijustgotherebro]

[fru1ty-d3mon]

I like to think that Duke wears headphones often. Not in an neurodivergent way but in a "this makes me feel at home" thing.

I've learned through researching his character that he actually really likes puzzles and manga art so here's a mini story about his interests and some hcs of mine.

Duke, listening to music, sits at the dining room in the manor doing a puzzle. And this isn't like a 150p puzzle or anything, no, this is a 5000p huge ass puzzle. The problem with building puzzles in the Wayne Manor is that its so chaotic.

At one point a Baterang was thrown and hit the table next to the top edge of the puzzle, he looks up to see Tim standing in the hallway while a rabid Damian is being held back by Dick. "Sorry Duke!" Tim says as he helps Dick drag Damian to the Batcave.

Stephanie likes to sit next to him and paint. She's a bit of a yapper, and while Duke doesn't mind listening with one earphone off, sometimes he's just confused as to what on Earth she's talking about. "So then Megan was telling Rita that she likes-" she says before Duke cuts her off, "I spaced out for a second, what were you talking about?" He says, looking up at her. She blinks at him, "Hello Megan!" She says with a smile, he raises an eyebrow. "Ohmygosh! I NEED TO TELL YOU ALL ABOUT IT!!" She says excitedly before she starts to explain all of Hello Megan to him.

It grows to get pretty late and Duke begs Alfred to make sure that the puzzle stays intact. Alfred, and I'm not kidding you, gets 2 hours of sleep total that night, just to make sure that the puzzle doesn't get ruined. Alfred enjoys the fact that Duke isn't crazy like the rest of the batkids.

Cass will silently walk up to him, look at the puzzle and put like 10 middle pieces together and then walk away. This is how Duke learned that while Cass isn't the best with words, reading, or writing, (due to her past) she IS really good with colours and pictures.

When Duke is almost done, he just has like 20 more pieces, Bruce sits at the table, coffee mug in hand. "Whatcha doing bud?" He asks, sipping his coffee from the mug that reads "Grumpier with my coffee" on it. "Puzzle." He says, focusing closely on the puzzle. "... What kind?" Bruce asks, trying to look at it from the opposite angle of Duke. "Paris" He says, setting the last piece that's on the table in place. He looks around, "where is it?!" He mutters, ducking under the table. Bruce sits there, confused, Duke pulls his headphones off and throws them on the table, without pausing them. He scans the floor, trying to find the piece while Bruce sits, trying hard not to drop his mug.

Duke was listening to hardcore rock, like full on screaming rock, while doing a puzzle... "YES!" Duke cheers as he stands back up quickly and placing the piece into place. He looks at Bruce, who is trying hard not to laugh. Duke looks at him, then the headphones, then back at Bruce. His face one of embarrassment, Bruce looses it. He just starts laughing, Duke has never seen this side of Bruce, of BATMAN. "Are you listening to Jason's patrol playlist or something?!" He says, laughing between every other word. Duke shakes his head, "It's just a playlist a friend made me..." He says sheepishly, picking up his headphones and turning them off.

Dick walks past the dining room and hearing Bruce laugh, stops in his tracks. "What did you do?" He says in a confused tone as he walked into the dining room. Duke shrugs, Bruce stops laughing. He gets up, coffee mug in hand, and just walks out.

Duke and Dick look at each other in confusion.

Dick: so, you like puzzles?

Duke: yeah, why?

Dick: Kory got me a Superman puzzle for my birthday last year... Do you wanna build it with me?

Duke's eyes brighten and he nods quickly. (They spent the rest of the day building that puzzle)

:D

[pyladescares]

more cowboy duke thomas :3

close-ups!

hes so silly :3

this is a slightly more tuned down version of my design! more casual ykykyk but im deffo gnna get back into drawing my silly

(also keep an eye out for a duke centric fic... coming to ao3s near you....)

((also a cowboy duke fanfic at some point))