The Bold and Badass Journey of Misty Knight!
(Image courtesy Taylor Grant/FB)
Hey, don’t you just LOVE that street-level Marvel superhero with the cybernetic arm? No, I’m not talking about Winter Soldier, who is just Bucky Barnes, Captain America’s version of Batman’s Robin, a teen sidekick, given a gritty makeover for the modern era. Nope, not talking about Cable from the X-Men either. Cable and Winter Soldier are both aesthetic ripoffs of Misty Knight. Misty Knight is a streel-level Marvel hero in the same vein as Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Daredevil, The Punisher, and so on, who has been around for over 50 years and does not get the recognition she deserves.
Misty Knight was the first black female superhero at Marvel Comics in the mid-1970s who was pushed, albeit passively, to gain some mainstream recognition alongside more popular comic book heroes of the era. Actress Simone Missick portrayed the character in the Netflix-produced Marvel series Luke Cage, The Defenders, and Iron Fist in the 2010s.
(Image courtesy The CBC/EW/FB. Simone Missick as Misty Knight and Mike Colter as Luke Cage in a scene from Netflix’s Luke Cage Season 2.)
She has appeared in some great comic book stories, was used in the Netflix version of the MCU, and could potentially become a household name when Disney returns with new film and TV show slates in 2025 that hopefully feature the character. (Due to souring fan reception to the MCU, no new Marvel films or shows will debut until 2025 – only Deadpool 3 is currently scheduled to release in 2024.)
It would be a lot more financially practical for Marvel to focus on street-level heroes like Misty Knight or her crew, the Daughter of the Dragon. That is why the Netflix shows were so popular; they were well-made, well-acted, and featured incredible comic book heroes that didn’t need tens of millions worth of CGI like the Hulk, Iron Man, or Thanos.
Misty Knight’s comic book history deserves recognition and revisiting. Her early comic book appearances could become a lot more valuable if Marvel could bring back the character Post-Netflix and make her more compelling to new audiences.
The first comic book appearances of Misty Knight, a character you may not know or care about, are worth much more than the first comic book appearances of Winter Soldier and Cable combined.
Misty Knight: Perennial Main Character Masked as a Supporting Character
However, Misty Knight still does not get the same recognition she deserves, even though she influenced other characters decades after her creation. Misty Knight had her right arm replaced with a cybernetic arm in 1975, but if you mention Marvel superheroes with cybernetic arms to casual fans, they mention Winter Soldier or Cable.
Bucky Barnes was created in 1940 as a teenage sidekick to Captain America. The character was later aged up to become a man but was rarely used and presumed dead by the 1960s. The character was reimagined and reintroduced in the comics in 2005 as a brainwashed Russian captive and assassin called The Winter Soldier – an assassin with a cybernetic arm replacing his left arm. (The character’s first MCU film appearance was in 2011 and now he is a household name.)
Cable, a mutant with a cybernetic left arm, made his comic book debut appearance in 1986. The character is famous for having a convoluted origin; he is the son of Cyclops and a clone of Jean Grey who was sent to the future as a child and returned to the present day as a mutant warrior. Josh Brolin portrayed Cable in Deadpool 2 in 2018.
Wittingly or unwittingly, Cable and Winter Soldier seem like they were aesthetically inspired by Misty Knight. Even if you want to contrarily argue that they are not, then that presupposes that Misty Knight never mattered in the first place.
The first appearance of The Winter Soldier, the reimagined Bucky Barnes as a brainwashed Russian assassin was in Captain America #6 published in 2005. Almost 20 years later a copy of this issue with a 9.8 CGC grade is now worth $204.
Uncanny X-Men #201 from 1986, which features the first appearance of Cable as a baby, is worth over $106 if it has a CGC grade of 9.8.
You can’t tell me with a straight face that the collectors market and MCU effect had nothing to do with those valuations.
Marvel owns about 72,000 characters. Each character can’t have their show or film. But Misty Knight was chosen to appear in several Netflix/Marvel shows, appealed to a cult Netflix audience, and now, who knows if we will ever see Simone Missick or another actress portray the character again.
Her character in the comics is not as popular as Winter Soldier or Cable, even though she had the same aesthetics and basic power set as far back as the 1970s.
Why is that? Misty Knight was a peer of Tony Stark, fought alongside Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and Colleen Wing, and was used in recent comic book storylines to help find a missing Wolverine.
You don’t have to like Misty Knight, but you should respect her gangsta. Misty Knight was created in the blaxploitation era of the 1970s when non-white action heroes were Asian martial arts masters or cool-as-ice Black vigilantes who protected their neighborhoods from crime and dealt with racism.
Misty Knight fought crime, loved her neighborhood, Harlem, was a businesswoman, and was a positive depiction of a black woman in popular culture decades before the crass stereotype of the angry black woman took hold in current popular media.
So, why should you care about Misty Knight? Which of her comic book appearances are worthy of you reading or even potentially investing in? Here’s what you need to know.
Misty Knight 101
Mistry Knight first appeared in Marvel Premiere #21 in March 1975, however, she was first mentioned in passing in a conversation between characters in Marvel Premiere #20 in January 1975. Editors retconned her origin later, so technically Misty Knight appeared as an unnamed character in Marvel Team-Up #1 in March 1972.
This trivia-like minutiae seems weird but is very important data for hardcore readers and investors.
Misty Knight was co-created by writer Tony Isabella and artist Arvelle Jones. Isabella also created the Black Lightning character for DC Comics.
Knight was a Harlem-centric cop who had her right arm destroyed after a terrorist bomb attack. (Sometimes her cybernetic arm is depicted as being the left one depending on the artist) Tony Stark grafted a cybernetic metal arm to her right shoulder as a replacement. The arm can project concussive blasts, lift heavy objects, and communicate with computers and technology.
Knight’s main talents are as an investigator and a martial artist. In January 1977, Knight was paired with Colleen Wing, a Japanese martial arts expert in issue #32 of Deadly Hands of Kung Fu. The pair formed a detective agency and crime-fighting duo called The Daughters of the Dragon.
If you’re seeing a theme here, you must remember that the character was created in the mid-1970s in an era where blaxploitation and kung-fu films were a new and very popular form of entertainment. The idea of cyborgs and cybernetics was a mind-blowing concept in the 1970s as well with shows like The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman.
The Daughters of the Dragon teamed up often with Luke Cage and Iron Fist. For many years Knight was a love interest for Iron Fist. The pair still hook up from time to time in the comic books.
The 2016 Captain America: Civil War film is based on the first Civil War comic book storyline from 2006. The government mandated that superheroes had to register to operate legally which caused a schism in the superhero community. Knight was for the mandate while Iron Fist was against it.
Iron Fist and Knight lived together in Harlem and had a long-term relationship that was rocky at times. Knight even got pregnant with Iron Fist’s child once which later turned into a false positive that rocked their relationship.
From 2015 through 2017, Sam Wilson was officially Captain America in the comic books. Misty Knight was a major supporting character in the series – Sam and Misty were even lovers for a while. Wilson sometimes buckled under the burden of being the new Cap and confided in Knight about it. For one issue, Sam Wilson: Captain America #16, Misty Knight uses the shield as a temporary replacement for Sam.
In 2018, Wolverine had been unused as a character for almost four years after his death and was brought back in the Hunt for Wolverine comic. Misty Knight was a supporting character helping to search for Wolverine.
From 1972 or 1975, depending on who you ask, and to the current day, Misty Knight has been a bold, vibrant, and badass character that many writers and artists love to use in Marvel comic storylines. Simone Messick’s portrayal of Misty Knight as a supporting character in the Netflix shows Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and The Defenders was great, but we may never see her again in that universe.
(Image Courtesy Blackfilm/FB.) Simone Missick as Misty Knight and Jessica Henwick as Colleen Wing. Missick and Henwick’s portrayals of Knight and Wing were beloved by fans even though they were only the supporting characters in Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and The Defenders. Online fans clamored for an official Daughters of the Dragon streaming show, but it never happened.
Misty Knight as a character deserves more attention; if what I’ve just written sounds interesting to you, then you should check out her stories, especially her Daughters of the Dragon comics.
Investment Potential
Investment is strategized gambling, but I think it is a worthwhile gamble to buy the early appearances of Misty Knight. The MCU might use her again in the future. If you or someone you know has the first comic appearances of Winter Soldier or Cable, you could make over $300 right now, and those comics were published within the last 35 years.
And guess what? The first appearance of Misty Knight is even more valuable than the first appearance of Cable and the Winter Soldier combined.
A copy of Marvel Premiere #20 with a 9.8 CGC rating, which features Misty Knight’s name mentioned in passing and not even her first aesthetic appearance, is worth over $375. A copy of this issue with a 9.2 CGC rating is worth $89.
A copy of Marvel Premiere #21 with a CGC rating of 9.8 is worth $975. This comic features the first appearance of Misty Knight.
According to some comic book purists, Misty Knight technically made her first appearance in Marvel Team-Up #1 in 1972 as an unnamed character after Marvel editors made decisions years later that retroactively changed some characters’ histories. A copy of this issue with a 9.8 CGC rating is worth $1,419. And this is a comic that was published over 50 years ago.
How badass is that?
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Allen Francis is a full-time writer, prolific comic book investor and author of The Casual’s Guide: Why You Should Get Into Comic Book Investing. Allen holds a BA degree from Marymount Manhattan College. Before becoming a writer Allen was an academic advisor, librarian, and college adjunct for many years. Allen is an advocate of best personal financial practices including saving and investing in your own small business.
I loved the Daughters of the Dragon and their subsequent Heroes for Hire run. Misty is a great character and deserves way more recognition.