Invented Marvel Characters: Burden

Growing up my dream job was to be a comic book artist/writer. But with very little artistic talent that dream died pretty quickly. Now I do my best to bring my characters to life using apps like factory of heroes, swordmaker, armormaker and you doodle. They don't always turn out looking very good but I get more excited about the concepts and stories behind the characters than how well I can make the character look good. Sometimes my characters are from cultures I am not a part of because I think it fits their story or other aspects about them. I am not a cultural expert but at the very least I hope no one is upset by me using aspects of cultures I'm not a part of and find interesting. That said below is my idea for Burden a characters I envision as Marvel villain who most often fights The Black Knight.

The creature now called Burden was once a man from Camelot who was used and deceived by Mordred the Evil. In secret Mordred cursed him to be a burden on those who hurt him and convinced him to steal the Ebony Blade from Sir Percy of Scandia. The man was unsuccessful and fled from Percy for a time. However, Percy's addiction to the Ebony Blade made him pursue the man ruthlessly. Since the man tried to steal Percy's most prized weapon, an enraged Percy violently murdered the man by "giving" him an abundance of lesser weapons and burried him in an unmarked grave. And to further the sentiment Percy chose weapons reminiscent of the ones used by The Knights of the Round Table to illustrate his power in Camelot. Due to Mordreds spell Burden stayed buried but undead until he was freed by Mordred. Unfortunately for Mordred the spell also made Burden hostile to him and he was wounded and left for dead. Incorrectly thinking Mordred would succumb to his injuries he moved on to take revenge on The Black Knight.

However, the Black Knight who murdered him had been dead for centuries. The mantle of Black Knight was now being shared between Dane Whitman and his daughter Jackie. When confronted by Burden Jackie transformed into the Black Knight and the connection to Percy showed her how Burden died. She tried to reason with him but was unsuccessful and fought him using the Ebony Blade. The curse set on Burden makes the Ebony Blade weaker against him so Dane was forced to also attack Burden with weapons around the castle. After a prolonged fight Burden was outmatched fighting Jackie and Dane and retreated.

Given his undead nature Burden essentially cannot die but can be incapacitated for long periods of time. He is a competent fighter with all types of medieval weaponry and always has an arsenal on hand embedded in him but he is truly most dangerous because his healing gives him light shapeshifting abilities. He can move and secure the weapons lodged in him in or even launch arrows out of himself leading to an unpredictable and violent combat style. Furthermore, the curse makes the Ebony Blade less powerful and has made the weapons that he was "killed" with nearly indestructible. Due to all of this most of his clashes with The Black Knight turn into long brutal duels.

Since Burden first fought Dane and Jackie he has periodically attacked them again but also made efforts to obtain magic artifacts to become stronger. This has led him to clash with the likes of Elsa Bloodstone, Doctor Strange, Ghostrider, Moon Knight and Blade. At times his enemies have offered him mercy and have offered to remove the undead curse so he can finally rest but Burden refuses to let go of his grudge and still aims to become strong enough to kill Jackie and Dane for their predecessor's violence toward him.