The King in Black is finally coming to Earth. Marvel Comics released a brand new preview of their latest upcoming event featuring the God of Symbiotes, Knull. Earth's Mightiest Heroes will be up against one of the strongest foes they've ever faced and to make matters worse, he's coming with thousands of symbiote dragons.
Marvel had announced previously Knull was coming to Earth (in a somewhat unintentionally hilarious advertisement) and it seems he's coming with a fury. Knull is an ancient being who is the creator of symbiotes. He is capable of forming symbiotes how he pleases - from the first symbiote creation, All-Black the Necrosword, to an army of dragons. The character has significant ties to Marvel's history and has been teased in the pages of Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman's excellent run on Venom. The character represents extreme darkness and shares some similarities to Michael Moorcock's iconic fantasy character Elric of Melniboné.
Marvel revealed Cates, Stegman, JP Mayer, Frank Martin, and Clayton Cowles' King In Black event will feature the terrifying villain arriving on Earth and he's not coming alone. The preview shows that he'll be coming to destroy the Marvel Universe with his own symbiote monster constructs, including "hundreds of thousands of symbiote dragons." This doesn't bode well for Eddie Brock, who previously gave warning to the Avengers about the King in Black and what he's capable of. Check out Ryan Stegman's textless cover for the event's second issue, which features Knull taking down the Avengers with a menacing smile on his face.
Marvel announced a handful of tie-ins to the event, including Black Cat #1 by Jed MacKay and C.F. Villa, King In Black: Iron Man/Doctor Doom from Christopher Cantwell and Salvador Larroca, King In Black Immortal Hulk #1 by Al Ewing and Aaron Kuder, King In Black: Namor #1 (of 5) by Kurt Busiek, Ben Dewey, and Jonas Scharf, and Spider-Woman #7 by Karla Pacheco and Pere Perez. All of those books will feature the titular characters dealing with Knull's invasion of Earth. Cates recently called the event, "the coolest, darkest, most heavy metal, Cthulhu dark horror thing I’ve ever been able to do."
The King In Black event will start in December. Considering the teases of how grand and dark the series will be, readers can expect major changes to the Marvel Universe. Knull is coming. Check out the solicit for the series first issue below.
- King In Black #1
- Written by Donny Cates
- Art by Ryan Stegman
- DARKNESS REIGNS! After a campaign across the galaxy, Knull’s death march arrives to Earth and, worse yet, he hasn’t come alone! With an army of hundreds of thousands of symbiote dragons at his command, the King in Black is a force unlike any Earth’s heroes have ever faced. EDDIE BROCK, A.K.A. VENOM has seen firsthand the chaos that even one of Knull’s symbiotic monsters can wreak – will he survive an encounter with the God of the Abyss himself? From Donny Cates, Ryan Stegman, JP Mayer, Frank Martin and VC’s Clayton Cowles comes the definitive chapter in their two-year-long VENOM saga that changed everything you thought you knew about symbiotes!