King in Black: Black Knight #1

King in Black: Black Knight #1

Marvel Comics 2021

Written by Simon Spurrier

Illustrated by Jesús Saiz

Lettered by VC’s Cory Petit

THE BLACK KNIGHT DUELS THE KING IN BLACK!

KNULL’s ferocious assault upon earth has begun and Dane Whitman – Avenger, hero, and wielder of the mighty Ebony Blade as the BLACK KNIGHT – takes up sword and shield to defend against the unstoppable onslaught. Though the blade grants Dane incredible power so too does it consume him with a lust for violence and destruction. As the endless horde of symbiote dragons darken the skies of Shanghai, will the Black Knight overcome the growing evil within himself and join AERO and SWORD MASTER in saving the city?! And what secrets will the battle against Knull reveal about Dane’s past?

The Black Knight is one of my favourite characters in the Marvel Universe, he comes in right behind the Swordsman. His tenure as field leader of the Avengers and his bonding to Sersi were some of my personal favourite Avengers arcs that i had ever read. So somewhere along the line I missed what happened with his bond to Sersi but considering his mental state these days I would say that the bond was severed and has had an adverse affect upon his psyche. Not to mention the Ebony Blade and the ghost of his ancestor, Sir Percy of Scandia, playing havoc with his mind as well makes for some incredible opportunities for Simon to really get his hooks into this character.

I am a huge fan of the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented extremely well. I mean to see how Dane handles the events and how far gone he is mentally, plus being now considered Avengers Adjacent, makes for some truly inspired character development. Poor Dane has been hero, saviour, slayer and victim and somehow like a timex he takes a licking and keeps on ticking, granted sometimes worse for the ware. The pacing here is phenomenal and how we see it take us through the pages revealing the story, the characterisation and the added background into the Ebony Blade and the legacy of the Black Knight is utterly sensational.

I am loving how we see this being structured as well as how the layers with the story emerge in some truly unexpected ways. Then of course there is also the way that everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow that makes this even more delightful.

I love Jesús’ work! Over the years we’ve seen him stay true to his signature style but it’s also evolved and tweaked into something so much more than it was to begin with. The linework is fantastic and how we see the varying weights being utilised to create the detail work that we see is stunning. The fact that we see in focus focal points with slightly blurred backgrounds that are intended to work as the eye does naturally is a wondrous thing to see here. Then there are the backgrounds that we see throughout and some of them are decorative and others enhance the moments while bringing us this depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story. That mural at the head of his bed for instance, and his near nakedness are highlights for me and I want to see more of this. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkable eye for storytelling. The colour work is sublime. How we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work showcases such an understanding of how colour works. Also I am super impressed with how we see the flesh tones utilised to create the musculature that we see in Dane.

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This is the part of Marvel that I love. The underrated and underused characters whose history and contributions need to be further spotlighted and explored. I wish this weren’t a tie-in but I’ll take what I can get when it comes to Dane. Now if he’d just team-up with Rita DeMara i’d truly be in seventh heaven. Meanwhile keep this coming, if not through a monthly title then through a series of limited series that just tell an arcs worth of story. He deserves that much.