Avengers: How Two MCU Eternals Heroes Fell Into and Out of Marvel's Ultraverse

Today, see how Black Knight and the Eternal named Sersi traveled from the Marvel Universe to the Ultraverse...and back again!

This is "Never Gonna Be the Same Again," a feature where I look at how bold, seemingly "permanent" changes were ultimately reversed. This is not a criticism, mind you, as obviously things are always going to eventually return to "normal." That's just how superhero comic books work. It's just fun to see how some of these rather major changes are reversed. This is differentiated from "Abandoned Love," which is when a new writer comes in and drops the plot of the previous writer. Here, we're talking about the writer who came up with the idea being the same one who resolved the change. This is also differentiated from "Death is Not the End," which is about how "dead" characters came back to life, since this is about stuff other than death.

SOUL BOUNDED AND IT FEELS SO...GOOD?

Okay, I'll try to keep this as brief as possible, especially since I plan on doing a "Never Gonna Be the Same Again" on Black Knight and Sersi's Gann Josin bond, as well. But simply put, there is this villain called Proctor who is collecting alternate Avengers from different realities (I guess I should say he is "gathering" them, since his team is called the Gatherers). Proctor HATES Sersi and he has some twisted view of Black Knight, as well.

Okay, so 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.

What no one knew is that Proctor 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.

Well, in Avengers #375 (by Bob Harras, Steve Epting and Tom 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. An alternate reality Watcher who Proctor had been using to power his trips to different realities offered Sersi a way to leave this reality so that she could deal with her problems. Black Knight insisted on going with her, as he felt guilty that a version of himself had caused this (and he WAS soul-bonded with her, after all). So they headed off to another dimension together...

A WHOLE NEW WORLD

Well, around this time, Marvel had purchased Malibu Comics, who had its own superhero universe known as the Ultraverse. Marvel decided that it should create some tie-ins between the Marvel Universe and the Ultraverse, and one of the ways that this was done was by having Black Knight and Sersi's other dimension that they ended up in become, well, you know, the Ultraverse.

The Ultraverse equivalent of the Avengers was called the Ultraforce and in Ultraforce #8 (by Marv Wolfman, Hank Kanalz, George Perez, Keith Aiken and Mark Morales), Black Knight showed up in New York City without Sersi. He meets the Ultraforce and helps them out on a mission and in the next issue (by Wolfman, Kanalz, John Royle, Chris Alexander, Jeff Whiting and Stephen Baskerville), he agrees to join the Ultraforce, while continuing to look for Sersi...

Sersi, though, we saw in the previous issue end up in Africa, acting all evil-like. And we see why, as in Ultraforce #9, she is possessed by an Infinity Gem, which had ended up in the Ultraforce, as well...

A BRIEF AVENGERS REUNION

This all leads to a crossover between the Avengers and Ultraforce, where the Infinity Gem that possessed Sersi turns out to be a hidden SEVENTH Infinity Gem and that combines with the other Infinity Gems to form a new being known as Nemesis. Nemesis then reboots reality, with the Avengers and Ultraforce combined together in Ultraforce/Avengers #1 (by Warren Ellis, George Perez, Paul Neary and Al Vey).

In the end, though, Black Knight is willing to sacrifice himself to split Nemesis up into the different Infinity Gems an that reboots the Ultraverse and sends the Avengers back to their reality as if nothing had happened...

Notice that Sersi was now back in the Marvel Universe without any memories of the Ultraverse and the whole Infinity Gem ordeal left her cured of her madness. Later writers pretty much seemed to just forget this bit.

Black Knight remembered he was from another reality, but he was now firmly a member of the Ultraforce...

LEAVING THE ULTRAVERSE

So Ultraforce rebooted with a brand-new #1, with Black Knight now the leader of the team. However, the Ultraverse was eventually coming to an end and in 1996's Ultraverse Unlimited #2 (by Len Wein, Kevin West, John Fang, Vinton Hueck, Shannon Gallant, Don Hillsman, Bob Almond, Philip Moy and David Mowry), the various heroes of the Ultraverse stop an alien invasion but discover that one of the creatures can send people through alternate realities and so Black Knight and two other Marvel characters (Reaper and Sienna Blaze, who had been sent to the Ultraverse, as well. CBR's own Dustin Holland wrote about their team recently here) returned to the Marvel Universe...

BLACK KNIGHT AND SERSI REUNION

Once he re-entered the Marvel Universe, though, Black Knight's soul bond to Sersi kicked in and she connected with him and the two somehow traveled through time and space in Black Knight: Exodus #1 (by Ben Raab, Jimmy Cheung and Andy Lanning)...

It really seemed like everyone thought Sersi was still in the Ultraverse with Black Knight, honestly. Anyhow, I wrote about that little journey into the past just last week, so suffice to say, they end the issue by deciding to return to the present.

BLACK KNIGHT AND SERSI RETURN TO THE PRESENT

Black Knight next shows up in Heroes for Hire #2 (by John Ostrander, Pascual Ferry and Jaime Mendoza), where we see that he ended up in New York, split from Sersi...