Silverblade

Silverblade
Cover to Silverblade #1. Art by Gene Colan.
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
Schedule	monthly
Publication date	September 1987 - September 1988
Number of issues	12
Creative team
Writer(s)	Cary Bates
Penciller(s)	Gene Colan
Inker(s)	Klaus Janson, Steve Mitchell
Colorist(s)	Joe Orlando, Steve Mitchell, Anthony Tollin, Julianna Ferriter

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; it was edited by Dennis O'Neil. Silverblade was published in DC Comics' deluxe format.

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 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.