She'll probably sign that for you if you ask nice, Dane!

A history of the Black Knights and the Ebony Blade? This is what happens when you don't get your first pick of research subjects. From 2014, Original Sins #2, featuring "Black Legacy" Written by Frank Tieri, art by Raffaele Ienco, color art by Brad Anderson; "Hidden in Plain Sight, part 2 of 5" Written by Ryan North, art by Ramon Villalobos, color art by Jordan Gibson; and "Before Your Eyes" Story and art by Ty Templeton, colors by Paul Mounts.

I think I've even read at least part of the main Original Sin miniseries, and I know part of the gimmick was the Watcher had been murdered, and his exploding eyes revealed a number of secrets. I'm not sure how far that effect went, since this issue it gets to the Black Knight and Howard the Duck. After a bit of excessive force on a D-grade villain, Dane has holed up in his apartment, as a historian tries to confront him with the increasing likelihood that he was going to succumb to the curse of the Ebony Blade. She knows it has him like a junkie, and probably even knows Dane is considering killing her as they speak. This predates the shortened series Tieri would later write, although I think I like the art better here.

There was a five-part Young Avengers vs. the Hood serial, where I think the kids think they have Hood's number multiple times over the course of it, but he's slipperier than greased grease. And then a all-too-short Howard the Duck story, where even he gets shown an unpleasant truth from the Watcher's eye-splosion: that he might be one of the smartest beings in the universe. Or, at least he could've been. I think Templeton's written Howard more than once, and may have the best handle on the character since Gerber. (I'm not the biggest Howard fan, but I do still like that he's out there.)