MIDNIGHT BLADE
Real Name: Kal Blackbane
Identity/Class: Extraterrestrial (Kymellian) sub-species (Inhuman/White Room) mutate
Occupation: Super hero, leader of the Light Brigade
Group Membership: Light Brigade (All-Knowing/Dara Ko Eke, Creeping Death/Hooud, Metallic Titan/Prax Ord, Stonethrower/Els Udonta, Sun/Voorr)
Affiliations: Eldrac, Fantastic Four (Human Torch/John Storm, Invisible Woman/Susan Richards, Mr. Fantastic/Reed Richards, Thing/Ben Grimm), Human Torch (John Storm), Inhumans (Black Bolt/Blackagar Boltagon, Crystal/Crystalia Amaquelin, Flint/Jason, Gorgon/Gorgon Petragon, Maximus/Maximus Boltagon, Medusa/Medusalith Amaquelin, Sway/Jovana), Marvel Boy (Noh-Varr), Universal Inhumans (Avoe, Aladi Ko Eke, Oola Udonta, Onomi Whitemane)
Enemies: Annihilation Wave, Annihilus, Kree, Snarks (Hyinar, others), Supreme Intelligence
Known Relatives: Unidentified father (deceased), unidentified mother
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Novahala on Centauri-IV;
formerly the Universal City
First Appearance: (Seen, name unrevealed) Fantastic Four I#578 (June, 2010); (name revealed) Fantastic Four I#600/2 (January, 2012)
Powers/Abilities: A member of the White Room (the Kymellian branch of the Universal Inhumans), Kal Blackbane is a trained warrior, accustomed to fighting with his later father's singularity blade. Blackbane is an excellent tactician, leading his team into victory against impossible odds a number of times, and he has a love of battle and combat. Despite his access to Isogenesis, Midnight Blade appears to not have any super powers, though his eyes appear to glow white when he uses his blade. Midnight Blade has been killed and resurrected many times in the Negative Zone. He is also capable of flying a spacecraft with offensive weaponry. He could somehow sense when his mother was approaching him.
Height: 6'5" (by approximation)
Weight: Unrevealed
Eyes: Black; sometimes glowing white
Hair: Black
History:
(Fantastic Four I#600/2 (fb) - BTS) - Kal Blackbane's father died facing a Snarks horde, and he passed his singularity blade on to his son.
(Fantastic Four I#578 (fb) - BTS) - After a lifetime of training to use his singularity blade in combat, Midnight Blade qualified to lead a new iteration of the Light Brigade, a group with a powerful history among the civilizations of the Universal Inhumans, and a group that was known not only for involving different members of the four races but also for sacrificing themselves to impossible tasks. Other members of the Light Brigade including Creeping Death and the Sun (of the Dire Wraiths), Stonethrower and Metallic Titan (of the Centaurians), and All-Knowing (of the Badoon). The Light Brigade served the Universal Inhumans in the Universal City, which had recently moved to the surface of Earth's Moon. The six recruits were assigned to take place in the Offering, a series of impossible challenges to help them prove their worthiness, and it was believed they would all die in the process, as every other version of the Light Brigade had done in generations prior.
(Fantastic Four I#578) - Onomi Whitemane assembled the Light Brigade for the new Offering. Needing to be tested, the Light Brigade asked Eldrac to send them to a battle that they could not win. He sent them to the Negative Zone to fight Annihilus' Annihilation Wave.
(Fantastic Four I#600/2 (fb) - BTS) - The members of the Light Brigade were captured in the Negative Zone and subjected to torture, death, and resurrection multiple times. Annihilus made them regularly fight in the arena until they died, then he would resurrect them.
(Fantastic Four I#600/2 (fb) ) - The members of the Light Brigade saw the Human Torch imprisoned, killed, and resurrected in the Negative Zone as well, and they introduced themselves to him during a quiet moment. Midnight Blade was placed in the arena, where he died magnificently once again.
(Fantastic Four I#600/2 (fb) - BTS) - Months passed as the arena battles, deaths, and resurrections continued. The Human Torch began making plans to overthrow Annihilus and escape.
(Fantastic Four I#600/2 (fb) ) - When a gate was opened to Earth and Annihilus assembled his Annihilation Wave to attack, the Human Torch and the Light Brigade freed themselves and the Human Torch went nova, killing many of the Annihiliation Wave as the Light Brigade protected themselves behind a force field. The Light Brigade attacked Annihilus directly, and Blackbane sacrificed his life (soon resurrected again) as the Human Torch seized control of the Cosmic Control Rod, thus taking over Annihilus' forces. With Annihilus chained, the Human Torch ordered the gate to Earth opened.
(Fantastic Four I#600/1 - BTS) - The Human Torch stepped through to Earth, where he found a massive battle taking place between the Kree and the Universal Inhumans.
(Fantastic Four I#601) - The Light Brigade aided the Human Torch and his allies in the Fantastic Four in repelling a Kree invasion. After discussing strategy with Captain America and Iron Man, Midnight Blade saw the Human Torch summon the Annihilation Wave to assist in combat, and each of the Light Brigade piloted their own ships in an attack on the Supreme Intelligence, and the battle was soon over.
(Fantastic Four I#604) - The Light Brigade stood ready for battle.
(FF I#16) - Blackbane assisted the Fantastic Four in cleaning up debris.
(FF I#17) - The Human Torch had the Light Brigade over for a party with alcohol and poker. Peter Parker, his roommate, was extremely annoyed. Midnight Blade gave them Kymel to drink, a potent alcohol, and they engaged in a series of misadventures that included joy-riding, a bar fight, Blackbane singing to a horse that a cop was riding on.
(FF I#18) - Midnight Blade and Stonethrower attended a meeting with the Future Foundation, Kree, and Inhumans in an attempt to garner peace among the groups.
(FF I#20) - The Light Brigade and the Human Torch returned Annihilus to the Negative Zone without his Cosmic Control Rod, and the Hooud briefly lost control, ranting about killing as the gate closed. Later, the Light Brigade returned home in triumph, the first group to ever have done so, and Midnight Blade was greeted by his mother, whom he sensed approaching, before the team was shown in to Black Bolt, their new king.
(FF I#21) - The Fantastic Four visited Attilan, and Midnight Blade was thrilled to see Torch.
(Royals#6 (fb) - BTS) - Unable to find welcome on their home planets, the four queens of the Universal Inhumans relocated their peoples to the city of Novahala, on the continent of Akuunos on Centauri-IV.
(Royals#7 (fb) - BTS) - The Light Brigade established the Circle of Testing Fire, both a temple and a training arena, where they could strengthen their bonds as teammates.
(Royals#6) - The four queens saw the arrival of a delegation of Earth's Inhumans (Medusa, Gorgon, Crystal, Flint, Swain, Maximus) and Marvel Boy, as the Light Brigade watched and welcomed them. Recognizing an ache in Gorgon's soul, Midnight Blade invited the fellow warrior out for a drink so they could share battle stories. Gorgon collapsed in pain from his spinal injuries and Midnight Blade was calling for help when Prince Hyinar of the Snarks attacked him, leaving Midnight Blade vaporized as a pile of ash.
(Royals#7) - The Snarks experimented on the remains of Midnight Blade, determining he had no powers, so they tossed his ashes in the trash.
Comments: Created by Jonathan Hickman and Dale Eaglesham.
Profile by Chadman.
I assumed that the five female Universal Inhumans who greeted the Light Brigade on their return to Attilan were Black Bolt's five queens in FF I#20. If this assumption were correct, then that would mean that Kal Blackbane was the son of Onomi Whitemane. Since two other members of the Light Brigade have last names that are the same as those of two of the five queens, this is a reasonable assumption. Of course, an alternative explanation would be that Queen Medusa, when she came to greet the Light Brigade, was accompanied by four Universal Inhuman females who just happened to look exactly like the other four queens. This alternate explanation seems less plausible to me but, in fairness, that doesn't prove that Kal was Onomi's son.
When the Universal Inhumans were first introduced in Fantastic Four I#577, the four female rulers were named along with their titles and the governing bodies which they led. In this context, Onomi Whitemane was listed as the First Speaker of the Kymellian group known as the White Room, just as Oola Udonta was listed as the Matriarch of the Centaurian Royal Family and Aladi Ko Eke was the Queen of the Moord Council that ruled the Badoon Inhumans. This seems, at least to me, to clearly show that the White Room was not meant to be the name by which the Inhuman Kymellians called themselves but just the name of their ruling body. It was Al Ewing, not Jonathan Hickman, who had Onomi Whitemane claim (in Royals#7) that "Those of the White Room" where the Kymellian equivalent of Earth's Inhumans.
My objection is, basically, that calling a species "the White Room" sounds really silly whereas, if it were the name of a group, like the Parliament, then that would make sense. Further, the only way that the White Room could be the name of both the race and its ruling body would be if ALL of the Kymellian Inhumans were part of a direct (as opposed to representative) democracy. That would mean that the White Room had 26,2500 members, of whom Onomi Whitemane and Kal Blackbane were the First and Second Speakers. While I suppose that this explanation is possible, calling a species by that name still sounds silly.
Anyway, these are just my opinions. Maybe only Jonathan Hickman would know for sure if they're right or not.
--Don Campbell
CLARIFICATIONS:
Midnight Blade has no known connections to:
images: (without ads)
Fantastic Four I#600, p73, pan1 (main)
Royals I#6, p16, pan3 (Midnight's Blade, face)
FF I#20, p14, pan1 (Midnight's Blade)
Appearances:
Fantastic Four I#578 (June, 2010) - Jonathan Hickman (writer), Dale Eaglesham (artist), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Fantastic Four I#600/2 (January, 2012) - Jonathan Hickman (writer), Carmine Di Giandomenico (artist), John Denning (editor)
Fantastic Four I#601, 604 (February, May, 2012) - Jonathan Hickman (writer), Steve Epting (penciler), Rick Magyar (inker), Tom Brevoort (editor)
FF I#16 (May, 2012) - Jonathan Hickman (writer), Nick Dragotta, Steve Epting (artists), Tom Brevoort (editor)
FF I#17 (June, 2012) - Jonathan Hickman (writer), Nick Dragotta (artist), Tom Brevoort (editor)
FF I#20-21 (September-October, 2012) - Jonathan Hickman (writer), Nick Dragotta (artist), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Royals#6-7 (October-November, 2017) - Al Ewing (writer), Kevin Libranda (artist), Wil Moss (editor)
First Posted: 12/26/2020
Last updated: 12/26/2020
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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