Silverblade is a supernatural fantasy comic book limited series, published in the United States by DC Comics in 1987. The maxi-series ran for twelve issues. The book was written by Cary Bates with the art drawn by Gene Colan and edited by Dennis O'Neil. Silverblade was published in DC Comics' deluxe format.
Synopsis
The series' hero is aged movie star Jonathan Lord, nicknamed "The Lord of Hollywood" by the press. He is based on swashbuckling actors Errol Flynn and Tyrone Power, and back-matter in the comics showed the three being contemporaries and friends. He is also compared at moments to Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney, for playing various monsters. Lord's most famous film was the fictional 1940 adventure/horror The Silver Blade, where he played a dashing nobleman that was cursed to become a gargoyle at night. His co-stars were leading lady Sandra Stanyon and child actor Bobby Milestone. The movie ends with Stanyon's character crying over the body of the gargoyle, her tears being the "magic potion" that frees Silver Blade from the curse and revives him.
Forty-seven years later, in 1987, Jonathan Lord is a Hollywood recluse living in his mansion named Shangri-la. Lord and Sandra Stanyon had married, but sometime after 1950 their relationship soured and he committed adultery, causing her to divorce him. Bobby Milestone could not find work as an adult actor, so he became the butler to a bitter Lord.
The story opens with Milestone collecting Maltese Falcon replicas for a tree display in Shangri-la. The latest addition turns out to have magic properties when it comes to life. The falcon wraps Lord's old film reels around himself, transforming him into the Silver Blade he portrayed years ago. Lord can now transform into any of his movie roles and possess their powers, with the added benefit of effectively regaining his youth by portraying Silver Blade.
Jonathan Lord returns to show business pretending to be his own son, Jonathan Lord Jr. He lands the role of Silver Blade in a new science-fiction update/remake while still disliking the project. The producer for the film is one Vincent Vermillion who knows Lord and Milestone well; Vermillion was another child on the set of the original The Silver Blade movie who served as Milestone's stunt double near the climax. The gargoyle threw Vermillion off the top of a castle, but the safety net broke and Vermillion suffered broken bones. Vermillion had been an excellent dancer and planned to become the next Fred Astaire in film, but instead is confined to crutches and blames the two for his ruined dream. Vermillion kidnaps Milestone and hires assassins to kill him, but Milestone is saved by Lord. Realizing Lord has supernatural powers, he intends to keep an eye on Lord to uncover his secrets.
Later, a séance is held in a haunted home led by a mysterious Native-American, Blackfeather, who had also been searching for the magical Maltese Falcon. The ghost haunting the residence is the spirit of actor Brian Vane, who played a television super hero in the 1950s called the Winged Avenger. Vane suffered through career and personal problems before dying under mysterious circumstances, making the character a thinly-veiled stand-in for the story of Superman actor George Reeves. Vane's Winged Avenger costume is used as a means to summon Vane, but instead a hostile spirit known as the Executioner possesses the costume and kills everyone present in a fire except for Blackfeather.
Lord and the Executioner clash on several occasions, and the falcon spirit partly explains what is happening. The falcon claims the Executioner is a malevolent spirit, and the falcon has gifted Lord with powers to extinguish it. Blackfeather, who possesses powers similar to Lord by changing into animals, reveals that the falcon is not telling the entire truth. Four hundred years ago Blackfeather was named Adruu. Adruu's father was chosen by the falcon spirit to be its champion then, but Adruu killed his father to take the supernatural powers for himself. Adruu realizes that Jonathan Lord is the reincarnation of his father, and warns him that the falcon spirit is itself not a benevolent spirit. Meanwhile, Sandra Stanyon comes to terms with knowing her ex-husband is young again, Milestone reads books on the supernatural and metaphysics in order to understand everything that is happening, and the ghost of Brian Vane joins the group to assist.