Who Is Knull? Marvel’s God of the Symbiotes, Explained

Spoiler note: this guide covers the endings of King in Black (2020–21), Queen in Black (2026) and Venom: The Last Dance (2024).

Knull is Marvel’s god of darkness and the creator of the symbiotes, the alien race behind Venom and Carnage. Created by Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman, he first appeared in full in Venom #3 (2018). He forged the All-Black Necrosword, led the King in Black invasion of Earth in 2020, and returned in 2025–26 to fight Hela in Queen in Black.

Updated October 23, 2026

Most people met Knull in Venom: The Last Dance, where he barely leaves his prison and explains almost nothing about himself. In the comics he’s a much bigger deal: an elder god who was here before the current universe, who made every symbiote, and who needed half of Marvel to put him down. Here’s who he is, what he can do, and where he stands after 2026’s Queen in Black.

Who created Knull, and when did he first appear?

Writer Donny Cates and artist Ryan Stegman created Knull for their Venom run, which launched in 2018. His first full appearance is Venom #3 (cover date August 2018), and Venom #4 is where he tells his origin.

Cates also wrote him backwards into an older story. The unnamed god in black armor from Jason Aaron’s Thor: God of Thunder #6 (2013) turned out to be Knull all along. That retcon is the clever part. It gave a brand-new villain roots in one of Marvel’s best cosmic stories, so his debut landed like a reveal instead of an introduction.

Where did Knull come from?

Marvel’s universe has been destroyed and reborn several times. (Galactus is the best-known survivor of a universe that came before ours.) Knull existed in the dark between the sixth version of the cosmos and the seventh, the one today’s Marvel Universe grew out of. He drifted through an endless void, and he liked it that way.

Then the Celestials arrived and brought light with them. A later Venom issue adds that they offered him the job of King in Black, keeper of their new creation. Knull watched the light eat away at his kingdom, refused to be anyone’s servant, and made his first symbiote: a living sword. He used it to cut off the head of the Celestial assigned to watch him.

The other Celestials banished him, and the severed head went with him. Knull forged it into All-Black the Necrosword. Co-creator Donny Cates has said that rotting head would eventually become Knowhere, the giant Celestial skull Guardians of the Galaxy fans know from the films.

With All-Black in hand, Knull went on a god-killing spree until he crash-landed on a distant planet and lost the sword. The one who picked it up was Gorr, and you know how that went for gods in Thor: Love and Thunder.

His next move defined him. Knull found he could bond pieces of his living darkness to other creatures and steer them through a hive mind. Those were the first symbiotes, and he sent them across space to conquer.

It fell apart on medieval Earth, where a young Thor killed a symbiote dragon the villagers called Grendel. That broke Knull’s hold on the hive. Freed symbiotes began bonding with decent hosts, learned what light was, and turned on their maker. They sealed him inside a planet built from their own bodies and named it Klyntar, their word for cage.

How powerful is Knull?

Marvel has never given him an official power ranking, and he doesn’t need one. He’s immortal, heals from almost anything, creates and controls symbiotes, shapes darkness into weapons and living creatures, and flies. He fights in armor made of symbiote matter, swinging a blade that has killed Celestials and gods.

Feat	Where it happens
Beheads a Celestial with his first symbiote	Venom #4 (2018)
Kills the Sentry and absorbs the Void	King in Black #1 (2020)
Seals Earth inside a symbiote shell that blocks the sun	King in Black #1 (2020)
Takes over the Avengers through symbiotes	King in Black (2020–21)
Kills Thanos	The 2026 Knull and Queen in Black saga
Kills Hela and takes back his power	Queen in Black (2026)

The Sentry fight is the one people remember. The Sentry, a hero often described as having the power of a million exploding suns, dragged Knull into orbit to finish him. Knull tore him in half instead and swallowed the Void, Sentry’s dark side. If you came here from our Sentry vs Doctor Doom breakdown, that panel is why Knull keeps turning up in those arguments.

So is he stronger than Thanos? On the page, yes. He killed Thanos during the 2026 saga, and he’d already beheaded a Celestial billions of years earlier.

How did Marvel’s heroes beat Knull in King in Black?

King in Black (2020–21) is the story most readers mean when they talk about Knull. He broke out of Klyntar, sent symbiote dragons at Earth and wrapped the whole planet in a symbiote shell. His target was Dylan Brock, Eddie’s son, who carries the symbiote codex and can command symbiotes on his own. When Eddie tried to bargain, Knull ripped the Venom symbiote off him and dropped him from the sky.

The Avengers, the X-Men and the Fantastic Four all lost ground, and heroes were taken over one by one. The turn came when Jean Grey, one of Marvel’s Omega-level mutants, got inside Knull’s head and saw his past. The one thing he feared was the God of Light, the Enigma Force that powers Captain Universe. The Silver Surfer freed it, and it chose a barely breathing Eddie Brock.

King in Black #5 is one of Venom’s best days on the page. Eddie fused Mjolnir and the Surfer’s board into an axe shaped like his spider emblem, carved through the dragons, punched through the shell around Earth and burned Knull away with the Uni-Power at the edge of the sun. Then he took Knull’s place as the new King in Black. Marvel’s own recap of the finale covers the Enigma Force twist in more detail.

Is Knull dead? Where is he now?

He didn’t stay dead. Eddie gave up the King in Black role during Venom War (2024), which left the throne empty, and that vacancy brought Knull back in a weakened state. Venom #250 (October 2025) showed who cashed in on it: Hela, Asgard’s goddess of death, caged Knull with old magic and took his power, crowning herself the Queen in Black.

Knull’s first solo series, Knull (2026) by Al Ewing and Tom Waltz with art by Juanan Ramirez, followed him in exile (AIPT has the announcement). Stripped of the dark, he took the light instead, conquering the Lightforce dimension and calling himself the God of Light. That set up Queen in Black, the summer 2026 event where the two fought over Earth.

The ending, as ComicBook.com reported it: Knull killed Hela and came back with his darkness restored on top of the light. The heroes couldn’t stop him. Mary Jane Watson, the current Venom host, did, by flooding his mind with the thoughts of everyone on Earth until he fled. On the final pages the Sleeper symbiote claimed the throne as the new King in Black. Knull is alive, beaten, and off his throne.

Year	Story	What happens to Knull
2013	Thor: God of Thunder #6	Unnamed cameo, later revealed as Knull
2018	Venom #3–4	Full debut and origin
2019	Absolute Carnage	Carnage tries to free him
2020–21	King in Black	Invades Earth, killed by Venom
2024	Venom War	Eddie leaves the throne; Knull later returns, weakened
2025	Venom #250	Revealed as Hela’s prisoner
2026	Knull #1–5	Takes the Lightforce, becomes God of Light
2026	Queen in Black	Kills Hela, driven off by Mary Jane’s Venom; Sleeper takes the throne

Is Knull in the MCU?

Not in the MCU proper. His live-action debut came in Sony’s Venom: The Last Dance (2024), with Andy Serkis playing him. The film keeps the broad strokes: he made the symbiotes, they betrayed him and locked him on his own world, and he wants out. He sends creatures called Xenophages after the codex that could free him. Venom sacrifices himself to destroy it, and a mid-credits scene has Knull warning that the universe isn’t safe now that Venom is gone.

That threat never paid off. Sony’s live-action spin-off line stalled after Kraven the Hunter, and TheWrap reported the studio would stop developing those films for now. Serkis has said he’d happily play Knull again, but no film or series with him had been announced as of October 2026. The closest Marvel Studios has come is the dark original owner of the Necrosword in Thor: Love and Thunder, a nod to Knull rather than the character himself.

Where to start reading Knull

• Venom by Donny Cates Vol. 1: Rex (Venom #1–6, 2018): his origin and first appearance.
• Absolute Carnage (2019): Carnage’s cult works to free him.
• King in Black #1–5 (2020–21): the invasion, best read with Venom #31–35.
• Venom #250, Knull #1–5 and Queen in Black (2025–26): where he is now.

If you only read one, make it King in Black #1. It’s the cleanest look at how frightening Cates and Stegman wanted him to be.

Knull FAQ

Why Knull still matters

Knull works because he’s simple. He was here first, he hates the light, and everything Venom is came from him. The 2026 stories bent that idea by handing him the light he spent eons fighting, and I’m not convinced it’s an improvement. A god of darkness is scary. A god of everything is just big. Still, Marvel keeps finding reasons to bring him back, and with the Sleeper sitting on his throne he has a fresh grudge to settle. Bet on seeing him again.