Marvel Super-Heroes #17
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeMarvel Super-Heroes #17 (November 1968) delivered the first solo adventure of Dane Whitman as the modern Black Knight, a character Roy Thomas had introduced just one year earlier in The Avengers #47. The story 'The Black Knight Reborn!' does more than give Whitman action to fill pages — it furnishes him with a complete mythological identity: his direct lineage from Sir Percy of Scandia, the Arthurian history of the Ebony Blade, and the Merlin-forged prophecy that compelled a new Black Knight to rise whenever Mordred returned. By rooting a contemporary Marvel hero so deeply in Arthurian legend and establishing the spiritual torch-passing from Sir Percy to Dane, Thomas created a template for legacy heroism that would define the character across decades of Avengers, Defenders, and solo appearances. The issue also served a broader cultural function as one of Marvel's late-1960s 'try-out' anthology slots, sitting in a line that had already launched Captain Marvel and would next debut the Guardians of the Galaxy — making it part of a deliberately experimental publishing experiment that tested new concepts on readers before committing to dedicated titles.
In "Menace from the Future World!", Madame Death and Future Man descend on Diablo Crater in South America, joining forces with the Stiletto Gang. With mind-control via mental waves and a mysterious Slow-Down Machine, Future Man turns the gang into instruments of chaos, targeting the Whizzer and the unsuspecting populace.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
The Marvel Super-Heroes anthology series (launched December 1967 as a renamed continuation of Fantasy Masterpieces) was designed by Marvel as a giant-size, 25-cent try-out vehicle, pairing new original lead stories with Golden Age reprints. Roy Thomas, who had created Dane Whitman only months earlier alongside artist John Buscema, wrote the Black Knight origin script for issue #17; the interior art was penciled by Howard Purcell and inked by Dan Adkins, with a notable production footnote: John Romita (along with Marie Severin and Herb Trimpe) redrew Dane Whitman's face throughout most of the story after the fact, a common Marvel production practice of the era. The cover itself was a Romita image of the Black Knight that proved memorable enough to be recycled as the character's Series 'A' Marvel Value Stamp.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First solo story starring Dane Whitman as the modern Black Knight, titled 'The Black Knight Reborn!' — written by Roy Thomas with pencils by Howard Purcell and inks by Dan Adkins.
- First in-continuity meeting between Dane Whitman (Black Knight III) and the spirit of Sir Percy of Scandia (Black Knight I), during which Whitman is confirmed as the rightful heir of the Ebony Blade.
- First appearances of the villain Le Sabre (enchanted by Mordred to destroy the new Black Knight), the Guardian of the Ebony Blade, and the Nethergods as a race; the unnamed Nether God in this story was later identified as Mandrac when the issue was reprinted in UK's Hulk Comic #41.
- The story establishes that Merlin cast a spell ensuring a new Black Knight would arise whenever Mordred returned — the mythological framework that underlies Whitman's entire heroic motivation.
- Issue is a giant-size 64-page anthology; backup features are Golden Age reprints: a Human Torch and Toro story (from Men's Adventures #28) and chapters 1–3 of the All-Winners Squad story 'Menace From the Future World!' (from All Winners Comics #21, Winter 1946–47, concluded in Marvel Super-Heroes #18), featuring Captain America, Bucky, Sub-Mariner, Whizzer, Miss America, Human Torch, and Toro against the time-traveler Future Man and Madame Death.
- The All-Winners Squad reprint was later retroactively established by What If? #4 (1977) to feature replacement heroes Jeff Mace (the Patriot) as Captain America and Fred Davis as Bucky, not the original Steve Rogers and James Barnes.
- John Romita Sr. redrew Dane Whitman's face throughout most of the Black Knight story after original penciling by Howard Purcell; Marie Severin and Herb Trimpe also made alterations — per researcher Nick Caputo.
- The cover image of the Black Knight from this issue was later repurposed as the character's Series 'A' Marvel Value Stamp, giving the issue an additional afterlife in 1970s Marvel collecting culture.
Cast · 17 characters
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Reprints
↩ Reprints All-Winners Comics #21 (1946), Men's Adventures #28 (1954), Sub-Mariner #38 (1955)
Reprinted in Marvel Gold. Los Vengadores: ¡Unidos en Combate! #[nn] (2012), Avengers Epic Collection #4 (2015), The Avengers Omnibus #3 (2018)
Key issues in Marvel Super-Heroes
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