Knull

• 1. Introduction

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  Knull, a god of darkness older than the Marvel Universe itself, first appeared in Venom volume 4, issue 3, in August 2018. Writer Donny Cates and artist Ryan Stegman created him. In the comics he is a primordial being from before the universe's seventh iteration, and he holds the title King in Black. He rules the symbiotes, the alien costumes best known through the hero and villain Venom. His arrival rewrote the established history of Venom, of Carnage and of the Klyntar. Where did a being that old come from, and why did he build a race of living weapons? Why did those creations turn on him? And what happens when a caged god finally gets loose?

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• 2. Rebellion Against the Celestials

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  Before the Marvel Universe existed, Knull drifted through a place the comics call the endless void. He had emerged after the sixth iteration of the cosmos was destroyed, and he was content to float alone.

  Then the Celestials arrived and began building the 7th iteration of the cosmos. They offered Knull a post called King in Black, with the duty of keeping their new universe stable. He soon saw that their Light of Creation was slowly spoiling his kingdom of darkness. It was turning him into little more than their pawn.

  Knull answered by making his first symbiote, shaped like a large sword. With it he decapitated the Celestial assigned to watch him. The other Celestials banished him, and the severed head, deeper into the Void.

  Knull used that head to forge All-Black the Necrosword. He fused his symbiote sword with cosmic energy drawn from the Celestial's brain. The process accidentally created Knowhere. It also gave the symbiotes two lasting weaknesses, to high sonic frequencies and to fire.

  Wearing a symbiote armor, Knull began killing other deities with All-Black. His rampage ended when he crash-landed on an unnamed planet. There Gorr took the sword from the incapacitated god. But Knull reawakened, and he discovered a way to spread that needed no sword at all.

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• 3. The Hive and the Cage

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  When Knull reawakened, he found that he could bond his living abyss to what he called "lesser creatures." Their new forms became vessels that he controlled. He built an army of symbiotes with himself at the center of a shared hive mind. He sent it across the universe as the Symbiote Hive, and it killed the "light and creation" it met. Knull kept killing gods, and he enslaved others.

  At some point the time-displaced Silver Surfer came to him, weakened after creating a little star to free a world from Knull's control. After a brief fight, Knull bonded a symbiote to the Surfer. Ego the Living Planet saved the Surfer. When Knull moved to re-infect him, the Surfer gathered the energy of the cosmos and made a star. That star was enough to defeat Knull.

  Centuries later, on medieval Earth, one dragon-like symbiote arrived to claim the planet for the Hive. The young Thor came to the aid of Viking villagers and defeated it. The villagers called the creature "Grendel." Its death broke the connection between Knull and the hive mind.

  The scattered symbiotes were free of his control. They began bonding to benevolent hosts and learning about the Light. Then they rebelled against their god. They trapped him inside an artificial planet made of billions of symbiotes, which they named Klyntar, a word meaning "cage" in their language. Thousands of years would pass before anyone disturbed that prison.

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• 4. Waking the Dragon

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  During the Vietnam War, S.H.I.E.L.D. found the body of Grendel and bonded its pieces to soldiers. The procedure was called the Sym-Soldier program. It reawakened Knull, who seized control of the soldiers. They went rogue before Nick Fury and Logan captured them. One piece, named Rex, escaped Knull's control.

  Years later Eddie Brock, who is Venom, unknowingly freed the dragon. After a battle against Eddie and Spider-Man, the dragon went searching for Rex in order to free Knull. Venom merged with Rex and trapped Grendel in a blast furnace. The fire incinerated both the dragon and Rex.

  In the story Carnage Born, Scorn joined a cult that worshiped Knull. The cult stole Grendel's codex and the dead body of Cletus Kasady. They implanted the codex in Cletus, and Grendel absorbed the Carnage symbiote's codex. That made Grendel god-like. After this contact with Knull, Cletus resolved to free him. His plan was to collect the codex of every host who had ever bonded to a symbiote. That would overload the hive mind and scatter the Klyntar.

  Cletus reunited with Doppelganger and Shriek, and together they reformed the cult. They returned to Doverton, Colorado. There they collected codices from the citizens and animals infected by Carnage during Carnage USA.

  During "Absolute Carnage," the bond between Knull and the symbiotes strengthened as Carnage grew stronger. Phage, Agony, Lasher, Riot and Scream all turned corrupt. Dark Carnage claimed the remaining codices and tricked Eddie into killing him. That freed Knull at last. He destroyed Klyntar, put on draconic armor and reshaped its symbiotes into a fleet of symbiote dragons.

  Wraith had tracked Knull down, hoping he would remove the Exolon parasites from his body. Knull told him the Exolons were failed experiments on symbiotes, trash he had dumped in The Exoteric Latitude. He stripped the Exolon from Wraith, turned it into his sword and kicked Wraith into space. With his fleet assembled, Knull made his way toward Earth.

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• 5. Siege of Earth

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  At the start of the "King in Black" storyline, Eddie Brock sensed Knull coming and alerted the Avengers. Knull loosed the Symbiote Dragons on Earth, and the Avengers, the Fantastic Four and the X-Men fought them. Sentry carried Knull into Earth's orbit, intending to kill him. Instead Knull killed Sentry and assimilated the Void. His dragons then formed a sphere around the planet that cut it off from the Sun.

  Knull seized Venom, because he recognized Eddie as the one who had killed Grendel. He said he was looking for Eddie's son, Dylan Brock. Eddie begged him to take him instead. Knull tore the Venom symbiote away from Eddie and absorbed it.

  Dylan carried the Symbiote codex, so Knull planned to control him. But Dylan fought back and freed Cyclops, Invisible Woman, Doctor Strange, Black Cat and the Human Torch. Strange morphed into a stronger form, and the heroes counterattacked together. Namor, Thor and Storm did heavy damage. Jean Grey's psychic powers immobilized Knull, and through them she saw his past. She learned that the God of Light, the Enigma Force, was the one thing that could bring him down.

  Silver Surfer reached the Enigma Force and freed it from the symbiotes. Knull reeled in pain, and Eddie was chosen as the new Captain Universe. Venom then fused Mjolnir and the Surfer's surfboard into a battle axe shaped like his spider emblem. He cut through the dragons, noting that Knull had grown afraid of him.

  Knull even sent a Symbiote-controlled Celestial against him, and Venom beheaded it. As Venom ripped off Knull's armor, Knull said the darkness was in Dylan. Venom lifted him into the air and punched through the barrier around Earth. There he used the Uni-Power to vaporize Knull. With Knull dead, the freed symbiotes had a new god in Eddie Brock. Yet nobody had explained why the Celestials wanted a King in Black at all.

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• 6. Return and Powers

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  Eddie, now the new King in Black, learned the answer from his future self, a figure called the Eventuality. The Celestials choose each King in Black for the same purpose as the Beyonders, which is maintaining the multiverse. The Kings simply work from the inside instead of the outside. Knull had refused that job and rebelled.

  In the Venom War storyline of 2024, Eddie lost his position and left a cosmic vacancy. Knull was resurrected to fill it but came back weakened. Hela captured him and took most of his power, becoming the Queen in Black. With his darkness drained, Knull turned to the light and conquered the Lightforce Dimension.

  Knull's powers center on eldritch darkness, which he can shape into weapons and living creatures he calls the "Living abyss." He has superhuman strength and durability, and he is depicted as immortal. He can fly and heal quickly. He can also forge many kinds of symbiotes, including the dragon-like ones, and influence them from afar.

  He is a shapeshifter as well. His human-like mouth can turn into fanged jaws with an elongated tongue, a feature the symbiotes inherited. As a fighter he is an expert, using All-Black against Celestials and other gods. The red dragon and spiral on his symbiote-matter armor were based on the Spiral of Carcosa from True Detective.

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• 7. Publication and Reception

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  A black-armored figure in Thor: God of Thunder issue 6, written by Jason Aaron in March 2013, was later retroactively established as Knull. The Venom debut winked at that nameless being. The character was then mentioned across issues of Web of Venom, Guardians of the Galaxy and "War of the Realms." Cates also made him the main antagonist of Silver Surfer: Black.

  The Cates and Stegman Venom run, from 2018 to 2021, built Knull gradually. He started as a flashback figure. He then became the central antagonist of the "Absolute Carnage" crossover event in 2019. After that he was the main villain of the company-wide "King in Black" event of 2020-2021. He was killed at that event's end. A self-titled series later brought him back, written by Al Ewing and Tom Waltz with art by Juanan Ramirez.

  Ian Cardona of CBR.com called Knull a "cross between Marvel's Dracula and the main villain behind Spider-Verse, Morlun." He praised a wraith-like quality in the character's demeanor and a regal, haunting build. Bradley Prom of Screen Rant named him one of Marvel's memorable antagonists. Prom noted that Knull beat Silver Surfer, the Avengers, the X-Men and more before a huge team-up stopped him.

  Sweden and Norway gave Knull particular attention. In Swedish and Norwegian, "knull" is a crude word for sex.

  In 2020, CBR.com included Knull in its list "Spider-Man: The Best New Villains of the Century." In 2022, Screen Rant placed him on three lists, including "Marvel Comics: 13 Most Powerful Symbiotes." Another was "10 Marvel Comics Gods Who Should Join The MCU Next." His actual screen debut came elsewhere.

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• 8. Beyond the Page

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  The Spider-Man promo "The Secret History of Venom" features Knull, voiced by Ben Pronsky. This version created the Klyntar as living weapons against the Celestials. He then abandoned his first creations, the Symbiote Sisters, deeming them useless.

  In film, the Dark Shadow Lord of Thor: Love and Thunder takes loose inspiration from Knull. That character was the Necrosword's original owner. Knull himself made his live-action feature debut in Venom: The Last Dance, part of Sony's Spider-Man Universe. Andy Serkis portrays him. This version created the Symbiotes and the Xenophages to destroy all life and light in the universe. His Symbiotes betrayed him and imprisoned him on his own world.

  Video games have used him often. Spider-Man Unlimited has both Knull and Ancient Venom, which is Venom possessed by Knull, as playable characters. Marvel: Future Fight offers him as a playable character and a boss. Marvel Strike Force does the same. He is also playable in Marvel Contest of Champions and Marvel Puzzle Quest, and he appears in Marvel Snap.

  In Marvel Rivals he is a non-player character voiced by Michael Scott. In Marvel Cosmic Invasion, Isaac C. Singleton Jr. voices him.

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