Today, we look at how the Black Knight and the X-Men villain, Exodus, somehow had a bizarre connection that was not explained fully for years.
This is "Provide Some Answers," which is a feature where long unresolved plot points are eventually resolved.
EXODUS MAKES HIS MYSTERIOUS DEBUT
Among the many notable aspects of the X-titles crossover, "Fatal Attractions," which was especially unusual for how long it took (in the sense that it was a six-part crossover that took place in six different comic books, but over the course of FIVE MONTHS in 1993), was the introduction of a powerful new mutant known as Exodus, who debuted in X-Factor #92 (by Joe Quesada, Scott Lobdell, J.M. DeMatteis and Al Milgrom) as just sort of, well, there...
That was pretty much par for the course for the X-Books of this era, as characters would be introduced as complete blank slates, with the writers often not even really knowing themselves what the deal was with the characters, but rather just coming up with the back story as they went along.
In the case of Exodus, he was quickly established as the second-in-command to Magneto and his Acolytes. Magneto's former second, Fabian Cortez, had gone rogue and Exodus stepped in to give some stability to the Acolytes. After "Fatal Attractions" saw Magneto seemingly permanently disabled by a telepathic mind-wipe by Charles Xavier, Exodus took over the leadership of the Acolytes. This leads to the Avengers/X-Men crossover, "Bloodties," that directly followed "Fatal Attractions" in the pages of X-Men.
THE MYSTERY DEEPENS
In "Bloodties," Cortez has driven the island nation of Genosha into a civil war between the humans and the mutants who live on the island. Cortez has also kidnapped Luna, the daughter of Crystal and Quicksilver, the granddaughter of Magneto, and was using her as a hostage to protect himself from Magneto (he doesn't know that Magneto had just been incapacitated by Xavier, so he was taken precuations for no reason). Obviously, the Avengers want to go to Genosha to get their teammate's child back, but the United Nations refused to allow the Avengers to get involved in a civil war in another country. When the Avengers said they were going anyways, SHIELD tried to stop them, but a small team of Avengers made it to Genosha (while the rest of the Avengers remained to take the heat with the United Nations). Among the heroes who made it to Genosha were Crystal, Sersi, Scarlet Witch, Captain America, War Machine and Black Knight.
As soon as the Avengers arrived, Exodus showed up and slaughtered a group of humans and explained to the heroes that Exodus planned to wipe out all of the mutants on the island and have Magneto and the Acolytes set up base in the nation. War Machine then fought Exodus, but was unsuccessful in defeating the powerful mutant, so Sersi took over.
In Uncanny X-Men #307 (by Scott Lobdell, John Romita Jr. and Dan Green), Black Knight mentions that Exodus seems really familiar to him...
In the finale of the crossover, in Avengers #369 (by Bob Harras, Steve Epting, Jan Duursema and Tom Palmer), Black Knight once again mentions that he feels like he really knows Exodus from somewhere...
At the end of the issue, it is Black Knight who ultimately takes down Exodus (with a little assist from Charles Xavier). Luna is returned to Crystal and Quicksilver and Exodus retreats, but not before declaring himself the true heir to Magneto's legacy and almost fatally wounds Quicksilver (luckily, Black Knight does CPR on Quicksilver and brings him back to life).
A year later, in the altered reality crossover known as "The Age of Apocalypse," Exodus is a member of the X-Men and goes by the name Bennet du Paris. However, no connection to Black Knight is mentioned. It would not be for THREE YEARS until the connection was revealed.
THE CONNECTION BETWEEN EXODUS AND BLACK KNIGHT IS REVEALED
In the 1996 one-shot, Black Knight: Exodus #1, by Ben Raab, Jimmy Cheung and Andy Lanning, Black Knight and Sersi return to the main Marvel Universe after a brief stint in another reality. However, instead of finding themselves in the present, they end up in the Crusades, where Dane has taken control of the body of his ancestor, Eobar Garrington (Dane had possessed Garrington before).
As it turns out, one of Garrington's best friends during the Crusades was, sure enough, Bennet du Paris.
Bennet heads off to find some powerful secrets in Akkaba, Egypt, but instead finds himself trapped by Apocalypse, who transforms du Paris (who doesn't even know he IS a mutant) into Exodus.
When Black Knight and Sersi find him, Apocalypse orders Exodus to kill the Black Knight. Since Dane shared memories with Carrington, that is how he remembered Exodus. Dane eventually gets through to his friend and convinces him to turn on Apocalypse.
Apocalypse then punishes Exodus by imprisoning him in a tomb for centuries. Dane has some knights vow to guard it until Apocalypse allows Exodus to escape, which I guess happened some time before "Fatal Attractions." Black Knight and Sersi then travel back to the present.
Okay, the story doesn't really necessarily make sense for Dane to have all of Carrington's memories, but whatever, that's the set-up. They knew each other during the Crusades. I would hope that with the Eternals movie coming out, Dane and Exodus' connection might come up again in the comics.
If anyone else has a suggestion for a comic book plot that got resolved after a few years (I tend to use two years as the minimum, as otherwise, you're probably just in the middle of the actual initial reveal of the storyline, ya know? But I'll allow exceptions where a new writer takes over a storyline and has to resolve the previous writer's unresolved plots), drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!