Knull

Knull is a primordial, eldritch entity created between the sixth and seventh cosmos in the main Marvel continuity. Knull as he is in MM, predates the events of King in Black, and as such has never yet launched an attack on the Earth. Knull is also the creator of the race of symbiotic extraterrestrials known as Klyntar, or as they're better known, Symbiotes, as well as the Exolon (Not currently in MM) and other similar entities.

As their creator, Knull is also the designated center, or core, of the Symbiote Hive Mind. This allows him to access all of the knowledge, memories, etc. of any connected symbiotes, as well as the ability to remotely control them.

Appearance
Knull appears most often as a thin humanoid, often donning his set of Symbiote Armor, which covers all but his arms and head.

His eyes appear as a bright red color, his hair white, and his skin ghostly pale. Knull possesses a mouth of razor sharp teeth along with a long, snake-like tongue; these features are what inspired the same sharpened teeth and snake-like tongue on his creations, the Klyntar.

Personality
An ancient malevolent deity, Knull despises the Celestials and their creations, attempting to carry out a genocide against them by corrupting and slaughtering all life. Revelling in bloodshed and destruction, Knull often sports a predatory grin when engaged in combat and fondly reminisced to Eddie Brock about the devastation he and All-Black wrought together. He is also arrogant and sadistic - regarding his conquest of the universe as being inevitable, mocking the Silver Surfer's attempt to fight him or escape as futile, and relishing the prospect of hunting the fleeing Surfer down and killing or corrupting him. Knull's hubris is one of his greatest weaknesses, as he routinely underestimates opponents he sees as beneath himself - such as the Silver Surfer, Venom, and Thor - and rarely fights using the full extent of his power, instead opting to let his symbiotes do the fighting for him.

Through his symbiote army, Knull is responsible for the destruction and corruption of entire civilizations across the universe. When not engaged in combat, Knull appeared calm and condescending, often smiling in a sadistic fashion at sights such as Venom's berserk form, which he called beautiful. However, Knull possesses a volatile temper and is prone to reacting with extreme rage when denied what he wants, such as when Eddie tried to stop him from re-corrupting the Venom symbiote or when the Silver Surfer refused to serve him. 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 and imprisoned him to be cowards, liars, and traitors; sneering at their desperate efforts to cover up their dark origins and keep themselves from relapsing. Despite his loathing respect for them - seeing them as his wayward children - he hates the Klyntar symbiotes for betraying him.

First Arrival
Prior to the events leading up to his freedom in Marvel Comics, this specific incarnation of Knull was ripped from his home universe. He arrived within MM inside the core of Klyntar, an artificial planet made up entirely out of symbiotes. Trapped in a state of inactivity, Knull remained unable to do much other than simply exist for a short amount of time after his initial arrival.

Despite the inactivity from Knull, his arrival would've alerted all Klyntar Symbiotes within MM to his presence, sending most of them into a panicked state or putting them onto high alert.

Combine Invasion
Despite not having any part in it, Knull was greatly effected by the Combine invasion of Earth. Hostless symbiotes who were still scrambling to find a partner to prepare for Knull's arrival were sent into a hyper-enhanced state of distress, which managed to overload the Hive for a short period of time. This overload allowed Knull to breach into the shared consciousness and corrupt a symbiote on Earth.

As with his arrival, this event would cause mass panic throughout the symbiotic race connected to Knull, as they understood that with him corrupting a symbiote, it's only a matter of time before he managed to break free from his prison and continues his crusade to end all of existence.

Abilities/Powers
Divine Physiology- A primordial god of darkness, Knull possesses superhuman attributes and powers far exceeding those of humans and even most other deities. As the creator of All-Black the Necrosword, he apparently possesses the same powers it bestows upon its hosts but to a greater extent. According to Brunnhilde, much of Knull's power and apparent invincibility comes from his metaphysical link to the undead corpse of the Celestial he used to refine All-Black, which feeds him power through the Necrosword and in exchange assimilates the souls of those he kills; serving as a grotesque afterlife.


 * Living Abyss Manipulation: 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". Knull has spent billions of years experimenting with and honing his powers to create not only the parasitic symbiotes, but similar entities such as Mister E and the Exolon. His greatest creations have been All-Black, the Void Knight -- a powerful proto-symbiote created to enslave the Silver Surfer, and the symbiote dragons. During his invasion of Earth, Knull was able to engulf the entire Earth in a dome of living abyss, blocking out all light.
 * Symbiote Creation: Knull first discovered his ability to create life from darkness itself when he manifested All-Black from his shadow in order to kill a Celestial. Experimenting with and honing this aspect of his powers over the eons, he formed a suit of symbiote-armor, constructed an artificial planet, and amassed a horde of wyvern-like monsters from the living abyss. While he initially only infected gods and other cosmic beings with the living abyss; when stranded on a desolate world he discovered he could also infect mortal creatures with the living abyss, creating an army of parasites to conquer the universe by corrupting life instead of simply exterminating it. Knull's early experiments to hone this aspect of his powers resulted in what became known as the Exolon, imperfect symbiotes he discarded as failures. He was also capable of creating symbiotes using his blood, though the only known symbiote created in this manner is Big Mother.
 * 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 even while sealed away; driving them insane with bloodlust and hunger. He is also capable of remote-piloting 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. Symbiotes infected by Knull's will usually have red spirals in place of their eyespots, and are more powerful than symbiotes disconnected from his dark hive-mind; sometimes even gaining new powers and abilities as a result of the connection. Knull is also capable of forcibly removing symbiotes from their hosts either by psychically blasting them off or by ripping them off with his bare hands. He is also capable of dominating other dark entities, such as the Void.


 * Superhuman Strength: Knull is strong enough to decapitate a Celestial with a single blow, and singlehandedly slaughtered entire armies of gods augmented by the Uni-Power. At least some of Knull's immense strength is due to him wielding All-Black the Necrosword and his symbiote-armor, which supply him with power from the first Celestial he'd killed. Knull was able to easily manhandle the Silver Surfer - albeit after Norrin had exhausted the majority of his Power Cosmic, and easily overpowered the Sentry - touted as one of Earth's strongest heroes - and effortlessly tore him in half. Even after the Valkyries severed his metaphysical connection to the Headless Celestial, Knull was still strong enough to overpower Thor Odinson - who possessed the Power of the All-Father - with relative ease. The avatars that Knull creates using his symbiotes possess only a fraction of his true power, but are nevertheless able to easily overpower the likes of Venom despite Eddie Brock being simultaneously bonded to both the Venom and Tyrannosaurus symbiotes.
 * Superhuman 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. While Silver Surfer's Power Cosmic was able to make Knull bleed and being blasted by Ego's psionic beams caused him pain, he was not severely injured by either. Knull can also withstand being immersed in stellar plasma without permanent injury, though this caused him severe pain. There are limits to this, as a full-force blow from Mjolnir wielded by All-Father Thor was enough to rip off Knull's lower jaw.
 * Dark Energy Manipulation: Knull was capable of conjuring fiery purple energy; wreathing himself and All-Black in an aura of it, firing it from his hands in a beam powerful enough to incapacitate the Silver Surfer, or firing it as flak and homing projectiles from artillery constructs manifested from the Symbiote Throneworld. He has also been shown to manifest red energy that he can fire from his hands
 * Amortality: Knull is purportedly unable to be truly killed and has existed for over 13.7 billion years, having come into existence prior to the beginning of the seventh iteration of the universe. However, he can be injured to the point of incapacitation: after being impaled through the head and falling from space to the surface of a planet, he required centuries to fully heal from his injuries. Even after his body was completely disintegrated by Eddie Brock using the God of Light's power, Knull attempted to take over Dylan Brock before being foiled by Eddie and seemingly destroyed once-and-for-all. Despite this, however, he can not truly die as he is an avatar of Oblivion.
 * 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.
 * Shapeshifting: Knull is capable of transforming his mouth into a fanged maw with a prehensile serpentine tongue, a trait he passed down to the symbiotes. When truly enraged, Knull's entire face transforms into one more closely resembling the symbiotes', with his nose, lips, and cheeks completely receding
 * Regenerative Healing Factor: Despite his immense durability, Knull is capable of being injured to the point of incapacitation. However, he is able to not only survive injuries that would kill other gods, but eventually recover from them. After Thor blasted a hole in his hand, Knull regenerated within the space of a few seconds, though the loss of his lower jaw required the creation of a prosthesis.
 * Flight: Knull can manifest a pair of large dragon-like wings that allow him to fly.

Expert Combatant- Despite not possessing any formal training, Knull is a vicious warrior with billions of years' worth of combat experience, capable of slaughtering entire armies of gods augmented by the Uni-Power singlehandedly.

Weaknesses
The Light: Despite his immense durability, Knull is particularly vulnerable to a force he refers to as "the Light", which came into being with the Big Bang and was first spread through the Abyss by the Celestials. "The Light" refers not only to the literal light of stars and other celestial objects, but to the various powers wielded by cosmic entities and deities - which when used offensively could cause him pain and even injure him; concepts such as honor, benevolence, compassion, and nobility - which disrupted his control of the symbiotes and caused them to turn on him; and life itself. Knull sought to destroy and corrupt the Light using his army of symbiotes, but 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, and by sonic and energy grenades.

Remote Piloting: When Knull is remote piloting a symbiote, any damage caused to it is also inflicted on him -- as seen when Thor blasted a hole through a symbiote-hand Knull had manifested to attack Dylan Brock, which caused a corresponding wound to appear on Knull's hand until he regenerated.

Hive-Mind Infiltration: When a person or a metaphysical manifestation of a codex has freedom in Knull's hive-mind, they can fight against the symbiotes under his control and also cause him pain if not taken care of.

Celestial Connection: Most of Knull's overwhelming power is supplied through the All-Black symbiote by the Headless Celestial, whose corpse he had used as a forge to create his Necrosword. Knull remained oblivious to this until the moment the connection was severed by the Valkyries, thereby depriving him of the majority of his power. Despite this, Knull was still strong enough to overpower Thor Odinson - who had been augmented by the Power of the All-Father - in combat with relative ease.

Heavy Damage: Despite his immense durability, Knull is capable of being damaged by attacks above a certain damage threshold. This was proven when he had his jaw severed after being hit full force by Thor wielding Mjolnir. If Knull sustains too much damage, he can be rendered incapacitated or be forced to flee so he has time to recover.

Armor
Symbiote Armor- After forging All-Black, Knull created a suit of symbiote-armor from the Living Abyss. The armor was originally solid black, but after he founded the Symbiote Imperium he emblazoned its chest and back with a red dragon emblem. It is unknown exactly what abilities the armor possessed and conferred upon Knull, though it was capable of shapeshifting to manifest a cape, waistcloth, wing-like fins, and draconic helmet. Given that its constituent matter was used to create the lesser symbiotes, it can be presumed to possess similar abilities; and despite presumably being vulnerable to intense heat and sonics it was capable of withstanding a plunge through the atmosphere of a planet and being immersed in stellar plasma without sustaining significant damage. Knull's symbiote armor was stripped from him following his imprisonment, as his physical body at the core of Klyntar has alternately been shown armored and naked; though Knull's manifestation through the Grendel symbiote dragon also emulated this armor.

Weapons
All-Black the Necrosword- In order to slay a Celestial, Knull manifested a black-and-red sword from his shadow; later refining it using the dead Celestial's cosmic power. Using this weapon, which came to be known as All-Black, Knull attempted to carry out a genocide against his fellow gods, but it was stolen from him after he was wounded in battle. When confronted by Wraith, Knull removed Zak-Del's Exolon symbiote and absorbed it into his symbiote-armor before reforming All-Black's Necrosword form.

Equipment
N/A

Transportation
The Grendel- As part of Knull's army, the Grendel are a sub-race of Klyntar. Grendel, also referred to as Symbiote Dragons, are Proto-Symbiotes capable of interstellar travel at speeds comparable to that of the Silver Surfer, making them one of the quickest ways to get around the universe Knull has.

Wings- Knull is capable of manifesting a pair of wings from hs back, which he has been seen using as an alternative to riding a Grendel.

Trivia
N/A