BLACK KNIGHT
Real Name: Augustine du Lac
Identity/Class: Human (British) magic weapon user
Occupation: Crusader, mercenary
Group Membership: Opus Dei
Affiliations: Batroc the Leaper (Georges Batroc), Cannibal, Klaw, M'Butu, Rhino (Aleksei Sytsevich), Radioactive Man (Igor Stancheck), many unidentified mercenaries;
presumably Aragorn
Enemies: Ashei, Black Panther (T'Challa), H'Rham, Wakanda
Known Relatives: Sir Lancelot (ancestor), many other distant relatives
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Vatican City;
formerly somewhere in Great Britain
First Appearance: Black Panther IV#3 (June, 2005)
Powers/Abilities: Augustine du Lac is a trained swordsman. He employed the indestructible Ebony Blade, an enchanted sword that can cut through any substance. He wore armors based on designs of other Black Knights including Dane Whitman and Percy of Scandia. He rode a white, winged horse (presumably Aragorn, the former horse of Whitman and Valkyrie).
Height: 6' (by approximation)
Weight: 190 lbs. (by approximation)
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Brown
History:
(Black Panther IV#3 (fb) - BTS) - Augustine du Lac was born an actual descendant of Lancelot's bloodline.
At some point the deeply religious Augustine joined a branch of modern day crusaders in Vatican City and was trained to become a great warrior.
(Captain Britain and MI13#10 (fb) - BTS) - Augustine found the Ebony Blade in a vampire nest in Iraq after it was purged by Christian extremists Opus Dei.
(Black Panther IV#3 - BTS) - Klaw sent Cannibal to Vatican to seduce Augustine and bring him to Africa to join Klaw's invasion of Wakanda.
(Black Panther IV#3) - A priest showed Cannibal the Ebony Blade and the Black Knight, who would aid them in Christianize the Wakandans. They watched Black Knight ride his winged horse in a sparing battle with another knight. Flying over Cannibal the horse took a dump on her hat. After Black Knight landed he took off his helmet, apologized for his horse and kissed her hand.
(Black Panther IV#4) - Arriving in Niganda Augustine prayed before Klaw asked him to inspire his troops. Klaw trusted Augustine because as a man of faith he would surely find the most inspirational words. Donning his helmet Black Knight told the troops how centuries ago Europe had brought God to Africa and that now they had the opportunity to drag them to the 20th century. Aware that many of the others were fighting for different reasons like glory, wealth and revenge he nonetheless promised them that the hand of God would guide them. Black Knight then took off on his flying horse to take down Wakandan planes.
When planes were sent out to stop Rhino Black Knight attacked them in the sky. He cut through one plane, forcing the pilot H'Rham to parachute out of it. Going after the pilot Black Knight was shot off his horse by him, but the winged horse caught him.
(Black Panther IV#5) - Black Knight assaulted the plane of Captain Ashei next and stabbed through his front window before Black Panther arrived on a skycycle and asked Black Knight to surrender. Black Knight cut through a missile, but was then pulled off his horse by Black Panther with a speargun. When Black Panther threatened his pilots would blow the knight's horse out of the sky the Black Knight dropped the Ebony Blade and surrendered.
(Black Panther IV#5 - BTS) - Black Knight was taken into custody by Wakandan authorities.
(Black Panther IV#10 - BTS) - Black Panther denied the Vatican's request for Black Knight's extradition.
Comments: Created by Reginald Hudlin (writer), John Romita Jr. (pencils) & Klaus Janson (inks).
Black Knight (Dane Whitman) revealed to Captain Britain (Brian Braddock) in New Excalibur#15 (March, 2007) that he had realized the Ebony Blade he was carrying around at this point was not the original, which was correct because it had actually been found by the Vatican's Black Knight in this profile. Black Panther (T'Challa) kept it after defeating Augustine until Whitman retrieved it from Wakanda in Captain Britain and MI13#10 (April, 2009). Thank you to writer Paul Cornell for cleaning up the Black Knight/Ebony Blade mess created by Hudlin.
The groundwork for the name revealed in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z SC#1 (November, 2011) in Black Knight's appendix was laid by Hudlin himself, who revealed this Black Knight to have been a descendant of Lancelot and not of Sir Percy of Scandia. The mess that was Hudlin's first Black Panther arc also included the continuity assassination of Klaw and his background story with Black Panther's family, the American Rhino that turned out to be the original Russian Rhino according to the handbooks and the Russian Radioactive Man, who was thankfully identified as a different guy from the start. Batroc was also part of the story, but he was the same French jerk he always was. Augustine was revealed as a different guy than the currently active Black Knight (Dane Whitman) a few issues later when Iraq created their own Arabian Knight.
The red-tinged main image is the best full body shot of the character.
Profile by Markus Raymond.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Black Knight has no known connection to:
images (without ads)
Black Panther IV#4, p9, pan1 (main image)
Black Panther IV#3, p21, pan5 (head shot)
Black Panther IV#3, p20, pan1 (on horse)
Appearances:
Black Panther IV#3-5 (June-August, 2005) - Reginald Hudlin (writer), John Romita Jr. (pencils), Klaus Janson (inks), Axel Alonso (editor)
Black Panther IV#10 (January, 2006) - Reginald Hudlin (writer), Scot Eaton (pencils), Klaus Janson (inks), Axel Alonso (editor)
Captain Britain and MI13#10 (April, 2009) - Paul Cornell (writer), Leonard Kirk (pencils), Jay Leisten (inks), Nick Lowe (editor)
First Posted: 02/20/2016
Last updated: 02/20/2016
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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