Black Knight (vol. 2) #2
In the Dread of Knight
The spirit of Morgan le Fay is trying to return and conquer the modern day. With the spirit of the original Black Knight — Sir Percy of Scandia — possessing the body of his present day descendant, Morgan is now working to prevent his interference in her schemes.[1] To this end, she mystically reaches out and revives Bram Velsing, the super-villain known as the Dreadknight so he can be her knightly avatar to fight the Black Knight.[2] After being restored to full health, the Dreadknight is more than happy to carry out her bidding.
Meanwhile, the Black Knight and his ally Victoria Bently have traveled to England on the back of Valinor, the Knight’s flying steed. There they seek out Captain Britain, a one time ally of the modern day Knight.[3] They soon arrive at the lighthouse that serves as headquarters to Excalibur, the team that Captain Britain belongs to. When nobody answers the door, they invite themselves inside, where they are attacked by Captain Britain himself who mistakes them for enemies. Victoria quickly explains the situation and Captain Britain agrees to help them however he can.
The trio charter a plane and fly to the coast of Northern Ireland. Along the way, they explain that Morgan le Fay will return to this era via her castle, which existed in what is now Ulster over 1500 year ago. To pass the time, the Black Knight informs them of what became of Morgan le Fay in the final days of Camelot. A great battle was fought right to the gates of her castle. However, the wizard Merlin warned that going into the castle would be walking into a trap. Rather than sacrifice the lives of soldiers, Merlin cast a spell that trapped Morgan inside her castle for all time. Although imprisoned, Morgan has made attempts to dominate the present day by casting her spirit into the future, clashing with such heroes as Spider-Woman, Iron Man, and the Avengers.[4][5]
When they land their plane they run into a team of British soldiers that are looking for members of a terrorist organization that has been active in the area. The soldiers start getting aggressive until they realize they are dealing with superhumans. Although they don’t recognize Captain Britain in his new costume, they do recognize the Black Knight as a member of the Avengers and cease fighting.[6]
Allowed to go their own way, the trio then begin searching the shore for traces of Morgan’s former castle. In doing so, they run into a young Irish boy named Sean Dolan who has been searching himself after seeing strange lights late at night. When he hears the newcomers British accents, the boy instantly mistrusts them due to the historic animosity between Ireland and Britain. Attempting to flee, Sean trips and falls off the edge of a cliff but is saved from the crashing waters below by the Black Knight. Since Sean mistrusts Captain Britain the most, he decides to take off so that the Black Kinight and Victoria can continue their search with the help of Sean Dolan.
When the boy takes them to where he saw the strange lights, they find no trace of Morgan le Fay, Mordred, or their castle. This angers the Knight who begins attacking the rocks with his Ebony Blade in a fit of rage. Getting the Black Knight to compose himself, Victoria sees what will happen if she removes his helmet. Sure enough, as soon as she does, the spirit of Sir Percy ends its possession of Dane Whitman’s body leaving him free from the curse, at least for the time being. With his agency back, Dane admits to Victoria that he has had feelings for her ever since they first met, but kept his feelings to himself because she was clearly in love with Doctor Strange at the time.[7] The two share a kiss until they are interrupted by the arrival of Dreadknight who begins to shoot at them with his high-tech lance.
When Dane gets onto Valinor to fight Dreadknight in the air, Victoria tries to hand him back his helmet. However, Whitman wants to fight this battle on his own.[8] However, the effects of the blood curse start returning, stiffening Dane’s body and allowing Dreadknight to knock him off his horse. As Dane lay incapacitated on the ground, the spirits of Morgan le Fay and Mordred appear and mock the hero for his inability to stop them. As it turns out, the stones of Morgan’s castle had been relocated and if the Knight ever finds where they were moved it will be far too late. That’s when Dreadknight moves in for the kill and makes another shot with his lance. Luckily, Captain Britain returns just in time and takes the blast meant for Whitman.
This gives Victoria and Sean the time they need to convince Dane to put on his ancestor’s helmet once more. Although this puts Sir Percy in the drivers seat, it reverses the blood curse allowing him to move again. The Black Knight then defeats Dreadknight in hand-to-hand combat. With the battle over, Sir Percy vows to track down the remains of Morgan’s castle, no easy task since nobody knows where they might have been moved.
Recurring Characters
Black Knight (Sir Percy/Whitman), Captain Britain, Victoria Bentley, Sean Dolan, Dreadknight, Morgan le Fay, Mordred, Hellhorse, Valinor
Continuity Notes
Due to a blood curse on his Ebony Blade, Dane Whitman had slowly transformed into a statue of metal from Avengers #293 to Thor #400, leaving him completely immobilized. Victoria Bentley restored him in a fashion by freeing the spirit of Sir Percy so it could take possession of Dane’s body as we saw last issue.
Dreadknight had been recovering since he got his ass handed to him by Iron Man. See Iron Man #101-102.
The reason why Sir Percy is seeking out Captain Britain is because Whitman and the Captain once saved Camelot. That occurred in the UK exclusive Hulk Comic #1, 3-9, 11-19, 21-30, 37-55, 57-63 (Yeah that looks like a lot but it was like 2 pages serialized over the course of a weekly comic.)
For more on Morgan’s time traveling shenanigans see Spider-Woman #2, 5-6, 39, 50, Iron Man #150, 209 and Avengers #240-241.
Captain Britain states here that he got his powers from Merlin as well, or at least he thinks it is the same wizard from the days of Camelot. This was the case in Captain Britain #1. The true nature of Merlin has been confused due to legends, impostors, and multiversal calamities that it’s one big confusing mess. TL;DR, there is probably just one Merlin in all existence.
Around this time, Captain Britain had just underwent a costume change, assuming that the soldier commenting on a photo of Cap early on in his career then Brain has undergone two changes. The first was created from his original Star-Scepter and Amulet of Life in Marvel Super-Heroes (UK) #377. More recently, Brian’s costume was given a variant based on his Reality-1193 counterpart in Excalibur #10.
Dane Whitman and Victoria Bentley first met in Doctor Strange (vol. 2) #68. Victoria has been in love with Stephen Strange since Doctor Strange #172. However, this has been an unrequited love as Strange had eyes only for the other dimensional Clea.
When fighting the Dreadknight, Dane refers to them both as heir’s to his late uncle. Nathan Garret became the first modern age Black Knight and a criminal to boot starting in Tales to Astonish #52. He was mortally wounded fighting Iron Man in Tales of Suspense #59. After this, Garret passed on the mantle of the Black Knight to Dane, as revealed in Avengers #48. Meanwhile, Nathan’s flying Hellhorse wandered the Earth until it was found and tamed by Dreadknight as explained Iron Man #102.
Topical References
References to the present day taking place in the 20th century should be considered topical. Due to the Sliding Timescale, the Modern Age of the Marvel Universe is gradually bumped forward in time. It has now been pushed forward enough that the Modern Age doesn’t begin until after the start of the 21st century.
The measurement of time between the fall of Camelot and this story is stated as being about 1500 years. Depending on what fiction you go by, the Arthurian legend is set around 540 AD. The measurement of time will always be in a state of change due to the Sliding Timescale pushing the Modern Age forward, increasing the gulf of time between those two eras.
When the Black Knight and his allies originally arrive in Northern Ireland they run into British soldiers on the look out for members of the Irish Republican Army. Depending on what side of things you look from the IRA are either revolutionaries attempting to reassert Irish independents or terrorists. The origination has had many incarnations, spin-offs, and splinter groups that have engaged in various acts — many violent — since the original group formed in 1919. There have been periods of peace and renewed violence over the years. That all said, this comic was published during a period where the IRA and related groups were involved in a series of violent acts, notably a number of horrific car bombings. Any reference to a particular real-world incidents stated in a present tense in this story should be considered topical. Modern readers can generalize the IRA to terrorists of some kind as opposed to a specific real world version of the organization.
