King in Black (Event)

King in Black
Name	King in Black (Event)}
Reality and Participants
Protagonists	Venom, Avengers, X-Men, Fantastic Four
Antagonists	Knull, Symbiote Hive
Publication Details
Creators	Donny Cates, Ryan Stegman
First	Unknown
First	Unknown

Synopsis

Past

Decades ago, a teenage Namor McKenzie was sent as a diplomatic envoy to the Chasm People in a bid to arrange a union between them and the Atlantean Empire. After helping foil a coup against King Attukar of the Chasm People, Namor and his future nemesis Attuma were sent to accompany the elite squad Swift Tide on a mission to retrieve an ancient dark artifact called the Unforgotten Stone. The mission ended in disaster, with the Swift Tide being corrupted into monsters by the Unforgotten Stone's eldritch power, redubbed the Black Tide, and banished to the depths of the Mariana Trench.

During the time Spider-Man was the host of the symbiote later known as Venom, a dark entity called Mister E attempted to conquer the Earth in service of his lord and master - the dark god Knull. Witnessing a future where he succeeded, Kang the Conquerer attempted to prevent this from coming to pass, recruiting Rocket Raccoon to his cause. Coming into conflict with Spider-Man, Mister E was confused as to why one of its brethren would be subservient to its host and try to stop its plan. When Black Knight intervened, Mister E impersonated Merlin to lure him into a trap and stole the Ebony Blade - intent on destroying it out of the belief it could be used to vanquish Knull. Stealing an experimental Quinjet, Mister E took the Ebony Blade to the troll blacksmith Ulicia on Knowhere; pursued by Kang, Rocket, Spider-Man, the Black Knight, and Captain Marvel.

Present

Ravaging the Cosmos

Unleashed from Klyntar, Knull and his horde blaze a swath of destruction across the cosmos en route to Earth - destroying multiple planets, waylaying a fleet of Kree/Skrull Alliance ships and slaughtering or infecting their crews, and settling his eons-old grudge against the Celestials by killing and/or infecting them with symbiotes. Knull dispatched symbiote-dragons across the cosmos to cause as much widespread destruction as possible, one of them attacking Spartax and slaughtering two billion of its inhabitants in the space of four standard hours before being slain by the apotheosized Star-Lord.

Attack on Earth

Sensing that Knull's arrival on Earth is imminent, Eddie Brock alerts the Avengers and takes his son Dylan to the secret bunker made for Spider-Man by Ezekiel Sims. As hundreds of thousands of Symbiote Dragons fly through space towards Earth, Iron Man uses derelict warships left over from the war with the Cotati as a minefield - only managing to kill a hundred of them. As the Avengers and Fantastic Four rush to evacuate Manhattan, the symbiote dragons make landfall and start cocooning the city in living abyss. As Doctor Strange, the X-Men, and numerous street-level heroes join the evacuation effort, Eddie makes his way to Dark Carnage's Spire and connects to it using the Venom symbiote - intending to hack into the Symbiote Hive-Mind and hijack control of the symbiote dragons. Before Eddie can attempt to do so, symbiote-controlled Celestials arrive and Knull emerges demanding to be given the human called Brock in exchange for making Earth's destruction swift and painless. The Sentry arrives and attempts to rip Knull in half, but is effortlessly overpowered and torn in half himself. Absorbing the Void, Knull forcibly bonds symbiotes to most of the remaining heroes and then envelops the Earth in a shell of living abyss. Venom decides to surrender to Knull in order to buy the remaining heroes time to escape, alerting Knull to his location. Knull grabs Venom and takes him to the top of the Empire State Building, where Venom offers to serve him if he spares Earth. Knull refuses and informs Venom that the Brock he wanted was Dylan, ripping the symbiote off Eddie before dropping him. Eddie is mortally wounded and left comatose, Spider-Man taking him to the Fantastic Four for medical treatment.

Disregarding the evacuation order to attempt a major heist, Black Cat is caught off-guard by Knull's attack and barely manages to escape, horrified by witnessing the Avengers' last stand. Making her way to Alchemax, she recruits Doctor Steven to provide her with Astrobiological Serum in order to save Doctor Strange.

The X-Men withdraw from the global defense effort to defend Krakoa, while the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, and Black Panther attempt to rally as many allies as they can - including arranging a truce with Namor and sending him to recruit the Black Tide, sending Blade to recruit Count Dracula, and contacting the Kingpin to recruit New York's supervillains. Iron Man captures a symbiote dragon to heal Eddie, but is unable to successfully sever its connection to the Hive Mind; forcing Dylan to reveal his powers to kill it. As Mister Fantastic jubilantly lauds Dylan as their ace-in-the-hole, everyone notices that Eddie has succumbed to his injuries and died. His consciousness trapped in the symbiote hive-mind as a codex, Eddie is reunited with Tyrannosaurus (Rex Strickland) and Agent Anti-Venom (Flash Thompson); recruiting them to help retake the Venom symbiote from Knull and destroy the Hive from the inside.

As Christmas approaches, the remaining civilians of New York City adjust to the new status quo and carry on with their lives - decorating the city and purchasing presents even at the risk of being eaten by rampaging symbiotes. The heroes and supervillains of Earth begrudgingly work together to mount a resistance to Knull's occupation of Earth, with Doctor Doom attempting to persuade Iron Man to share his symbiote-augmented armor under the pretense of using it to defeat Knull.

Issues

King in Black #1

King in Black #2

King in Black #3

King in Black #4

King in Black #5

Notes

• A trailer was released by Marvel on YouTube to promote this event:

KING IN BLACK Announcement Trailer Marvel Comics

• The event was first teased in the free Empyre magazine.
• Marvel reprinted the recommended issues leading to the event in Knull: Marvel Tales #1 and in the True Believers: King in Black line.

Trivia

• The title of "King in Black" is a reference to Hastur, the King in Yellow (the central character of the Hastur Mythos, and a Cthulhu Mythos character). Knull was first named as such in Silver Surfer: Black #2.

See Also

• 1 appearance(s) of King in Black (Event)
• 4 minor appearance(s) of King in Black (Event)
• 17 mention(s) of King in Black (Event)
• 2 image(s) of King in Black (Event)
• 74 article(s) related to King in Black (Event)