Marvel Entertainment 2021
Written by Si Spurrier
Pencilled by Sergio Dávila
Inked by Sean Parsons
Coloured by Arif Prianto
Lettered by VC’s Cory Petit
THE MIGHTY THOR VS. THE BLACK KNIGHT!
Dane Whitman wields the magical Ebony Blade as the BLACK KNIGHT! He needs ELSA BLOODSTONE’s help if he’s going to stop an enemy’s murderous hunt for the EBONY ARTIFACTS. But the EBONY CHALICE lies beyond this world in a wasteland of dangerous fantasies and predatory magic. Their battle in the present will reveal dangerous secrets of the past as THE MIGHTY THOR duels the first Black Knight at Camelot! The Chalice’s power, like the Ebony Blade’s, comes at a terrible cost…is Dane willing to pay it?!
Dane is one of my favourite characters in the Marvel Universe so for me this is a great book though what Si is doing with the writing makes it an extraordinary tale. I mean throw in Elsa, Jacks and his brother and things take a decidedly fascinating turn. I think that we are finally tying in all the previous pieces of the puzzle and hunting down those last few missing pieces to complete the puzzle or at least be able to really see the larger picture in his official origin or close to it.
I am a huge fan of the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceedingly well. The character development that we see is sensational. The dialogue, the character interaction and how they act and react to the situations and circumstances they encounter do wonders in continually fleshing out the characters. There’s something about the mix of the three personalities (Dane, Jacks and Elsa) create this incredibly interesting dynamic that the reader cannot resist smiling. The pacing here is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing the story as well as the twists and turns along the way we’re just sucked into this beautifully.
I love how this is being structured and how the layers within the story continue to grow, evolve, strengthen and newly emerge as they help create this amazing depth and complexity in the characters and the story arcs. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is achieved beautifully.
The interiors here are pretty standard fare in the comic book world. The linework is great and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create the detail work is so interesting to see. From the landscape to the horses to Dane’s outfit everything we see has such a great vibrancy to it. The way that backgrounds are utilised is nice I do wish we’d see more of them in play but we do get some great depth perception, sense of scale and that overall sense of size and scope to the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a very talented eye for storytelling. The colour work is amazing. Elsa’s red gemstone and the various shades we see emanating from it is spectacularly rendered. How we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows a sensational eye for colour.
I am so in love with this book. I’d love for this to be an ongoing series and with Jacks along the ride the two could set out on a whole new path while Dane finds a way to redeem himself and control the influence of the Ebony Blade. There is so much potential here and more so with this creative team that could showcase how someone who started out a two-bit player turned Avenger then Avengers Leader and had a spectacular fall from grace to find his way back again. I want to see that and he’s basically immortal while connected to the blade so there really is a lot left to explore!