AVENGERS ANNUAL #22

"BLOOD WRAITH"
Writer: Glenn Herdling | Penciler: Mike Gustovich
Inker: Ariane Lenshoek | Letterer: Steve Dutro | Colorist: Gina Going
Associate Editor: Pat Garrahy | Editor: Ralph Macchio | Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

Note: This annual also features a backup story spotlighting new characters called the Anachronauts. It has nothing to do with the Avengers' ongoing saga and I have opted not to cover it here.

The Plot: A group of mystics invades Avengers Mansion, in search of the Black Knight's ebony blade. The intruders gain the upper hand over the Avengers in residence, Crystal, Hercules, and Vision. Meanwhile, at the Black Knight's castle outside Washington, D.C., the Knight spars with his squire, Sean Dolan. But when an Avengers priority alert comes in, the Knight mounts his steed, Valinor, and takes off for New York. Back at the Mansion, Black Widow arrives and helps Crystal against her opponents, while Sersi shows up to aid Vision and Hercules. Outside, Black Knight confronts the final invader, Le Sabre. Le Sabre tells the Knight that several wizards are engaged in a race to collect various artifacts, and the ebony blade is one of them. Le Sabre says that someone is surely already at the Knight's castle, seeking to claim the blade.

And back at the castle, two more villains break inside. They are confronted first by the castle butler, Catherwood, and then by Sean. When the castle's caretaker, Victoria, appears, one of the men takes her hostage. Sean grabs the ebony blade as is transformed by its magic. He maims one of the invaders and kills the other, then, overtaken by the sword's blood curse, lunges for Victoria. The Black Knight arrives and stops him, with the Avengers showing up soon after. The battle moves outside, where Sean draws Hercules' blood and knocks out Vision, then proves immune to Sersi's powers. Black Knight engages Sean again, and during their fight, the former squire christens himself Blood Wraith. Eventually, the Avengers all recover -- but the Black Knight wants to face Blood Wraith alone, so he allows him to leave for the time being. Blood Wraith mounts Valinor and takes off for parts unknown.

Continuity Notes: As can be gleaned from above, there's lots of Black Knight historia in this one. A footnote early in the issue references a BLACK KNIGHT four-issue mini-series, so I imagine a lot of this stuff originated there. The Knight has a castle, Whitman Manor, overlooking Washington. The cartaker, Victoria Bentley, is in love with the Knight, and is shocked to learn of his feelings for Crystal. There's a butler and a squire, and we get several mentions of the original Black Knight, Sir Percy of Scandia, as well as the Knight's villainous uncle, Nathan Garrett. There is also a brief history of the ebony blade:

We learn that Valinor has been residing at Whitman Manor since the last time we saw him in AVENGERS #344. As noted above, by the story's conclusion, he flies off with Blood Wraith.

The assorted villains after the ebony blade are: Mongu, Maha Yogi, Le Sabre, Chandu, and Achmed. I have no idea who any of these guys are, but the Marvel Wiki suggest that, with the exception of Achmed, they all appeared prior to this issue in various places. For Le Sabre, at least, that is made clear in this very story, as a footnote tells us he and the Black Knight crossed paths in MARVEL SUPER HEROES #17.

Taylor Madison is visiting Hercules at the issue's start, and she mentions that she's "never seen the mansion so--quiet," suggesting she's been there more than once since the big dinner party in issue 357. In general, this scene suggests that Hercules' relationsip with Taylor has progressed beyond a point we've seen in the main title so far.

Which brings up the question of chronology. As noted last week, this issue was cover-dated May of 1993, the same month as AVENGERS 362. But that was right the middle of the last go-round with the Gatherers, a story which would lead immediately into the Kree storyline, which itself will not be resolved until issue 366. But this story has Vision in his new green-and-yellow body, so it must be set after the Gatherers stuff. And AVENGERS 366 features a backup story with a return engagement from Blood Wraith, so therefore official Marvel reading order places it here, pretty much the only spot where it can occur.

It's not a perfect fit, since AVENGERS 364 ended with Galen-Kor announcing the world would be destroyed in two days, while this issue sees our heroes having some downtime rather than searching for the Kree villains -- plus, Captain America and Deathcry are both absent from the annual, which also doesn't quite fit -- and on top of all that, Black Knight doesn't have his "gann josin-ified" red eyes either. But the story can't be set after #366 simply because of the Blood Wraith backup there. I suppose the only other option would've been to place this after the lead story in issue 366 and before its backup, but that seems a bit of continuity overkill, and it still wouldn't be a perfect fit.

And it's all because of Vision's new body! If this annual had featured him in his ghostly white appearance, it could've been set prior to his replacement by the false Vision in issue 360 -- and while there still would've been some very minor continuity hiccups, it would make much more sense chronologically.

Assemble: As usual, it takes a guest-writer to do it, but yes -- Sersi utters the immortal words as the Avengers regroup against Blood Wraith at the story's climax. ("Avengers Assemble!" count: 6 in 32 issues to date.)

My Thoughts: I think it's notable that, for all Bob Harras invests in the Black Knight over his run on Avengers, making him a POV character and, arguably, the main character of this span of issues, he does so while basically ignoring the Knight's past. Now, he doesn't outright contradict anything that came before, and he specifically writes out the ebony blade when introducing the Knight's photon sword, while also eventually quietly discarding Valinor a few issues later. He's clearly more interested in making the Knight a straight science-based hero, rather than the magical character with a scientific mind he had been before.

And for all I gripe about writers not adhering to continuity, I can't really complain here. I've not read every Black Knight story ever published -- far from it, in fact -- but I can say that this run of issues features the most interesting and compelling characterization of Dane Whitman that I've ever seen. And as long as Harras is not getting any of the character's continuity wrong, I'm fine with what he's doing here.

But, that said, there is a side to the Knight that I think most fans are (or would have been, at this point) familiar with -- the guy who rides a winged steed and wields the ebony blade, and even occasionally invokes the name of Merlin as an epithet. So, while we have the core AVENGERS title dedicated to Harras's Knight, updated for the gritty nineties, it falls to this annual to remind readers that, yes, he still has the castle and the horse and the sword -- at least until the story's final page, when he loses two of those things (and gains a new enemy in the process).

It's hard to say this is a particularly exceptional story, but it's really not bad. It moves along briskly, and the artwork is decent -- something that cannot be said about many of Marvel's annuals circa the early nineties. And it serves to shine a spotlight on an aspect of the Black Knight that has been drastically downplayed (to the point of nonexistence) in the main series. Plus, it manages to accomplish the mandate assigned to all Marvel's 1993 annuals -- create a new character who can have a trading card polybagged with the comic -- quite nicely, drawing on the Knight's history and using one of his established supporting characters to do so. And considering some of the stinkers that came out of that '93 annual initiative, Blood Wrath is to be applauded simply for his inherent relevance, even if practically no other writers would ever use him again. (Indeed, nearly all of his very few subsequent appearances were written by Glenn Herdling, though Kurt Busiek would wrap up Blood Wraith's saga years later during his tenure writing AVENGERS).

Next week, it's back to the main series for the continuation of the Kree saga!