King in Black

"King in Black" is a comic book event written by Donny Cates with art by Ryan Stegman, and was published from 2020 to 2021 by Marvel Comics. It is a continuation to 2019's "Absolute Carnage", also containing fallout from 2020's "Empyre". In the story, Knull and his symbiotes invade Earth, leaving Eddie Brock / Venom, the Avengers, the X-Men, and numerous other superheroes to protect it. A sequel, "Queen in Black", will be published in 2026.

Zoralis Gupa of the planet Silnius takes an urgent call while mentioning to the person on the other side to warn all neighboring systems. He tells Victoria that various planets are being devastated, rendering the galactic economy fragile enough to go bankrupt. Gupa states to Super-Skrull and everyone present that something darker than Galactus is destroying the worlds and its name is Knull.^[1]

Emperor Hulkling dispatches Talos to investigate the Kree and Skrull bases that went dark with Av-Rom, Keeyah, M'lanz, Virtue, and Tarna. Two days later, a Kree/Skrull armada headed by General Kalamari finds Talos' escape pod. While recuperating in the sick bay, Talos tells Kalamari of his encounter Knull. Talos informs Kalamari that his distress beacon on his escape pod is a warning that Knull is coming. Outside the ship, Knull is riding a symbiote dragon as he swoops in for an attack.^[2]

Captain America, Iron Man, She-Hulk, and Captain Marvel scan for Knull's approach. When thousands of symbiote dragons start to arrive, Iron Man detonates the warships, killing half of the symbiote dragons. The Avengers and the Fantastic Four arrive to combat the symbiote dragons while Eddie Brock places his son Dylan Brock in a bunker. During the ensuing battle, Sentry takes Knull into Earth's orbit, intending to kill him. However, Knull kills Sentry and assimilates his alternate personality, the Void. Knull has one of the symbiote dragons form a sphere around Earth, cutting off the Sun. Eddie contacts Iron Man informing him that he and the Venom symbiote are going to buy Iron Man time to come up with a plan to defeat Knull. As Venom, Eddie goes to confront Knull and offer his services to him. Knull grabs Venom as he recognizes Eddie as the one who killed Grendel, then he states to Eddie that the Brock he is looking for is Dylan Brock. When Eddie begs for Knull to take him instead, Knull rips the Venom symbiote off him and absorbs it into his body. Knull drops Eddie back to Earth, where he finds that the Avengers have been possessed by symbiotes.^[3]

Eddie Brock slams onto a car, critically injuring himself. Valkyrie tells Spider-Man that Eddie Brock is barely alive and they need to do something fast to save his life. Iron Man tells the heroes that he has a plan which is to acquire a small part of a symbiote dragon, have Namor wake up the Black Tide (the ancient Atlantean warriors from Namor's teenage days) in the Mariana Trench, have Blade persuade Dracula to help them, and persuade Mayor Wilson Fisk to hire villains to help defend New York City. Iron Man manages to take control of a symbiote dragon using Extremis and brings the symbiote to Fantastic Four to heal Eddie Brock, but the symbiote starts killing Eddie. Dylan uses his power to destroy the symbiote, but Eddie flatlines.^[4]

Silver Surfer passes by the planets that have been attacked by Knull. Invisible Woman and Blade are being overwhelmed by symbiotes and Mister Fantastic wants Spider-Man and Wolverine to escort Dylan Brock out to free the symbiote hordes. The three of them appear to help Invisible Woman and Dylan frees Captain America from his symbiote. Knull finds out where Dylan is and is about to get him when Thor arrives. Together, Thor and Dylan help free some of the possessed heroes. Thor and Knull fight and Thor gains the upper hand until Knull distracts Thor by bringing in his symbiote-possessed Celestials and stabs Thor in the back. Iron Man arrives to use his Extremis-infected symbiote dragon in order to take control of the symbiote-possessed Celestials. Just before Dylan is about to taken away, Silver Surfer arrives after being summoned by Hugin and Munin.^[5]

Knull plans to control Dylan since he has the symbiote codex, but Dylan fights back. Jean Grey immobilizes Knull with her psychic powers. She sees Knull's past, and realizes that the God of Light (another name for the Enigma Force) is the one thing that can take down Knull before passing out. Silver Surfer arrives to where the Enigma Force is and frees it from the symbiotes. Knull reels in pain and Eddie Brock is chosen to be the new Captain Universe.^[6]

Through the God of Light, Silver Surfer assumes a chrome form and turns his surfboard into a sword. Using his battle axe, Venom starts to shred his way through the symbiote dragons. Venom then picks up Knull, flies into the air, and punches through the symbiote barrier surrounding Earth. Venom plunges his hand into the sun and uses the Uni-Power to vaporize Knull, freeing the symbiote hive from his influence. The Uni-Power leaves Eddie, stating that he has become more than a human as the Venom symbiote reunites with Eddie. As Venom sprouts dragon-like wings and flies into the air, a group of symbiotes and symbiote dragons follow him. The Venom symbiote tells Eddie that he has become the leader of the symbiotes and the new King in Black.^[7]

Eddie is in limbo talking with one of the symbiotes and sees Flash Thompson in his Agent Anti-Venom appearance.^[8] Flash reveals that even after he died, his Anti-Venom suit kept a codex of his consciousness in the symbiote hive mind. Flash and Eddie go see the heart of the symbiote hive mind and Flash sacrifices himself to take control of the symbiote mind. Knull feels pain, finds Eddie Brock, and grabs him by the throat.^[9]

Wilson Fisk decides to put together his own team of superpowered operatives to beat back Knull's creatures and save the city. He secretly meets with eight of these operatives, all known criminals who have been working in the city without Kingpin's blessing: Taskmaster, Mister Fear, Batroc the Leaper, Rhino, Star, Ampere, and Snakehead. To pay Fisk back, these criminals must escort Star (current keeper of one of the Infinity Gems) into battle to kill Knull, but to do that they wll first need to make contact with a man Kingpin believes can help turn the tide against the god. The seven agree to Fisk's plan. Despite objections, this team will be called the Thunderbolts because Kingpin owns the copyright. The team sets out into the city and is promptly attacked by a giant symbiote dragon. Snakehead is devoured, but Mister Fear and Star manage to kill the symbiote dragon. When Ampere exclaims that the team is doomed and he intends to leave, Mister Fear murders him. A symbiote possesses Ampere's corpse, with a horde of symbiotes chasing the Thunderbolts. The team escapes to a fishing boat nearly leaving Batroc behind and finally reach their destination: Ravencroft Institute. Inside, they find the man Fisk believes can defeat Knull: Norman Osborn.^[10] Osborn leads the Thunderbolts into retrieving Sentry's corpse so that it can be used as a nuke to destroy Knull's lair. Taskmaster uses Figment's abilities to make it look like the Thunderbolts sacrificed their lives to pull off the mission. After Fisk broadcasts the Thunderbolts' sacrifice during the fight against the symbiote invasion, the Thunderbolts arrive and blackmail him into raising their pay and giving them further missions once Knull is defeated.^[11]

Spider-Man gets a panic attack from realizing that he was the reason why the symbiotes are on Earth. While fighting a symbiote dragon, Spider-Man runs into Reptil in his Pteranodon form who is carrying an old woman named Mrs. Volkov who he is trying to get home. While helping Reptil to get Mrs. Volkov to Staten Island, Spider-Man is then attacked by a swarm of symbiote dragons. Spider-Man was able to web some of them up as he and Reptil near the Staten Island ferry. Reptil notes that he cannot turn into anything big enough to combat a symbiote dragon as Spider-Man notes that his Tyrannosaurus form would not work either. Spider-Man then gets an idea as he helps Mrs. Volkov onto the ferry while Reptil dives into the water and emerges as a Mosasaurus which bites into the symbiote dragon and drags it underwater. With help from Mrs. Volkov evacuating the passengers to the lifeboats, Spider-Man jury-rigs a harpoon from the ship's generators. When the symbiote dragon emerges, Spider-Man throws an electrified harpoon into the dragon's body, killing it.^[12]

The series so far has received positive reviews. According to Comic Book Roundup, the entire series has an average rating of 8.4 out of 10.^{[59][60][61][62][63]}

• Elements from the King in Black serve as the main inspiration for the 2024 film Venom: The Last Dance.