Knull

Knull () is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Donny Cates and artist Ryan Stegman, the character debuted in Venom vol. 4 #3 (August 2018), and later retroactively established as the unnamed black-armored figure in Jason Aaron's Thor: God of Thunder #6 (March 2013). Knull is a primordial god of darkness from before the universe's seventh iteration. He created the symbiote race and the weapon All-Black the Necrosword, and he rules the symbiotes as the King in Black. His introduction altered the established fictional history of the Klyntar, Venom, and Carnage. Knull was developed gradually across Cates and Stegman's Venom run (2018–2021), first appearing in flashback before escalating to the central antagonist of the "Absolute Carnage" crossover event (2019) and then the main villain of the company-wide "King in Black" event (2020–2021). In that event, he invades Earth with a fleet of symbiote dragons, kills Sentry, and seals the planet in a symbiote sphere that cuts it off from sunlight, before being defeated and killed by Venom, who absorbs his role as King in Black. Following the Venom War storyline (2024), Knull was resurrected in a 2026 self-titled solo series, written by Al Ewing and Tom Waltz. Knull has been described as one of Marvel's most powerful supervillains. His creation drew widespread critical attention as a meaningful reinvention of the symbiote mythos. Knull made his live-action feature film debut in the Sony's Spider-Man Universe (SSU) film Venom: The Last Dance, portrayed by Andy Serkis.