William Whitman - Black Knight (ME-10)

Full Name: William Byron Whitman, Junior

Alignment: Good

Aliases: Gaston Guillaume Wolmar Diderot, James Roberts, Rodion Zaryanov, Hector Damon, James Craig

Affiliation(s): Formerly Checkmate

Relatives: TBN Daughter

Date of Birth: December 15, 1994

Place of Birth: Charleston, South Carolina

Occupation: Formerly Checkmate Agent

Height: 5’ 10”

Weight: 185 pounds

Eye Color: Grey

Hair Color: Black

Universe: ME-10

About

In a world where the man would become The World’s First Superhero, Sorcerer Supreme of the Multiverse, and Green Lantern failed to become a hero at all. Instead, the Will of this universe remained with Checkmate for 20 years. Decades of working for Checkmate and under the thumb of Waller grinded Will into little more than a killer, at least in his own mind. This Will chose to remain with Checkmate and ascended to Black Knight mostly due to a fear for his own financial security and a deeply rooted belief he could never be a hero, mostly due to the fact other heroes existed. 

Bullet Point History

Earth-10 is generally serves as a dark mirror to Earth-1, therefore the history contains somewhat similar events altered by the presence of different characters.

The Brother Eye Incident: The Brother Eye incident occurred almost exactly like it did on ME-1. However, Will remained with Checkmate, because other superheroes existed at the time and he did not see himself as one.

Mankind is Introduced to The (Not so) Superman: A few years into his tenure with Checkmate, mankind was introduced to the universe’s Superman analog: Val-Yor. Val-Yor presented himself as a superhero with almost complete success. Some within Checkmate maintained skepticism of the Kryptonian. Many of those skeptics were simply xenophobic, Waller herself was terrified of a being so powerful being beyond anyone’s control, especially hers. Will noticed a general brutality and hint of sadism in how he interacted with

Koriand'r's Arrival on Earth: Princess Koriand'r of Tamaran arrived on Earth in much the same way she did in ME-1. However, the heroes that would comprise the Doom Patrol did not exist. Sadly, the Kryptonian "superhero," Val-Yor did. Val-Yor was able to destroy the invading armada along with Koriand'r, but Kryptonians and Tamaraneans have a long, generations spanning feud, so Val-Yor elected to kill an exhausted Koriand'r. He lied about the threat she posed and got away with it because other than Val-Yor, Earth had no frame of reference for aliens. However, Will always suspected something was off about that day.

Notable Arcs

The Scapegoat Invective: Similar to Enigma's story in The Bird of Prey: War Games, Waller was targeted by former agents she burned or otherwise abandoned. The agents formed an organization known as Scapegoat.

Snake Eater: Öksökö does not exist in this continuity. Richard Ichabod Blood was not recorded by history as he likely died shortly after being born or in the Crusade. However the Ḥashashiyan were taken over by a similarly prescient member and eventually became Ouroboros (League of Shadows by way of Kobra Cult). Similar to Knight Owl with Öksökö, Will joined their ranks, but he joined as a double agent for Checkmate. In contrast to Knight Owl, Will spent significantly more time than his ME-1 counterpart in the organization. Feeling Checkmate became more interested in gathering intelligence on the Lazarus Pits instead of eliminating an immortal terrorist, Will decided to challenge Kingsnake in single combat for the right to lead Ouroboros. Kingsnake, with centuries of experience, was able to strike Will with a fatal blow. However, unbeknownst to Kingsnake, Will bathed in the Lazarus Pits before the fight. Will shrugged off what would have been a fatal blow and continued the fight. Ultimately, Will triumphed by decapitating the Kingsnake and incinerating his remains. He also destroyed the Ouroboros compound and the Lazarus Pit with it. Will did take enough samples for a scientist at Checkmate to analyze so the Lazarus within him could be stabilized. Will anticipated if he allowed Checkmate access to Lazarus, Waller would find a way to use it to leverage his compliance as well as others in the future. Now Will was functionally immortal.

Tomorrow Never Dies: In a mash up of Deathloop, The Man With the Golden Gun, Live Die Repeat, and the title of Tomorrow Never Dies, Will finds himself pitted against a seemingly immortal assassin known as Loop. Checkmate assigned Will to guard the princesses of Bhutran. He became a paramour for the one of the princesses, who happened to be the national superhero: Shadowdragon.

Suicide Squad: For a time, Will was the field commander for the Suicide Squad.

Maximum of Agony/Torment: For his part in defending Checkmate and Waller from Scapegoat (specifically killing Gemini), Will found himself the new recipient of the pack's undivided attention. This will likely include some influence from Taken, because that Will's daughter with Shadowdragon. Unlike Taken, The child is less than ten years old, and Will did not know she even existed. Will and Shadowdragon became estranged before the birth of their daughter and Shadowdragon elected not to tell him about his daughter given his career.

Black Knight RED: Ten years after he retired, Will’s closest remaining friend was killed by Checkmate before she could blow the whistle on years of illegal activity. Preemptively, the new head of Checkmate ordered Will’s death. The ensuing vengeance quest ends with the complete destruction of Checkmate, including the death of Val-Yor.

Trivia

• This version of Will is based in part on the Daniel Craig version of James Bond.
• He is the only version of Will to have tattoos.
• The premise of Tomorrow Never Dies is in part inspired by the game Alpha Protocol. One of the character classes in Alpha Protocol, the Freelancer, includes this backstory: "According to your dossier, you've been a mercenary in Africa, a bodyguard to the Sultan of Brunei, the on-again off-again paramour of a European princess, and the holder of three patents in Great Britain."
• Design by Ghost.