Black Knight (Dane Whitman)

Dane Whitman was born in Gloucester, Massachusetts and is best known as the modern-day Black Knight, continuing a legacy that began in medieval England. The first Black Knight, Whitman's ancestor Sir Percy of Scandia, lived during the reign of King Arthur. Percy's murder at the hand of his nemesis Mordred began a string of successors, all of them Percy's descendants.

It is revived by Whitman's uncle Nathan Garrett, who becomes the supervillain the Black Knight II. After being mortally wounded during a battle with Iron Man, he escapes to his estate, summons his nephew to confess his crimes, and asks him to restore honor to their family legacy and atone for Garrett's misdeeds.[7]

Whitman becomes the Black Knight, using Aragorn for his mount. During his first outing, he is mistaken for his uncle and attacked by the Avengers, though they eventually realize their mistake.[8] Later, he infiltrates the Masters of Evil, proving his worth to the Avengers, who offer him provisional membership.[9] Shortly afterward, he inherits Castle Garrett and travels to England. He encounters the spirit of Sir Percy of Scandia there and is given the Ebony Blade.[10] He then encounters Doctor Strange, and helps fight the extra-dimensional threat Tiboro.[11]

Marvel Super-Heroes #17 (Nov. 1968). Black Knight figure by John Romita Sr.; background art by Howard Purcell (penciller) and Dan Adkins (inker), from page 14 of story.[12]

While still a provisional Avenger, he helps defeat Kang the Conqueror, who is given the power of death over the Avengers by the Grandmaster as a prize for winning a recent game that Whitman has become unwittingly involved in when he assists Goliath in defeating his chosen opponent (thus rendering that round of the game a draw in the Grandmaster's eyes, since the Avengers did not defeat their opponents on their own). Since Whitman is not a full Avenger at the time, Kang has no power over him, and so Whitman is able to defeat him with relative ease. Whitman then officially joins the Avengers in recognition of his aid.[13] Later, the Ebony Blade is used by the Olympian war god Ares to put out the Promethean Flame and turn most of the Olympians to crystal. The Black Knight travels to Olympus with other members and helps defeat Ares.[14]

Whitman is an early member of the Defenders. He also becomes the team's first casualty after kissing the Enchantress, petrifying him.[15] His spirit is drawn to the 12th century by the sorcerer Amergin the Druid, and he takes spiritual possession of his ancestor, the Crusader Sir Eobar Garrington, until Garrington dies due to the Evil Eye. Meanwhile, Whitman chooses to stay in the 12th century and is cared for by fellow Defender the Valkyrie.[16] Whitman then battles the Fomor, alongside the time-traveling Avengers. He then employs the Evil Eye to seal the portal between Earth and Avalon. Whitman returns to the 20th century and his original body is restored. He is accompanied by a gift from Amergin: a black, winged horse called Valinor, named after the fictional location of that name.[17] Some time later, Merlyn sends Whitman to locate the lost hero Captain Britain and, with his aid, travels to the Otherworld dimension to save Camelot.[18] Both heroes are briefly kidnapped by the Grandmaster to participate in the original Contest of Champions.[19]

Whitman learns that the Ebony Blade is cursed: every time it draws blood, it drives its user closer to madness. Whitman frees Sir Percy's spirit from the Earthly plane, purging the blood curse from the sword.[20] Whitman resumes active duty with the Avengers,[21] helping his teammates Wasp and Captain Marvel experiment with their powers, and battles against the Masters of Evil IV while they invade Avengers Mansion.[22]

When the Sub-Mariner uses the sword to kill his wife Marrina, who has become a monster, the blood curse is revived. The curse begins to transform Whitman's body into the same mystic metal as the blade.[23] He is forced to don an exo-skeleton when the curse's creeping paralysis begins to affect his mobility. He also shows signs of mental instability.[24] Ultimately, the blood curse becomes so virulent that it will draw blood from anyone even touching the Black Knight.[25] Sir Percy takes possession of Whitman's body to stop the blood curse.[26] The transformation is undone by the sorcerer Doctor Strange, Whitman and the ghost of Sir Percy. Sir Percy's spirit merges with the sword, canceling the curse and returning Whitman to normal.[27] Whitman stops using the Ebony Blade and leaves the Avengers. He later develops a weapon that projects a sword-like sheath of energy as a replacement.[28] The Ebony Blade comes into the possession of Sean Dolan, who briefly serves as the "squire" of the Black Knight; it transforms Dolan into the Bloodwraith.[29]

After rejoining the Avengers, Whitman is a major member of the team and eventually becomes the de facto field leader in Captain America's absence. He becomes romantically involved with his teammate Sersi (of the Eternals). This relationship soon comes under strain, as Sersi proves increasingly unstable due to the machinations of a man called Proctor. In an attempt to stabilize her, fellow Eternal Ikaris mentally bonds Sersi and Whitman with a process called the "gann josin", but this does little to slow the process – not least due to Whitman's resentment at having the bond imposed upon him, especially as he's beginning to turn his attentions toward Crystal, one of the Inhumans' royal family. Sersi eventually snaps completely, forcing Whitman to aid her – until the sight of her attacking Crystal enables him to break the gann josin's hold on him temporarily. Proctor is later revealed to be an alternate universe counterpart of Whitman. Having been rejected by his own Sersi and twisted by the gann josin and his Ebony Blade's curse, he now travels the multiverse with the aid of a captured Watcher named Ute on a mission to kill the Sersi of every reality. Ultimately, Sersi slays Proctor with his own Ebony Blade and is subsequently forced to leave the Marvel Universe to restore her mind. Whitman leaves with her, partly because he doesn't want to come between Crystal and her husband Quicksilver and partly because he feels responsible for what had happened to Sersi.

The pair are transported to the Ultraverse (home of the Malibu Comics characters). They are separated and Whitman becomes the leader of the superhero team called Ultraforce. He and Sersi briefly reunite to return to the Marvel Universe, but something goes wrong along the way. Instead of returning to the Marvel universe's present, they end up in the 12th century and Whitman once again finds his spirit in the body of Sir Eobar Garrington. His consciousness is buried under Garrington's, however, and Sersi is forced to pass Garrington's soul onto the next plane (with his permission) to restore Whitman's consciousness. Whitman finds himself embroiled in a conflict with the evil mutant Apocalypse alongside his ancestor's best friend Bennet du Paris, the mutant who would later become Exodus. Apocalypse tries to get du Paris to kill his friend, but du Paris refuses. Judging him weak, Apocalypse puts du Paris in a state of suspended animation. Out of respect for his ancestor's friendship with du Paris, Whitman organizes an order of knights to guard du Paris' body, which they do through the ages until he is found and revived by Magneto. Sersi creates another portal, this time to the correct time period, and she and Whitman depart the 12th century.

Whitman and Sersi are somehow separated in transit, which rips their gann josin bond apart. Whitman finds himself back in New York in the proper time, but without Sersi. He is soon dealt another shattering blow when he learns that the Avengers and most of the other major heroes have apparently perished in their battle with Onslaught while he was gone. Whitman then learns that the Lady of the Lake has selected him as the Pendragon for his age. She bestows upon him new mystical equipment from Avalon: a suit of armor, the enchanted flying horse Strider, the Shield of Night, which absorbs energy, and the Sword of Light, which returns that energy in the form of an energy projectile.

The newly empowered Black Knight helps the Heroes for Hire defeat Nitro, then accepts Iron Fist's offer to join the newly formed team (due primarily to his concern over former teammate and friend Hercules, who has been drinking heavily out of grief for the Avengers' deaths). Whitman eventually learns what happened to Sersi when she reappears asking for help to defeat yet another of her old enemy Ghaur's nefarious schemes. Later, the Heroes for Hire find themselves in the midst of a major conflict in the High Evolutionary's city of Wundagore. The Black Knight leves the team to assist the Knights of Wundagore along with Quicksilver and later returns to the Avengers when they expand their roster to include satellite teams around the world. Whitman is sent to the Slorenian border, where the Bloodwraith has used the Ebony Blade to absorb the souls of the entire population after they have been killed by the android Ultron. After the "Kang War" arc, the Avengers disband these global teams.

Whitman reappears in New Excalibur in the mid-2000s. He has opened up a museum in England chronicling the Black Knights that have existed throughout history. Whitman learns that Sir Percy was not the original Black Knight, but that eight men had held the Ebony Blade prior to him. The Ebony Blade, however, corrupted these men, and Sir Percy was deemed the only one who was noble enough to wield the Blade. Also at this time, Merlin told Whitman that he must not destroy the Blade as he had previously been told to do. It is not clear whether he has access to his Avalonian equipment at present. In New Excalibur, Whitman is invited to join the team, but after the second adventure with them he refuses, as he believes that his Ebony Blade is not the real one and he needs to find the original.[30]

Whitman returns to join MI-13 as part of the Secret Invasion crossover event.[31] He is armed by what he believes was the Ebony Blade, which strongly encourages him to kill, but is later revealed to be a fake[32] created by Dracula;[33] this fake possesses an intelligence and feeds on blood. Whitman also is revealed to have a literal stone heart, given to him by Sersi to keep him "above it all" and uninvolved.[34]

Whitman battles the Skrull forces in London, showing a new informal and wisecracking personality (a deliberate defence against the "Ebony Blade's" suggestions), and quickly bonds with medic Faiza Hussain, with whom he appears to have romantic tensions. Following the Skrull war, he makes her his squire.[35]

After discovering that he did not have the real Ebony Blade, he goes to Wakanda and is given the real Blade back. He still retains the fake, vampiric sword.[34]

During the events of Original Sin, a historian named Rebecca Stevens learns that Whitman had violently attacked and nearly killed a new version of Savage Steel due to the influence of the Ebony Blade. Rebecca pleads with him to turn over the sword to S.H.I.E.L.D. or the Avengers, reasoning that its bloodlust is driving him mad, but Whitman refuses. Despite his assurance that he is fine, his home is seen covered in slash marks, with Whitman himself curled up on the floor in a mentally unhinged state. He is also seen threatening to slay Rebecca with the Blade, but she remains unaware of the danger.[36]

Around this same time, Whitman returns to action as the leader of Euroforce, a team of European superheroes.[37] Though he claims to not be bitter about being excluded from Captain America's new team of Avengers, it is implied that Whitman's deteriorating mental state had been the reason that he was passed over for membership.[38]

As part of the All-New, All-Different Marvel event, the Black Knight arrives on Weirdworld after killing Carnivore while losing control to the Ebony Blade, which causes him to flee from the scene of Carnivore's death. Upon arriving on Weirdworld, he kills King Zaltin Tar to establish New Avalon and builds an army with the help of two warriors named Shield and Spear.[39] Black Knight has the army built in anticipation of the arrival of the Avengers Unity Division, who are seeking to bring him to justice.[40] After struggling to maintain his sanity, Whitman is forced to battle the Uncanny Avengers, led by the aged Steve Rogers, who wish to arrest him for killing a criminal when he was still part of the Avengers team.[41] It is revealed that Whitman accidentally entered Weirdworld, along with a HYDRA submarine, from 1945. The members of HYDRA on board the submarine became the group known as the Fangs of the Serpent to the inhabitants of Weirdworld.[42] As the Uncanny Avengers arrive to arrest Whitman, he unites the armies of the land to fight against them. Eventually, he is defeated and a truce is made: Rogers will take the Ebony Blade back to Earth and Whitman will be free to rule New Avalon. However, Rogers is possessed by the Blade and attacks his teammates.[43] Meanwhile, the son of the king that Whitman overthrew to become the new lord gathers the Fangs of the Serpent to attack Whitman. After their defeat, Rogers and Doctor Voodoo agree that the only person who can bear the toll of the Ebony Blade is Whitman, and the Blade also shows this by not allowing any harm to come to Whitman. As the Avengers leave, leaving behind an expert on the Black Knight who came with them to look after Whitman, it is concluded that Whitman had been maintaining his sanity better than everyone had thought. Whitman concludes that for now ruling New Avalon is good, and the story ends on a light tone, Whitman not being persecuted as he has suffered enough under the Blade's spell.[42]

During the "Secret Empire" storyline, Black Knight returns to Europe to help Euroforce fight HYDRA groups following their conquest of the United States. The group is imprisoned by HYDRA until they were freed by the Champions of Europe.[44]

During the "War of the Realms" storyline, the Black Knight, Union Jack, and Spitfire are defeated by Malekith the Accursed. Before he can slay them, he is attacked by Captain Marvel and the War Avengers.[45]

Whitman first became the Black Knight to atone for the crimes that his uncle Nathan Garrett had committed using the name. He started out with his uncle's non-magical tools, namely a power lance that fired energy blasts, a suit of body armor, and Aragorn, a genetically engineered winged white horse.

Whitman eventually gained the Ebony Blade, a weapon that had been passed down through the ages from one of his ancestors to another. Although it was incredibly powerful, it carried a harmful curse that caused Whitman to eventually abandon it. As of New Excalibur #10, Whitman gained possession of a faux Ebony Blade.

After giving up the Ebony Blade, Whitman designed and constructed a neural sword. The neural sword appears to be made of a laser beam and cuts through non-living matter. Its "laser" blade is actually a neural disruptor when used against living beings; when Whitman cuts someone with the sword, it delivers a massive jolt to the being's central nervous system. This jolt is usually enough to incapacitate someone within just a few hits. Alternately, Whitman can reverse the neural sword's energy stream so that it encases its hilt and, by extension, Whitman's fist in a high-energy field. Using the sword in this fashion enables Whitman to punch with some unspecified degree of enhanced strength. The neural sword also creates a refraction field used to defend against energy-based attacks. The blade also included a lethal setting which Whitman reserved only for rare circumstances.

In the 1997 Heroes for Hire series, the Lady of the Lake named Whitman the Pendragon for the current era and gave him an amulet. When Whitman says the word "Avalon" while wearing the amulet, he gains the following:

Armor: The armor Whitman currently wears has been described as mystical. It is said to be supernaturally durable for its light weight, but specific information on the durability of the armor is scarce.

Strider: Strider is a mystical creature like Valinor rather than a genetically engineered one like Aragorn, but he is unique in that he possesses mystical powers of his own. Most notably, Strider is capable of far greater air speeds than either of Whitman's previous mounts; for example, he is easily capable of breaking the sound barrier. Whitman can verbally summon Strider to appear at his side or return to Avalon as he pleases. While mounted on Strider, Whitman is magically protected from any harsh environments, such as the depths of the ocean.

Shield of Night: The Shield of Night is a mystical kite shield; it not only protects him from most attacks but also absorbs the energy of the forces directed against it. He can then release that stored energy in the form of power blasts from his blade, the Sword of Light. Whitman has used it to block and absorb the energy of everything from Nitro's explosive blasts to fire to punches.

Sword of Light: The Sword of Light is a mystical sword capable of projecting the energy absorbed by the Shield of Night in blasts of the same kind of energy. It is also, supernaturally durable and can cut through almost any substance.

While Whitman still has access to Strider and the mystical armor, he has not been seen using the Shield of Night or Sword of Light for some time. He has adopted a photonic shield similar to those used in the past by Captain America and the U.S.Agent.

Whitman has also employed an atomic steed, typically used by the High Evolutionary's Knights of Wundagore, in place of a winged horse.

Dane Whitman appears as a zombified version of himself in Marvel Zombies, in the one-shot issue Marvel Zombies: Dead Days #1. He can be seen battling Thor in a battle between the living and dead inhabitants of the Marvel Universe in New York City.[46]

The Ultimate Marvel version of Dane Whitman appears in the pages of Ultimate Comics: Ultimates as a member of the West Coast Ultimates that preceded the current group by almost a decade. This version was a Corporal in the Marine Corps. After saving the lives of his fellow soldiers from an explosive in Baghdad, he received the Purple Heart badge, the Silver Star Medal and the Medal of Honor, but was left quadriplegic. As Black Knight, he is highly unstable and was kept from officially joining the team until he stabilized. This never came to pass, as the team botched the mission and the project was shut down immediately. Later, the project was revived by Ford, a corrupt California Governor who sent the group to fight the Ultimates.[47]

Proctor is a villainous alternate version of the Black Knight, who first appears in Avengers #344 (Feb 1992).[48] He leads a team called the "Gatherers", whose goal is to kill all versions of Sersi in retaliation for the one in Proctor's reality rejecting him. His mission brings him to the mainstream reality's Earth, where he tries to win Magdalene's love.[49] and infiltrate the Avengers.[50] At the end of his confrontation with the Avengers, he is impaled by the Ebony Blade, but manages to escape.[51] Proctor possesses superhuman strength, speed, stamina, durability, agility, and reflexes, can project destructive energy beams from his eyes, telepathy, and the psionic ability to manipulate the chemical composition of the human brain.

• The Dane Whitman version of Black Knight makes a non-voiced cameo appearance in The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. In the episode "Come the Conqueror", he is seen protecting London from an attack by Kang the Conqueror's forces.

• Kit Harington will portray Dane Whitman in the upcoming film The Eternals, set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.[52]

• The Dane Whitman version of Black Knight appears as a playable character in Avengers in Galactic Storm.
• The Dane Whitman version of Black Knight appears as an unlockable playable character in Marvel Avengers Alliance.
• The Dane Whitman version of Black Knight appears as an unlockable playable character in Lego Marvel's Avengers. He is available through the DLC "The Masters of Evil Pack".[53]