Marvel Comics is teasing a big story coming later this year for Venom and the Symbiotes, with a full-page house ad appearing in this week’s Empyre Magazine that reads “Knull is coming – 2020”.
Knull is the great god of the symbiotes, the alien creatures that include Venom and Carnage in their numbers. Introduced in Thor, developed in the Venom comic, Knull was behind the great Absolute Carnage event last year. But all that was a tee-up for what is to come – even though it may be a little later than teased today.
Known for killing other gods, Knull has played an important role in the background of writer Donny Cates’s ongoing Venom run, with Cates also incorporating Knull into his Silver Surfer: Black limited series and Guardians of the Galaxy run. Cates relaunched Venom in 2018, bringing in the concept of Knull and focusing on the relationships between Symbiotes – with his first major Venom crossover being Cult of Carnage.
In the recently-released Venom #25, a two-page spread by artist Ryan Stegman teased what was to come later – presumably what this ‘Knull is coming – 2020’ graphic is also referring to.
Prior to the release of Venom #25, Cates told Newsarama that the next story arc Beyond will start the story on the path to Venom‘s “next big thing”, while the upcoming Web of Venom: Wraith one-shot will be a “must-read” part of the story.