Knull

Origin

Knull is a primordial deity who came into being following the destruction of the sixth iteration of the cosmos.^[10] He was originally content to drift through "the endless void" until the Celestials arrived and began creating the 7th iteration of cosmos—the Marvel Universe. The Celestials offered him the position of "King in Black" and the responsibility of ensuring stability in their new universe,^[11] but upon realizing that the Celestials' "Light of Creation" was slowly despoiling his kingdom of darkness and making him little more than a pawn of the Celestials, Knull retaliated by creating his first symbiote in the form of a large sword, with which he decapitated the Celestial tasked with monitoring him.^[12]

The other Celestials banished Knull and the severed Celestial head deeper into the Void. He then used the head to forge All-Black the Necrosword by combining his symbiote sword with extracted cosmic energy from its brain, a process that inadvertently created Knowhere.^[13] In doing so, he unintentionally gave the symbiotes their weaknesses to high sonic frequencies and fire. He created a symbiote armor and, with All-Black, started killing the other deities, until he crash-landed on an unnamed planet where Gorr took All-Black from the incapacitated Knull.^[14]

Knull eventually reawakened and discovered he could bond his living abyss to "lesser creatures" and control their new forms as vessels. He created an army of symbiotes with himself in the center of the hive mind and used them to spread across the universe, thus establishing the Symbiote Hive and killing the "light and creation" in the process. He continued killing gods, while also enslaving others. At some point, he was approached by the time-displaced Silver Surfer who had been weakened after Silver Surfer had created a little star to free a world from Knull's control. After a brief fight, Knull was able to bond a symbiote to Silver Surfer, but the latter was saved by Ego the Living Planet.^[15] When Knull reached Silver Surfer, he tried to defeat him and re-infect Silver Surfer with his abyss, but Silver Surfer, who had gathered the energy of the cosmos, created a star which was enough to defeat Knull.^[16]

When one dragon-like symbiote arrived on medieval Earth to claim the planet as part of the Symbiote Hive, the young Thor arrived in aid of the Viking villagers and defeated the dragon, which the villagers called "Grendel", causing the connection between Knull and the symbiote hive mind to break. The symbiotes that were scattered over the universe, now free from Knull's control, began bonding to benevolent hosts and learning about the Light. The symbiotes rebelled against their god and trapped him inside an artificial planet formed of billions of symbiotes, which they called Klyntar—"cage" in their language.^[12]

Meeting Eddie Brock

After thousands of years, S.H.I.E.L.D. discovered the body of Grendel and bonded the pieces of the dragon to soldiers to create Super-Soldiers to fight in the Vietnam War. The procedure was dubbed the Sym-Soldier program. This reawakened Knull, allowing him to take control of the Sym-soldiers who went rogue before being captured by Nick Fury and Logan, except one piece, named Rex, which escaped Knull's control.^[17] Years later, Eddie Brock (Venom) unknowingly freed the dragon and, after a battle against Eddie and Spider-Man, the dragon began searching for Rex to free Knull.^[18] However, Venom merged with Rex and eventually trapped Grendel in a blast furnace, incinerating it and Rex.^[19]

Freed by Carnage

In Carnage Born, after Scorn joined a cult worshiping Knull, they steal Grendel's codex and Cletus Kasady's deceased body, and after implanting the codex inside Cletus, the Carnage symbiote's codex was absorbed by Grendel, causing Grendel to become god-like. After the contact with Knull, Cletus decided to free Knull by collecting every codex of every host who had at some point bonded to symbiotes to overload the symbiote hive mind and scatter the Klyntar.^[20] After Cletus reunited with Doppelganger and Shriek, they reformed the cult dedicated to worshipping Knull. They then returned to Doverton, Colorado, where they receive codices from citizens and animals who were infected by Carnage during Carnage USA.^[21]

During "Absolute Carnage", as Carnage grew stronger, so did the connection between Knull and the symbiotes, as witnessed when Phage, Agony, Lasher, Riot and Scream also became corrupt.^[22][23] Knull was finally reawakened after Dark Carnage tricked Eddie into killing him after claiming the remaining codices. Knull promptly destroyed Klyntar, manifesting a suit of draconic armor and coalescing its constituent symbiotes into a fleet of symbiote-dragons. Meanwhile, Knull was tracked down by Wraith who wanted Knull to remove the Exolon parasites from his body.^[24] Knull revealed to Wraith that Exolons were just his failed experiments on symbiotes and he dumped that "trash" in The Exoteric Latitude, he stripped the Exolon from Wraith's body turning it into his sword and kicked off Wraith into the space.^[25] Knull resumes his campaign against the light while making his way to Earth.^[26]

Conquering Earth and death

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 Alliance armada headed by General Kalamari finds Talos' escape pod. After recuperating in the sick bay, Talos recaps to Kalamari about what happened on his mission that involved an encounter with Knull. Talos then 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 and swoops in to attack.^[27]

Sensing Knull coming at the start of the "King in Black" storyline, Eddie Brock alerts the Avengers. Knull unleashes the Symbiote Dragons on Earth as the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and the X-Men fight them. Sentry takes Knull into Earth's orbit, intending to kill him, but Knull kills Sentry and assimilates the Void. Knull then proceeds to have his Symbiote Dragons form a sphere around Earth to cut it off from the Sun. Knull grabs Venom as he recognizes Eddie as the one who killed Grendel, then he states to Eddie that he is looking for his son, Dylan Brock. When Eddie begs for Knull to take him instead, Knull rips the Venom symbiote from him and absorbs it.^[10]

Knull plans to control Dylan since the latter has the Symbiote codex, but Dylan fights back freeing Cyclops, Invisible Woman, Doctor Strange, Black Cat, and the Human Torch. Strange morphs into a stronger form and together the heroes fight back against the symbiotes. Namor, Thor and Storm deal heavy damage while Jean Grey's psychic powers immobilize Knull, seeing Knull's past and realizing that the God of Light (the Enigma Force) is the one thing that can take down Knull. Silver Surfer arrives to where the Enigma Force is and frees it from the Symbiotes. Knull reels in pain and Eddie is chosen to be the new Captain Universe.^[28]

Venom manages to make use of Mjolnir and Silver Surfer's surfboard, fusing them into a battle axe that is in the shape of Venom's spider emblem. Using his battle axe, Venom starts to shred his way through the Symbiote Dragons upon noting that Knull has become afraid of him. Knull even unleashes a Symbiote-controlled Celestial to aid him, only for Venom to behead it. As Venom rips off Knull's armor, Knull states that the darkness is in Dylan. Venom then picks up Knull, flies into the air, and punches through the Symbiote barrier surrounding Earth, where he uses the Uni-Power to vaporize Knull. As a result of Knull's death, Eddie Brock becomes the god of the Symbiotes now that they are free of Knull's control.^[29]

The King in Black's true purpose

As the new King in Black, Eddie learns from his future self known as the Eventuality that the Kings in Black are picked by the Celestials to serve the same purpose as the Beyonders—maintaining the multiverse—but they work from the inside instead of the outside. Knull had refused the work and rebelled against the Celestials.^[11]

Return

Eddie Brock lost his position as ruler of the Symbiotes during the Venom War storyline, creating a cosmic vacancy. Knull is resurrected to fill this vacancy, but is left in a weakened state. Hela captures Knull and takes most of his power, becoming the Queen in Black.^[30][31]

Critical reception

Ian Cardona of CBR.com referred to Knull as a "cross between Marvel's Dracula and the main villain behind Spider-Verse, Morlun", writing, "There is an ethereal, wraith-like quality to his demeanor. He's got the appropriately haunting build, with his broad shoulders and chest covered by armor that makes him appear both regal and powerful. He has terrifyingly sharp teeth, and the signature symbiote tongue."^[40] Bradley Prom of Screen Rant called Knull one of Marvel's "memorable antagonists", saying, "It took all of Earth's heroes, along with intergalactic heroes such as the Guardians of the Galaxy and the Kree-Skrull alliance to finally stop him. However, before they all teamed up, Knull beat Silver Surfer, the Avengers, the X-Men, and more, forcing the ultimate team-up to stop one of the most powerful Marvel Comics villains in history."^[3]

Knull received particular attention in Sweden and Norway, due to the word knull being the noun form of "fuck" (referring to copulation), in Swedish and Norwegian.^[41][42][43]

Accolades

• In 2015, Screen Rant included Knull in their "20 Most Powerful Marvel Villains" list.^[3]
• In 2018, IGN included Knull in their "Marvel's most powerful symbiotes" list.^[2]
• In 2020, CBR.com ranked Knull 2nd in their "10 Marvel Gods With The Highest Kill Count" list^[4] and 9th in their "19 Most Powerful Cosmic Marvel Characters Ranked" list.^[44]
• In 2020, CBR.com included Knull in their "Spider-Man: The Best New Villains of the Century" list.^[45]
• In 2021, Screen Rant included Knull in their "16 Most Powerful Cosmic Characters In Marvel Comics" list^[36] and in their "Marvel: Venom's Main Comic Book Villains Ranked From Most Laughable To Coolest" list.^[46]
• In 2022, Bustle included Knull in their "50 Most Powerful Characters In The Marvel Universe" list.^[5]
• In 2022, Collider ranked Knull 2nd in their "9 Most Powerful Symbiotes In the Marvel Universe" list.^[35]
• In 2022, Screen Rant included Knull in their "Marvel Comics: 13 Most Powerful Symbiotes" list,^[47] in their "10 Best Cosmic Villains Not Yet in the MCU" list,^[48] and in their "10 Marvel Comics Gods Who Should Join The MCU Next" list.^[49]
• In 2022, CBR.com ranked Knull 1st in their "Black Knight's 10 Strongest Villains" list^[50] and 1st in their "Venom: The 20 Most Powerful Symbiotes" list.^[51]

Television

Knull appears in the Spider-Man promo "The Secret History of Venom", voiced by Ben Pronsky. This version created the Klyntar to serve as living weapons against the Celestials before eventually abandoning the former after deeming his first creations, the Symbiote Sisters, useless to him.

Film

• Knull serves as loose inspiration for the Dark Shadow Lord in Thor: Love and Thunder.^[52] This version is the Necrosword's original owner before Gorr the God Butcher.
• Knull appears in Venom: The Last Dance, portrayed by Andy Serkis.^[53][54][55] This version is the creator of the Symbiotes and the Xenophages, intended to destroy all life and light in the universe. However, his Symbiotes betrayed him and imprisoned him on his own world. In the present, he discovers that a "Codex" has been created by the Venom symbiote, who resurrected its host, Eddie Brock, during a battle against Riot, and wants to use it to free himself from his prison. He sends the Xenophages to Earth to retrieve the Codex. Upon locating Venom, Knull sends more Xenophages to Earth, to Area 51, but discovers that the Codex and its Xenophages were destroyed by Venom's sacrifice. He declares that the universe is no longer safe from him now that Venom has fallen and that one day he might escape and annihilate all the planets, that Earth would be the first planet he would destroy, and that he would burn all of humanity.

Video games

• Knull and Ancient Venom (Venom possessed by Knull) appear as playable characters in Spider-Man Unlimited.
• Knull appears as a playable character and boss in Marvel: Future Fight.
• Knull appears in Marvel Snap.
• Knull appears as a playable character in Marvel Contest of Champions.
• Knull appears as a playable character in Marvel Puzzle Quest.^[56]
• Knull appears as a boss and playable character in Marvel Strike Force.
• Knull appears as an NPC character in Marvel Rivals, voiced by Michael Scott.^[57]
• Knull appears in Marvel Cosmic Invasion, voiced by Isaac C. Singleton Jr.^[55]