The first pages for Marvel's Venom-centric event King in Black have arrived, courtesy of artist Ryan Stegman.
Stegman posted the official preview pages on Twitter, which feature Eddie Brock contacting the Avengers as Knull makes his way toward Earth. Brock is also shown approaching his son Dylan, wishing that he could spare him from the events to come. The Avengers are also shown to be preparing for the imminent invasion, with Captain America leading evacuations and Iron Man transforming derelict Kree and Skrull warships into land mines.
KING IN BLACK #1 (OF 5)
- DONNY CATES (W) • RYAN STEGMAN (A/C)
- DARKNESS REIGNS VARIANT COVER BY RYAN STEGMAN
- DRAGON VARIANT COVER BY IBAN COELLO
- CONNECTING VARIANT COVER BY LEINIL FRANCIS YU
- EVERY SYMBIOTE EVER VARIANT COVER BY TBA
- HIDDEN GEM VARIANT COVER BY TBA
- LAUNCH VARIANT COVER BY PHILIP TAN
- PREMIERE VARIANT COVER BY RYAN STEGMAN
- SPOILER VARIANT COVER BY TAURIN CLARKE
- TATTOO VARIANT COVER BY IAN BEDERMAN
- VARIANT COVER BY PEACH MOMOKO
- VARIANT COVER BY SUPERLOG
- VARIANT COVER BY DONNY CATES
- BLACK BLANK VARIANT COVER ALSO AVAILABLE
- DARKNESS REIGNS!
- After a campaign across the galaxy, Knull’s death march arrives to Earth and, worse yet, he hasn’t come alone! With an army of hundreds of thousands of symbiote dragons at his command, the King in Black is a force unlike any Earth’s heroes have ever faced. EDDIE BROCK, A.K.A. VENOM has seen firsthand the chaos that even one of Knull’s symbiotic monsters can wreak – will he survive an encounter with the God of the Abyss himself?
- From Donny Cates, Ryan Stegman, JP Mayer, Frank Martin and VC’s Clayton Cowles comes the definitive chapter in their two-year-long VENOM saga that changed everything you thought you knew about symbiotes!
- 56 PGS./Rated T+ …$5.99
King in Black reunites Stegman with Venom writer Donny Cates. The two launched the current volume of Venom, which introduced Knull as the God of the Symbiotes. They would later work on the Absolute Carnage miniseries, which saw a resurrected Cletus Kasady hunting down every symbiote host in order to free Knull from his prison. Brock killed Knull, but in the process set Knull free. During Absolute Carnage, it was also revealed that Dylan has the power to manipulate symbiotes.
Brock would eventually tell the Avengers about Knull's existence in the aftermath of the "Venom Island" storyline after Kasady tried to possess him. One of the Avengers even has a connection to Knull, as Thor battled one of the Symbiote God's dragons in ancient times and obliterated it with a blast of lightning.
King in Black #1, by Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman, goes on sale in December from Marvel.