Marvel Comics has revealed its next major crossover event. Dubbed King in Black, this follow-up to 2019’s Absolute Carnage will explore what happens when symbiote god Knull arrives on Earth.
This new limited series will reunite Absolute Carnage writer Donny Cates and artist Ryan Stegman. Marvel’s press release teases, “Everything in Cates and Stegman’s landmark run on VENOM has led up to this monumental story, and readers will finally witness Eddie Brock’s climactic standoff with one of Marvel’s most terrifying villains.”
While Eddie Brock will be the main protagonist of King in Black, the teaser art above suggests both the X-Men and Avengers will join the fight against Knull. Assuming this crossover is similar in scope to Absolute Carnage, we would expect to see tie-in miniseries spotlighting both teams along with other major players, and a companion storyline in the pages of the ongoing Venom comic.
“As far as event books go, this is the coolest, darkest, most heavy metal, Cthulhu dark horror thing I’ve ever been able to do,” said Cates. “I still can’t believe that Marvel is letting us go as dark and scary as we’re going.”
“One of the things I’m most proud of in this series… is the creation of the character Knull,” added Stegman. “We have some new designs that we’ll be unveiling throughout the series that are really cool and really creepy.”
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For those who haven’t been following the current Venom series, Cates and Stegman previously established that the symbiotes were actually created by Knull, a demonic being who existed in the universal void before the Big Bang. Knull has waged a never-ending war on life ever since his peaceful slumber was disturbed by the Celestials. Knull previously used Carnage as his avatar in Absolute Carnage, with Cletus Kasady attempting to kill everyone who has ever bonded with a symbiote and harvest the traces of the symbiote codex from their bodies. Though Venom succeeded in stopping Carnage, he failed to prevent his old foe from awakening Knull and revealing Earth’s location.
King in Black #1 will hit stores in December 2020. But before that, Marvel has two other major crossovers planned for this year. First, Empyre will pit a united Kree and Skrull armada against the Avengers and Fantastic Four. Then, X of Swords will serve as the first line-wide X-Men crossover since last fall’s Dawn of X Relaunch.
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Source: IGN.com King in Black: Marvel's Next Epic Venom Story Revealed