First name: Nathan Garrett
Occupation: Scientist, university professor, later espionage agent, later professional criminal.
Identity: Publicly known
Legal status: Citizen of the United Kingdom, later naturalized citizen of the United States with a criminal record
Other aliases: None
Place of birth: London. England
Place of death: Washington D.C. area
Marital Status: Single
Known relatives: Sir Percy of Scandia, Lady Rosamund (ancestors, deceased), Dane Whitman (nephew)
Known survivors: Dane Whitman (nephew)
Group affiliation: Masters of Evil I
Base of Operation: Mobile
First appearance: TALES OF ASTONISH #52
Final appearance: AVENGERS #47

History: Professor Nathan Garrett was born in England and was the descendant of Sir Percy of Scandia, the heroic Black Knight of Arthurian. Garrett was a brilliant scientist and inventor whose particular specialty was genetic manipulation. He earned his doctorate at Oxford University and later taught there as a professor. It may have been at Oxford that Garrett fell in with colleagues who were political leftists: it is not known at what point in his life Garrett became a spy for the People's Republic of China.

At some point Garrett visited a castle he had inherited, Garrett Castle, where Sir Percy of Scandia was buried. The spirit of Sir Percy appeared to Garrett and presented him with the opportunity to become a modern day Black Knight crusading against evil Garrett saw the original Black Knights enchanted Ebony Blade in a scabbard near the tomb of Sir Percy, but, being unworthy to wield it was unsuccessful in drawing the sword, Hence Sir Percy did not make Garrett his successor as the Black Knight

Garrett moved to the United States, where his sister had gone to live, and he became a naturalized American citizen. Garrett led a highly distinguished career as a research scientist, but he also acted as the head of an espionage ring. Finally, he was captured by Henry Pym, the original Giant-Man, and charged with treason for delivering American government scientific secrets to agents of Communist China. However, to prevent Garrett from betraying them at his trial, the Communist Chinese intelligence agency saw that Garrett's bail was paid. Garrett then fled the United States, using a counterfeit passport.

Garrett hid in an unidentified country in the Balkans in Europe. He was determined to make himself a match for Giant-Man. Inspired by his encounter with Sir Percy's ghost and by a statue of a winged horse that he saw in this European country, Garrett decided to devise for himself the costumed identity of a criminal Black Knight. Using his genius at genetic manipulation, Garrett artificially mutated a horse to give it wings enabling it to fly. He also devised highly advanced weaponry, much of which he built into a lance-like weapon, and an armored costume similar to the original Black Knight's.

Garrett secretly returned to the United States and robbed an armored car in the guise of the Black Knight. Giant-Man and the Wasp battled the Knight, but Garrett succeeded in escaping them. The Black Knight was soon recruited by Baron Heinrich Zemo to serve as a member of his Masters of Evil. As a member of this group, the Black Knight battled the Avengers, but was defeated and captured by the Avenger Thor.

Subsequently, Garrett escaped prison and attacked Stark Industries' Long Island plant, seeking to battle another Avenger, Iron Man. But Iron Man defeated the Knight, who was returned to prison

Two more of Zemo's Masters of Evil, the Enchantress and the Executioner, freed the Black Knight from prison, and the Knight joined them and the Melter in a battle with the Avengers. Again the Black Knight was defeated and was sent back to prison

Garrett escaped prison and took over a castle that had been transplanted from Britain and reconstructed in the Washington D.C. area. The Black Knight kidnapped Iron Mans then-bedridden friend Harold "Happy" Hogan, and allowed Iron Man to track them to the castle.

There the Black Knight attacked Iron Man. disrupting the functioning of his foe's armored suit's circuitry, rendering Iron Man nearly helpless. The Knight then carried Iron Man aloft on his winged stallion, intending to drop the Avenger from a great height to his death. When the Knight pushed him off the horse, Iron Man grabbed the Knights stirrup, and then used his remaining strength to unhorse the knight. Both men fell towards the ground far below. Iron Man had enough power left to use his boot jets to break his fall and hit the water below.

The Black Knight was not killed outright, for he landed amid trees that partially broke his fall, and finally landed in water. But Garrett was nevertheless mortally wounded. Making his way to nearby farmhouse, he telephoned his only living relative, his deceased sister's son, Dane Whitman. On his deathbed, Garrett told Whitman he regretted the wrongs he had committed and wished for his nephew to put his discoveries to good use. Whitman promised to do so. Garrett died, but Whitman subsequently became the current, heroic Black Knight, whom Sir Percy has designated as his true successor.

Height: 6 ft.
Weight: 195 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Black

Strength level: The second Black Knight possessed the normal human strength of a man of his age, height, and build who engaged in moderate regular exercise.

Known Superhuman Powers: None

Abilities: Professor Nathan Garrett the second Black Knight was a brilliant scientist whose principal achievements lay in the area of engineering. His knowledge of various forms of advanced technology was sufficient to enable him to design and construct the weaponry he wielded as the Black Knight.

Weapons: The second Black Knight wore a full-body suit of electrically-insulated steel-alloy chain mail that protected him from ballistic attacked up to and including that of a .45 caliber bullet. The suit weighed about 60 pounds.

The second Black Knights principal weapon was his powerlance, which was rigged with a number of offensive technological devices. The lance could emit a heat beam intense enough to melt through a two-foot steel wall at fifty feet within seconds. The lance could also emit powerful electrical charges (which the Knight called "ionic energy"). The lance could project electromagnetic beams of charged alpha particles exerting a concussive force sufficient to blast through a foot-thick wall of cinderblocks at fifty feet in four seconds. The maximum effective range of the power blaster was about 100 feet.

The lance also contained two spools of eight-inch thick' conductive steel cable, fifty feet in length, which the Knight sometimes attached to bolo bells. The firing mechanism was a linear, accelerator (magnetic cannon), which shot the cable through the lance, Especially when connected to bolo balls, the ends of the cable were weighted in such a way that the cable tended to wrap around a person or object like a bolo. The lance could also fire a rope as a lasso.

At least at one time, the Knight also concealed a .45 caliber machine gun within has lance.

The Knight also could use the lance to fire red-hot spinning metal discs as weapons or metal "doughnuts." which affixed themselves to objects and drained electrical energy from them. (Hence the "doughnuts" were effective weapons for use against Iron Man.)

The second Black Knight also carried a "paralyzer pistol" that emitted a highly concentrated nerve gas that could render an average human being unconscious in two seconds for one hour. A sufficient dosage of the nerve gas could kill a human being through paralysis of the respiratory system.

Much of the second Black Knight's weaponry, as well as his general modus operandi, has been imitated by the Dreadknight.

Transportation: The second Black Knight rode a black stallion, which he gave wings and power of flight through genetic engineering. The horse is able to lift aloft about 270 pounds beyond its own weight, and can fly at a top speed about 50 miles per hour for up to one hour before needing to rest. Today the horse, in a further mutated state, is in the possession of the Dreadknight.

NOTE: In New Excalibur #12 (2006) Sir Percy of Scandia told Dane Whitman that there were eight men before him who were also known as the Black Knight. All of whom were consumed by the sword, the Ebony Blade, and had to be "put down."