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Black Knight (Dane Whitman)

fictional character in Marvel Comics, introduced in 1967

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 16, 2026
Entity authorityQ2539056 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Black Knight (Dane Whitman) is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Roy Thomas and artist John Buscema, the character first appeared in The Avengers #47 (December 1967). Dane Whitman is the third character to use the codename of Black Knight. He is the descendant of the original Black Knight and is the nephew of the supervillain Black Knight. He inherited a mystical sword which carried a curse and took the Black Knight mantle to help restore honor. The character has also been a member of the MI-13, Avengers, Defenders, Ultraforce, and Heroes for Hire at various points in his history.

Since his original introduction in comics, the character has been featured in various other Marvel-licensed products, including video games, animated television series, and merchandise. Dane Whitman made his live-action debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film Eternals (2021), portrayed by Kit Harington.

Publication history

Dane Whitman debuted in The Avengers #47 (December 1967), created by Roy Thomas and John Buscema.

Thomas commented on the character's conception, "The Black Knight was a combination, visually, of the Black Knight that Stan Lee and Joe Maneely made up in the mid-1950s, with the concept Stan Lee and Jack Kirby had done as a villain of that name, complete with winged horse, in The Avengers.

Editorial summary

“Black Knight (Dane Whitman)” enters the record as fictional character in Marvel Comics, introduced in 1967. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Black, Knight and Dane can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1967, 2021—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Black, Knight and Dane.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Black Knight (Dane Whitman)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Black, Knight and Dane provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2539056. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1967 and 2021.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Black Knight (Dane Whitman)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Black Knight (Dane Whitman) primary sources, Black Knight (Dane Whitman) archive and Black research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Black Knight (Dane Whitman)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.