Name

Aliases

Child...I amKnull. Lord of theAbyss. God of thesymbiotes. Thedarkness inside of you? That darknessbows to me. Iamthe Void.

Origins[]

Knull was an ancient, malevolent deity who purportedly ruled overthe Abyss, the existential chasm that existed between the destruction of theSixth Cosmos and the creation of theSeventh Cosmos.^[22] While Knull drew his power from and claimed to be the incarnation of the primordial darkness, it existed long before even him.^[14]

Originally content to slumber in the Void, Knull was awakened when theCelestials began creating the universe.^[12] The Celestials recruited Knull to be theKing in Black, a cosmic caretaker for the new universe. However, Knull rejected the King in Black's responsibilities and lashed out.^[23] Outraged that his kingdom of darkness was being despoiled, Knull created asword of living darkness from his newly-cast shadow and decapitatedone of them. Cast back into the void by the other Celestials, Knull usedthe slain Celestial's severed head as a forge to temper his sword in its cosmic energies, thus forgingAll-Black the Necrosword. Intent on reclaiming his kingdom of darkness, Knull manifesteda symbiotic suit of armor from the eldritch darkness he commanded and embarked on a genocidal campaign against the other gods and life itself,^[12] becoming a legendary figure of terror for divine beings even billions of years later.^[29]

Symbiote Hive[]

Reign of Terror[]

Hellbent on returning the cosmos to the Abyss, Knull createdan artificial planet from the living darkness he controlled to serve as his throneworld and base of operations.^[2] Experimenting with his ability to manifest life out of darkness itself, Knull began using the Exoteric Latitude as a dumping ground for his failed creations, which millennia later became known as theExolon.^[30] Among his early creations were proto-symbiotes such asMister E - and presumably the other shadow realm entities likeShadow Man andKaa,^[31] as well as a horde ofwyvern-like monsters. Establishing himself as the divine nexus of the abyssal entities' hive-mind, Knull sent them forth into the cosmos -- using them to conquer countless planets, devour civilizations and pantheons,^[32][33] extinguish stars, and smother entire planets in eldritch darkness. The few gods that Knull spared were forcibly drafted intohis army, enslaved to his will and transformed into monsters using the living abyss, placed assentries to guard the worlds he'd conquered.^[34][35]

At some point during Knull's war against the Light, he encountered the time-displacedSilver Surfer when the former Herald ofGalactus freed a world from Knull's control using thePower Cosmic.^[34] After a brief but intense fight, Knull defeated the Silver Surfer and infected him with living abyss to turn him into theVoid Knight. However, the Silver Surfer was freed byEgo the Living Planet, who helped Radd escape when Knull pursued him on a symbiote dragon.^[2] Knull hunted the Silver Surfer down and dueled him, intent on reclaiming him for his army. Knull nearly succeeded in doing so, but was defeated when the Silver Surfer expended the last of his Power Cosmic to conjure a star right in front of him, bathing him in stellar plasma and blasting him across the cosmos. This defeat proved temporary, as Knull recovered and resumed his conquest of the cosmos.^[36]

At some point afterward, Knull engaged an army of gold-armored gods empowered by the Light in combat and slaughtered all but one of them. Pursuing the survivor, Knull managed to impale him on All-Black but was himself impaled through the head by the enemy god's spear. Knull and the dying god crash-landed ona desolate planet, where All-Black left the incapacitated Knull for one of the indigenous inhabitants,Gorr.^[29][14] Despite this setback, Knull chose to not hunt the thief down and reclaim All-Black, though he remained aware of Gorr unwittingly following in his footsteps as the God Butcher.^[12] After recovering from his injuries over the course of a century, Knull began experimenting with his powers and discovered that he could manifest amorphous parasites calledSymbiotes from the Living Abyss and bond them to lesser lifeforms, corrupting life rather than eradicating it.^[9][22][37]

Downfall[]

Knull's reign of terror came to an end in the sixth century CE, when two symbiote dragons - one black and one red - arrived onEarth and were named theGrendel andGrendel's Mother by theDanes.^[33][11] The Grendel's rampage was stopped byThor, who blasted it with divine lightning and severed Knull's connection to the vast majority of symbiotes. As the symbiotes bonded to benevolent hosts, the hive-mind became tainted with notions of honor and nobility, leading to them rebelling against their god and imprisoning him at the heart of the throneworld, which they renamedKlyntar - their word for "cage". Forming an organization known as theAgents of the Cosmos, the symbiotes of Klyntar subsequently attempted to expunge their dark origins and redeem themselves by acting to protect the cosmos they'd once terrorized.^[12][38]

While serving as aherald ofGalactus, the Silver Surfer came across Klyntar and was devoured by it, its constituent symbiotes attempting to imprison him alongside Knull at the artificial planet's core. However, the Surfer was able to free himself and escape.^[2]

Modern Times[]

Awakening[]

Centuries later, the Grendel symbiote dragon was unearthed byS.H.I.E.L.D. and its living abyss was used to create a super-soldier initiative called theSym-Soldier Program.^[39] Using the psychic link between himself and the Grendel, Knull began attempting to assert his influence over its offshoots, causing them to rampage and driving their hosts insane.^[40][39]

Decades later, Knull remote-piloted the symbiote dragon and broke it free of containment, reabsorbing four of its five offshoots. Knull sent the Grendel symbiote dragon on a rampage through downtownManhattan, but it was stopped by the combined efforts ofVenom - whosesymbiote had been adversely affected by Knull's awakening - andSpider-Man.^[41] Using the Grendel to manifest an avatar of his true form, Knull stripped the Venom symbiote from its host and attempted to purge it of the benevolence and compassion it had obtained during its time on Earth; intending to reconnect it to his hive mind and absorb it into the Grendel symbiote to become stronger.^[1] When confronted by Eddie Brock, Knull showed him the true origins and history of the symbiotes; mocking him for believing the lies told to the Venom symbiote by the symbiotes and Agents of the Cosmos. Re-forming the Grendel around his avatar, Eddie, and Spider-Man; Knull flew into space and revealed his plan to obtain the missing pieces of the symbiote dragon, use it to free his true body from Klyntar, and resume his conquest of the universe - starting with Earth.^[12]

Venom escaped with help from Spider-Man, but Knull chose not to pursue them and instead began hunting for theTyrannosaurus symbiote - one of the remaining pieces of the Grendel symbiote dragon. When the Tyrannosaurus symbiote bonded to Venom and reconnected to the Hive Mind, Knull attacked using the Grendel symbiote and attempted to devour Venom. When the Grendel was destabilized by sonic grenades, Knull's manifestation engaged Venom in a brutal one-on-one battle, Venom's arsenal of high-tech weapons proving ineffective. Knull stripped Eddie of both symbiotes and began absorbing them, but his gloating was cut short when Eddie detonated the entire arsenal - the blast affecting Knull's real body at the core of Klyntar. Shaken and enraged, Knull coated his manifestation in the Grendel symbiote, but before he could attack the Tyrannosaurus symbiote coiled around his avatar and dragged it into the heart of a blast furnace - telling Venom to hold the door shut. Knull's avatar was subsequently immolated, his connection to the Grendel symbiote seemingly severed and his body remaining sealed at the heart of Klyntar.^[10]

Freed by Carnage[]

A few months after the battle, anEarth-based cult dedicated to worshiping Knull - led byScorn - obtaineda sample of the Grendel symbiote and Cletus Kasady's corpse, intending to turn him into Knull's avatar and facilitate his awakening. When the sample of Grendel symbiote was bonded to Cletus, Knull reanimated and psychically communicated with the serial killer; though the nature of their conversation is unknown. When Knull attempted to seize control of Cletus through the symbiote, Cletus resisted Knull's control and their connection was severed when the Grendel symbiote absorbed the codex - trace remnants of living abyss left in former symbiote hosts - that theCarnage symbiote had left in Scorn's body. Cletus desired to communicate with Knull again and decided to help free him by collecting enough codices to reconnect the Grendel symbiote to the Hive Mind.^[8] As his connection to his self-proclaimed apostle grew stronger, Knull began awakening and exerting his influence to corrupt both the symbiotes of Klyntar and those stranded on Earth -- namely theRiot,Agony,Phage,Lasher, andScream symbiotes.^[42][43][44]

After Dark Carnage was killed by Venom, who absorbed the Dark Carnage symbiote andremaining codices, Knull was reawakened and promptly destroyed Klyntar, coalescing its constituent symbiotes into a fleet of symbiote dragons. Manifesting his suit of draconic armor, Knull was confronted byZak-Del, an Exolon-infectedKree. Initially bemused by Zak-Del accusing him of stealing his soul, Knull revealed the true origin of the Exolon as imperfect symbiotes and stripped Zak-Del of his, absorbing it into his armor before manifesting All-Black's Necrosword form anew.^[30] Leaving Zak-Del for dead, Knull resumed his conquest of the cosmos; unknowingly hunted by his opposite - the God of Light.^[30][26]

Using his living abyss to smother entire planets,^[7] Knull also began communing with Eddie's "son"Dylan Brock - a human-symbiote hybrid spawned by the Venom symbiote - by appearing in his nightmares.^[45][46] Blazing a swath of destruction across theKree/Skrull Alliance's colonial territories en route to Earth, Knull laid traps to waylay ships sent to investigate; thereby claiming several prominent warriors from both species for his army.^[47] Intent on settling his eons-old grudge against the Celestials, Knull hunted them down and infected them with living abyss.^[22] Knull also sent symbiotes and symbiote-dragons to blaze a swath of destruction across numerous other spacefaring civilizations such as theZn'rx.^[48]

Invasion of Earth[]

Arriving at Earth, Knull and his horde easily ploughed through the minefield of derelict Kree and Skrull ships left over from the war against theCotati. As his dragons rained down on the Earth and quickly overwhelmed the planet's superheroes, Knull emerged from one of the Celestials and declared his intent to destroy the planet - offering to make it quick and painless if given the human called Brock. Knull was attacked by theSentry, who attempted to fly him into orbit and rip him in half, but easily broke free and reversed their positions. Knull tore the Sentry apart and seized control of thedark entity that had been indwelling him, absorbing it into himself. Growing bored of the conflict, Knull used symbiotes to seize control of theAvengers,X-Men, and many of the other heroes that had rallied to oppose him before encasing the Earth in a shell of living abyss. Knull opened a portal toEarth-1048, transporting that universe'sVenom symbiote and its hostHarry Osborn in an attempt for them to join his army. However, they refused and, due to Knull being unable to control or harm them since they were not of his universe, he sent them back to their home reality.^[49] Out of desperation, Venom offered to serve Knull if Earth was spared, but Knull refused - remarking that the Brock he was interested in was Dylan - and ripped the Venom symbiote off Eddie before throwing him from the top of the Empire State Building,^[22] satisfied that Eddie could no longer prove a pest to his plans once he succumbed to his wounds and his consciousness was trapped within the Hive-Mind as a codex.^[17][50]

Constructing aSpire at the tip of the Empire State Building, Knull began directing his invasion on multiple fronts by remote-piloting symbiote-dragons, indwelling symbiote-possessed heroes, and manifesting avatars.^{[51][52][53][54][24][55]} Knull attempted to claim theEbony Blade,Sword of Fu Xi, andGhost-Spider'sartificial symbiote for himself; but was thwarted and repeatedly taken aback by the number of heroes who possessed powers and weapons able to kill his dragons and damage - if not outright destroy - his avatars, as well as the willpower to partially resist his control.^{[51][4][54][48]} Reaching backwards throughtime, Knull resurrected Mister E and sent him to either destroy the Ebony Blade in the past or use it facilitate his premature escape from Klyntar;^[56] though Mister E repeatedly failed to do so and was ultimately destroyed.^[57] Knull was stripped of a large amount of his power by theValkyries, who severed his unwitting connection to the Headless Celestial from theafterlife.^[28]

When Dylan Brock entered the battlefield and began using his powers to free the people and heroes Knull had enslaved, Knull attempted to capture him but was attacked by Thor - who he recognized as the one who had almost killed the Grendel centuries prior. Furious, Knull confronted the God of Thunder, who was unimpressed and dismissed him as merely one of hundreds of gods of destruction he had vanquished. Knull overpowered Thor, but was attacked by Dylan. Casually subduing the boy and cocooning him in living abyss, Knull was distracted long enough for Thor to knock him off and rip his lower jaw off with a full-power blow fromMjolnir. Enraged, Knull activated the symbiote-controlled Celestials and ordered them to raze the planet. Before Thor could leave to confront them, Knull - forming a new lower jaw from living abyss - manifested All-Black from his symbiote-armor and impaled him from behind; sneering that he could sense Thor was already acquainted with the Necrosword and that he was its creator. Leaving Thor impaled, Knull turned to confront Dylan and voiced his intent to claim the boy as his son;^[16] commanding the symbiotes he controlled within the Hive-Mind to imprison the symbiotes that Dylan and Thor had purged his influence from.^[58] Unbeknownst to Knull, Eddie Brock was reunited with the codices ofFlash Thompson and theAnti-Venom symbiote andRex Strickland and the Tyrannosaurus symbiote.^[59] They were able to take advantage of Dylan and Thor injuring Knull to infiltrate the core of the Hive-Mind, the God Hive. When Agent Anti-Venom's codex bonded to one of the symbiotes that Knull could not control and was reborn into the world of the living asa white symbiote dragon, Knull immediately realized what was going on and furiously hijacked the Tyrannosaurus symbiote, confronting Eddie again with the intent of killing him once-and-for-all.^[58] However, Eddie managed to escape the Hive-Mind with help from the Venom symbiote and was chosen as the God of Light's new host.^[60]

Confronted by the Silver Surfer once more, Knull prepared to resume their ancient duel but was interrupted by Eddie, now transformed into a cosmic version of Venom. Knull was unimpressed and mocked his ancient nemesis' choice of host until Eddie armed himself by mergingMjolnir and theSilver Surfer's Surfboard into a battle-ax shaped like Venom's spider-emblem. Knull attempted to flee while throwing everything he had at Eddie, but was overpowered and cornered at the top of the Empire State Building, stripped of his symbiote-armor, and thrown to the ground. Knull defiantly told Eddie that his death was inconsequential and that the Void's victory was inevitable, but Eddie rebuked Knull and flew him into the core of the Sun, destroying his body with the Uni-Power. Knull attempted to take over Dylan Brock's body, but Eddie used the Uni-Power to remove the living abyss from Dylan and destroy it, seemingly defeating the dark god once-and-for-all.^[20]

Queen in Black[]

AsKing in Black, Knull was supposed to keep maintenance over theCelestials' creations, but he refused the work.^[23] Knull despises the Celestials and their creations, attempting to carry out a genocide against them by corrupting and slaughtering all life. Revelling in bloodshed and destruction, Knull often sports a predatory grin when engaged in combat and fondly reminisced to Eddie Brock about the devastation he and All-Black wrought together. He is also arrogant and sadistic - regarding his conquest of the universe as being inevitable, mocking theSilver Surfer's attempt to fight him or escape as futile, and relishing the prospect of hunting the fleeing Surfer down and killing or corrupting him.^[2] Knull's hubris is one of his greatest weaknesses, as he routinely underestimates opponents he sees as beneath himself - such as the Silver Surfer, Venom, and Thor - and rarely fights using the full extent of his own power, instead opting to let his symbiotes do the fighting for him.^[12][16]

Divine Physiology: As a primordial god of darkness, Knull possesses superhuman attributes and powers which far exceed those of humans and even most other deities. As the creator ofAll-Black the Necrosword, he appears to possess the same powers it bestows upon its hosts but to a greater extent.^[29][12][2] According toBrunnhilde, much of Knull's power and apparent invincibility comes from his metaphysical link to the undead corpse of the Celestial he used to refine All-Black, which feeds him power through the Necrosword and in exchange assimilates the souls of those he kills; serving as a grotesque afterlife.^[24] This connection was severed by theValkyries, thereby greatly weakening Knull,^[28] though due to his origin and age, he still remained powerful enough to fight on-par with the likes of All-Father Thor.^[14]

• Living Abyss Manipulation: As theKing in Black, Knull possesses the ability to create, control, and manipulate a fount of eldritch darkness—a manifestation of the primordial void that existed before the universe itself—that he calls the "living abyss".^[12] Knull has spent billions of years experimenting with and honing his powers to create not only theparasitic symbiotes, but similar entities such asMister E and theExolon. His greatest creations have beenAll-Black, theVoid Knight -- a powerful proto-symbiote created to enslave theSilver Surfer, and thesymbiote dragons.^[22] During his invasion of Earth, Knull was able to fuse hordes of Symbiote Dragons to engulf the entire Earth in a dome of living abyss, blocking out all light.^[22]
  • Symbiote Creation: Knull first discovered his ability to create life from darkness itself when he manifestedAll-Black from his shadow in order to kill a Celestial. Experimenting with and honing this aspect of his powers over the eons, he formeda suit of symbiote-armor, constructed anartificial planet, and amassed a horde ofwyvern-like monsters from the living abyss.^[2][22] While he initially only infected gods and other cosmic beings with the living abyss;^[62] when stranded ona desolate world he discovered he could also infect mortal creatures with the living abyss, creating an army of parasites to conquer the universe by corrupting life instead of simply exterminating it.^[12][22] Knull's early experiments to hone this aspect of his powers resulted in what became known as theExolon, imperfect symbiotes he discarded as failures.^[30] He was also capable of creating symbiotes using hisblood, though the only known symbiote created in this manner isBig Mother.^[33]
  • Symbiote Domination: As the divine progenitor of the symbiotes and the nexus of their hive-mind, Knull is able to mentally influence and dominate symbiotes even while sealed away;^[12] driving them insane with bloodlust and hunger.^[41] He is also capable of remote-piloting them, enabling him to see through their eyes and directly control them; and can manipulate their biomasses even when not in direct contact with them, as demonstrated when he used an ancient dragon-like symbiote to attack Earth and manifest an avatar of his true form.^[1] symbiotes infected by Knull's will usually have red spirals in place of their eyespots, and are more powerful than symbiotes disconnected from his dark hive-mind; sometimes even gaining new powers and abilities as a result of the connection.^[6][63][64] Knull is also capable of forcibly removing symbiotes from their hosts either by psychically blasting them off or by ripping them off with his bare hands.^[12][30] Being one of the primevals of darkness, Knull is also capable of dominating and psychically corrupting other non-symbiote dark entities, such as theVoid,^[22]Cloak,^[65] andMoondragon.^[66] Despite not being one of Knull's creations,Ghost-Spider'sartificial symbiote was also vulnerable to his psychic corruption.^[52]
• Superhuman Strength: Knull is strong enough to decapitate a Celestial with a single blow, and singlehandedly slaughtered entire armies of gods augmented by theUni-Power. At least some of Knull's immense strength is due to him wieldingAll-Black the Necrosword and hissymbiote-armor,^[12] which supply him with power from thefirst Celestial he'd killed.^[24] Knull was able to easily manhandle theSilver Surfer - albeit after Norrin had exhausted the majority of hisPower Cosmic,^[34] and easily overpowered theSentry - touted as one of Earth's strongest heroes - and effortlessly tore him in half.^[22] Even after the Valkyries severed his metaphysical connection to theHeadless Celestial, Knull was still strong enough to fightThor Odinson - who possessed a small portion of thePower of the All-Father.^[16] The avatars that Knull creates using his symbiotes possess only a fraction of his true power, but are nevertheless able to easily overpower the likes of Venom despite Eddie Brock being simultaneously bonded to both the Venom and Tyrannosaurus symbiotes.^[67]
• Superhuman Durability: Despite his gaunty appearance, Knull is durable enough to survive being blasted by Celestials; and was unharmed by a plunge from space through the atmosphere of a planet while engaged in combat with another deity, though he was left unconscious after being stabbed through the head.^[29] WhileSilver Surfer'sPower Cosmic was able to make Knull bleed and being blasted byEgo's psionic beams caused him pain, he was not severely injured by either.^[2] Knull can also withstand being immersed in stellar plasma without permanent injury, though this caused him severe pain.^[36] There are limits to this, as a full-force blow fromMjolnir wielded by All-Father Thor was enough to rip off Knull's lower jaw, yet this was all the damage that Knull obtain.^[16]
• Dark Energy Manipulation: Knull was capable of conjuring fiery purple energy; wreathing himself andAll-Black in an aura of it, firing it from his hands in abeam powerful enough to incapacitate theSilver Surfer, or firing it as flak and homing projectiles from artillery constructs manifested from theSymbiote Throneworld.^[2] He has also been shown to manifest red energy that he can fire from his hands.^[17]
• Nigh-Immortality: Knull is purportedly unable to be truly killed and has existed for over 13.7 billion years, having come into existence prior to the beginning of the currentSeventh/Eighth Cosmos.^[68][22] However, he can be injured to the point of incapacitation: after being impaled through the head and falling from space to the surface of a planet, he required centuries to fully heal from his injuries.^[12] Even after his body was completely disintegrated by Eddie Brock using theGod of Light's power, Knull's consciousness attempted to take over Dylan Brock from within theSymbiote Hive-Mind before being foiled by Eddie and seemingly destroyed once-and-for-all.^[20]
• Self-Sustenance: Knull is capable of surviving in the vacuum of space unaided, and does not appear to need food, water, or sleep to survive.^[12]
• Shapeshifting: Knull is capable of transforming his mouth into a fanged maw with a prehensile serpentine tongue, a trait he passed down to the symbiotes.^[1] When truly enraged, Knull's entire face transforms into one more closely resembling the symbiotes', with his nose, lips, and cheeks completely receding.^[36]
• Regenerative Healing Factor: Despite his immense durability, Knull is capable of being injured to the point of incapacitation.^[29] However, he is able to not only survive injuries that would kill other gods but eventually recover from them.^[12] After Thor blasted a hole in his hand, Knull regenerated within the space of a few seconds, though the loss of his lower jaw required the creation of a prosthesis.^[16]
• Flight: Knull can manifest a pair of large dragon-like wings that allow him to fly.^[22]
• Temporal Manipulation: Knull was able to reach backwards through thetimestream to resurrectMister E and create a barrier of living abyss around the sun.^[56] He communicated through time with Mister E and restored his full power in a bid to prematurely free his past self from Klyntar using the Ebony Blade. Knull's past self was able to sense the barrier being destroyed, briefly rousing him from his imprisoned slumber.^[57]
• Portal Creation: Knull was able to create portals capable ofaccessing other realities andteleport other beings. He could also modify the portals to make the ones crossing it forget what they saw. Likewise, Knull could channel the ability through All-Black.^[49]

• The Light: Despite his immense durability, Knull is particularly vulnerable toa force he refers to as "the Light", which came into being with theBig Bang and was first spread through the Abyss by theCelestials. "The Light" refers not only to the literal light of stars and other celestial objects, but to the various powers wielded bycosmic entities anddeities - which when used offensively could cause him pain and even injure him;^[22] concepts such as honor, benevolence, compassion, and nobility - which disrupted his control of the symbiotes and caused them to turn on him; and life itself.^[12][2] Knull sought to destroy and corrupt the Light using his army of symbiotes, but his control over them was severed whenthe symbiote dragon he was indwelling was blasted by Thor's divine lightning. Centuries later, his avatar was temporarily destabilized by Miles Morales' bioelectric Venom Blast,^[69] and by sonic and energy grenades.^[10]
• Remote Piloting: When Knull is remote piloting a symbiote, any damage caused to it is also inflicted on him -- as seen when Thor blasted a hole through a symbiote-hand Knull had manifested to attack Dylan Brock, which caused a corresponding wound to appear on Knull's hand until he regenerated.^[16]
• Hive-Mind Infiltration: When a person or a metaphysical manifestation of a codex has freedom in Knull's hive-mind, they can fight against the symbiotes under his control and also cause him pain if not taken care of.^[58]
• Celestial Connection: Much of Knull's overwhelming power is supplied through the All-Black symbiote by theHeadless Celestial, whose corpse he had used as a forge to create hisNecrosword.^[24] Knull remained oblivious to this until the moment the connection was severed by theValkyries, thereby depriving him of a large amount of his power.^[28] Despite this, Knull was still strong enough to overpowerThor Odinson - who had been augmented by thePower of the All-Father - in combat with relative ease.^[16]
• Magic: Knull in his weakest could be subdued by certain types ofmagic that did not exist in his realm.^[21]

• According to Donny Cates,Silver Surfer: Black takes place before Knull lost All-Black. However, during his battle against the Silver Surfer, Knull summoned his symbiotes to aid him, which contradicts elements of his story, sinceVenom (Vol. 4) #4 established that Knull created the symbiotes after losing All-Black.
• Knull's spiral emblem is based on the Spiral of Carcosa fromTrue Detective, and is a reference to theCthulhu Mythos.^[71] Similarly, his title of the "King in Black" is a reference toHastur, theKing in Yellow and ruler ofCarcosa. The spiral may have also been partly influenced byJunji Ito's works.^[72]
  • Upon learning of him fromSpider-Man,Bruce Banner theorized that Knull was merely an aspect of theOne Below All or a creature it somehow controls,^[3] something that is supported byDoctor Strange's own theory about theAnti-All, a creature born from theBelow-Place and possibly tied with the One Below All, that when being shattered by theLifebringer One, would give birth to the other dark entities in the nextMultiverses, including Knull.^[73] The One Below All is himselfpossibly inspired by the Cthulhu Mythos, as is Knull.
• Knull's history, and those of his successors as wielders ofAll-Black, are recorded in a self-writing divine tome called theSaga of the God Butcher.^[13]
• WhileScorn stated that Knull had resurrectedCletus Kasady as a newborn when he died of nuchal cord strangulation, marking him as an agent of the Void,^[8] this was fabricated by theCult of Knull in order to sensationalize Kasady as Knull's chosen one.^[74]

• According to Donny Cates, Knull was the first "something" in the universe.^[75]
• When asked what Knull would have done had he encounteredCarnage or one of Venom's other offspring,Ryan Stegman replied that he would have "either [tried] to hurt them or re-consume them and bring them back toKlyntar."^[76]
• The foreword toKnull: Marvel Tales #1 states that Knull predates theFirst Firmament, but this is contradicted byVenom (Vol. 4) #4,Silver Surfer: Black, and the official timeline at the end ofKing in Black #1--which states that Knull originated in the Abyss between the destruction of the previousSixth Cosmos and the creation of the currentSeventh/Eighth Cosmos.
• Several beings have - deliberately or unintentionally - emulated Knull:
  • Almost all of theNameless Kree infected by the Exolon develop a physical resemblance to Knull -- possessing pale skin, long white hair, and an emaciated physique.^[77]
  • Gorr,^[29]Old Galactus,^[78]Ego the Living Planet,^[79] andKing Loki^[80][81] attempted to use theAll-Black symbiote into continuing Knull's crusade to annihilate all of existence.
  • WhenSpider-Man bonded to the symbiote, it formed mirrored white spider emblems on its chest and back, which Spider-Man assumed was inspired bySpider-Woman's costume.^[82] In reality, the symbiote unconsciously formed the white spider emblems in emulation of Knull's red dragon emblem.^[83]
  • Malekith the Accursed learned of Knull by reading the mind of theVenom symbiote, and sought to turn it into his own version of All-Black; wielding it as a dagger and sword during theWar of the Realms.^[84]
  • After assimilating the Venom symbiote, Dark Carnage was transformed into an even more powerful form sporting draconic wings and horns, and pauldrons and arm-wraps resembling Knull's.^[85]
  • During his invasion of Earth, most of the people infected by symbiotes resembled Knull.^[17][52]
• When asked ifKing Thanos had managed to kill Knull in thefuture where he succeeded in killing everything, Donny Cates stated that he had not due to Knull being unkillable,^[86] later elaborating that Knull was probably happy to reclaim his kingdom of darkness from the ruins King Thanos left in his wake.^[87] However, Knull in the616 timeline did legitimately die at the end ofKing in Black #5 and had to be resurrected inVenom (Vol. 6) #250.
• Ryan Stegman's concept art for Knull depicts him with a cape rather than a waistcloth, and questions whether or not he should have eyes and hair.^[88]

• Venom (Vol. 4) #4 - Knull's original origin. Connects Knull toAll-Black the Necrosword andKnowhere.^[89]
• King in Black #1–5 - Knull's invasion ofEarth and defeat. Connects Knull to theEnigma Force.
• Venom (Vol. 5) #18 - Recontextualizes Knull's motivation and history. Establishes that the "King in Black" title comes from theCelestials, that these Kings are meant to take care of the universe, and that Knull was a renegade.

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