The symbiote god Knull is one of the biggest recent characters introduced within the Marvel Universe. First appearing in Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman's Venom #3, Knull is the god of the alien symbiotes. This concept alone makes him potentially terrifying, as does the sense of cosmic dread that his unseen presence has been surrounded with. Despite this, his physical presence in comics so far has been anything but scary.

Embracing the character's shadowy nature could have given Knull a more frightening debut as well as remaining true to his origin as the creator of the symbiotes. This could have possibly saved the character's mystique, as well as made his horrifying actions behind the scenes of the Marvel Universe even more frightening.

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Marvel Comics' Knull smiling maliciously on his dark throne

Although Knull first appeared in Venom, his reach quickly extended into other titles such as Thor: God of Thunder, Guardians of the Galaxy, and War of the Realms. Armed with the powerful Necrosword, Knull has been labeled a Celestial-level threat and used the corpse of one of those great beings to create his race of symbiotes. Rounding off his abilities is the power to summon and weaponize darkness, an ability that is frightening in and of itself.

Despite this incredible power set and ties to the primordial Marvel Universe, nothing else about Knull matches the character's ambition. For one, his design seemingly neglects the murky Eldritch horror concept that he's been made out to be, as well as the general body horror aesthetic of the symbiotes. In fact, he looks like an emaciated, goth version of the current King Thor design, albeit one wearing a vague Venom emblem to bolster his already vague connection to that franchise.

The scariest part about his look is his weird lipless mouth, which can become a giant gaping array of fangs. All in all, however, this design simply doesn't match the actions that he's supposedly taken, especially his creation of the symbiotes worn by terrifying characters such as Carnage and Venom. Another comparison could be made to Clone Saga villain Judas Traveller, who was created to be the massively powerful mastermind behind the saga but looked more like a mystic guru than a supervillain.

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With Knull's power set making him a natural master of shadows, it may have made more sense for him to be depicted as a dark figure working from within his element. The mystery of what he looked like and what exactly his powers were would have made his successfully taking on the Celestials and creating the symbiotes much easier to swallow.

The symbiotes themselves are known for their amorphous physique and shapeshifting abilities. Thus, it would make sense for their literal god and creator to share some of these powers. Making Knull a Cthulu-esque nightmare of shape, form, and substance could have both tied him closer to the symbiotes as a concept, as well as made the attempted bogeyman concept for him a lot stronger as well. This would have allowed him to have a sort of physical presence, while still maintaining a mysterious allure similar to that of villains like Blackheart and Shuma-Gorath.

It's likely that Knull's presence in the Marvel Universe will only grow, from comics to video games and possibly even film. While there's always the possibility that the upcoming The King in Black crossover could dramatically alter his appearance in any of a number of ways, the character is saddled with an aesthetic that isn't exactly horrifying.

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