BLACK KNIGHT
Real Name: Unrevealed
Identity/Class: Human spirit magic user
Occupation: Agent of Morgan Le Fay
Group Membership: None;
(while possessing Thunderball) the Wrecking Crew (Bulldozer, Piledriver, Wrecker)
Affiliations: Morgan Le Fay;
possessed Excaliber, Thunderball (Eliot Franklin)
Enemies: Avengers (Captain America/Steve Rogers, Hawkeye/Clint Barton, Scarlet Witch/Wanda Maximoff, She-Hulk/Jennifer Walters, Wasp/Janet Van Dyne), Captain Britain (Brian Braddock), Captain Britain (Kelsey Leigh), Jenny Leigh, Martin Leigh, Magnus, Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew)
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: Knight, Thunderball, Excaliber
Base of Operations: Presumably mobile alongside Morgan Le Fay
First Appearance: (As Excaliber) Spider-Woman I#2 (May, 1978); (as Thunderball) Avengers III#77 (March, 2004); (as Black Knight) Avengers III#80 (May, 2004)
Powers/Abilities: Empowered by Morgan's magic the Black Knight is a spirit seemingly connected to Morgan Le Fay's replica of Excalibur (which she had conjured directly from Hell). The spirits hosts gain increased strength, stamina and reflexes for as long as the host wielded the sword. During his possession of the already superhuman Thunderball he possessed superhuman strength (lifting 40 tons), durability and enhanced human stamina. He apparently possessed some resistance to pain and a mystical form of telepathy that allowed him to copy another being's knowledge of a certain subject directly into his host's brain. While posing as Thunderball he was armed with a steel wrecking ball. As the Black Knight he wielded Morgan's Excalibur replicate. For a short time he wielded Thor Odinson's magical arrows. The Black Knight was a sadistic, misogynistic man, who had no qualms to kill others as long as it served his purpose to serve Morgan Le Fay.
Height: Variable
Weight: Variable
Eyes: Variable
Hair: Variable
History:
(Avengers III#80 (fb) - BTS) - At some point the Black Knight became Morgan's loyal servant when she brought his spirit back from beyond.
(Spider-Woman I#2) - Morgan Le Fay sent the Black Knight to take possession of thief "Slappy" Struthers when he stole Morgan's replica of Excalibur. As Excaliber he attempted to steal Morgan's book of spells from Magnus the Magician for Morgan Le Fay, but Spider-Woman knocked the sword from his hands, breaking Morgan's control over Struthers and ending the possession.
(Avengers III#80 (fb) - BTS) - Brian Braddock, expecting Morgan's attack, traveled forward in time to pass the power of Captain Britain on to the recently deceased Kelsey Leigh, severing his own connection to Britain.
(Avengers III#81 (fb) - BTS) - Morgan le Fay planned to steal the power of Avalon from Captain Britain (Brian Braddock) by killing him with the arrows of Thor, which Thor had left with the Avengers. She traveled to Otherworld where she captured Braddock and his wife Meggan.
(Avengers III#79 (fb) - BTS) - Morgan sent the Black Knight to Earth to possess the Wrecking Crew's Thunderball. She then hired the Wrecking Crew and made him their leader and told them to keep her involvement secret while they worked for her. She secretly planned to get them captured by the Avengers so Thunderball could steal Thor's arrows from them.
(Avengers III#77) - The Black Knight, while possessing Thunderball, robbed an armored carry with the Wrecking Crew in England. They were caught red-handed by the Avengers' Wasp, who picked up the armored car and Thunderball's teammates. Thunderball, the only member still on the ground, used his ball and chain, swung it around Wasp's gigantic ankle and pulled. Losing her balance Wasp dropped Thunderball's teammates while Thunderball kept pulling her through the streets until he swept her completely off her feet. Captain America came to her aid and knocked Thunderball to the ground, but he was back on his feet within seconds and hit Captain America mercilessly with his wrecking ball through a nearby wall.
(Avengers III#78) - Mother of two children Kelsey Leigh protected Captain America from further attacks by blocking Thunderball's wrecking ball with Captain America's shield. Surprised at first Thunderball showed no mercy and kept hitting the shield with the wrecking ball, but Kelsey wouldn't move aside to give Thunderball the opportunity to kill Captain America and Wasp. Though he considered it a waste to kill her because of her intellect Thunderball kept hitting the shield until she lost consciousness. When her children got in his way he told them to just get out of his way, but She-Hulk arrived and quickly knocked Thunderball through a line of cars. She then took him and the other captured Wrecking Crew members chained up to the Quinjet.
(Avengers III#79) - The Wrecking Crew got imprisoned in the basement's holding cells in one of Tony Stark's safehouses in England. Wrecker got into a fight with Thunderball, who had been made leader of the Wrecking Crew by Morgan while they worked for her. When Wrecker threatened to reveal Morgan's identity to the Avengers to stay out of prison Thunderball headbutted him, breaking his nose. Thunderball then started beating up Wrecker to cement his leadership position when suddenly Hawkeye arrived at the holding cell and shot him in the arm with an explosive arrow. Hawkeye called Thunderball a rabid dog for killing Kelsey Leigh, the mother who was protecting Captain America and Wasp from Thunderball. Thunderball showed no remorse, mocked Hawkeye and told him how it felt to kill Kelsey. He then puled the arrow from his arm and used the explosive arrow to destroy the cell door. With Thunderball and the Wrecking Crew free they beat Hawkeye into unsonsciousness.
(Avengers III#80 (fb) - BTS) - Thunderball took the magical arrows Thor had given to the Avengers from Hawkeye.
(Avengers III#80) - Thunderball dragged Hawkeye's unconscious form to the Avengers' Quinjet with the rest of the Wrecking Crew close behind him. They discussed Thunderball's weird behaviour. Wasp saw them through a window in Stark's safehouse and grew to giant form to go after them. Thunderball ordered Wrecker to bring Hawkeye to him and after Wrecker complied Thunderball mystically absorbed Hawkeye's knowledge to fly a Quinjet. Afterward he told the Wrecking Crew he didn't need them anymore and threatened to beat them up if they didn't leave him alone to complete his task for Morgan. Wasp arrived at the Quinjet and ripped off its roof. Crying for his mistress Morgan Thunderball started the Quinjet's auto-pilot jumped from the flying vehicle while Wasp tried to hold it back from flying into the city.
&nsbp;With Thor's magical arrows in his hands Thunderball was attacked by Kelsey Leigh, who had been turned into Captain Britain, by Otherworlds' monarch Brian Braddock. For a moment Thunderball thought she was his mistress, but when he realized who it actually was it was already too late for him. Without further hesitation the new Captain Britain stabbed Thunderball through the chest with her sword. Morgan arrived through a portal from Otherworld and saw her dying Black Knight, who transformed his host into the armored form of a knight (possibly the original form of the spirit....who knows?). She promised to once again bring him back if he just reached her with the arrows in hand. Captain Britain hit the Black Knight before he could reach Morgan, but Morgan nonetheless teleported herself, the Black Knight, Captain Britain and the Scarlet Witch, who had just arrived, back to Otherworld.
(Avengers III#81) - During their teleportation to Otherworld Captain Britain kept assaulting the Black Knight until Scarlet Witch stopped because Captain Britain was killing him. Arriving in Otherworld Morgan ordered her creatures to kill Scarlet Witch and Captain Britain. While the creatures fought the two heroines Morgan used an arrow of Thor to shoot Brian Braddock, but to her surprise his injury didn't cause any damage to Britain. Realizing Braddock had passed his powers and connection to Britain on to Kelsey Leigh Morgan gave an arrow to the Black Knight to attack the new Captain Britain. Stabbing her with the arrow had the expected effect. When the power of Avalon started flowing into her Morgan the Black Knight was ready to serve her one more time. Pulling the sword Captain Britain had used to impale him from his chest he tried to kill Kelsey Leigh. He hit Scarlet Witch in the face then pulled the arrow from Kelsey body to stab her in the eye with it. Captain America arrived in Otherworld and hit the Black Knight with his shield, saving Kelsey from Morgan's sadistic servant. Realizing that her Black Knight had not killed the Avengers Morgan tried to correct his mistake shooting Captain America in the shoulder with one of Thor's arrows, then hit his shield with Captain Britain's sword. Captain America promised to protect Captain Britain, but she didn't need his protection anymore and beat Morgan on her own, ending the threat to Britain and Otherworld.
Comments: Created by Chuck Austen (writer), Olivier Coipel (pencils) & Andy Lanning (inks).
According to Lionheart's (a later alias of Kelsey Leigh) handbook profile the Knight possessed Thunderball. Despite him transforming into a different form in front of Lionheart, Morgan and the readers in Avengers III#80 it was Thunderball's body being possessed. BTW he was called the Black Knight by Morgan Le Fay shortly after Captain America took care of him in Otherworld.
The Avengers Index confirmed that the Black Knight is the same spirit that empowered Excaliber (check out his profile) and that he was possessing (and then physically transforming) Thunderball, so Thunderball was present during the story. Presumably the reason why we didn't see Thunderball's body being left behind when he got stabbed and transformed is that the Knight was still possessing it.
--Loki
I have nothing nice to say about Chuck Austen. His Avengers run was short! His X-Men run wasn't! I remember a time when his mere mention in chat on a German comic platform resulted in an automatic response that called Austen "The Devil". Nothing else to add from me!
Profile by Markus Raymond.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Morgan's Black Knight has no known connection to:
images (without ads)
Avengers III#81, p13, pan6 (main image, from behind)
Avengers III#81, p13, pan5 (head shot)
Avengers III#78, p5, pan2 (possessing Thunderball)
Avengers III#80, p21, pan4 (with helmet)
Appearances:
Spider-Woman I#2 (May, 1978) - Marv Wolfman (writer/editor), Carmine Infantino (pencils), Tony DeZuniga (inks)
Avengers III#77-78 (March-April, 2004) - Chuck Austen (writer), Olivier Coipel (pencils), Andy Lanning (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Avengers III#79 (April, 2004) - Chuck Austen (writer), Sean Chen (pencils), Tom Simmons (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Avengers III#80-81 (May-June, 2004) - Chuck Austen (writer), Olivier Coipel (pencils), Andy Lanning (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
First Posted: 09/30/2015
Last updated: 09/30/2015
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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