Duke Thomas has been hanging around the city of Gotham for a long time, but recently he's found himself going deeper and deeper into the world of heroics all from one chance meeting with Batman. All the way back in Zero Year is when they first met. When Riddler knocked out the power and controlled Gotham for a year there was no school. Duke spent all his days trying to think of ways to save the city and solving puzzles.
One day when he was a little kid Batman was knocked and Duke found him. Duke brought him to the family home. Duke had a lot of siblings, that were later erased because they weighed him down as a character. Duke would nurse Bruce back to help and Bruce was impressed by how smart Duke was. As well as how focused on saving the city he was. The two would cross paths again when Batman would save Duke from being robbed by two men.
The next time we would see Duke was during Endgame. At this point he's become a teenager and he's been kidnapped with his parents. Joker has decided to use them to reenact the murder of Bruce Wayne's parents. Batman saves them from being murdered by Joe Chill. After Joker gassed the city his parents have gone missing like dozens of others. The gas was Joker's worst ever and left it's victims completely insane. Bruce leaves Duke with Alfred's daughter Julia and goes to fight with Joker. After this Bruce is left amnesiac and Duke becomes a foster child.
Duke is shown to aged up some more and become rebellious. In We Are Robin he's shown to run away from several foster homes just because he can. He's also had some run-ins with the police. The one thing Duke seems to be focused on is finding his parents but he still takes the time to beat up bullies and bring them to justice. During this time he comes across a group of teenagers calling themselves Robins who are led by a mysterious man known as The Nest (It's Alfred).
Duke joins the group which includes the children of mobsters, gang members, nerds, jocks and just about any other social group you can think of. The group almost broke up after one of the members, Troy, sacrificed himself to stop a train bomb. Instead they continued their work because they inspired hundreds of other teenagers to take up the name of Robin. Eventually a corrupt government outlawed them after it appeared a Robin murdered a police officer although this wasn't true. Instead this was part of a plan created by The Court of Owls to bring Dick Grayson back into their grasps.
This led to an event known as Robin War. Duke and his crew are out working the streets when they're confronted by Damian Wayne who calls them fakes and attacks. They managed to gang up on him but he eventually regains the upper hand. However, Jim Gordon, who is acting as Batman joins the confrontation planning to arrest them all. Damian fights with Jim while Duke and the team escape to regroup later.
Later there's a meeting where all of the Robin groups in the city are meeting together. They're confronted by the actual Robins. Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake and Damian Wayne have put their differences aside to train the Robins. Each of the 4 end up gravitating to a certain kid which leads to them getting some special training. Damian and Izzy, Dre with Tim, Dax with Jason and Dick ends up with Duke and as they're training he lets Dick know he already knew he was Nightwing and former Robin. Dick explains to him that Duke needs to step up and be a leader even if the others say they don't like it they'll come to respect him as leader.
Eventually the Robins are captured by a group of elite Talons and they plan their escape but are let loose without knowing Dick had surrendered himself to the Court of Owls. They still beat up the Talons and expose the Court's plan to the world leading to Robins being unbanned. During this time Duke also has a fight with Damian Wayne who doesn't realize Jason, Tim and Duke had freed the others so Damian is working for the court. He fights Duke and repeatedly tells Duke he's not Robin. Eventually, Duke accepts it and starts fighting dirty to hold his own.
The main Robin group breaks up and decides to go their own way. On his way home Duke notices that Damian has been tracking him for several blocks. He asks Damian if he wants to go see a movie and Damian pretends he's not there but eventually caves and makes his second friend ever. During this time Duke also finds his parents at a worn down and overcrowded mental ward. He begins spending time here as it seems they've been permanently disabled due to the Joker Gas.
The group comes back together when a guy named Smiley forms his own gang of Jokers. The gang terrorizes people throughout the city. Eventually it culminates with them taking a school hostage. Members of the original gang either rushed in to help or were already students at the school. Afterwards they decide to stick together and stop a robbery at one of Bruce Wayne's penthouses. After the others leaves he tells Alfred that he looks nice without his disguise showing that he already figured out Alfred was The Nest.
Things start to change for Duke when he finds an amnesiac Bruce Wayne after the events of Endgame. He begins spending more time at the Lucius Fox Center for Gotham Youth where Bruce is working as a gardener. He attempts to solve the mystery of Mr. Bloom after finding some of the seeds on Bruce. He gets some help from a friend named Daryl who now works with GCPD as an engineer for the Batmech that Gordon uses. He tracks the seed back to The Penguin. This leads to Duke breaking into the Iceburg Lounge. He grabs some documents Penguin has on Mr. Bloom and attempts to make his exit. But, he's cornered by Penguin's goons and is eventually outnumbered before Bruce Wayne shows up and gives him a stern talking to while Duke believes Bruce is just faking amnesia and gave up on Gotham.
Eventually Duke confronts Daryl who created the seeds and Mr. Bloom. Duke and Daryl fight with Duke winning. But in the violence Bloom was unleashed on the city. Duke jumps from the GCPD airship as Jim Gordon arrives on the scene in his Batmech. As Duke parachutes down his line is cut and he begins to fall to his death, until Batman shows up in the Batwing to rescue Duke. Jim and Bruce save the day and Duke continues his life.
Next time we see Duke he's approached by Bruce Wayne who offers Duke the change to live with him and train to fight crime. Duke tells Bruce that Robin doesn't need Batman. Only for Bruce to respond that Batman doesn't need a Robin and he's gonna train him to be something new. Duke is given the code name of Lark and they begin their training.
Abilities and Equipment
- Hand to Hand Combat - Street fighter, trained by former Robins and Bruce Wayne
- Utility Belt
- Motorcycle
- Nunchucks
Tags:
Black Superheroes
