WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Savage Avengers #17 by Gerry Duggan, Kev Walker, Java Tartaglia, and VC's Travis Lanham, on sale now.

The Savage Avengers have faced off against a number of supernatural threats in their fight against the forces of Kulan Gath, ranging from Asgardian dragons to demon summoning drug cartels. Now that the world looks to be all but over at the hands of Knull in the "King in Black" event, they're up against a horror the likes of which none of them have seen before. As luck would have it, one of them might not even realize that he has a more intimate knowledge of Knull's forces that the rest of the team. Not knowing what the world at large is up against, Conan of Cimmeria may be teaming up with one of the most ancient forces of evil in the entire universe, or at the very least a portion of it.

Conan's night of celebrating after his team's defeat of the Asgardian dragon Sadurang went as well as any for the Cimmerian, which means that he found himself behind bars at the end of it. Thankfully, Conan is sharing a cell with Deadpool, who he discovers is a friend of his teammate Wolverine. Once Conan learns about Deadpool's ability to heal from virtually any injury, the two undertake a brutal prison break, with Conan mangling Deadpool's body through the bars of their cell and outwards to freedom. It's a gruesome escape, but an effective one, and the two are soon on the outside where symbiote dragons rain down from above. The duo, along with the ever ineffective Night Flyer, do their best to battle against their winged assailants. Things don't go as well as they'd have hoped, and Conan is enveloped by a living symbiote darkness that actually remembers him.

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Back in Savage Avengers #1 by Gerry Duggan and Mike Deodato Jr., Conan and Wolverine first met in the Savage Land, where Conan had been miraculously transported to during his time with the Avengers. There, the two fought against The Hand and Kulan Gath, who were performing various human sacrifices in an attempt to summon the Marrow God Jhoatun Lau.

Kulan Gath ruthlessly slayed people in an attempt to resurrect his dark god and he also acquired a symbiote that he subjected to near endless torture. When Conan freed the symbiote, it bonded to him and his sword while leading the Cimmerian on a bloody rampage against those who had imprisoned it. Though the symbiote seemingly died, it lived on as part of the Codex, and now it's back and offering Conan a chance to finish what they started.

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Inside the living darkness, Conan's mind is transported back to an age of snow and ice, where he finds the blade of living darkness planted in the ground in front of him. The blade beckons Conan to take it up once again so that they may together slay Kulan Gath.

While the symbiote doesn't speak with the same red text as Knull, it's certainly still connected to the Hive as a whole, considering it came in the form of one of Knull's dragons. If Conan really is about to wield that particular sword once more, he might not just be allying himself with his former symbiote partner, but with the King in Black himself. And if there is anything that the world doesn't need fighting against it, it would be an evil, superpowered Cimmerian who refuses to die.

KEEP READING: King in Black Sets Up a Rematch Between the Symbiote God and a Marvel Legend