First Appearance: Knights of Pendragon v1 #10 (May 1991).
Appearances: Knights of Pendragon v1 #10.
Years Active: 1915-1945, and perhaps longer (see below).
Albion's real name
is Peter Hunter. For the past 50-60 years he's been a teacher, but he has
a more glorious history than that. Peter Hunter, as Albion, was a veteran
of both World Wars, although it is unclear whether he was superhumanly
active during World War Two.
In 1915, as an active soldier for the British side, Hunter was in possession of superhuman abilities, but gained the insight at that time that his powers were given to him not solely to defend Britain against the Germans but to fight against greater evils. Hunter's powers come from the Pendragon, which
is the power that invests certain individuals when it becomes necessary for them to take a stand for the greater good. It makes champions of exceptional men...and women, and it's been doing that since the days of Arthur...or even earlier. It attunes the individual to the natural cycle, urges him or her to defend the essential fabric of all that is important...all that is "good" to use an inadequate word. And it teaches us to recognise the threatening foe in its true form. Each Pendragon carries with it the past incarnations of its champions.Hunter was "possessed by one of the earliest, most primal spirits. Herne the Hunter's spirit, if you like." This spirit is older and more incomprehensible than the Pendragon which "invested in Robin of Locksley." (The Pendragon energy, by the way, is not specific to Great Britain, but exists in other places, under other names, and even in other dimensions.)
During the 1915 episode Hunter fought against a German youth possessed by the demonic race known as the Bane. At that time Albion's costume was a red top, white leggings and gloves, a white lion, rampant, on his cheset, and a red mask and cape. During WW1 his only powers were the ability to shoot magic fire from his hands and the ability to sense evil magic, "that electric spark of recognition that all Pendragons share." In the present era he sensed the resurgence of the Bane and joined various other Pendragons to oppose them. In this new incarnation he is said to be an avatar of Merlin, has a new costume and has new, undefined powers. He also later became a member of the group the Dark Guard.
Note: Previous Marvel continuity had established, or at least strongly implied, that "Robin of Locksley," aka Robin Hood, was actually Fandral, the Asgardian god and friend of Thor. But making Robin Hood a mortal possessed by one of the Pendragon spirits makes for a better story. In the pages of Heroes for Hire the modern-day hero the Black Knight was given the title of "Pendragon" by the Lady of the Lake. What relationship there is between this "Pendragon" and the Pendragon of Knights of Pendragon is unclear.
