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Today, we look at how the romance between Sersi and Black Knight in the Avengers comic books of the 1990s had an aspect that everyone seems to have forgotten about.
This is “How Can I Explain?”, which is a feature spotlighting inexplicable comic book plots.
The romance in the Eternals movie between Sersi and Dane Whitman was based on a notable romance in the Avengers between those two, but it’s funny how there was a major part of the story that was overlooked at the time.
BLACK KNIGHT AND SERSI HAD A SOUL BOND THAT LASTED INTO A WHOLE OTHER DIMENSION
One of the central plots of the Bob Harras, Steve Epting and Tom Palmer run on Avengers revolved around the love triangle (rectangle?) between Black Knight, Crystal and Sersi (and also Quicksilver’s estranged husband, Quicksilver). Crystal joined the Avengers during an estrangement from Quicksilver. Black Knight pined for her, but was wary since she was still married. Sersi, meanwhile, pined for Black Knight and pushed him on the whole “you and I are actually single, unlike Crystal.” Crystal, meanwhile, was attracted to Black Knight, as well. It was a whole thing.
Everything got a lot more complicated, though, when Sersi had formed a Uni-Mind with an alien race and after that was done, her mind seemed to be a bit out of sorts. Her fellow Eternals determine that she is suffering from a deteriorating mental illness known as the Mahd Wy’ry. The tradition among the Eternals is to just kill any Eternal who suffers from this affliction, but instead, they agree to just form a soul bond between Sersi and Black Knight, hoping that that way his mind can calm her down.
The problem with that, as we see in Avengers #361 (by Harras, Epting and Palmer) is that they only asked SERSI if it is what she wanted before they did it. They never cleared it with Black Knight and boy, he is not happy…
He visits Crystal and lets her know that while his soul might be bonded with Sersi, he does not love her. He loves Crystal and he can tell that over the last year or so worth of issues, she has become drawn to him, as well, and they kiss…
While Sersi watches. Awwwwwwwwwkward.
However, what no one knew at the time was that an alternate reality villain, Proctor, who had been messing with the Avengers, had been in a Gann Josin bond with the Sersi of HIS world, so HE was the one who was causing her to seem mentally unstable, as he was framing her for crimes and then messing with her head. It turned out that he was also his reality’s version of the Black Knight. Meanwhile, he was killing people and framing her for it. He goes from reality to reality punishing whichever Sersis that he finds.
In Avengers #375 (by Harras, Epting and Palmer), Sersi finally killed Proctor, but the work he had done to mess with her mind had been enough and she was rapidly falling apart. By this point in time, Crystal had been reunited with Quicksilver and Black Knight felt like being noble, so when Sersi was given the option to leave this reality to go deal with her mental issues, Black Knight insisted on going with her, as he felt guilty that a version of himself had caused this. So they headed off to another dimension together…
The pair ended up in the Ultraverse, a superhero universe created by Malibu Comics, which Marvel had just recently purchased. Sersi then returned to the Marvel Universe while Black Knight remained in the Ultraverse. This lasted for a year or so before Black Knight returned and their Gann Josin connection kicked in again and the pair traveled through time together, as seen in Black Knight: Exodus #1 (by Ben Raab, Jimmy Cheung and Andy Lanning)…
When that story ended, Sersi took the pair back to the present.
We saw Black Knight end up in New York, separated from Sersi, in Heroes for Hire #2 (by John Ostrander, Pascual Ferry and Jaime Mendoza). In the fourth issue of that series (same creative team), we learned that when they returned to the present, the Gann Josin bond was severed. Sersi, though, shows up at the end of the issue looking for Dane’s help. The Black Knight explained the lost connection again in the following issue (which was nice, since it was one page instead of two like in #4)…
Sersi had returned and got caught up in an Eternals plot and the Heroes for Hire help save the day and once things are settled, in Heroes for Hire #7 (by Ostrander, Ferry and Mendoza), Black Knight and Sersi part ways for good…
Fair enough, right? However, here’s the thing – the bond had been broken before they had ever left the Marvel Universe!!
BUT WAIT…DID BLACK KNIGHT AND SERSI NOT ACTUALY HAVE A SOUL BOND DURING ALL OF THAT?
You see, in Avengers #373 (by Harras, Epting and Palmer), Sersi has seemingly been exposed to the Avengers as a psychotic murderer. Black Knight tries to reason with her, but their soul bond allows her to mess with his head in a painful fashion…
Crystal confronts them and tries to break Black Knight out of it and suddenly, he DOES seem to snap out of it a bit!
This freaks Sersi out and she figures that, heck, they all think she’s a murderer anyways, so why not prove them right? So she goes to murder Crystal and Black Knight outrights breaks free of the soul bound to stop her…
She is shocked by Black Knight breaking the soul bond and she just goes nuts and creates a tidal wave…
Luckily, the other Eternals show up in the next issue to save everyone and stop the tidal wave and the Eternals are all shocked that Black Knight has broken the soul bond…
So when he goes with her in the next issue, it is without a soul bond at all and so all of the comics that followed that had them still having a soul bond was clearly just a case of someone not paying attention along the way. Pretty funny, really. I mean, sure, you can hand wave it and say that the soul bond, like, kicked back in, but it sure wasn’t shown in the comic books.
I don’t have it in my notes who pointed this out to me. If you want credit, just drop me a line and I’ll edit it in there! Meanwhile, if anyone else can think of a good inexplicable comic book plot, write me at brianc@cbr.com!
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