Slightly Misplaced Comic Book Heroes Case File #244: The Knights Of Wundagore

Sometimes I just pull out a weird one for this feature.  I remember a lesser known character and then look them up.  But then we have this bunch from Marvel Comics.  I vaguely remembered them, made up a banner, and then looked them up.

Wouldn’t you know it, I misspelled “Wundagore” when I made the banner image for this week’s column.  Sure, I could just make a new banner, but I am far too lazy to do something like that sometimes.

Of course, I’m not even sure the Knights of Wundagore count as superheroes.  See, the reason for my confusion has to do with who made them.  That would be the High Evolutionary.

So, is the High Evolutionary a supervillain?  That seems to depend on the story.  Sometimes, many times, yeah, he’s as bad as they come.  A human with a genius level intellect, the High Evolutionary does these experiments that quickly evolve other lifeforms.  Whether the Evolutionary is a mad scientist or a well-meaning man forced into madness by outside forces.

Anyway, the Evolutionary makes beings he calls “New Men”.  They live on the fictional Wundagore movie.  And all of them are “uplifted” animals of different species.  The best of the best, the ones that defend the others, are the Knights of Wundagore.

Now, here’s where I might list them, but Wikipedia says there’s something like 18 or 19 different Knights, and most of them are fairly self-explanatory.  Sir Ram is a ram.  Lady Vermin is a rat.  Sir Lyan is a lion.  And so forth.  The most creatively named may be Lord Churchill.  He was a bulldog.

Anyway, the Evolutionary gave these guys body armor and flying “Atomic Steeds”.  As far as prominent appearances, I’d say there are two.  The first would be when Marvel gave Quicksilver his own solo series, and he became the Knights’ leader.  So, yeah, that makes the Knights good guys.

But then on the animated Spider-Man Unlimited they seem to be more antagonistic.

So, yeah, I think they count as heroes.  They were generally more heroic than not, but the Evolutionary isn’t above wiping out what he sees as “failed experiments” and trying again.  Point is, I’m not sure these guys are even still alive.

But hey, they at least were at one time, and they were Quicksilver’s allies.  I’d say they count for my purposes.