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You have a piece of me inside of you, host. You think this makes you stronger. Gives you a chance. That I cannot control you. But I do not have to control you to rob you of what I want. You are nothing. Your Symbiote is mine! I will be free!
Knull, also known as the God of the Symbiotes, is one of the main antagonists of the Marvel Universe, specifically serving as one of the main antagonists of the Venom franchise.
He is an ancient malevolent cosmic deity who was responsible for the creation of All-Black, the first and orginal Symbiote, and eventually the Symbiote race. Knull sought to expand the darkness all across the universe by conquering, destroying and corrupting every life form he comes across. He is one of the arch-enemies of Eddie Brock/Venom.
Knull creating All-Black before using it to kill a Celestial.
Knull's existence predates the universe itself and is purportedly the ruler of the Abyss. Though he claimed to be the incarnation of the primordial darkness, which is the source of his power, it has already existed before him. Originally slumbering in the void, as there was nothing but total darkness at that time, he was awakened when the Celestials arrived to create the universe. The Celestials attempted to recruit him as the "King in Black" for the purpose of maintaining the multiverse by working from the inside, but Knull rebuffs it, as he is angered that his "kingdom of darkness" has been despoiled. He retaliated by creating All-Black from his own shadow and shapes it into a powerful sword, which he used to decapitate one of the Celestials.
Knull forging All-Black.
This led him and the Celestial's severed head to be banished deeper into the void by the other Celestials. There, Knull used the severed head as a forge and a temporary base, where he forged and refined his sword, combining it with the dead Celestial's divine powers, though this inadvertently gave the Symbiotes their signature weakness to flames and sonic frequencies. Waging war against the divine light that had usurped his kingdom of darkness, Knull manifested a symbiotic suit of armor from the eldritch darkness he commanded and embarked on a genocidal campaign against the other gods and Life itself while also conquering the cosmos. This led him to be greatly feared by divine beings as a figure of terror.
Symbiote Imperium[]
During his conquest of the Cosmos, Knull used the Living Darkness to create an artificial planet that would serve as his base of operations and a throneworld for his dark empire. He began experimenting with his power to create dark creatures, who would serve as his servants and enforcers of darkness, and would discard any specimen he deemed as "failures" in the Exoteric Latitude. Aside from his failed creations, now known as the Exolon, other early creations of Knull includes the proto-Symbiotes and wyvern-like monsters, which he used to conquer planets and cause mass-destruction, such as devouring civilizations and divine pantheons, extinguishing stars, and smother entire planets in elderitch darkness. Despite his campaign to destroy the other gods, Knull chose to spare a few and forcefully drafts them into his army, in which he transformed them into monsters with the living abyss and enslaving them to his will before using them as sentries for his conquered planets.
During his murderous rampage, Knull came into conflict with Norrin Radd/Silver Surfer, who used the Power Cosmic to liberate a world from Knull's control. During a brief (but intense) fight, Knull was victorious over Radd and infects him with the Living Abyss in an attempt to turn him into the Void Knight, only for Ego the Living Planet to intervene and save Radd. Knull tried to give chase on a symbiote dragon but Radd was able to escape with Ego's help. Intent on reclaiming him as a soldier for his army, Knull hunted down Radd before dueling him for a second time. This time, he was defeated when Radd conjured a star right in front of Knull using the last of his Power Cosmic. Knull was then bathed in stellar plasma before being blasted across the cosmos. Despite Radd's victory, however, it only proved to be temporary, as Knull managed to recover to resume his conquest.
Knull and a goiden-armored god, having battled each other to a stalemate.
At some point, he engaged in battle with an army of golden-armored gods, empowered by the Light. They all fell to Knull's might save for one survivor. Knull pursued the lone survivor and managed to impale the golden-armored god with All-Black only for the enemy god to wound Knull by impaling him through the head with a golden spear. The two then crash-landed on a desolate planet, leaving them incapacitated. All-Black left Knull and bonded with Gorr, one of the planet's indigenous inhabitants. Despite this setback, Knull decided not to pursue Gorr to get his sword back, though he remained aware that Gorr began to unwittingly follow in Knull's footsteps, causing him to be feared as the God Butcher. Knull continued to lay incapacitated before eventually recovering over the course of a century. He discovered that as he began to experiment with his powers, he has the ability to manifest from the Living Abyss amorphous parasites that would come to be known as the Symbiotes and have them bonded to lesser beings, causing them to get corrupted rather than being eradicated.
Knull would continue to reign without anyone stopping him until the 6th Century CE, when a dragon-like composite symbiote named the Grendel, under Knull's control, arrived on Earth and went on a destructive rampage until it was stopped by Thor, who defeated the beast with a blast of divine lightning, which severed Knull's connection to most of the symbiotes - trapping his consciousness in the Grendel's body. Now freed from his control, the Symbiotes began bonding with hosts who are benevolent in nature, becoming tainted with notions of honor and nobility in the process.
Their resulted in a rebellion by the symbiotes against their creator and former leader, and they imprisoned him at the heart of the artificial planet he had created so long ago and it was renamed Klyntar (meaning "cage" in Symbiote). Following this, they would form an order called the Agents of the Cosmo, in which they seek redemption for their past crimes by erasing their past and protecting the cosmos. However, the Grendel, despite his defeat by Thor, had bonded with a cannibalistic cult who worshiped the Symbiotes and instilled knowledge of their primordial god of the void. The Host with the symbiotes still loyal to Knull would later become the Cult of Knull.
Modern Times[]
Centuries later, Grendel was unearthed by S.H.I.E.L.D. and its biomass was used to create a super-soldier initiative called the Sym-Soldier Program. Slowly awakening, Knull began attempting to assert his influence over the symbiote-dragon's offshoots, driving their hosts insane. Seizing control of the symbiote-dragon, Knull sent it on a rampage through downtown Manhattan, but was stopped by the combined efforts of Venom and Spider-Man. Using the Grendel's biomass to manifest an avatar of his true form, Knull stripped Venom from its host and purged it of the benevolence and compassion it had obtained during its time on Earth.
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 Klyntar hive-mind. Reforming 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.
When the Tyrannosaurus symbiote - the last remaining piece of the Grendel symbiote - reconnected to the hive mind, Knull attacked using the Grendel symbiote and attempted to devour Venom. When 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, but his gloating was cut short when Eddie detonated the entire arsenal - the blast affecting even Knull's real body. 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 the blast furnace - telling Venom to hold the door shut. With Knull's avatar subsequently immolated, his connection to the Grendel symbiote severed with its death, and therefore his body remaining sealed at the heart of Klyntar.
A few months later, an Earth-based cult led by Scorn that is dedicated to worshiping Knull had obtained a sample of the Grendel symbiote and Cletus Kasady's body, intending on turning him in to Knull's new avatar and facilitate his awakening. When the sample bonded to Cletus, Knull physically communicated with the serial killer in his attempt to take control of him with the symbiote; though the nature of their conversation is unknown. Kasady resists Knull's control and their connection was severed when the Grendel symbiote absorbed a codex - which were trace remnants of living abyss in former hosts - that the Carnage symbiote had left in Scorn's body. Afterwards, Kasady desired to communicate with Knull again and decided to help free him by collecting enough codexes to reconnect the Grendel symbiote to the Hive Mind.
Characteristics[]
Personality[]
An ancient malevolent deity, Knull despises the Celestials and their creations, attempting to carry out a genocide against them. Through his symbiote army, Knull is responsible for the destruction and corruption of entire civilizations across the universe. While on Earth, he appeared calm and condescending, only smiling at the sight of Venom's berserk form and reacting with rage when Eddie tried to stop him from corrupting the Venom symbiote again. Knull was begrudgingly impressed by Eddie's determination to understand the eldritch truth behind the symbiotes' origins, but mocked him for being deceived by the Klyntar hive-mind. He considers the symbiotes who rebelled against him and imprisoned him to be cowards, liars, and traitors, while sneering at their desperate efforts to cover up their dark origins and keep themselves from relapsing.
Powers and Abilities[]
Divine Physiology: A primordial god of darkness, Knull possesses superhuman attributes and powers exceeding far beyond those of humans and even most other deities. As the creator of All-Black the Necrosword, he likely possesses the same powers it bestows upon its host.
Nigh-Omnipotence: Knull is a primordial cosmic entity of pure darkness. His power allows him to destroy other cosmic entities with ease such as celestials.
Supernatural Strength: Knull is strong enough to decapitate a Celestial with a single blow and singlehandedly slaughtered entire armies of gods. He was able to defeat Silver Surfer, effortlessly overpower and rip apart the Sentry, and later contend against All-Father Thor.
Supernatural Durability: 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.
Amortality: Knull is purportedly unable to be killed, having existed for at least 13.7 billion years, having come into existence prior to the beginning of the seventh iteration of the multiverse itself; before the genesis of such concepts as life and death. As such, being impaled through the head and falling from space to the surface of a planet incapacitated him, but failed to kill him. The only being capable of destroying him was the God of Light, more well-known as the Enigma Force, but it was still stated that Knull isn't truly dead and cannot truly die.
Regenerative Healing Factor: Despite his immense durability, Knull is capable of being injured and even incapacitated. However, he is able to not only survive injuries that would kill other gods, but rapidly recover from them. He was even able to regenerate his jaw after Thor smashed it off using Mjolnir.
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.
Supreme Umbrakinesis: 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".
Darkness Materialization: Knull can manifest matter from pure darkness. For instance he reached into his shadow to pull a sword to kill a celestial.
Dark Energy Manipulation: Knull can produce and manipulate vast sources of fiery dark cosmic energy from his body and hands. This energy is sometimes a black energy emanating from his eyes.
Telekinesis: Knull can use dark cosmic energy to move objects with only his mind on a cosmic scale. Knull was able to hold Silver Surfer in midair before covering him in symbiote.
Matter Manipulation: Knull can use his cosmic power and advanced telekinesis to manipulate matter. He can also create matter from pure darkness.
Symbiote Creation: Knull manifested the first symbiote from his shadow in order to kill a Celestial, and formed a suit of symbiote-armor when embarking on his deicidal crusade. While stranded on a desolate world, Knull discovered he could infect "lesser creatures" with the living abyss, creating an army of symbiotes to conquer the universe.
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; driving them insane with bloodlust. He is capable of indwelling 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.
Teleportation: Knull can travel the multiverse through shadows and open portals of darkness to teleport.
Time Manipulation: Knull can send his conscience back in time through shadows. He was able to empower Mr. E and even cover the sun in darkness.
Cosmic Awareness: As a primordial entity Knull is aware of the universe on a multiversal scale.
Weaknesses[]
The Light: Knull is vulnerable to a metaphysical force he refers to as "the Light", which came into being with the Big Bang and was spread through the Abyss by the Celestials. The Light manifests as concepts such as honor, benevolence, and nobility; and physically as the divine power wielded by gods. While Knull sought to devour and corrupt the Light using his army of symbiotes, his control over them was severed when the symbiote-dragon he was indwelling was blasted by Thor's divine lightning. Centuries later, his avatar was temporarily destabilized by the totemic avatar Miles Morales' bioelectric Venom Blast.
Knull serves as the overarching antagonist of the Venom trilogy and is portrayed by Andy Serkis. He made his first live-action appearance in the 2024 film Venom: The Last Dance. The background of this incarnation is mostly the same as in the comics. After he was betrayed by the Symbiotes and is imprisoned within the dark dimension known as Klyntar, Knull sought to claim the Codex in order to free himself from his confinement and continue his conquest of darkness.
Because he was betrayed by the Symbiotes, he became the creator of the Xenophages, a new type of species who are the female counterparts of the Symbiotes and had replaced them as Knull's new loyal servants.
Marvel Cinematic Universe[]
The Dark Shadow Lord
The original owner of All-Black the Necrosword makes a cameo in the 2022 MCU film Thor: Love and Thunder, though he is actually not the first to wield the blade; According to Thor, the sword had been wielded by the former's predecessors since the Dawn of Time. As the character goes unnamed in the film, he is only identified as "The Dark Shadow Lord" by the practical effect company Odd Studio as they worked on the character's prop corpse.[1]
The Dark Lord is a reference to the dark god who first appeared in Thor: God of Thunder #6, who was later retroactively identified as Knull in Venom (Vol. 4) #4. In the film, the Dark Shadow Lord was slain by Rapu for being a threat to the latter's "empire". His corpse is seen lying dead before Rapu before the latter himself is slain by Gorr. This version of the character is also similar to the Warlord Kaa.
Videogames[]
Knull also appeared in several Marvel games as;
A playable characters in Spider-Man Unlimited.
A playable character and boss in Marvel: Future Fight.
Marvel Snap
A playable character in Marvel Contest of Champions.
A playable character in Marvel Puzzle Quest.
Quotes[]
“
In the beginning, there was nothing. And then...war. The light of being exploded into my realm. Blinded, I fell for eons in the bright. And inside of that light...something else...Gods. Those that saw my world as...incomplete. As clay for their unwanted designs...that banished my abyss further into the deepest corners of creation. They would come to call my kingdom 'space'. As if it were an empty thing that needed to be filled. But my kingdom was not empty. My abyss was not dead. Not hollow. The endlessness of my lands was not theirs to raze and reform and remake! No. The void breathes. The abyss has teeth. And shadows only grow in the light. That was the first time I tasted the blood of the light. And for that crime, I was banished...But the gods, they did not know what they had done. The fools had sent me home. To my void...where my work began. The first of the race your kind calls Symbiotes began life as a blade. I pulled its shape from my own and cast its living edge in the fire of the first creator I felled. There, shrouded in my darkness, the god of a forgotten idea...became the god of the forge. I was...unrefined in those early days. And as such, the creation of the proto-Symbiote was...unclean. To this day, the weaker of my creations carry the scars of their progenitor's birth inside of them. They still fear the fire of the forge...and the discordant and incessant noise of a Celestial hammer beating their will into something...wieldy. Into something...beautiful. My weapon forged. I set out to banish the bright and all that came with it. In time, my living blade would become known as All-Black. The Necrosword. The Godslayer. Together, we slit the throats of creation and choked a billion stars with the blood of the all-mighty. Until...we fell. And All-Black, my first-born...was taken from me...by some doomed wretch who would come to curse its name.
„
~ Knull explaining his origins to Eddie Brock.
“
HA! You are a simple and trusting host, Edward Brock. I see why my child adores you so. But you have been lied to for so very long. What you think of as their homeworld, their planet... is nothing more than the largest horde of symbiotes in the galaxy trying desperately to keep their greatest secret. An infinity of them churning and roiling endlessly around the one thing that binds them all... the hive mind they cannot do without. Do you see the shape of it now? Do you understand? There is no "Planet of the Symbiotes".Klyntar is their word for "cage". That is where I am right now, host. Where I have been sleeping for eons. I am there. Imprisoned. As I am here piloting this... what did your people call it? The Grendel? Thank you for releasing my other, Eddie Brock. Though I'm not sure how much you had to do with the choice... no doubt your symbiote has been reacting to my resurrection on late, no? I'm sure it all must be quite... overwhelming for you both... but all is well, child. Your God is awake. And God is coming. When this Grendel is complete... when I find its missing... parts... it will come for me. It will free me from my klyntar. From my cage. And then I will finish what I began. I will rid my dark kingdom of this invasive light once and for all... and I will start with Earth.
„
~ Knull explaining his agenda.
“
You...you think me undone...you...You have no idea what I am! I AM YOUR GOD! And you will obey me!
„
~ Knull before his defeat.
“
Ah... I see my reputation precedes me... so I won't waste your time... I am going to kill your world
„
~ Knull.
“
⚞SIGH⚟ Honestly, how hard is it to kill one man?
„
~ Knull.
“
Everyone will burn... and you will watch. You know the pain of All-Black, don't you? Well... now you've had the honor of being killed by its creator.
„
~ Knull.
Trivia[]
Coincidentally, "Knull", in Swedish translation, means "f@&$".
When asked what Knull would have done had he encountered Carnage or one of Venom's other offspring, co-creator Ryan Stegman replied that he would have "either [tried] to hurt them or re-consume them and bring them back to Klyntar."
Donny cates confirms that Knull was inspired by major marvel villains Gorr and Morlun.
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