WARNING: The following contains spoilers for King in Black: Black Knight #1, by Simon Spurrier, Jesus Saiz and VC's Cory Petit, on sale now.
While Captain America has his indestructible vibranium shield and Thor has his mighty war hammer Mjolnir, Black Knight, one of the next superheroes poised to make their Marvel Cinematic Universe debut in this year's Eternals, has a mythical weapon straight out of Arthurian legend: The Ebony Blade. Passed down for generations through the family of Knight of the Round Table Sir Percy, the latest Black Knight is Dane Whitman who wields the Ebony Blade while fully aware of its harmful effects.
And as the crossover event, King in Black sweeps across the Marvel Universe, Dane bonds to a new, mystical blade from a very different superhero swordsman: Sword Master.
Warily charging headfirst into King in Black to stem Knull, the dark god of symbiotes, invasion of Earth, the Black Knight finds himself fighting a symbiote dragon high up in the skies. Crashing back down to Earth, Dane finds himself in the Chinese city of Shanghai, clear on the other side of the world from where his battle started. As he regains his bearings to another city under attack by Knull's army of symbiotes, Dane realizes that he has been separated from the Ebony Blade, sensing his magical sword on the other side of the city. And as Dane sets out on foot to recover his cursed weapon, he receives back-up from a surprising source: Agents of Atlas superheroes Aero and Sword Master.
As Sword Master approaches, his own sword senses the Black Knight's presence and bonds with him, with Dane physically unable to relinquish the blade back to its usual owner. Realizing that Sword Master's Fuxi Sword and his own Ebony Blade are more similar than believed, Knull telepathically clues in Dane on the true nature of the swordsmen's weaponry after the supervillain reveals he has a keen interest in obtaining both swords for himself: Both the Ebony Blade and Sword Master's Fuxi Sword are forged from an ancient, cosmic ore to imbue each with their own respective mythical abilities.
The Ebony Blade was forged from a meteorite that crashed on Earth millennia ago, with the powerful ore further enhanced by a magical enchantment from King Arthur's loyal wizard Merlin. Given to Sir Percy, the original Black Knight and figure reputed to be the greatest warrior among Arthur's Knights of the Round Table, Percy's blade became cursed by all the lives he took with it. The sword has the insidious effect of corrupting those that wield it, a trait that Sword Master's Fuxi Sword does not appear to share despite similarly being forged from the ore of a meteorite that crashed on Earth long ago.
The Black Knight's involuntary connection to the Fuxi Sword is temporary, fortunately, with Dane able to give Sword Master his signature weapon after recovering from his telepathic conversation with Knull. But with Knull teasing that both meteorite-forged swords are secretly capable of reshaping the entire world and connected to the dark god on a deeper level, both the Black Knight and Sword Master will have to stay one step of Knull and his symbiotes as they have just found themselves targeted by the supervillain demigod. The Black Knight and Sword Master may share more in common than their choice in weaponry but they've also emerged on Knull's radar as persons of extreme interest.
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