I promised it a few weeks ago, so here is my guide to the Marvel Knights imprint!

What Is Marvel Knights?

Marvel Knights was an imprint at Marvel Comics meant to revive characters who had fallen out of the spotlight and give older potential readers an excellent place to jump into comics.

Why Did Marvel Create The Knights Imprint?

Marvel Comics filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1998, so decided to create the Marvel Knights imprint to try and bring in new readers. It was run by Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti, who published the comics through their company, Event Comics.

Who Wrote Marvel Knights?

Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti edited the Marvel Knights runs, as well as illustrated a fair amount of them. To write the comics, they brought in independent writers such as Brian Michael Bendis, Garth Ennis, David W Mack, Mike Oeming and Kevin Smith.

What Made Marvel Knights Different From Normal Marvel Comics?

Marvel Knights took a step back from Marvel’s usual method of continuity-heavy, huge story arc-focused writing. Instead, Knights focused on standalone storylines and dealt with heavier topics to appeal to the teenage audience.

Which Characters Were Involved In Marvel Knights?

Instead of listing it in a paragraph, I’ll give you the list with the dates the character’s title ran for, starting with the ongoing series:

Black Panther #1–12 (November 1998 – October 1999)
Daredevil #1–81 (November 1998 – March 2006)
Inhumans #1–12 (November 1998 – October 1999)
Marvel Knights #1–15 (June 2000 – September 2001)
The Punisher#1–37 (August 2001 – February 2004)
Elektra #1–22 (September 2001 – June 2003)
Marvel Knights #1–6 (May 2002 – October 2002)
Captain America #1–28 (June 2002 – August 2004)
Marvel Knights 4 #1–27 (April 2004 – April 2006)
The Incredible Hulk #70–76 (June 2004 – October 2004)
Marvel Knights Spider-Man #1–22 (June 2004 – March 2006)
Wolverine #13–39 (June 2004 – April 2006)
X-Statix #21–26 (June 2004 – October 2004)
District X #1–14 (July 2004 – August 2005)
Black Panther (vol. 4) #1–13 (April 2005 – April 2006)

Then, as for the standalone runs:

The Punisher (1998 4-issue limited series)
Black Widow (1999 3-issue limited series)
Doctor Strange: The Flight of Bones (1999 4-issue limited series)
Wolverine/Punisher Revelation (1999 4-issue limited series)
Daredevil: Ninja (2000 3-issue limited series)
Marvel Boy (2000 6-issue limited series)
The Punisher (2000 12-issue limited series)
Sentry (2000 5-issue limited series)
Black Widow (2001 3-issue limited series)
Daredevil: Yellow (2001 6-issue limited series)
Daredevil/Spider-Man (2001 4-issue limited series)
Fantastic Four: 1234 (2001 4-issue limited series)
Ghost Rider: The Hammer Lane (2001 6-issue limited series, plus a Wizard #1/2 issue)
Hulk Smash (2001 2-issue limited series)
Elektra: Glimpse & Echo (2002 4-issue limited series)

Marvel Knights Double-Shot (2002 4-issue limited series)
Spider-Man: Blue (2002 6-issue limited series)
Wolverine/Hulk (2002 4-issue limited series)
Hulk: Gray (2003 6-issue limited series)
Marvel 1602 (2003 8-issue limited series)
Spider-Man & Wolverine (2003 4-issue limited series)
Black Widow (2004 6-issue limited series)
Bullseye: Greatest Hits (2004 5-issue limited series)
Daredevil: Father (2004 6-issue limited series)
Hulk & Thing: Hard Knocks (2004 4-issue limited series)
Madrox (2004 5-issue limited series)
Man-Thing (2004 3-issue limited series)
Strange (2004 6-issue limited series)
Wolverine/Punisher (2004 5-issue limited series)
Black Widow: The Things They Say About Her (2005 6-issue limited series)
Daredevil: Redemption (2005 6-issue limited series)
Daredevil vs Punisher: Means and Ends (2005 6-issue limited series)
Ghost Rider: The Road to Damnation (2005 6-issue limited series)
Shanna the She-Devil (2005 7-issue limited series)
Claws (2006 3-issue limited series)
Fury: Peacemaker (2006 6-issue limited series)
Punisher vs. Bullseye (2006 5-issue limited series)
X-Statix Presents: Dead Girl (2006 5-issue limited series)
Captain America: The Chosen (2007 6-issue limited series)
Daredevil: Battlin’ Jack Murdock (2007 4-issue limited series)
Silver Surfer: Requiem (2007 4-issue limited series)
Spider-Man: Reign (2007 4-issue limited series)
Iron Man: Viva Las Vegas (2008; 2 issues published of an intended limited series)
Sub-Mariner: The Depths (2008 5-issue limited series)
Spider-Man: With Great Power (2008 5-issue limited series)
Angel: Revelations (2008 5-issue limited series)
Logan (2008 3-issue limited series)
X-Men: Magneto Testament (2008 5-issue limited series)
Punisher: War Zone (2009 6-issue limited series)

Strange Tales (2009 3-issue limited series)
Strange Tales II (2010; only issues 2 & 3 of this 3-issue limited series are MK, issue 1 was published under the Max label)
Captain America/Black Panther: Flags of Our Fathers (2010 4-issue limited series)
Deadpool: Wade Wilson’s War (2010 4-issue limited series)
Deathlok (2010 7-issue limited series)
Spider-Man: Fever (2010 3-issue limited series)
Thor: For Asgard (2010 6-issue limited series)
Bullseye: Perfect Game (2011 2-issue limited series)
Iron Man: Rapture (2011; 4-issue limited series)
Marvel Knights: Hulk (2013 4-issue limited series)
Marvel Knights: Spider-Man (2013 5-issue limited series)
Marvel Knights: X-Men (2013 5-issue limited series)
Marvel Knights 20th (2019 6-issue limited series)

And then the one-shots (stories that contained themselves to one issue):

Ant-Man’s Big Christmas (2000 one-shot)
Killraven (2001 one-shot)
Punisher/Painkiller Jane (2001 one-shot)
Sentry versus The Void (2001 one-shot)
Sentry/Fantastic Four (2001 one-shot)
Sentry/Hulk (2001 one-shot)
Sentry/Spider-Man (2001 one-shot)
Sentry/X-Men (2001 one-shot)
Spider-Man/Daredevil (2002 one-shot)
Daredevil/Bullseye: The Target (2003; 1 issue published of an intended limited series)
Punisher: Red X-Mas (2004 one-shot)
Punisher: Bloody Valentine (2006 one-shot)
Punisher: Silent Night (2006 one-shot)
Captain America: White (2008; 1 issue published of an intended limited series; finally finished in 2015, but not under the Marvel Knights banner)

What happened To Marvel Knights?

The imprint was a huge success, creating vital parts to their character’s mythos (for example, the Dora Milaje were created for the Black Panther Marvel Knights run), but was eventually brought back into the main Marvel fold. Marvel Knights became a place for high-profile limited series, where writers could work on characters without restraints and think completely outside the box.

By 2013, Marvel Knights was dormant as a title but came back with a 20th-anniversary special between 2018 and 2019.