Black Knight (comics character)


The Black Knight is the alias of several fictional characters appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.
The first is a medieval Knight created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Joe Maneely. The second is a supervillain descendant of the original, created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist and co-plotter Dick Ayers. The third, created by writer Roy Thomas, John Verpoorten, and artist George Tuska, is the villain's nephew, a superhero and a member of the superhero team the Avengers. A fourth Black Knight, with no revealed genetic connection, debuted in The Black Panther #3, created by writer Reginald Hudlin and penciler John Romita Jr.

Publication history

Marvel Comics' first Black Knight, Sir Percy of Scandia, first appeared in the medieval-adventure series Black Knight #1–5 from Atlas Comics, the 1950s precursor to Marvel Comics.
Sir Percy's descendant, Professor Nathan Garrett, debuted as the modern-day supervillain Black Knight in Tales to Astonish #52. This villainous Black Knight appeared in The Avengers #6, 14–15, and in the feature "Iron Man" in Tales of Suspense #73, in which he was mortally wounded.
Dane Whitman, Garrett's nephew, makes his first appearance in The Avengers #47, and becomes a heroic version of the Black Knight in the following issue. Whitman sporadically appeared with the Avengers until becoming a core member, regularly appearing in #252–300 and #329–375.
The Gatherers storyline running through The Avengers #343–375 finally placed the spotlight on the Black Knight, as the focus of the book turned toward his tumultuous relationship with the Eternal Sersi and mysterious connection to the other-dimensional villain Proctor. Whitman later starred in Malibu Comics' UltraForce #8–10 and UltraForce, vol. 2 #1–12, leading a new team of heroes on a parallel world. Returning to the Marvel Universe proper, Whitman appeared in Heroes for Hire #1–16 and, later, Captain Britain and MI13 #1–15. The Black Knight has yet to return to the Avengers, the team with which the character is most closely associated. In 2015, as part of All-New All-Different, a solo series was launched featuring Dane Whitman; however, it was canceled after 5 issues due to low sales.
Whitman and Sir Percy also starred in the limited series Black Knight #1–4, written by Roy and Dann Thomas and drawn by successive pencillers Tony DeZuniga and Rich Buckler. In 1995 Percy had a caneo in Namor #60 as part of the Atlantis Rising story. Whitman and Sersi then headlined the one-shot Black Knight: Exodus, written by Ben Raab and illustrated by Jimmy Cheung and Andy Lanning. Another Black Knight one-shot starring Sir Percy, written by Thomas and illustrated by Tom Grummett and Scott Hanna, was published as Mystic Arcana: Black Knight #1, the second of four Mystic Arcana one-shot issues.

Fictional character biographies

Sir Percy of Scandia

The original Black Knight is Sir Percy of Scandia, a 6th-century knight who serves at the court of King Arthur as his greatest warrior. Recruited by the wizard Merlin, Percy adopts a double identity, and pretends to be totally incompetent until changing into the persona of the Black Knight. As the Black Knight, Percy wields the Ebony Blade, which Merlin forged from a meteorite. A constant foe of the evil knight Mordred the Evil, Percy is eventually killed by him during the fall of Camelot when stabbed from behind with an enchanted blade – although Mordred then dies himself of wounds inflicted by Arthur. Merlin ensures that Percy's spirit will live on by casting a spell that will revive his ghost if Mordred should ever return. Percy's spirit has appeared several times to counsel his descendant, Dane Whitman.

Nathan Garrett

Biologist Professor Nathan Garrett is the direct descendant of Sir Percy, and found Sir Percy's tomb and the Ebony Blade. Garrett's evil tendencies make him unworthy of wielding the sword, and he is shunned by Sir Percy's ghost. An embittered Garrett then devises an arsenal of medieval weapons that employ modern technology and genetic engineers and creates a winged horse. Calling himself the Black Knight, Garrett embarks on a life of crime to spite his ancestor. After a battle with the hero Giant-Man Garrett joins the supervillain team the Masters of Evil at the request of master villain Baron Zemo and like the others spreads Adhesive X over the city, but is first defeated by Thor. After two unsuccessful battles with the Avengers, the second time of which he was broken out of jail by the Enchantress, and a time when he battled Iron Man due to Doctor Doom's mind-control machine to make supervillains attack Mister Fantastic's and the Invisible Woman's wedding,, Garrett is mortally wounded while trying to kill the superhero Iron Man when he falls off his winged horse. A dying Garrett summons his nephew, Dane Whitman, reveals his secret identity to Whitman, and repents for his life of crime. Whitman then adopts the identity of the Black Knight himself.

Dane Whitman

Dane Whitman is the Black Knight who has been a longtime member of the Avengers as well as a member of the Defenders, Ultraforce, Heroes for Hire, and MI: 13.

Augustine du Lac

A Vatican Black Knight named Augustine du Lac received the Ebony Blade after Vatican agents retrieved it from an Iraqi vampire nest.
He is a member of a team of supervillains that invades the African nation of Wakanda. A devout Catholic, du Lac hopes to convert the populace to Catholicism. He is defeated by Black Panther who takes the Ebony Blade from him.
He had his own version of Aragorn to use as a steed. This Aragorn was later captured by Alyosha Kravinoff and killed for food.

Female Black Knight

A teenage female Black Knight later appears in the Vengeance limited series as a member of the Young Masters. Like Garrett, this incarnation is a villain, and appears to possess the Ebony Blade. How she came into possession of the sword and what happened to Augustine has yet to be revealed. She was with the Young Masters when they were at an abandoned HYDRA base in Pennsylvania. When inspecting Bullseye's corpse, they were attacked by Lady Bullseye. Later targeting Doctor Octopus for "execution", the Young Masters found themselves battling the Sinister Six while being assisted by the Teen Brigade, with Black Knight being assisted in taking down Sandman by Teen Brigade member Ultimate Nullifier. While visiting a nightclub, Black Knight encountered Ultimate Nullifier at the time when the Young Masters plotted to recruit a reborn Loki to their side. In the morning, Black Knight showed Ultimate Nullifier a letter that spurred the Young Masters on their quest to kill older villains along with a CIA file discussing genocide carried out by Red Skull in Poland during World War II on Russian prisoners. Informing Ultimate Nullifier that she was going to leave the Young Masters and had plans that didn't involve evil, she left the Young Masters' base leaving behind the CIA file for Nullifier.
Black Knight was later seen with the Young Masters where they are seen as members of the Shadow Council's Masters of Evil which is led by Baron Helmut Zemo following Max Fury's death.

The Black Knight lineage

Nathan Garrett and Dane Whitman are part of a lineage of Black Knights stretching back to the 6th century. In New Excalibur #10, the first part of the "Last Day of Camelot" storyline, it is revealed that Dane has turned Garrett Castle into a Black Knight museum with various exhibits on the Black Knights, including the body of Sir Percy. There is a long line of paintings of the Knights including, according to the curator, "Sir Ralston and Sir Eobar or lesser known knights like Sir William and Sir Henry." These Black Knights are:
Later in "The Last Days of Camelot", Sir Percy reveals to Dane that he was not the first Black Knight and that eight knights had carried the Ebony Blade before him, the last being King Arthur's cousin Sir Reginald. Each one had been driven mad by the sword and had to be killed until it was decided there were only three people who could take the sword, but King Arthur and Merlin were needed in other capacities, so the "burden" fell to Sir Percy who accepted despite knowing the risks.
The apparent "Last Knight" is Ernst Wythim, a member of the lineage from around A.D. 2600.

Other versions

Earth X

In the Earth X series, Ahura – the son of Black Bolt and Medusa – becomes the Black Knight. Dane Whitman was turned to stone by the Grey Gargoyle.

Marvel Zombies

Dane becomes one of the dozens of super-powered zombies that are laying siege to the castle of Doctor Doom. The zombies have detected delicious humans hiding inside, all of whom ultimately escape.

Ultimate Marvel

In the Ultimate Marvel universe, the Black Knight is a member of the would-be superhero team the Defenders. He is long-haired, bearded, and out-of-shape, with a piece of armor, and resembles a LARP'er. He later shows up in ', alongside the super-powered Defenders from a mysterious source.
The Dane Whitman version of Black Knight appears in the pages of ' as a member of an Ultimates team that preceded the current one by almost a decade. This Black Knight was highly unstable and was kept from officially joining the team until he stabilized. This never came to pass as the team bungled a mission and the project was shut down immediately after.

Ebony Blade

History

The Ebony Blade was created by comic book writer Stan Lee in Black Knight Comics #1, published under Atlas Comics in 1955. Its history was later revealed in Marvel Super-Heroes #17, written by Roy Thomas. The blade was shown to have been carved from a meteor, and enchanted by the wizard Merlin for Sir Percy of Scandia, the first Black Knight. Because of all the blood that Sir Percy shed with the blade, it acquired a curse. The sword passed down through the generations until it finally came to Dane Whitman, Sir Percy's descendant. Dane used the blade for many years. It passed briefly to Valkyrie when Dane's body was turned to stone, and his soul sent back in time to the 13th century, but was soon returned to him. Due to the curse, Dane eventually gave the Blade up. He drove it deep into the same meteor it was forged from, now residing in his castle. Only another deemed worthy would be able to withdraw it.
Sean Dolan, Dane's ex-squire, was able to draw the blade during an attack on Whitman's castle. This transformed Dolan into Bloodwraith. Dolan fought with the curse, and was able to give up the sword for a brief time. During this time, it was trapped in the Negative Zone barrier outside of Attilan. In the meantime, a second Ebony Blade had been brought into this dimension by Proctor, an alternate reality version of Dane. When Proctor was killed, his blade was taken into Avengers custody.
Dolan was drawn to this second Blade, and once again became Bloodwraith. Crystal retrieved the original Blade, and The Vision threatened to destroy it if Bloodwraith didn't surrender. Bloodwraith tossed the alternate Blade aside and reclaimed his own. Crystal picked up the second Blade and said it would be important to the future of the Inhumans. Bloodwraith was last known to have the Blade in his possession in Slorenia, where he was trapped by the Scarlet Witch.
At some point Dracula replaced Dane Whitman's blade with a [|fake one], the real Blade ended up in Iraq and was secured by the Vatican after it was found by Opus Dei in a purging of a vampire nest. The Vatican sent a new Black Knight assassin to kill Black Panther, who took it from the Knight for his own uses. Black Panther used the blade in several battles, including the Skrull invasion.
Upon learning the blade was fake for a second time, Dane Whitman finally retrieved the real blade from Black Panther's Wakandan nation where he was presented it by Queen Ororo T'Challa.
During War of the Realms event, when Malekith attacked Black Knight, Union Jack and Spitfire, he got the Ebony Blade and was ready to kill them, until the War Avengers arrived.

Powers and abilities

The Ebony Blade is a powerful enchanted weapon. It is said to be indestructible, and nothing in the comics to date has disproved that statement. It also has many mystical or quasi-mystical capabilities, including the ability to:
Dane Whitman discovered most of these abilities through scientific testing of the Blade.
Additionally, the Blade bonded to its wielder in such a way that the wielder can summon it back to himself or herself using a mystical ceremony if it is ever lost, even if it was in a different time period. The blade cannot be used against its owner, as seen when Caden Tar tries to use it to kill Dane Whitman, but cannot pierce his skin.
The Blade formerly rendered its wielder invulnerable to everything except another weapon carved from the same meteor, such as the Ebony Dagger.
Other notable wielders of the Blade include Whitman's ancestors Sir Percy of Scandia and Eobar Garrington, Valkyrie, and Ares.

Curses and influences

The Ebony Blade was afflicted with a blood curse due to all the blood the original Black Knight had spilled. Dane Whitman eventually purged the Blade of its curse at Doctor Strange's behest by plunging it into the Brazier of Truth while Strange bathed them both in magic fire. The curse returned, however, when the Sub-Mariner used it to kill his wife Marrina. The curse seems to affect different people in different ways. It turned Dane into a statue, it amplified Proctor's gann'josin-based powers, and it granted Sean Dolan great physical powers as Bloodwraith.
The Blade was sometimes known to subtly compel Dane to do things or go places that were tied to its previous wielders, as well.

Fake Ebony Blade

The sword has even managed to pop up in more than one place at a time, appearing in two separate comic series, most notability in 2006 when the Blade was in use by Dane Whitman in the New Excalibur series whilst it was in use in a Black Panther ongoing by another Black Knight and subsequently Black Panther.
In a 2006 interview, when addressing a question about the confusion of the Ebony Blades appearing in two comics, Marvel Comics' editor Nick Lowe had this response:
At the end of those issues no full explanation was given, Whitman was shown to have sensed that his Ebony Blade was not the real one and left to find the original, then being used by Black Panther. Though both Captain Britain and Pete Wisdom knew the location of the real blade, Whitman had somehow forgotten it was fake during his next comic appearance in Captain Britain and MI-13 #1.
Writer Paul Cornell finally revealed a full explanation within the Captain Britain series, having Dracula replace Dane Whitman's blade with a fake version at some point between Avengers #37 and New Excalibur #10. This fake blade has a vampire fang within it, which has shown some signs of sentience as people have talked to the blade directly. This mystical sentience has acted in the same fashion as the original's curse; convincingly enough to fool Whitman. Even after Whitman first realized it was fake in New Excalibur, it affected his memories so that he forgot, meaning he thought he held the real one by the time of Captain Britain and MI-13.
Upon learning the blade was fake for a second time in issue 7 of that series, Whitman finally retrieved the real blade from Black Panther's Wakandan nation where he was presented it by Queen Ororo T'Challa.

In other media

Television