Knull (Marvel)
Knull is a male comic supervillain who features in Marvel Comics.
Contents |
Biography
Knull was an ancient whose origin began before the creation of the universe where he drifted in the endless darkness prior to the formation of time. It was then that existence came into being as a bright light that blinded Knull as he witnessed creation into being by the hands of the Celestials. Upon seeing them forming the universe, Knull came to resent their intrusion into the infinite abyss and retaliated by forging a living sword called the All-Black from his shadow which he used to decapitate one of the cosmic gods. For this crime, he was vanished into the void by the other Celestials where he came to use the severed cosmic gods head as a forge to temper his black blade with cosmic energies. The tempering of the sword was unrefined and it led to the creation of the race of Symbiotes that were his spawn. With the Necrosword, he formed his goal in consuming the divine light in order to return the cosmos to his kingdom of darkness and formed a suit of Symbiotic armour from the darkness to aid him in the genocide against the other gods. (Venom v4 #4) Long ago, an antithesis to Knull and the darkness had formed with this being the Enigma Force that was a 'god of light' to oppose the King in Black. Empowering an army, the 'god of light' was defeated and began a single person to be host of its cosmic power with them being Captain Universe who was charged with opposing the darkness. (King in Black v1 #4)
Hellbent on returning the cosmos to the Abyss, Knull created an artificial planet from the living darkness he controlled to serve as his throneworld and base of operations. (Silver Surfer: Black v1 #2) Experimenting with his ability to manifest life out of darkness itself, Knull began using the Exoteric Latitude as a dumping ground for his failed creations, which millennia later became known as the Exolon. (Web of Venom: Wraith v1 #1) Among his early creations were proto-symbiotes such as Mister E. (Symbiote Spider-Man: King in Black v1 #4)
During the dawn of existence, it was known that he encountered the Silver Surfer when he was the Herald of Galactus. The Surfer was defeated and infected with a Symbiote to turn him into a void knight servant for Knull but came to be freed him from the dark gods power. He was then told to flee his foe with Knull in pursuit which was when Silver Surer met Ego the Living Planet with the two working to stop the evil god. (Silver Surfer: Black v1 #2) Knull hunted the Silver Surfer down and dueled him, intent on reclaiming him for his army. Knull nearly succeeded in doing so, but was defeated when the Silver Surfer expended the last of his Power Cosmic to conjure a star right in front of him, bathing him in stellar plasma and blasting him across the cosmos. This defeat proved temporary, as Knull recovered and resumed his conquest of the cosmos. (Silver Surfer: Black v1 #5)
At some point afterward, Knull engaged an army of gold-armored gods empowered by the Light in combat and slaughtered all but one of them. Pursuing the survivor, Knull managed to impale him on All-Black but was himself impaled through the head by the enemy god's spear. Knull and the dying god crash-landed on a desolate planet, where All-Black left the incapacitated Knull for one of the indigenous inhabitants, Gorr the God Butcher. (King in Black v1 #4) Despite this setback, Knull chose to not hunt the thief down and reclaim All-Black, though he remained aware of Gorr unwittingly following in his footsteps as the God Butcher.
Knull's reign of terror came to an end in the sixth century CE, when two symbiote dragons - one black and one red - arrived on Earth and were named the Grendel and Grendel's Mother by the Danes. The Grendel's rampage was stopped by Thor, who blasted it with divine lightning and severed Knull's connection to the vast majority of symbiotes. As the symbiotes bonded to benevolent hosts, the hive-mind became tainted with notions of honor and nobility, leading to them rebelling against their god and imprisoning him at the heart of the throneworld, which they renamed Klyntar - their word for 'cage'. The symbiotes of Klyntar subsequently attempted to expunge their dark origins and redeem themselves by acting to protect the cosmos they'd once terrorized. (Venom v4 #4)
Centuries later, the Grendel symbiote dragon was unearthed by S.H.I.E.L.D. and its living abyss was used to create a super-soldier initiative called the Sym-Soldier Program. (Web of Venom: Ve'Nam v1 #1)
Using the Grendel to manifest an avatar of his true form, Knull stripped the Venom symbiote from its host and attempted to purge it of the benevolence and compassion it had obtained during its time on Earth; intending to reconnect it to his hive mind and absorb it into the Grendel symbiote to become stronger. (Venom v4 #3) When confronted by Eddie Brock, Knull showed him the true origins and history of the symbiotes; mocking him for believing the lies told to the Venom symbiote by the symbiotes and Agents of the Cosmos. Re-forming the Grendel around his avatar, Eddie, and Spider-Man; Knull flew into space and revealed his plan to obtain the missing pieces of the symbiote dragon, use it to free his true body from Klyntar, and resume his conquest of the universe - starting with Earth. (Venom v4 #4) Venom escaped with help from Spider-Man, but Knull chose not to pursue them and instead began hunting for the Tyrannosaurus symbiote - one of the remaining pieces of the Grendel symbiote dragon. When the Tyrannosaurus symbiote bonded to Venom and reconnected to the Hive Mind, Knull attacked using the Grendel symbiote and attempted to devour Venom. When the Grendel was destabilized by sonic grenades, Knull's manifestation engaged Venom in a brutal one-on-one battle, Venom's arsenal of high-tech weapons proving ineffective. Knull stripped Eddie of both symbiotes and began absorbing them, but his gloating was cut short when Eddie detonated the entire arsenal - the blast affecting Knull's real body at the core of Klyntar. Shaken and enraged, Knull coated his manifestation in the Grendel symbiote, but before he could attack the Tyrannosaurus symbiote coiled around his avatar and dragged it into the heart of a blast furnace - telling Venom to hold the door shut. Knull's avatar was subsequently immolated, his connection to the Grendel symbiote seemingly severed and his body remaining sealed at the heart of Klyntar. (Venom v4 #6)
A few months after the battle, an Earth-based cult dedicated to worshiping Knull - led by Scorn - obtained a sample of the Grendel symbiote and Cletus Kasady's corpse, intending to turn him into Knull's avatar and facilitate his awakening. When the sample of Grendel symbiote was bonded to Cletus, Knull reanimated and psychically communicated with the serial killer; though the nature of their conversation is unknown. When Knull attempted to seize control of Cletus through the symbiote, Cletus resisted Knull's control and their connection was severed when the Grendel symbiote absorbed the codex - trace remnants of living abyss left in former symbiote hosts - that the Carnage symbiote had left in Scorn's body. Cletus desired to communicate with Knull again and decided to help free him by collecting enough codices to reconnect the Grendel symbiote to the Hive Mind. (Web of Venom: Carnage Born v1 #1)
On his way to Earth, he managed to attack the Celestials and corrupted several of them to his service. He finally made it to the solar system where his horde cleared the way whilst the corrupted Celestials brought him to the surface where he demanded Brock be surrendered to him. The heroes were unable to stop him leading to them calling in the Sentry as their secret weapon. During their fight, Knull came to overpower the Sentry and ripped him in half where he absorbed the the Void from his body. He then directed his Symbiote Dragons to attacking the planet where some crashed onto the surface to infect people with Symbiote matter thus bringing them under Knull's control. This saw many of the Earth's heroes being overpowered and taken over by the villain. In this time, Knull came to find Venom where he ripped the Symbiote from Eddie Brock's body where he claimed that he had surrendered himself and asked the Earth to be spared. However, Knull actually had no interest in Eddie Brock but rather wanted his son Dylan Brock. (King in Black v1 #1)
With Dylan Brock in his possession, he attempted to convince the child to side with him but instead the boy was angry at what Knull had done to his father. He let loose with his powers briefly injuring Knull but he managed to easily incapacitate the boy. It was then that his mind was invaded by the Mutant telepath Jean Grey but she was only able to hold him back temporarily but she came to reveal the King in Black's ancient enemy. At that time, the Enigma Force had arrived but was unable to pass through the Symbiote barrier around the planet. It was only the aid of the Silver Surfer was the cosmic force of light managed to reach Earth where it sought out a host to battle Knull. (King in Black v1 #4)
Within the hive mind, Knull was prepared to destroy Eddie Brock but he was saved by a fragment of the Venom Symbiote who rescued him and helped reconstitute him in the real world. (Venom v4 #34) It was then that Knull's ancient foe the god of light arrived on the planet where the Enigma Force bonded to Brock turning him into Captain Universe. This power when combined with Venom gave Brock the strength to fight against the King in Black where he came to be equipped with Thor's hammer Mjolnir and the Silver Surfer's board that was shaped as a sword. With this power, he was able to overwhelm Knull despite the Symbiote god's power and destroyed his body by plunging it into the sun. Knull though claimed that he could never be truly defeated and could live in through the part of him inside Dylan Brock. With his body destroyed, Brock then went back to Earth where he used his power to destroy the Symbiote fragment inside his son thus seemingly ending the threat of Knull. He was then hailed as the new King in Black and master of the Symbiotes who were now freed from the tyrannical rule of Knull. (King in Black v1 #5)
Overview
Personality and attributes
In appearance, Knull was a humanoid being with pale white skin, long hair, red eyes and whose body was coated in an armour of black Symbiotes. (Venom v4 #3) Among the titles he was known by was the King in Black. (Silver Surfer: Black v1 #2)
He was regarded as being the god of a forgotten idea. (Venom v4 #4) Knull had said that he was the Lord of the Abyss and God of the Symbiotes where the darkness within everyone bowed to him as he was one with the Void. (King in Black v1 #1)
Knull had considered Dylan Brock to be his child due to the unique nature of his birth. (King in Black v1 #4)
Powers and abilities
Such was his power that he was shown as being able to rip the Sentry in half through his strength. (King in Black v1 #1)
Long ago, he came to discover that if he bonded his living abyss to lesser creatures then he could manifest and pilot their new forms as vessels. From a Symbiote bond, he could grew strength and clean information from them. (Venom v4 #4)
It was believed that he was the only one able to remotely pilot a Symbiote. This meant that he could possess them from great distances and cause them to develop forms without the need for a host. Thus, they were not restricted to the form of a host and could instead use their Symbiote matter to naturally shapeshift into other forms. (Venom v4 #24)
As the god-host, became the hive mind of the Symbiote race where he was able to wear and control them from across galaxies with him being able to see through them. (Venom v4 #4)
He could command an army of Symbiotes to encase an entire world within their substance thus trapping inhabitants on a planet where they were cut off from the sun and sky. (King in Black v1 #1)
The living blade he wielded came to be known as the All-Black, the Necrosword and as the Godslayer. (Venom v4 #4)
Notes
- Knull was created by Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman where he made his first appearance in Venom v4 #3 (August, 2018).
- The character was added into the Necrosword that was created by Jason Aaron and Butch Guice which first appeared in Thor: God of Thunder v1 #6 (May, 2013).
- In an interview on CBR, Cates wrote, "Every great bad guy needs a cogent point you can get your head around, and for Knull, it's galactic gentrification. He was there before there were stars in the sky and everything belonged to him. This was all supposed to be his, and then the Celestials came, light came, and life came. So, he created an army to try and push that back. Then his army of children rebelled against him and imprisoned him for billions of years. Knull is a horrible wretched being, but his goals are pretty clear. He wants none of us to be here. [Laughs] He wants to go back to the dark, which in his mind, rightfully belongs to him."
In other media
Television
- In Marvel's Spider-Man, Knull made a cameo appearance in the setting of the animated television series third season Maximum Venom in the promo "The Secret Story of Venom". He was described as an ancient near-immortal being whose existence predated the universe until light came into the cosmos through the Celestials. As darkness itself, Knull opposed them leading to a war being fought billions of years ago but as they were many he created weapons from his own shadows that were intelligent servants called 'Klyntar'. These four creations were to serve him in combat which he used to slay the Celestials in an epic battle that shook the heavens which allowed more darkness to exist in the universe than light. Once the war was over, Knull discarded the Klyntar as they had fulfilled their purpose and looked to return to the void of existence alone. The Klyntar did not wish to be separated from their creator with their defiance angering Knull who forcibly removed them and abandoned them.
Video games
- In Spider-Man Unlimited, both Knull and the Ancient Venom possessed by Knull appeared in the setting of the mobile video game.
- In Marvel Strike Force, Knull was referenced in the dialogue in the setting of the mobile video game.
- In Marvel: Future Fight, Knull appeared as a playable character and as a boss in the World Boss Legend in the setting of the mobile video game.
- In Marvel: Contest of Champions, Knull appeared as a playable character in the setting of the mobile video game.
Appearances
- Venom v4: (2018)
- Silver Surfer: Black v1:
- Absolute Carnage v1:
- King in Black v1: (2020)
External Links
This article is a stub. You can help Multiversal Omnipedia by expanding it.
