Parent company Marvel Comics Founded 1998 Headquarters location New York City | Status dormant 2013 Country of origin U.S.A. | |
Key people Joe Quesada
Jimmy Palmiotti | ||
Marvel Knights was an imprint of Marvel Comics that contained material taking place just outside the Marvel Universe (Earth-616). The imprint originated in 1998 when Marvel outsourced four titles (Black Panther, The Punisher, Daredevil, and The Inhumans) to Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti's company Event Comics; Event hired the creative teams for the Knights line while Marvel published them.
Contents
History
In 1998, Marvel Comics, which had just filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, asked Quesada to work for Marvel in a more exclusive capacity, and contracted him and his Event Comics partners to produce a line of Marvel books dubbed Marvel Knights. As editor of Marvel Knights, Quesada worked on a number of low-profile characters such as Daredevil, Punisher, The Inhumans and Black Panther, encouraging experimentation and using his contacts in the independent comics world to bring in creators such as David W. Mack, Mike Oeming, Brian Michael Bendis, Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon. Quesada himself also illustrated a Daredevil story written by film director Kevin Smith.
Marvel Knights stepped away from the long-running story arcs and heavy focus on continuity that was a prime feature of Marvel Comics during this period; instead, the imprint focused on strong stand-alone stories and high production qualities.
In 2000, two-and-a-half years after starting Marvel Knights — and in large part due to the imprint's success — Quesada was named editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics.
In early 2006 Quesada announced that all ongoing titles under the "Marvel Knights" banner would move to the Marvel Universe imprint and that "Marvel Knights" would afterward contain high-profile limited series. Quesada explained that Marvel Knights...
The change began with Daredevil #82, Black Panther #14, Moon Knight #1, Squadron Supreme #1, and Wolverine #42. Marvel Knights Spider-Man became The Sensational Spider-Man with issue #23, and Marvel Knights 4 (featuring the Fantastic Four) became simply 4 with issue #28.
Fury: Peacemaker, by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, was the first limited series to launch under the redefined imprint in February 2006. This was followed by Silver Surfer: Requiem by J. Michael Straczynski and Esad Ribić (2007), Spider-Man: Reign by Kaare Andrews (late 2006), Ghost Rider by Garth Ennis and Clayton Crain (2007), and Captain America: The Chosen (September 2007).
Marvel Knights editor Axel Alonso wrote in a press release:
These stand alone stories won't just challenge readers to re-think their favorite Marvel legends. . . . Oftentimes, we'll focus on characters that are off the beaten path — boiling these archetypes down to their cores. We want to build on the tradition of limited series like Ennis and Crain's Ghost Rider, Frank Cho's Shanna, the She-Devil and Robert Rodi and Ribić's Loki — each of which offered very distinct visions for Marvel characters, and each of which — judging by sales numbers — were embraced by fandom."
Marvel Knights became dormant after 2013.
Team
The Marvel Knights team was a name given to Daredevil's unnamed superhero team. Besides Daredevil, the line-up consisted of Black Widow, Dagger, Moon Knight, Shang-Chi and Luke Cage. The Marvel Knights were initially formed to capture the Punisher.
Ongoing series
One-shots
Marvel Knights 2099
In 2004, Marvel Comics held a fifth-week event called "Marvel Knights 2099", which took place in the future on an alternate world (Earth-2992) that was not identical to the alternate Marvel Universe on Earth-928 featured in the 1990s Marvel 2099 books.
Ultimate Marvel
The Ultimate Marvel version of the Marvel Knights team made its debut in Ultimate Spider-Man #106. The members of the Ultimate Marvel version of the Marvel Knight include Daredevil, Doctor Strange, Shang-Chi, Iron Fist, Moon Knight, and Spider-Man.
After Shang-Chi made an unsuccessful attack on the Kingpin, he was recruited by Daredevil to help bring down the Kingpin for good. Later, Daredevil, as Matt Murdock, met Spider-Man and asked him to join the group, with the plan of killing the Kingpin. Spider-Man objected to killing, and the group agreed to let Moon Knight, under the persona of Ronin join the Kingpin's employ. Ronin forcibly brought Spider-Man to the Kingpin as a captive. The Kingpin ties him up, unmasks him and tortures him and mocks him for being a teenager. After revealing that he knew that Ronin was Moon Knight, Kingpin had him beaten nearly to death, and let Spider-Man leave with the knowledge that one of the Knights was a traitor.
After a bomb destroyed the law offices of Matt Murdock, Iron Fist was revealed as the traitor, though only because Kingpin threatened his daughter. Iron Fist was sent back to Kingpin to distract him while Daredevil tried to kill his comatose wife. After a standoff between Daredevil, Kingpin, and Spider-Man, Kingpin agreed to leave the country in exchange for his wife's safety, but he secretly and furiously plotted to have Daredevil killed, Dr. Strange's hands broken, and Spider-Man's school blown up. Meanwhile, Moon Knight went to the police, revealed his secret identity, and said that Kingpin tried to kill him, which gave the police enough to arrest Kingpin on attempted murder charges. At the end of the arc there were brief images of the team going their separate ways: Shang-Chi caught a train out of town, Iron Fist returned to his daughter, Dr. Strange went back to his sanctum, and Daredevil berated himself at a church.
Film
Marvel Knights was also the name of a production arm of Marvel Studios intended to be used to produce some of Marvel's darker and lesser known titles: Punisher: War Zone and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance were the only films released under the Marvel Knights banner.
Video games
In the Marvel: Ultimate Alliance video game, Marvel Knights is a team bonus granted if you have any combination of the following characters on your team: Black Panther, Daredevil, Doctor Strange, Wolverine, Luke Cage, Spider-Man, Elektra and Moon Knight.
Animation
In April 2010 it was announced that Shout! Factory and Marvel Comics teamed up to release a roster of motion comic animated series on DVD. The following titles have been released thus far:
- Astonishing X-Men: Gifted (September 28, 2010)
- Iron Man: Extremis (November 30, 2010)
- Black Panther (January 18, 2011)
- Spider-Woman: Agent of S.W.O.R.D. (June 14, 2011)
- Thor & Loki: Blood Brothers (September 13, 2011)
- Astonishing X-Men: Dangerous (April 10, 2012)
- Astonishing X-Men: Torn (August 14, 2012)
- Astonishing X-Men: Unstoppable (November 13, 2012)
- Inhumans (April 23, 2013)
- Wolverine: Origin (July 9, 2013)
- Ultimate Wolverine Vs. Hulk (September 10, 2013)
- Wolverine versus Sabretooth (January 7, 2014)
- Wolverine Weapon X: Tomorrow Dies Today (May 13, 2014)
- Eternals (September 16, 2014)
- Wolverine versus Sabretooth: Reborn (March 24, 2015)