Batman and the Signal # 1

 By Mark Rodriguez

Back in 2018, Batman got himself a new sidekick dressed in a yellow armored bat-theme outfit. The interesting thing was this new hero wasn't a given a name. When Duke, the guy inside the suit, asked Bruce if was going to be the next Robin, the millionaire responded that he wanted to do something different. And so we've seen this kid in several issues here and there, in which some fans have nicknamed him 'BumbleBat' but we never knew the actual name of his heroic persona. This mini-series finally gave Duke his name... The Signal. While the name might have made more sense if his super power was to help direct traffic...let's check out the adventures of Batman and the Signal.

 

 

The issue opens with Duke not being exactly welcome at the Bat Family dinner table which consists of  Robin, Red Robin, Red Hood, Batgirl, Orphan, Nightwing, Batwoman and Batwing there. Duke agrees with Tim's sentiment, there are probably too many members already and they could probably stand to lose some than gain more. Jason objects to that.  Duke says they don't trust him because he was powers they can't understand, and he feels him being the Signal will most likely go crashing down in a week.

Later on we see The Signal fighting a super villain that throws him into a bus. Duke tries to activate his powers, but they're not working now. The villain is named Null and he thinks Duke is one of 'The Dial'. Duke explains his powers are to see light differently than anyone else which lets him see traces of where it is and where it's going to be, that helps him in fights. Null uses negative energy, which he uses to send Duke flying back. Null realizes that Duke isn't able to use his powers when he wants to so he can't be one of 'The Dial'.

 

Null starts choking Duke, and the heroic youth manages to focus on the lights points and where Null gathers his energy from and finally attacks him. Duke kicks him across the face to lay him out. People from the neighborhood show up angry about him fighting bad guys in the daytime, which is supposed to be safe.  Duke says he just goes where there's bad guys and the people blame everything on him and all the other Bat-Heroes as of late and tells him to go back to his cave. Duke tunes them out and goes home.

Commissioner Gordon shows up to visit a female detective with a metal arm named Aisi and gives her a case regarding two kids that went out to party and decided to show off their new powers on the roof. Unfortunately the powers were too much for their bodies and they died violently. They discuss how there's been a recent increase of metahumans in Gotham lately, and they've never had that before.

Duke is at his place with Iz (his girlfriend) and Riko, studying the blood sample taken from Null. Even though the powers are biological, it always takes some sort of trigger to activate them. If he can find the trigger, he can find out more about himself and his own powers. Riko says he already is where he wants to be since they all used to be Robins, but Duke was the only one to actually join the Bat-Family officially.

 

 

Duke's older cousin, who is his legal guardian while his parents recover, doesn't like him having the door to his room closed. After Duke gets rid of him, Riko notices that Null's powers somehow got more powerful the closer he got to Duke. Duke says then this whole mess might have started with him.

Duke tells the girls how Batman introduced him to a new secret base called The Hatch. There Batman tells him he respects how Duke wants to be a hero in his own way and he needs someone like that. He needs someone that can protect the city during the day and knows the city like he does to help with the course of these kids developing super powers. Bruce introduces him to the new costume and he needs a name. Duke says his mother a social worker and she considers herself the 'First Knight' on the battlefield when helping new people, and another word for First Knight is The Signal.

Iz noticed that a place called The Solarium has become some sort of Arkham for teens, where all the meta teens have been locked up. She thinks Duke's powers might affect theirs too and he might find out more about what's causing them.

Detective Aisi shows up at her station and checks the tox report for some of the captured teens and notices a possible catalyst is a chemical called Boxitan which might be in found in water. She heads over to the Solarium for a water sample. She is refused due to new rules and Aisi says she will be back with a warrant.

As she leaves, Duke sneaks in and reads the guard's lips saying that he won't let Aisi in to someone. Duke wonders who's in charge and uses his powers to get past the security keypad. As he explores the underground facility he notices that all of the cells are empty and realizes it's a trap. Just then someone socks Duke on the back of the head.

 

My Thoughts:

The story seems interesting, I honestly did not know Duke even had powers. I was kind of hoping for some classic adventures of Batman and the Signal going out and kicking ass, or at least seeing how he interacts with the other Bat-characters, but this is an interesting way to learn more about him and his supporting cast. He's basically trying to find his place in the world, and even though Batman welcomed him into the fold, he still doesn't quite fit in.

The rise of metahumans and some secret facility trying to keep them there, or possibly have a hand in creating them there is interesting enough. I wonder who's in charge of all this.

I'm not sure if Gotham, or certain parts of Gotham have some sort of law or whatever where the bad guys only agree to come out at night? I know I saw that concept in a movie somewhere, I want to say the cheesy Double Dragon movie but I'm not sure. It kinda confused me because I'm pretty sure the Joker has committed his crimes or murder sprees in broad daylight in the past, and there always seem to be some thugs out there up to no good at all hours of the day in Gotham City. So I'm not sure what the crowd was talking about.

Duke's powers are unique and not too flashy or outlandish. Helping him see light fixtures that no one else can helps him predict and avoid moves, so to the average man, he just looks like a highly skilled fighter. He isn't tossing huge energy blasts or anything. Kinda like the Spider-Sense where to the average eye it just looks like Spidey has some real good instincts or just too quick to hit.

The comic did a good job of setting up his supporting cast, namely Iz, Riko and his older cousin Jay. I'm also curious as to what Detective Aisi will bring to the table. Will she become Duke's Commissioner Gordon?

Since this is a 3-issue mini series, I do intend to get all 3 issues and cover them all here. I do hope Duke finds out more about himself but I also like how he's not exactly another Bat-Person or another Robin. Similar to Orphan and Spoiler, it's a new persona. That looks like a BumbleBat. I get the meaning behind his name, but it'll take a while for The Signal to grow on me. I guess even the editors had little faith in the name which might be why they kept it hidden for so long. I still like Duke as a character and hope this story doesn't end in him 'getting cured of his powers' so he can stick around the Bat-Family for a good long time.

It's good that he finally got a name. I remember there was an annual where Batman and The Signal faced the Calendar Man throughout several seasons of the year, with Duke getting more seasoned as the year went on. They were very clever to not have Batman call him by his hero name throughout the whole story.

Over the years Duke has appeared in several comics here and there. He was part of Batman and the Outsiders a few years back alongside Black Lightning, Katana, and Orphan. He does make some cameos and appearances in some Batman comics here and there, thought usually just a scene that requires every other Bat-Family member to make an appearance to avoid the 'where's Duke?' question.

I'll get around to this since it did take me a while to find that third issue, and usually when I find one, I lose another. Now that I have all 3 issues together in one place, it'll be easier to cover the rest of this mini-series.