Welcome back, nerd squad.
I gotta say I am loving that I get to bring you these top 10 scary Black Knight facts.
Lately I have been a Mc-Knight spouting Moon Knight and Black Knight facts and that Knight
crossover makes me really happy.
Who is the Black Knight?
He is one of Marvel's oldest characters actually predating their time as Marvel.
The Black Knight came out of the days when Marvel was actually still Atlas Comics.
In other words, in the comic book world he is beyond medieval.
He has been announced as a hero who we will get to see join the Eternals.
Which is interesting because he is not really an Eternal in the comics but he is an ancient
hero who comes to us from King Arthur's round table and similar to King Arthur his legend
is also attached to a sword.
Kit Harrington is slated to be playing him in the upcoming MCU film in which the Black
Knight will appear.
What's more interesting is with his British heritage, I feel like there may be potential
for Marvel to be opening up to the idea of exploring all of the UK heroes that we have
so long been deprived of.
I know I wouldn't mind a Captain Britain movie, as a fantasy nerd, I think the melding of
both the superhero world and fantasy or medieval world can be pretty neat.
Who knows maybe we could even get a glimpse of Psylocke in a Captain Britain film?
Anyways, enough pondering, let us get on with thine list of ye olde Black Knight's most
spookerific factuals.
10 Ebony Blade
The Black Knight is nigh immortal when wielding his magical sword.
Originally his power was attached to his ebony blade, a sword forged by Merlin out of a meteorite.
In fact, Percy would often pretend to be pretty clueless in order to hide his identity but
would transform whenever he brandished his sword.
Not going to lie, I'm excited to see a hero that brings and ancient blade to an alien
tech fight.
I personally love Thor's weapon Mjolner and the idea of someone fighting with old school
but magic imbued weapons just makes me think of more classic mythological or historical
tales.
The tales that actually inspire even our high-tech heroes, to be honest.
And I like when we are able to explore and get down to earth.
Beyond that this sword also comes with a curse that at one point transformed the current
Black Knight, Dane Whitman into a living statue.
9 He Died
Er well the original Black Knight did.
Sir Percy of Scandia was once the Black Knight and after using the Ebony Blade to fight Mordred,
he died.
You might be remembering that I mentioned in my last point that he was nigh immortal
when wielding the blade and you would be right, I did say that.
However Mordred was wielding a sword himself made of the same meteorite and when the Black
Knight was stabbed with the blade, it went through even his ebony armour, made from the
same meteor as well, and he was wounded.
How big was this meteor?
Ergo Percy was nigh invulnerable but not quite, you see.
He died from his injuries.
But Merlin enchanted the blade with Percy's spirit so his legacy would live on and pass
down to whomsoever wielded the blade.
Not quite dead.
8 Trapped in the 12th Century
To some this may sound like a fantasy but the 12th century was a pretty gross time,
let's be honest.
It was a time when many starved and often died of disease or the common cold.
This was a time before advancement where even if you didn't die in a highway robbery, your
end was probably coming to you soon, where 30 was considered old.
Granted the Black Knight, Dane Whitman didn't have to worry about these horrors as much
as we would as he was living in a comic book fantasy and is a superhero so he kind of has
immunity to some of these things.
How did this happen?
Dane's consciousness was transported back in time after he was seemingly turned into
stone by the Enchantress.
The Avengers discovered this after trying to transform him back.
Dane claimed he was good in the 12th century where he was inhabiting the body of his ancestor,
Eobar Garrington and busy protecting the past.
The Avengers let him be and he eventually returned to his own body back in the present
when Eobar's body perished.
So... does that mean that Dane is his own ancestor?
That's some Back to the Future stuff.
7 Villainous Past
Before Dane became the Black Knight but after Sir Percy there was Garrett.
Nathan Garrett is an interesting fellow.
He is a descendant of Percy's who was a brilliant scientist and geneticist who stumbled upon
the tomb of the Black Knight and took up his mantle.
However he wasn't quite as noble as his ancestors and he decided to use the powers of the Black
Knight and Ebony Blade to take up a life of crime, using his intellect to build gadgets
that would assist him.
He was also apparently a communist and a spy for the People's Republic of China which seems
kind of random.
In the end, as he lay dying he repented and confessed everything to his nephew, Dane,
imploring him to take up the mantle and redeem the Black Knight.
Dane agreed and his uncle Nathan died.
Poetic.
6 Gann Josin
Okay.
So this point is mostly scary because it is scary hard to understand.
That and if you imagine being linked to a person in this way, against your will, it
doesn't really sound fun.
Basically the Gann Josin is like a psychic soulmate type-bond.
And this is how we will probably see Kit Harrington's character, the Black Knight brought into the
MCU.
Okay, here we go.
So the Black Knight in the comics was for awhile linked to Sersi, one of my favourite
Eternals, through this bond called the Gann Josin.
The bond was created by Ikarris after Dane went all crazy and tried to completely wipe
out Sersi cause she turned him down for a date.
Or not really, Dane but Proctor who is kind of like a bizarro evil-alternate of Dane's.
Anyways Ikaris creates the bond to stop Proctor from being able to harm Sersi but this obviously
also affects main continuity Dane from earth 616.
The two have a complex relationship.
After the bond between them gets broken, Dane ends up killing Proctor but Sersi ends up
injured.
Dane feels guilty about the whole thing and travels around the multiverse with Sersi while
she heals.
Eventually she feels well enough to return to the modern day, main continuity with Dane
but then after Dane is sent back appears to change her mind.
So yeah, I guess we'll see what the MCU decides to do with that horrific mess of a comic story.
5 Stone Heart
He has a literal stone heart.
I'm not making this one up.
During series Captain Britain and MI13 while returning from a mission where Black Knight
went to the Ebony Blade from Wakanda, it is revealed that his heart is actually made of
stone.
Also the Ebony Blade certainly gets lost and moved around a lot later in the comics.
It will be interesting to see if Kit Harrington's Black Knight is maybe able to hold onto it
a little more tightly than his comicbook counterpart.
Anyways his squire or steward at the time is a doctor whose life he saved and she berates
him for not letting her even speak to Storm during their visit and for keeping things
from her, including the fact that he has a stone heart.
She alludes to it as a curse but the Black Knight claims it was a gift from his ex, Sersi.
Ick.
Also is that really how hearts work?
Do you feel less if your heart is stone?
Or do you just die?
4 He Went Crazy
More recently in the comics, Black Knight was actually driven mad by exposure to the
blade.
It was later revealed to him by historian, Rebecca Steven's that the blade has driven
everyone that has ever wielded it mad.
Based on our understanding so far of the blade, I'm not sure how true that is and apparently
Dane was skeptical as well.
He dismissed Rebecca's claims despite the fact that she shared the information along
with an offer to help him.
Black Knight didn't want to hear it though.
3 Bloodwraith
Throughout his time in the comics, Black Knight acquires Squires and Stewards who aid him
on his quest.
Very medieval times like.
One such squire was Sean Dolan.
However during the Black Knight's time serving with the Avengers and assisting them, while
he was away from his squire, Sean got a hold of the Ebony Blade.
The Ebony Blade made him go completely evil and nuts when it harvested the souls of deceased
Slorenians, turning Sean into Bloodwraith.
Not even the Avengers could stop him.
The best Scarlet Witch could do was strengthen Sean's bond to the blade, trapping him in
Slorenia.
Okay, so maybe Rebecca was onto something...
2 Evil alternate Proctor
Ever imagined what would happen if Dane didn't fight so hard against the curse of the Ebony
Blade?
Well imagine not, because Proctor is here.
Why his name is so different from Dane's we'll never know.
But what we will get to know is what reality would be like if Dane just gave in to all
the crazy that the Ebony Blade gives off.
Proctor has his own Ebony Blade and of course, it is also cursed but this alternate version
of the Black Knight just decided to give in to it.
Fighting does take a lot of work after all.
The result was he went completely cookoo crazy and evil.
After being scorned by Sersi he killed her and went on a plot to kill all other alternate
versions of her across the multiverse.
This is where Gann Josin comes in and everything gets really confusing but you get the idea.
1 The Curse
Back to the curse of the Ebony Blade that I touched on earlier.
After Dane returned back to the present after the death of Eobar in the past--you with me?--he
discovered that the blade had become more powerful but also more cursed.
In order to cure the blade of the blood curse that it had come down with, he was forced
to expel Percy's spirit from it, setting it free.
Which ultimately sounds like a good move, because trapping a spirit in a sword, even
if you're Merlyn and it's for a good cause still kind of seems like a terrible thing
to do someone.
After Percy's spirit was free from the sword, it was cured.
Until the sub-marin-er Namor got his hands on it and used it to kill his literal monster
of a wife at the time.
Thanks for that.
The curse then returned and double intensified, corrupting it's user, Dane.
And if you haven't guessed it by this point, the curse doesn't seem to like to give up
or stay cured.
Poor Dane.
Thanks so much for watching, nerd squad.
I hope you enjoyed this list and are as pleasantly surprised about Black Knight joining the MCU
as I am.
It's pretty random but I think it could be really awesome.
I wonder if he'll brood as much as Harrington's previous iconic Game of Thrones character,
Jon Snow.
Let us know how you feel about the character and his future incorporation into the MCU
in the comment below.
Are you excited for the Eternals film?
Yes or no?
Do you think Sersi and Dane will have a similar connection or that Dane will be involved with
the Eternals in the different way?
And while you are on your way down to the comments be sure to smash that sub, ring our
bell and click that like.
I'll see you down there.
Till next time this is top 10 nerd and I'm your host Amanda McKnight, reminding you to
stay nerdy, YouTube.