Written By: Si Spurrier, Sergio Dávila
Art By: Sergio Dávila and Sean Parsons
Colors By: Arif Prianto, Chris Sotomayor
Letters By: VC’s Cory Petit
Cover Art By: Iban Coello, Jesus Aburtov
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: May 19, 2021

Dane Whitman and friends use the Ebony Blade (with a boost from Elsa’s Bloodgem) as a compass to find the Ebony Chalice before Mordred gets to it. It’s a race to the finish, and the two sides duke it out while Jacks gets a history lesson on the first Black Knight’s encounter with the God of Thunder, courtesy of an entrancing vision from Merlin’s familiar.

Was It Good?

It was less good than the prior two issues due to pacing and editing. The first part of the issue is a massive dialog dump of exposition that makes the entire first collection of pages feel rushed to get the bits and pieces you need to know out as fast as possible.

Once you get to the big fight, the story cuts to a vision of ancient history that, while interesting, seemingly serves no purpose at all for the outcome of this issue. It would have served better to leave out the vision (or at least cut it to a brief Thor cameo), and let the story unfold more evenly.

What’s It About?

[SPOILERS AHEAD]

Dane Whitman aka Black Knight, Elsa Bloodstone, and Jacks supercharge the Ebony Blade with Elsa’s Bloodgem to run into a type of magical compass to find the Ebony Chalice. The charm works, and they locate the find the chalice washed ashore along the River Asheron near the ruins of Camelot.

Before they can snatch up the chalice, Mordred appears with a Red cap (a Bloodfae), and the opposing parties fight. Jacks isn’t the warrior type, so she takes cover near some ruins where she’s met by a talking bird, Merlin’s familiar.

Jacks asks the familiar about the purpose of combining the Ebony artifacts, and he agrees to show her a vision to reveal the truth she seeks.

Jacks sees the first Black Knight, Sir Percy, guarding the gates of Camelot when a group of warriors to destroy evil they detect inside. The warriors are lead by Thor.

Thor wants in to Camelot to destroy whatever evil is inside. Sir Percy/Black Knight respectfully declines the request. And then they fight with the net result of Thor getting his Asgardian butt handed to him.

Jacks learns from the vision that the wilder of the Ebony Blade is made more powerful by the darkness they carry inside of them. “But, wait,” you say. “Didn’t we already know that from the first issue?” you ask. Very good. You’ve been paying attention, and you’re absolutely correct.

The vision appears to have no purpose other than to inform Jacks about the nature of its power. However, we already know the darkness within the wielder is the source. That tidbit was clearly spelled out in the first issue. In effect, the Thor cameo had not purpose towards furthering the story. It was neat, but ultimately pointless. If the Thor cameo had been removed, more space could have been given to the opening pages instead of rushing through a massive dialog dump of exposition.

When Jacks snaps out of her vision, Elsa and Dane successfully fend off Morded enough to give Jacks time to scoop the chalice for Team Black Knight. Dane is weakened, but before Mordred can take the Ebony Blade from him, Elsa kills Dane with a headshot so he can resurrect in a temporarily stronger state.

We conclude the issue with Mordred and the Bloodfae fleeing but not quite feeling defeated.

Bits ‘n Pieces

Black Knight: Curse of the Ebony Blade #3 has great art, great action, and makes some forward progress on the story, but the uneven pacing and a page-wasting flashback killed the momentum from a much better first and second issue.

7/10