King in Black #1

[cyberghostface]

 

"As far as event books go, this is the coolest, darkest, most heavy metal, Cthulhu dark horror thing I’ve ever been able to do. I still can’t believe that Marvel is letting us go as dark and scary as we’re going." -- Donny Cates

Comments

[thanekos]

Knull's secret power is that if your character writeup mentions darkness or shadow or any other synonym, you're his, no questions asked.

[arilou_skiff]

I thought his superpower was just having his name mean "fuck" in swedish.

(as in, the act of fucking, "a fuck")

[cainofdreaming]

You can't really blame Cates, though. He tried checking with Marvel's international offices about the name but they couldn't give a knull.

[dcbanacek]

Isn't the Swedish Chef handling their call center now?

[dan_ingram]

Cates could use a lesson on pacing.

In this issue alone, we had Celestials covered in Venom suits, Sentry torn apart and the planet completely covered. Those things really should have been spread out if he wanted them to have much impact, IMO

[shakalooloo]

That's kinda the problem with all of Marvel's recent events; frontloading the big scenes and leaving no room for escalation. Big villain shows up, does lots of crazy things, heroes go off on sidequests to foil him. See War of the Realms and Empyre.

[silverhammerman]

All I can think about whenever I see The King in Black is that Tom King's cycle of The Vision/The Sheriff of Babylon/Mister Miracle was unofficially called The King in Black, and shortly after he'd mentioned that branding it was also announced as the title of yet another brainless Marvel event.

As for this, it's the usual. Knull is a deeply, deeply uninteresting villain and I sincerely hope that this is going to be Cates' last story with the character, who's been a millstone around his neck for over two years now. I've been pretty harsh on Cates before, but I have actually enjoyed his work elsewhere and think he's capable of solid writing when he's not indulging his worse instincts. His Doctor Strange was good, God Country seems to be well-regarded, and I maintain that his Cosmic Ghost Rider the best possible take on his over-the-top indulgent fun side.

[lordultimus]

Okay, seeing the Sentry get curbstomped like that is pretty cathartic.

[strejdaking]

I can't even get satisfaction out of that, when it's the old Worf Effect hip new one-note villains showing how badass they are. And this particular case isn't even amusingly casual (like Doom killign THanos in Secret Wars) nor "OH SHIT" devastating.

[shadowpsykie]

did he just Sentry the Sentry?

[starwolf_oakley]

Reddit mentioned this, so I can't take credit for the question:

"Has is been reconciled (retconned) as to why Julia Carpenter had a costume based on an elder god?"

Personally, I'm not sure if Knull "meshes" with all the "Planet of the Symbiotes" history we get from time to time. Usually it says the Venom symbiote is a criminal or outcast or "free thinker" compared to the other beings.

[cyberghostface]

https://www.cbr.com/venom-white-spider-symbol-origin/

[jaxjyls]

I don't enjoy it when DC does shit stuff with Metal not seeing the appeal of Marvel doing it