Noble Causes #13
Noble Causes #13 marks the formal introduction of the Blackthorne family as an ensemble — the series' definitive antagonist clan and dark-mirror counterpart to the Noble dynasty — opening a story arc that would drive the book's soap-opera engine all the way through issue #31. By staging the Blackthornes as celebrity criminals whose family dynamics parallel and invert everything the Nobles represent, writer Jay Faerber deepened the series' central argument that power and fame corrupt regardless of which side of the law you inhabit. The issue also launches several cross-family entanglements — including the affair between Celeste Noble and Dawn Blackthorne — that gave Noble Causes its reputation for adult, serialized storytelling unusual in the early-2000s Image superhero landscape.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
Noble Causes had operated through miniseries and one-shots since its 2001 debut before finally becoming a monthly ongoing in 2004; issue #13 falls in the second year of that ongoing run, by which point Jay Faerber had established the series' soap-opera voice and was ready to expand the cast dramatically. Faerber has cited the Blackthornes as being conceptually inspired by the public image of organized-crime families, framing them as the Nobles' criminal celebrity equivalents rather than conventional costumed villains. Ron Williams II took over art duties with this issue and carried the book through issue #18, giving the Blackthorne-era stories a consistent visual identity at their outset.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Issue #13 is the first full appearance of the Blackthorne family as a unit — Hunter, Kitty, Dawn, Dusk, Mercury, and Necrona — making it the primary first-appearance issue for six of the seven Blackthornes indexed in this catalog.
- Slate Blackthorne is a notable exception: he first appeared earlier, in issue #4 of the ongoing series, predating the rest of his family's debut.
- Hunter Blackthorne — dark sorcerer and patriarch — is released on parole at the story's opening; his vendetta against Race Noble (whom he holds responsible for the death of his son Pierce) becomes the central conflict of issues #13–31.
- Kitty Blackthorne, the family matriarch, has feral powers augmented by an addictive elixir of Hunter's creation that causes her to transform into a savage beast form if overused.
- Dusk and Dawn Blackthorne are twins with complementary powers: Dusk manipulates shadow/darkness while Dawn manipulates light; Celeste Noble's affair with Dawn, which begins in this story period, is one of the series' more prominent same-sex relationships.
- Necrona Blackthorne is eventually revealed to be Krennick's long-lost half-sister and secretly the wife of Mercury Blackthorne; she is also the secret architect of the kidnapping of Zephyr Noble's baby.
- Jay Faerber conceptualized the Blackthornes as celebrity criminal counterparts to the Nobles, describing the family dynamic as analogous to that of organized-crime dynasties in the public spotlight.
- The story arc opening with issue #13 is collected in Noble Causes Vol. 6: Hidden Agendas (Image Comics, 2006), which gathers issues #13–18 along with a Frost short story from the Image Holiday Special 2005.
Cast · 7 characters
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Reprints
Reprinted in Noble Causes Archives #2 (2009)
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