Biography - Page 4
Travels through the Crusades and Otherworld left Dane Whitman ill-prepared for troubles at home. His long absence had led to Garrett Castle becoming seized property and Victoria Bentley bought it to avoid Dane’s heritage falling into other hands. However, this meant Dane was technically a guest in his own home. Dane began to grow manic and unstable over time and his condition grew worse as his winged steed Valinor also fell ill. Victoria called upon her old friend Stephen Strange and the doctor determined Valinor’s enchanted heritage was suited only for the magically pure environment of Avalon. Doctor Strange saved the horse’s life by transmogrifying Valinor into a normal horse, but Dane felt like his horse had been mutilated and openly attacked Strange before being knocked unconscious.
Through the power of the All-Seeing Eye of Agamotto, Doctor Strange saw the extent to which five years of warfare had marked the Black Knight’s soul. Doctor Strange called forth the spirit of Sir Percy from the Brazier of Truth and the first Black Knight confirmed his suspicions. With some half-truths, Sir Percy related there was a curse upon the Ebony Blade that had accumulated over time from the original wielder until now. Evil acts committed with the blade lingered, influencing the 
bearer to commit further evil acts, particularly the shedding of blood and taking of lives. The Black Knight awoke in a crazed state while Stephen was in conference and threatened Victoria. Doctor Strange brought the Black Knight into an illusory space to confront him with the truth of his curse. He got Dane into a rational enough state of mind to reject the sword’s influence.
Dane was only temporarily freed of his madness, however. To truly escape the evil in the blade which had pent up since the days of Sir Percy, that evil must be returned to the first Knight. The Black Knight marshaled his willpower and took up the Ebony Blade again before plunging it into the Brazier of Truth. The sword was cleansed and the brazier destroyed, releasing the spirit of Sir 
Percy so that the first Black Knight could finally seek release in the afterlife instead of being bound to mortal plane. The sword no longer had any direct influence on Black Knight’s mind, but the blood curse remained latent in the Ebony Blade. He knew that, if he used the sword again to shed blood and kill another, that curse would return at its fullest potency. [Doctor Strange (2nd series) #68]
Doctor Strange had hoped the Black Knight would take a leisurely time to recover, but Dane insisted on being active in the world and they took a cruise together across the Atlantic from London to New York so that Dane could seek out the Avengers. [Doctor Strange (2nd series) #69] However, the Black Knight arrived at Avengers Mansion at an unusual time, for the team’s chairman the Vision had gone insane. Intent on taking over the world’s computer network for its 
own good, Vision couldn’t tolerate visitors when the Knight showed up on their doorstep. With the rest of the Avengers dispatched on fool’s errands, Vision captured and detained the Black Knight to complete his preparations. Dane escaped his containment pod by summoning the Ebony Blade to his side through teleportation and the Black Knight joined the other arriving Avengers in opposing the Vision’s scheme. [Avengers (1st series) #252-254]
Vision’s mental imbalance was corrected and control of the defense network was restored, but he reasonably could not remain as chairman after his actions. With Vision and the Scarlet Witch leaving for the reserves, Black Knight easily volunteered and was accepted for active duty on the team for the first time since gaining membership years earlier. As Valinor had been diminished, Dane uncovered an atomic steed from the Knights of Wundagore which the Beast had acquired 
for the Avengers years earlier and adopted the flying saddle as his mount. The Black Knight would slowly learn how much had changed in his years away, privately remarking upon both the marriage of the Vision and the Scarlet Witch and the divorce of Hank Pym and the Knight’s new chairwoman and leader, the Wasp. [Avengers (1st series) #255-259]
As a physicist, the Black Knight marveled at the Avengers’ adventures in space, traveling through subspace to help the Skrulls against the space pirate, Nebula. His scientific acumen was put to work by the Avengers, devising a detector for their cosmic troublemaker, the Beyonder. He also envisioned and helped implement the underground tunnel system beneath Avengers Mansion 
which connected them to their Quinjets on Hydrobase. On a one-on-one level, he devised experiments to help his teammates test their powers. Dane helped Captain Marvel learn how to change into other particles outside the electromagnetic spectrum, such as neutrinos, and worked with the Wasp to explore the limits of her size-changing. [Avengers (1st series) #260-271]
Dane Whitman increasingly became an admirer of his lovely and flirtatious chairwoman. He lent a shoulder for her to lean on and supported her against the more unruly members of the team, like Namor and Hercules. Despite his interest, the Wasp was oblivious to his affections. The arrival in town of her old flame, the soldier of fortune Paladin, only drove home how platonic Jan’s feelings for Dane were. The Black Knight was deep in thought when he left Jan and Paladin at a charity gala together and was ambushed by the Masters of Evil at Avengers Mansion. Baron Zemo had assembled a veritable army of super-villains to gain revenge on the Avengers and seized the 
mansion. Dane, Jarvis and Captain America were captured one by one and Hercules was beaten into a coma by six of the strongest Masters. Dane and Jarvis in particular suffered abuse at the hands of Mister Hyde. Only after Wasp single-handedly rallied Thor and the reserves did the Avengers retake the mansion. The wounded Black Knight saw the commanding Wasp in action in their darkest hour and realized just how little Wasp might need him in her life. [Avengers (1st series) #273-277]
The Black Knight returned to the Avengers as his injuries healed and the team relocated to Hydrobase full time after the damage to the mansion. Dane’s old ally Doctor Druid had aided the team against the Masters and joined the group along with reservists Thor and She-Hulk. The Wasp took a leave of absence to recuperate after the siege and Captain Marvel was nominated as the new chairwoman. Dane regretted how he left things with Jan, but he supported Monica’s appointment. In the weeks that followed, the Avengers fought the Olympian Skyfather Zeus, who 
blamed them for Hercules’s injuries. The Black Knight could do little against a mad god, even after redirecting the Lord of Lightning’s electricity back at him. The Avengers also battled with the Super-Adaptoid and its team of androids called Heavy Metal. The unliving androids provided a rare opportunity for the Black Knight to cut loose with the Ebony Blade without worrying about reigniting his blood curse. [Avengers (1st series) #278-290]
As a rational scientist wielding a cursed magic sword, Dane was still somewhat uncomfortable with the Ebony Blade. He made efforts to learn more about its capabilities in a laboratory, but in many ways the enchanted blade defied description. Doctor Druid offered to perform a psychic probe of the Ebony Blade, but somehow connected with another consciousness. His body was possessed by Ernst Wyythim, the Last Knight and descendent of Dane Whitman. Even hundreds of years in the future, it seemed, the bloodline of Sir Percy was destined to wield the Ebony Blade. 
The Last Knight had also fallen to the influence of the blood curse and, in desperation, killed himself on the tip of the sword. By casting his soul back in time through the bloodline connection of the sword, Ernst hoped to kill one of his ancestors and prevent his cursed bloodline from continuing. Dane beat Ernst in combat, forcing his spirit to abandon Druid’s body, but was left with a grim look at the future that awaited him and his progeny. [Solo Avengers #4]
Despite her leaving the team, Dane tried to keep up his connection with the Wasp as her fencing teacher. Eventually, he worked up the courage to ask her out, but she turned him down. As much as she liked him as a friend, his demeanor and scientific background reminded her too much of her ex-husband Hank Pym for there ever to be anything between them. Crushed, Dane received a small pick-me-up when the former Master named Yellowjacket flirted with him while they fought off her unwanted suitor, the Fixer. [Solo Avengers #12]
In the weeks that followed, the Ebony Blade started to influence Dane again even without invoking the blood curse. His speech patterns and mannerisms became archaic, dating back to Camelot’s influence. All this was but prologue to events surrounding the threat of Namor’s wife, Marrina. Her Plodex heritage was triggered, causing the normally sweet woman to evolve into a sea monster called the Leviathan. Efforts to restore her to normal failed and it became necessary to consider 
killing her before any more lives were lost at sea from her rampage. With nothing else capable of penetrating her armored hide, the Ebony Blade seemed like the only option. The Sub-Mariner took up the Black Knight’s sword, honor bound to strike the fateful blow himself. This did nothing to spare Dane Whitman from the blood curse, however, and he immediately began experiencing the consequences as Namor reluctantly killed his bride with the Ebony Blade and left to bury her. [Avengers (1st series) #291-293]
The Black Knight began experiencing berserker seizures until he was physically reunited with the Ebony Blade, forcing the cursed sword back into his possession. This new manifestation of the curse fused his armor to his skin and began to cause Dane’s body to turn into the same inanimate ore as the blade. His body grew progressively more rigid and he was forced to adopt an exoskeleton over his armor to even continue moving. The Black Knight continued manifesting the properties of his blade, as his skin became impervious and razor-sharp like the sword, slicing 
through anything he touched. [Avengers (1st series) #294] The Avengers began falling apart as Captain Marvel was horribly injured fighting the Leviathan and Doctor Druid psychically pushed the other members into electing him chairman. The arrogant Druid was himself being manipulated by Kang Nebula, who soon had most of the team under her influence. In an effort to breach the Time Bubble, Nebula and Druid were lost and the remaining Avengers were too troubled by the experience to remain together, causing the group to disband. [Avengers (1st series) #295-297]
Dane was soon drawn into war alongside Thor as Seth, Egyptian God of Death, led his forces against Asgard. With Hogun and Earth Force, the Black Knight was transported to the Black Pyramid of Seth and continued to fight even as his body grew ever more rigid. Despite his perseverance, the Black Knight eventually locked up completely and once again was reduced to a living statue. Even in his inert state, Dane ended up striking the final blow of the war as Seth transformed into an enormous serpent. Hogun the Grim heaved the Black Knight’s sturdy form as a missile that pierced the head of the snake, killing the God of Death. [Thor (1st series) #396-400]