Marvel Super-Heroes - The Darker Knight!


The Black Knight is one of my favorite heroes. I fell in love with the 1950's incarnation drawn so magnificently by Joe Maneely and even found the villainous 1960's rendition pretty fascinating. But when Dane Whitman took the role it all came into place for this modern warrior for justice.


This "new" Black Knight debuted in The Avengers #48, taking the lance atop Aragorn his gentically bred white and winged stallions. At first  Dane Whitman took the tools and weapons of his late villainous uncle and helped out the Avengers, but soon in the pages of Marvel Super-Heroes #17 we discover the mystical side of the Black Knight. This comic written by scribe Roy Thomas and drawn by Howard Purcell and Dan Adkins looks pretty, if it does feel a little like Steranko-lite on certain pages.


Visiting the Whitman homestead and castle back in the merry England Dane is visited by the ghost of his predecessor, the original Black Knight as well as Merlin and they convince him through mystic shenanigans that he is the true heir to the ebony blade crafted from a fallen star centuries before and that he must stand against the ancient threat of Mordred. Dane accepts this mantle while in London a man called Sabre is visited by the aforementioned Mordred and given powers and a living stone gargoyle to oppose this new knight. These two mystic knights battle in the skies over London and the Black Knight emerges triumphant for the time being. But you get the clear sense that while this battle was won, the war is far from over.


When he's next seen, the Black Knight will bring his ebony sword to help the Avengers and join that team.

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Comments

  1. RussJanuary 21, 2020 at 5:21 PM

    I thought that Black Knight/Yellow Claw Masterworks volume was a real gem. Maneely was so versatile and so good.

    ReplyDelete

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