Black Knight: Curse of the Ebony Blade #1

[laughing_tree]

Having enjoyed myself a positively indecent amount while writing King in Black: The Black Knight, I found that I was even more fascinated by the central character – Dane Whitman – than I'd realised. The surprising new take on him which we present in the one-shot opened so many new doors. Dane and his tangled lore are a treasure trove for anyone fascinated by story, mythology, folklore and psychology — all of which are very much My Bag — not to mention the simple thrill of seeing a not-totally-well-adjusted man flying around on a winged warhorse with one of the world's most devastating magical weapons in his hand. I started to see endless opportunities for exploration — I started to sense that this character deserves to be a far bigger deal than he is — and my editor Tom Groneman agreed. -- Si Spurrier

Comments

[donnblake]

"There's no historical record, no archaeology, nothing. I mean, Tony Stark's been there, apparently, and Doctor Doom, but who'd want to interview *those* guys?"

[deh_tommy]

They could always ask Captain Britain for her expertise. She helped annex Camelot for Krakoa.

[donnblake]

It would be amusing to have an Arthurian specialist academic interview superheroes/villains who had traveled to the time. I'm just imagining them interrupting the description of a fight scene to go "That's very nice, but did you happen to notice where in the house the cooking area was located? And the cloak, was it wool or linen?"

[deh_tommy]

“Tell me, was there truly ever a King Arthur?”
“Why don’t you ask him yourself?”
“...I’m sorry, what?”
“Come on, I’ll introduce you. The dude owes me one anyway.”

Not that that’d be common knowledge to anyone not in the know, but I think there’s someone in MI6 who uses the actual sword Excalibur for superheroing, isn’t there?

[scorntx]

"Not common knowledge"?
Morgan le Fay shows up every few years to pick fights with people. She once tried leveling Latveria.
Shouldn't that be proof enough?

[cainofdreaming]

"Anyone could just have started using the name. That's not proof. I mean, look at that guy who goes around as Thor."

[deh_tommy]

To be fair, just because there IS a Morgan le Fay doesn’t stop the myths from being contradictory and leaving little trace.

[alliterator]

That's not Camelot, that's Avalon.

What's the difference, you say?

Quick, look over there!

[tinygaylaura]

It's only a model

[tinygaylaura]

Did it a favour really

[deh_tommy]

Whoof. Just... ow. What they essentially did was conquer a foreign sovereign state for the purpose of colonisation. Excalibur’s meant to be British, but not that kind of British.

On that note, when is Britain and British mythology going to factor into CAPTAIN BRITAIN again? She’s spent more time working in Krakoa’s interests than she has defending Britain.

[bravest_spinja]

Actually, I can imagine someone excavating a ruin and finding an object that says "Stark Industries" or a coin with Doom's face on and being like "Well, I guess this site is "contaminated"."

I remember in...Excalibur, I think? The mythic Merlin showing off his many guises, including the one of Maha Yogi, who was established as Not Actually Merlin pretty early on, so I wonder if a lot of the historical evidence of Camelot is contradictory on purpose.

[donnblake]

Trying to establish a coherent historical timeline in the MCU has got to be a headache- between the time travellers, the alien incursions, the extradimensional visitors, the geology manipulators... to say nothing of the immortals who will give you detailed, coherent, and completely contradictory accounts of historical events.

[tinygaylaura]

There canonically is no coherent timeline

The Marvel universes history is perpetually in a state of constant change.

[shakalooloo]

I think King Arthur is history, not myth, in the Marvel universe. When the Thunderbolts travelled to that era in Parker's run, Fixer could discern the period by his recognition software identifying the coats of arms for the members of the court. AD 537, by the caption boxes.

[donnblake]

Then maybe this academic is just bad at her field!

[tinygaylaura]

I always find it so hillariously stupid when comics randomly decide "We're going to have a character act like this place that is mythological/may not exist in the real world is the same in the comics universe they exist in"

Like the time Batman acted like it was questionable whether Atlantis really existed

When he's on a team with fucking Aquaman

And Atlantis is literally part of the UN

[deh_tommy]

Or Donna Troy questioning if the city of Troy ever really existed.
Is historic Atlantis the same city as present Atlantis?

[tinygaylaura]

It is

They are one and the same

[laughing_tree]

Camelot isn't on the U.N.

[tinygaylaura]

Well no but its a place that multiple people who are alive in the present day have literally visited repeatedly and Krakoa now has a functioning portal that takes you to it in less time than it takes to walk across a room

[laughing_tree]

I think whether the Camelot in Otherworld exists and whether the historical one in stories did are two separate things. People in the Marvel comics obviously believe Thor is real, but I imagine very few of them believe he created the first man and woman from a plant or that his dad created the Earth.

[scorntx]

Given Odin's track record with... well, everything, would you take him at his word?

[super_fly]

What a silly place that is