BLACK KNIGHT: CURSE OF THE EBONY BLADE #1
This story was written by Simon Spurrier, with pencils by Sergio Davila, inks by Sean Parsons, and colours by Arif Prianto.
In the past, I have made it known that I like some very
random characters in comic books, for literally no discernible reason
whatsoever. Whether it be Taskmaster, who has almost no redeemable qualities,
or someone like Kate Pryde, who likely has an established fanbase, there have been
maybe too many to actually reel off here right now. One of the characters that
I haven’t admitted to liking until recently, mostly just admitting to myself
really, is that of Dane Whitman, who is best known as the Black Knight.
Throughout my journey of Marvel’s history, he has not exactly appeared all that
often, or even been that appealing, but for some reason now that I have reached
the 1990s era of the Avengers, I cannot help myself but to be absolutely fascinated
with the concept. Yes, I admit that this is certainly one of the weakest
Avengers line-ups ever during this time, but Dane’s story is much more fun to
read about that the solo adventures of the majority of those characters, and
while his relationship with Sersi during this period is a bit manipulative, it
is more the background stuff with Crystal and Proctor are pretty compelling reading,
in an otherwise awful time for the team. The only real reason that I can think
of as to why I like the concept of the Black Knight as a character would have
to be because of how steeped in mythology it is, and while Arthurian legend is
not exactly my strongest subject, or even my favourite, I still quite enjoy
reading about how it gets implemented into the Marvel Universe.
From what I can tell these days though, there really isn’t anything but misery and depression for how hero at the moment, mostly because at some point between 1993 and now he has regained possession of the Ebony Blade, which he had given up in place of some kind of energy sword back then, due to a little incident where he started turning to stone. I honestly didn’t think that it could really get much worse for him than that, but lo and behold, Dane’s life in 2021 (or whatever year Marvel says it is in the books these days) is pretty lonely. If I had known that there were links and references to the “King in Black: Black Knight” tie-in present here, I likely would have actually read that story before jumping in to this new miniseries, but my lack of interest in those stories has once again come to my detriment, meaning that I was not in possession of the requisite amount of context for exactly how Dane got himself into this predicament. Despite this clear oversight on my part, I still feel that Simon Spurrier did an excellent job of providing us with his follow-up to that one-shot story, as without actually going into a tremendously suffocating amount of detail on the past of the character, he was still able to let us know who exactly Dane Whitman is, and why we should care about the character, at least for this story anyway. Just by having Dane talk about his problems and situation in any way imply just shows the mental toll that being in possession of the Ebony Blade is having on him, and has had on him in the past, seemingly causing him to be unable to stay in a positive mood for lengthy periods of time, often being more prone to sadness or anger. Spurrier also touches upon Dane’s current relationship with the current Avengers line-up, a couple of whom he has worked with before, where they only seem to see him as somewhat of a one-trick pony, using his Blade (and possibly some magic) to clear the threat out of this plain of existence. My problem there is that they allowed Dane to just fight alongside them for ages before telling him to do this and considering that they made it clear at the end that it was all he was there for just makes them all look like massive douchebags. As a side note, Thor talking like an ordinary human-being for little while in this issue was really strange to see at first, but when Dane arrived it really makes you realise that his speech nowadays is not actually all that bad.
As good as the writing from Si Spurrier was, I cannot overlook the awesome contributions of Sergio Davila, making this issue truly excellent. I may not know all of the technical terms for the majority of things in the world of art, but I think that I can be trusted to know good comic book panels when I see them, with Davila already being launched right up to near the top of my favourite artists list (not that this list actually exists physically, it is purely in my head). His character work is exemplary, and his refusal to shy away from the more wacky or zany aspects of this title is to be commended. Everybody involved in the visual side of this book deserves the exact same amount of praise heaped upon them as Davila does, as Sean Parsons inks stay so consistent throughout all of the pages, allowing Arif Prianto the absolute freedom needed to bring this world to life, while retaining all of the original detail.
From what I have seen just within this very first instalment of the series, I can already tell that it is going to be a title that I purchase right up to the very day that it concludes, which honestly is not a thing I ever thought I would admit about a book starring the Black Knight. If Spurrier and company can continue with the form that they established here, I believe that this could go down as one of the best runs ever for the character, and sure that isn’t exactly a difficult task from what I can tell, but I still think that it is an achievement worth being proud of for everybody involved.
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