WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for King in Black: Scream #1 by Clay McLeod Chapman, Garry Brown, Rachelle Rosenberg, and VC's Cory Petit, on sale now.
Throughout the course of King in Black, Knull has proven to be one of the most resilient villains in the Marvel Universe. From his draconic invasion to the Celestials under his command to the literal dome of living darkness that he used to encase the earth, it seems as though there is nothing the dark god of the symbiotes cannot do. For someone as powerful as Knull, it would be surprising if anything at all were to take him by surprise, but that is exactly what has just happened in King in Black: Scream.
Not only has the titular hero stood toe to toe with the progenitor of her race, but she's caught him off guard by successfully doing something that has eluded the King in Black.
After facing off against her siblings from the Life Foundation and Knull himself through their merged form, Scream has been hot on the tail of her next target: Demagoblin. Formerly the mutant known as Shriek, Demagoblin has plans of her own, inducting children into her cult through forced hypnosis, and Scream has come to stop her. When Knull himself makes an appearance, Scream is picked up and nearly ripped to pieces by his dragons before being sent hurtling down to the ground below. The pain is nearly more than Andi or the Scream symbiote itself can stand. Though they lose their connection briefly, Scream reaches through to Andi and encourages its host to fight the only way they know how.
As the Hellmark on her chest lights up with infernal flames, Andi rises to her feet only to unleash a torrent of Hellfire on the approaching draconic horde. As the flames ripple through her body, she is again transformed into her symbiote form, all while Knull watches from above. The dark god of the symbiotes finds her infernal touch to be a stain on his creations, and as such he goes down to the streets to handle things personally.
Scream lashes out at Knull, but she is unable to stop him from thrusting his sword of living darkness deep into her chest. This might kill anyone else, but it only leaves Knull with a melted blade and wilted hilt after the Hellmark scorches away the blade itself, followed by even more Hellfire to burn away the villain's flesh. Nothing that the Symbiote King does will keep his quarry down, her flame proving nearly impossible to extinguish. As ancient as he is, Knull cannot comprehend how any being could harness such immense pain as a weapon. Of course, Scream is happy to fill him in on her secret.
She informs the dark god that pain is all she has ever known. Andi's life has been hard enough between her rough childhood followed by time spent as Venom's one-time symbiote partner, Mania, and she's now the host to both the Scream symbiote and her Hellmark as well. She's also bearing the weight of that symbiote, and Scream comes with a heavily burdened past.
As one of Venom's spawn that was forcibly birthed by the Life Foundation, Scream came into the world hurting. Its first host, Donna Diego, was a mentally disturbed mercenary whose test run of her powers involved attacking a shopping mall in broad daylight. Those same violent urges would later manifest in the murders of the rest of the Life Foundation symbiotes' hosts.
Scream and Donna would both meet their end at Venom's hand during his campaign to eradicate other symbiotes, those deaths later being undone by Knull. Resurrecting his most powerful child might have seemed like a good idea at the time, but it is quickly proving to be one of the biggest mistakes that the King in Black has ever made.