WARNING: The following contains spoilers for King in Black #2 by Donny Cates, Ryan Stegman, JP Mayer, Frank Martin, and VC's Clayton Cowles, on sale now.

The build-up to the arrival of Marvel's King in Black has been long, taking fan-favorite characters into new territory and strange new worlds. Now that Knull has finally made his grand entrance on Earth, there is no longer any question as to who the most powerful dark god in any pantheon is. It only took moments for Knull's sinewy tendrils to stretch their way across the globe, now surrounding bond land and sky near entirely.

And as shown in King in Black #2, the current state of the world is eerily similar to one that Eddie Brock himself has recently spent a not-insignificant amount of time on, and that kind of intimate knowledge could go a long way in the fight against Knull, assuming Eddie lives long enough to share it, that is.

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King in Black Knullified Heroes

The extraterrestrial defenses put in place by Tony Stark did next to nothing to halt the arrival of Knull's symbiote dragon armada, and by the time the dark god of the symbiotes touched down in the Marvel Universe, it was already far too late to stop him. Flanked by a trio of Celestials, all turned into his own personal heralds of a sort, Knull wasted no time in overtaking the Earth in a way that has only very rarely been glimpsed in any version of the Marvel universe.

In Venom's solo series, Mac Gargan, the villain most normally known as Scorpion, took on a new persona as Virus. This improved version of the villain was powered by a repurposed set of War Machine armor, and in a confrontation with Eddie and his son Dylan Brock, the three were accidentally transported to another reality. This alternate version of the Marvel Universe was one where Eddie's life panned out far differently than the one he'd known, so much so that he had died before every becoming Venom, leaving his former wife Anne Weying to bond with the symbiote and take up the role. This one change in history altered the course of all events to come, and soon the world was kneeling before the might of the symbiote powered villain Codex, a twisted version of Dylan Brock.

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Eddie and his son soon connected with Anne and her group of symbiote-powered freedom fighters, including a particularly friendly version of Cletus Kasady to ever exist. With their help, Dylan's ability to burn away symbiotes from their hosts and their connection to the greater hive, the heroes saved that world. Along the way they came into conflict with many of the world's greatest heroes, having been taken over and bent to Codex's will by his symbiote army, not unlike what's happening under Knull's reign of terror on our world now. If there's anything that Eddie and Dylan learned from their time on that other Earth, it's how to survive a complete and total takeover by a symbiote empowered and commanding tyrant.

Of course, Codex's powers pale in comparison to Knull, the former even reaching out attempt and join Knull when they were temporarily linked together. This isn't the first time that the Avengers, X-Men, and others have been overpowered by symbiotes, but it is the first time that any of them have been confronted by the progenitor and god of all living darkness. Maybe there's a chance that something or someone from that other world can help in this fight. If nothing else, at least Mister Fantastic is still around, considering his alternate was more than useful in the fight against Codex.

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