BIOGRAPHY - Page 9
Not long thereafter, the Black Knight was still in London when he wielded the Ebony Blade during the Skrull invasion. He made contact with Doctor Faiza Hussain as she attempted to perform triage in the war zone. Dane ran interference for Faiza as she did her work, trying to save as many lives as possible. Faiza was a super-hero fan and, as they got to know each other, Dane explained how he was handling the curse of the Ebony Blade these days. The bloodlust and berserker fury still lay beneath the surface, but he held them at bay with a flippant and indifferent attitude, bending instead of standing too firm that he might break. Faiza developed new bio-medical powers of her own during the attack and learned the other aspect of Dane’s defenses while healing him. The Black Knight now literally had a heart of stone, an enchantment cast upon him by an ex-girlfriend to keep him emotionally distant until he mastered the Ebony Blade’s influence upon him. [Captain Britain and MI-13 #1-4]
[Note: People generally assume that Dane’s “ex” who turned his heart into stone was Sersi, but this was never explicitly stated. It is also counter-intuitive since the effect seemed to be a metaphorical enchantment and, misconceptions aside, the Eternals had powers of molecular transmutation, not magic. Sersi could turn your heart to stone, but it wouldn’t keep beating. Other candidates for Dane’s “ex” like the Enchantress, Victoria Bentley or even the Lady of the Lake come with their own problems, though.]
Under Pete Wisdom’s direction, the Black Knight and the super-heroes of England were organized to work in conjunction with MI-13. Dane and Brian reunited on the field team as they prepared to hunt down the magical evils of Otherworld which were released during the invasion. Faiza had not only proven herself a hero, she pulled Excalibur from its stone as the Skrulls were driven off, making her uniquely worthy. Despite the lingering regrets he held over Sean Dolan’s fate, Dane chose to make Faiza his new steward and train her to use the mythical sword. Given that he literally fought in the Crusades, Dane had some difficulty smoothing things over with Faiza’s British-Muslim parents, but they ultimately came to accept their daughter’s new calling in life. [Captain Britain and MI-13 #5]
The Black Knight struggled with his blade when MI-13 faced Plotka, a Duke of Hell manufacturing Mindless Ones at an estate in Birmingham. Plotka’s dream corridor could give humans their greatest desire, then feed off their minds as a power source for his magic. The magic of the dream corridor pressed on the Black Knight’s mind as the Ebony Blade tried to provoke him into lashing out at the estate’s mind-controlled victims. As the Mindless Ones were released, the stone horrors only made the Ebony Blade angrier, for they had no blood to shed. The Ebony Blade needed blood and it pushed Dane into a frenzy to supply the Ebony Blade with blood, until Pete Wisdom finally snapped and told Whitman the truth: that WASN’T the Ebony Blade. [Captain Britain and MI-13 #6-7]
Momentarily snapped out of his madness, Dane regained his senses and remembered that 
Wisdom was correct. Somehow, the sword he was carrying had been crafted to convince him it was the Ebony Blade while manipulating him into believing the blade’s curse was making him bloodthirsty. It irritated Faiza to no end that Dane decided to continue wielding this blade instead of trying to destroy it. The cursed sword proved advantageous, though, when MI-13 was trapped in one of the rooms of Plotka’s dream corridor. Wisdom spoke directly to the blade, asking if its bloodlust would be satisfied with just the half-dozen of them trapped in the room, for all eternity. The power of the blade flared up, allowing them to cut through the dream realities to make them an exit. [Captain Britain and MI-13 #8-9]
Further examination showed that the Black Knight’s new sword had a vampire’s fang at its core, indicating Dracula was responsible for the switch. The real Ebony Blade was located in Wakanda, having been confiscated from a fanatical Black Knight serving the Vatican in an invasion. The true blade had been found in a vampire nest in Iraq, only further cementing Dracula’s role behind the 
scenes. The Black Knight requested the Ebony Blade back from Queen Ororo and she granted it to him. Faiza was fraught again, however, as Dane had now taken up the burden of a second cursed sword with little complaint. Privately, she was also concerned that his curses and heart of stone might keep him from reciprocating the feelings she had developed towards him. [Captain Britain and MI-13 #10]
The nature of Dracula’s plans became clear as he announced war on England on behalf of the vampire nation. The false Ebony Blade had been intended to weaken and distract Merlyn’s champion. Similarly, the vampires attacked Faiza’s parents and kidnapped her father to throw the holder of Excalibur off-balance as well. Dane kept Faiza strong and focused as Wisdom played war games against the count. Dracula was tricked into believing he had destroyed a powerful ward preventing vampires from entering England without an invitation. When his vampires began their invasion from the moon, they started to burn up as soon as they entered British air space. Dracula was forced into retreat, but Black Knight and Faiza “Excalibur” Hussain were positioned to 
stop his escape. The steward became the knight as Faiza stabbed Dracula through the heart, destroying him with the purity of Excalibur. With her success, the enchantment on Dane’s stone heart faded as well and the two heroes openly embraced one another. [Captain Britain and MI-13 #11-15]
The Black Knight served with MI-13 for some time and his relationship with Faiza grew. However, the influence of the Ebony Blade eventually would become stronger again. Under unrevealed circumstances, his time with Faiza and MI-13 ended and Dane returned to America. While fighting a thief dressed in Savage Steel armor, Black Knight lost control and brutalized the criminal, 
leaving him in a coma for life. Dane barricaded himself in his apartment and tried to regain control over his actions and his addiction to the blade. He was visited by Rebecca Stevens, a historian who once wrote a book, Black Knight: Black Legacy, chronicling the history of the Ebony Blade and its knights. Rebecca had been caught in an explosion of secrets caused by the Watcher’s eye and saw his confrontation with Savage Steel. Despite her offer to help, Dane insisted he could continue to control the blade alone. [Original Sins #2]
In time, Dane Whitman was sought out by Eurolab agents Key and Tiger, with the intent of reforming a functional field unit for Euroforce. They believed the threat of Morgan le Fay was on the rise and the Ebony Blade was needed to corral her magic. Hiding his current unstable 
condition, the Black Knight’s super-hero experience and custody of the blade allowed him to gain the position of Euroforce’s field leader, overseeing French, Spanish, Italian, Polish and other EU-based heroes. In the City of the Dead under Velletri, Italy, Black Knight and Euroforce were trapped by the ghouls rising under Morgan’s necromancy. Dane and his new team were rescued by an Avengers unit working for S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Knight was a little salty about being passed over for Avengers membership, given how large the team had become by that point. [Avengers World #8-14]
In time, the Ebony Blade’s power seemed to be growing stronger and the Black Knight came to the Avengers to gauge the changes. After some experimentation with Beast and Vision at the mansion, Dane was invited back onto the team by Steve Rogers during a restructuring of the roster. The blade’s curse betrayed Dane when he accompanied the Avengers against the mystical Exemplars, however, and Carnivore stole the sword from the Black Knight. Even though Carnivore used the blade to shed Dane’s blood, it wouldn’t allow him to deliver the final blow. Dane’s addiction to the blade compelled him to grab the sword back from Carnivore and brutally impale the super-villain in front of the other Avengers for daring to touch what was his.
Dane struck down his fellow Avengers before they could restrain him and fled the scene. Rebecca Stevens arrived to warn the Avengers about what she had learned about the Ebony Blade and its 
Knight. She alerted them to the assault on Savage Steel and other minor criminals the Black Knight had brutalized in the past few months. Dane commandeered a Quinjet and became a fugitive from the law, running from his former teammates. The Ebony Blade prodded him towards the Bermuda Triangle. Steve Rogers and the Avengers had just caught up to his Quinjet when the blade accessed a dimensional rift localized in the Triangle, transporting the Black Knight to the strange pocket dimension known as Weirdworld, out of the Avengers’ jurisdiction.
On Weirdworld, the Black Knight found a strange new home, eerily reminiscent of lost Camelot, with castles and kingdoms protecting their own territory. Blood-letting was a way of life on Weirdworld and Dane found an outlet for the Ebony Blade’s urges. The Black Knight discovered the kingdom of Darkridge, ruled by the tyrannical king Zaltin Tar and the prince Caden. Dane provided support for the revolution and eventually succeeded, dethroning Zaltin Tar and executing him to become the new king. The Black Knight renamed his kingdom as New Avalon, adopting 
local warriors as his Sword and Shield; Alkyra Thrash as captain of the guard and Bolten Dinn as bodyguard. Perhaps through the nature of Weirdworld, Sir Percy became talkative again and emerged from the blade as a ghost only Dane could see or hear. Despite being addicted to a sword and speaking to ghosts no one else could see, the Black Knight tried his best to rule justly in New Avalon, defending its people from the invading Fangs of the Serpent and other threats on Weirdworld.
Still, the Black Knight knew Steve Rogers and the Avengers would eventually come for him. The reputation of the Avengers had spread even to Weirdworld and so Dane was able to make a coalition of defense with the Toad Men, the Amazons, the Giants and the Apes of Apelantis to defend each other should the Avengers invade. When the day came, however, the Weirdworld coalition quickly faltered as Steve made it clear they were only interested in Dane Whitman, not the other kingdoms. Doctor Voodoo distracted the Black Knight by calling forth the spirits of past wielders of the Ebony Blade, each still coveting the blade from beyond the grave. Finally, Steve Rogers himself struck down the Black Knight and confiscated the cursed sword.
Despite the capture of the Black Knight, the Avengers were still in unfriendly territory. Alkyra and Bolten were aware of Whitman’s eccentricities, yet he still ruled their people honorably and was a skilled warrior in their defense. They took the first opportunity to free him from the dungeon during 
a Fangs of the Serpent attack and place him back on the throne. In seeking a compromise with the Avengers, the Spear and the Shield offered to let Earth’s heroes take the Ebony Blade if they left their king to rule them in peace. Dane protested vigorously, but all involved thought it was merely his addiction to the blade talking. And, in part, it was.
While Dane Whitman was influenced by the curse, he was also the man with the most experience resisting it. Before they had even left Weirdworld, the bloodlust latent in the Ebony Blade had influenced Steve Rogers, turning him against his fellow Avengers with the urge to conquer Weirdworld “for the greater good.” Doctor Voodoo’s astral form returned to New Avalon seeking help. At the Canyon of Screaming Death, Steve encountered Caden Tar as Dane caught up with them. As various parties fought over the Blade, Voodoo’s astral form reached for it and connected to the sword’s curse, seeing images of the past and future. Merlyn himself appeared to the shocked Voodoo and remarked upon the toll and commitment needed to wield the sword. Caden managed to grab the sword but, like Carnivore before him, he could not wield it against Whitman, 
who reclaimed the blade of the Black Knight. Steve grasped for the sword again, but Dane spoke to him and urged Cap to summon the willpower necessary to forfeit any claim on the blade or its power. With his own experience under the sword’s influence and Voodoo’s support, Steve agreed to leave Dane and the Ebony Blade to New Avalon. [Black Knight (3rd series) #1-5]