After years of teases and months of concrete build-up, the King in Black crossover is about to take over the Marvel Universe. As the symbiote god Knull makes his final approach towards Earth, Venom and the rest of Marvel's heroes find themselves hopelessly preparing for the dark forces coming their way.

In Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman's Venom, Eddie Brock was losing control of his symbiote, and the Venom symbiote was losing its mind along with him. Unsure about what is causing Venom to violently lash out, Eddie has been taking anti-psychotic drugs to deal with it, and both of them have been suffering from horrific nightmares. Before long, Venom is in control, or at least in the driver's seat, and a violent rampage ends up with Eddie and Venom embroiled in a conspiracy spanning thousands of years and heralded by symbiote dragons. The dragons aren't all that have been unleashed, though. The symbiote god, Knull, the ancient creator of the symbiotes, has risen from his slumber.

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Born of the abyss that existed before the universe itself, Knull was more than happy to spend his eternity floating aimlessly through the void. His peace was interrupted by the Celestials and their cosmic light, from which they created the universe as we know it, along with its planets that they seeded with the means to produce life. Knull ripped the living darkness from his own shadow, something he had never known existed before, and used it to slay one of the Celestials by taking off its head with a single stroke of the newly formed sword, All-Black the Necrosword. Knull birthed an army of symbiote soldiers and dragons, leading them across the universe, claiming worlds as his own and bending them to his will. Though the dragons Knull sent to Earth centuries ago were imprisoned by Thor, they were awakened, along with him.

Last year, the Absolute Carnage crossover, particularly Cates and Stegman's titular miniseries and its Web of Carnage tie-ins continued paving the bloody road for Knull to travel.

RELATED: King in Black: Spider-Man Reveals Another One of Knull's Creations

In the wake of the dragons' attack in the sixth century, a cult known as the Church of Darkness was formed, dedicated to bringing Knull back to glory and spreading his message of darkness throughout the universe. While the cult was led by Scorn, she and a group of other members attacked the convoy carrying Cletus Kasady's body and bonded a portion of the Grendel symbiote to the killer's corpse. This revived Kasady and left him fighting for control of his undead body against the psychic intrusion of Knull.

The new Dark Carnage soon began terrorizing Eddie and his son Dylan, as well as preparing for Knull's return in full. By trying to kill everyone who had every bonded to a symbiote and stealing the trace remnants of symbiotes left behind, Cletus quickly became more of a threat than he's ever been. In the end, Cletus forced Eddie to choose between killing him, saving his son and unleashing Knull or watching Dylan die. Of course, Eddie saves his son, and now, he has to get ready to face off against a god older than time.

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Since then, Knull's journey to Earth from the darkest corner of the Marvel Universe has been a steady backbeat to Marvel's other happenings. As he made his way towards Earth, the level of his involvement in Marvel history grew as other pre-existing symbiote-like creatures were revealed to be his progeny. For a glimpse at the sheer power that Knull exudes and the extent of his reach, there is no better place than in the pages of Web of Venom: Wraith by Donny Cates and Guiu Villanova. When searching the cosmos for the answers about his own dark Exolon parasite, the former Kree known as Wraith is brought to Klyntar, the homeworld of the symbiotes such as Venom, and the terrestrial cage holding Knull. He arrives just as Knull is waking up and confronts the dark god.

While Knull is initially puzzled, the dark god soon realizes that the Exolon symbiote Wraith is bonded to was one of Knull's early attempts at creation. He tells Wraith that the hero has been wearing Knull's old trash, then rips the symbiote from him and sends him spiraling into the abyss. With only enough energy to make one last-ditch effort, Wraith sends himself to hopefully find the man from his visions. Wraith goes to warn Eddie Brock of Knull's approach, only able to tell Brock that there is a god of light before his form vaporizes completely. After these events, Knull took to claiming entire worlds to act as his fleet on his journey across the universe. So far, few who have encountered Knull have survived, and none have been able to escape his grasp for long.

Even though Venom has warned the Avengers and Earth's other heroes about Knull, he may simply be too powerful to be contained. The only thing that seems certain that there's no telling what will happen when Knull finally reaches his target.

KEEP READING: King in Black: Venom's Marvel Universe Return Is Too Late to Stop Knull

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