Ebony Blade - History

History

The Ebony Blade was created by comic book writer Stan Lee in Black Knight Comics #1, published under Atlas Comics in 1955. Its history was later revealed in Marvel Super-Heroes #17 (November, 1968), written by Roy Thomas. The blade was shown to have been carved from a meteor, and enchanted by the wizard Merlin for Sir Percy of Scandia, the first Black Knight. Because of all the blood that Sir Percy shed with the blade, it acquired a curse. The sword passed down through the generations until it finally came to Dane Whitman, Sir Percy's descendant. Dane used the blade for many years. It passed briefly to Valkyrie when Dane's body was turned to stone, and his soul sent back in time to the 13th century, but was soon returned to him. Due to the curse, Dane eventually gave the Blade up. He drove it deep into the same meteor it was forged from, now residing in his castle. Only another deemed worthy would be able to withdraw it.

Sean Dolan, Dane's ex-squire, was able to draw the blade during an attack on Whitman's castle. This transformed Dolan into Bloodwraith. Dolan fought with the curse, and was able to give up the sword for a brief time. During this time, it was trapped in the Negative Zone barrier outside of Attilan. In the meantime, a second Ebony Blade had been brought into this dimension by Proctor, an alternate reality version of Dane. When Proctor was killed, his blade was taken into Avengers custody.

Dolan was drawn to this second Blade, and once again became Bloodwraith. Crystal retrieved the original Blade, and The Vision threatened to destroy it if Bloodwraith didn't surrender. Bloodwraith tossed the alternate Blade aside and reclaimed his own. Crystal picked up the second Blade and said it would be important to the future of the Inhumans. Bloodwraith was last known to have the Blade in his possession in Slorenia, where he was trapped by the Scarlet Witch.

At some point Dracula replaced Dane Whitman's blade with a fake one, the real Blade ended up in Iraq and was secured by the Vatican after it was found by Opus Dei in a purging of a vampire nest. The Vatican sent a new Black Knight assassin to kill Black Panther, who took it from the Knight for his own uses. Black Panther used the blade in several battles, including the Skrull invasion.

Upon learning the blade was fake for a second time, Dane Whitman finally retrieved the real blade from Black Panther's Wakandan nation where he was presented it by Queen Ororo T'Challa.