Tuesday, July 26, 2016


We saw Tigra's Avengers Spotlight a bit ago, and today we've got the Black Knight: from 1990, Avengers Spotlight #39, "Cry Crusader!" Written by Roy and Dann Thomas, pencils by Greg Capullo, inks by Tim Dzon.

After stopping a carjacking/robbery in Washington D.C. the Black Knight is surprised to be arrested and accused of a double murder: two thieves hacked to pieces while attempting to rob a church. Although Dane later admits he's not overly protective of his secret identity, he does refuse to be unmasked by invoking "Avengers Status," which one cop doesn't want to honor. (I'm not sure how binding it would be, either.)

The witness to the murders can't positively ID the Knight as the killer, and Dane's associate Victoria Bentley and squire Sean back his alibi. Later, at his castle (!) Dane is visited by a woman who fears her husband is the killer; he was the Thor villain the Crusader. Dane puts together that the Crusader would be going after a visiting Middle Eastern emir, and actually fares rather poorly. The intervention of Crusader's adopted daughter snaps him out of his madness and saves the day, even though he's looking at hard time for the killings.

This is early work from Capullo, but not bad. I don't know if I ever saw the Black Knight with a mask under his helmet before, though: not sure if that was just for this issue, or a recent development like the squire, castle, and supporting cast.

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