Black Knight by Si Spurrier !!!SPOILERS!!!

[Quasar's Bands]

Your first point is canceled out by your second. Yeah, she is too old to be Black Knight's kid... but thats never stopped Marvel before. They can just handwoven it away... like they seem to have done with Elsa's origin. I have no problem with Elsa having been raised by Ulysses, but I'd like an explanation about why she didn't seem to have met him or know anything about him in her intro.

WHY IS SHE TOO OLD TO BE HIS KID???? That makes no sense to me. First, if he got a woman pregnant at 18, and he's 38, how old would his daughter be? 20. What if he got a girl pregnant who was 18, but he was 16? His daughter would be 22. What if he's 40 (which is my presumption) and he got a girl pregnant at 16? His daughter would be 24 - and the perfect age of a graduate student.

All that being said, I agree Marvel could also have sent him at 25 or 30 (after becoming the BK) on a time-travel adventure (he's been on a few that we know of), and it could have ended with him falling in love in the 80s before being sucked back to the modern day, making Jacks even older than 24.

All of that clearly fits with what we've learned about her and about him. She's his daughter and the woman that he cried about was her mother. The story about conception is just left to be told. I, for one, can see why Dane needs to have family around, and an intelligent, adventurous daughter who later will take up the Black Knight mantle is a great way to fulfill that need!

[mrjinjin]

Does anyone know how the sales have been so far? Thanks.

[Reviresco]

Does anyone know how the sales have been so far? Thanks.

I'm not sure if Diamond is reporting Sales anymore. I'll have to check this evening.

[Alex_Jamieson]

Comichron are doing sales charts https://www.comichron.com/monthlycomicssales.html

Looks like KiB: Black Knight and issue 1 ranked somewhere in the 30s, with issue two falling to somewhere in the 90s and 3 sold at 109.
It's higher than some other lower selling Marvel, like Black Cat, Spider-Woman, Champions etc.
What's tricky is that these charts don't have sales figures, so hard to see the actual units shifted, which would be the proper measure of how well it is doing.

[mrjinjin]

Comichron are doing sales charts https://www.comichron.com/monthlycomicssales.html

Looks like KiB: Black Knight and issue 1 ranked somewhere in the 30s, with issue two falling to somewhere in the 90s and 3 sold at 109.
It's higher than some other lower selling Marvel, like Black Cat, Spider-Woman, Champions etc.
What's tricky is that these charts don't have sales figures, so hard to see the actual units shifted, which would be the proper measure of how well it is doing.

Thanks Alex!

[Alex_Jamieson]

Thanks Alex!

My pleasure! The May chart just came up on my Twitter feed - was going to DM you!

[Alex_Jamieson]

Just read issue 4.

I continue to enjoy the series, though I have some issues. My main takeaways were:

1) Though still unconfirmed on the page, Jacks is definitely Dane's daughter, right? Just feels like no other way it could go, and feels like they are setting her up for a big heroic moment in issue 5. I like her and would be happy to see her in any future BK stories - but I hope Dane also gets to be heroic in the finale. This series has felt like it's been breaking him down to build him back up. I hope that happens.
2) COnnected to 1, I REALLY hope Dane doesn't die, to be replaced by Jacks. Not just because he is my favourite character, but because 'suicide by Mordred' would be a shitty way for his story to end, given the mental health theme. I suspect we are being wrong-footed, but we shall see.
3) The theory I developed after reading the KiB one shot about how the Ebony Blade works seems to have been incorrect - I had thought that the issue was Dane and previous Black Knights had been working AGAINST it because they thought they were noble - whereas in KiB, Dane learned to admit his flaws and channel them productively into the Blade. I thought this then PURGED his darkness, a sort of weaponised therapy. But that doesn't seem to be the case, based on this issue.
4) Does anyone else feel like we already knew all of the 'secrets' revealed this issue? I don't think we learned much new that we hadn't already heard about from Tieiri's wrk in New Excalibur, for instance...

Looking forward to hearing the rest of your thoughts!

[mrjinjin]

Just read issue 4.

I continue to enjoy the series, though I have some issues. My main takeaways were:

1) Though still unconfirmed on the page, Jacks is definitely Dane's daughter, right? Just feels like no other way it could go, and feels like they are setting her up for a big heroic moment in issue 5. I like her and would be happy to see her in any future BK stories - but I hope Dane also gets to be heroic in the finale. This series has felt like it's been breaking him down to build him back up. I hope that happens.
2) COnnected to 1, I REALLY hope Dane doesn't die, to be replaced by Jacks. Not just because he is my favourite character, but because 'suicide by Mordred' would be a shitty way for his story to end, given the mental health theme. I suspect we are being wrong-footed, but we shall see.
3) The theory I developed after reading the KiB one shot about how the Ebony Blade works seems to have been incorrect - I had thought that the issue was Dane and previous Black Knights had been working AGAINST it because they thought they were noble - whereas in KiB, Dane learned to admit his flaws and channel them productively into the Blade. I thought this then PURGED his darkness, a sort of weaponised therapy. But that doesn't seem to be the case, based on this issue.
4) Does anyone else feel like we already knew all of the 'secrets' revealed this issue? I don't think we learned much new that we hadn't already heard about from Tieiri's wrk in New Excalibur, for instance...

Looking forward to hearing the rest of your thoughts!

Hey Alex. Just a few comments. It definitely looks like Jacks is going to turn out to be Dane's daughter and I agree that it would be crappy if Dane does not turn out to heroic in the finale. I thought that the purpose of this story is to establish the Black Knight as a player again in the Marvel Universe mostly because of Dane's appearance in the Eternals movie. I am thinking that the Ebony Crown is going to somehow have an impact on how this ends but I don't have a guess on what its purpose is yet. Hopefully it will lead to Mordred's demise and restore Dane.

[danielsan52]

Is Marrina's soul still trapped in the sword?

[mrjinjin]

Is Marrina's soul still trapped in the sword?

As far as I know, yes. Sir Percy's soul and Victoria Bentley's soul also.

[king of hybrids]

Maybe it’s because I’m Irish and I have no emotional connection to the whole Arthurian thing, but it seems like Spurrier’s almost trying too hard?

I’m not sure how to articulate it properly because he’s right/probably right on a lot of points, but the idea that Camelot was some polytheistic utopia before being maliciously rebooted as Christian doesn’t fit right, if only because the upper classes had been throughly ostensibly Christianised by the time the Romans left. It’s far from a deal breaker, it just seems to overegg things

It’s the same with Thor being with a bunch of Norse raiders and not say… the Germanic, aesir-worshiping people’s settling in Britain in Arthur’s time

[Pav]

Solid issue, but not better than the last.

I think Dane's time is up -- as the Black Knight at least, if not as an alive person in general.

Jacks is clearly related to Arthur unbeknownst to everyone but Dane, and so I think we're going to have a new Black Knight.

I can't help but wonder whether a new BK has any connection to what's been happening to Darkhawk and Iron Fist.

-Pav, who would enjoy a fun new team book...

[The Cool Thatguy]

As far as I know, yes. Sir Percy's soul and Victoria Bentley's soul also.

Shouldn't be. She died and was revived, after all.

[Alex_Jamieson]

Shouldn't be. She died and was revived, after all.

I hadn't realised she'd been revived...and TWICE at that!

Have just re-read issue 4 - following my earlier comment that we hadn't really learnt anything new about the Curse from the Chalice, I've realised on a re-read that the big thing we DID learn was that Percy effectively committed suicide to be free of it, dropping the Blade deliberately.

This feels like a key piece of the mental health themes being explored here - Dane has clearly come to believe this is the only way forward for him, too. Presumably issue 5 will make him realise another way to work through his problems.

[mrjinjin]

Shouldn't be. She died and was revived, after all.

I did not know that as I checked the Marvel Database and it did not state that. Thanks.

I hadn't realised she'd been revived...and TWICE at that!

Have just re-read issue 4 - following my earlier comment that we hadn't really learnt anything new about the Curse from the Chalice, I've realised on a re-read that the big thing we DID learn was that Percy effectively committed suicide to be free of it, dropping the Blade deliberately.

This feels like a key piece of the mental health themes being explored here - Dane has clearly come to believe this is the only way forward for him, too. Presumably issue 5 will make him realise another way to work through his problems.

In the end of Mystic Arcana: Black Knight, Sir Percy could have killed Mordred but he made the choice to let Mordred kill him as Merlin presented him with two different visions of the future. If he killed Mordred, Nathan Garrett would have become an enforcer for an evil Camelot age and Dane would never have been the Black Knight. What happens in this issue kind of fits with Mystic Arcana's ending.

I don't know why Marvel would kill off Dane now when he hopefully will have a part (large part I hope) in the Marvel movie universe. I know it will not happen, but it would be neat if Faiza came and heals Dane again like she did so many times in MI:13!