Issue(s): Avengers Spotlight #39
Cover Date: Dec 90
Title: Avengers Reborn: "Cry Crusader!"
Credits:
Roy Thomas & Dann Thomas - Writer
Greg Capullo - Penciler
Tom Dzon - Inker
Len Kaminski - Managing Editor
Mark Gruenwald - Editor

Review/plot:
The actual Reborning for this Avenger happened in Black Knight #1-4, so i guess this issue is really more about showing how a Black Knight series could work. The character is very much a swashbuckler, mixing in some of his late uncle's Silver Age gadgetry with his magic sword.

You just got dogged on, huh?

The Black Knight is not immediately welcomed as a hero in the Washington, DC area, and he winds up getting arrested.

Silent Knight. Everyone's a comedian in a 1990s Roy Thomas book.

The Black Knight is actually wanted for a crime committed by someone in armor with a sword.

But despite a totally fair police line-up, the priest that witnessed the event won't say it was the Knight.

And that's because the culprit is really the Crusader. After Dane is released, the Crusader's wife goes to Victoria Bentley's castle to ask for help.

The Crusader is busy trying to kill Arab dignitaries.

Black Knight shows up to stop him.

With a big speech, the Black Knight eventually convinces the Crusader to stop fighting and turn himself in.

The Crusader's weapons are definitely shown to be magic...

...but for the most part the Crusader is shown to just be driven by "craziness".

I'd like to see the character explored a little more. If he's not actually doing the work of Christianity, are his powers just driven by his own faith? Did he just happen to inherit some magically enchanted weapons, and the idea to use them to kill "pagans" was just his own idea? Or is there perhaps some sort of entity, maybe something posing as the Christian god, driving him?

As for the Black Knight, i feel like this issue does the opposite of setting up the possibility of future stories about the character. As with the mini-series, the Thomases focus more on the actual Black Knight side of the Black Knight, giving him an opponent that, powerwise, is the same as him. That's much less interesting than, say, the Black Knight riding one of the Knights of Wundagore's electric mounts through space, cutting up alien UFOs. Taking the Black Knight and putting him up against other characters with medieval trappings is just a genre exercise. Having him do more generic super-hero stuff would actually make him more interesting, because you can contrast his themes and abilities against whatever he's fighting against.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: This takes place after the Black Knight mini-series.

References:

• Dane's curse got sorted out in Black Knight #1-4.
  
• The Crusader previously appeared in Thor #330-331.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

IMO, the Black Knight becomes what FNORD wants him to be later in the Avengers' run - especially in his "Ultraverse" appearances.

I never saw this issue. When I was a young 'un and reading these Avengers comics in real time, I was a big fan of the Black Knight; I thought he was a fun character. I always felt he was someone that could have gone on to some greater and better things, but he seemed to be forgotten once he was turned to stone (the second time) and then shunted off to the Ultraverse.

I guess this is where the Crusader began to change from an interesting villain made to challenge christian readers' perceptions to generic religious vigilante.

Also its a rapid decent down the superhero power scale, going from nearly killing Thor to fighting one of the weakest avengers. He'll hit Luke Cage and Wolverine on the way down.

I agree with Kveto that this is a poor use of the Crusader. Not only are his motivations being mixed up, he's declined in power quite a bit. Still, it's hard to see what could be done with the crusader as originally written. It would take a writer with a lot of interest in the character to make it work as an ongoing antagonist.