In the past two weeks, the Icebox has presented special information regarding the legendary tale of the symbiote Venom and his host Eddie Brock. I think it’s time to wrap it up with one last topic. What better way to do that than to tell you who exactly the big bad is?

At the start of the universe, when the celestials created planets and assigned duties, they noticed something rather strange in the darkness. There was something–no, there was someone–who remained in the absence of the universe right from the start. This domain was called the primordial void which exists between the sixth and seventh cosmos. 

When the celestials became aware of this preexisting darkness, they attempted to invade it with their own light. Little did they know that they had just awakened Knull, the eldritch god of darkness. Upon having his kingdom invaded, Knull furiously beheaded one of the celestials with his weapon, the Necrosword. This weapon is said to be the earliest of the symbiotes and became refined with life after absorbing the head of the dead celestial. The first official symbiote creation of Knull was from this sword, and it was called the All-Black symbiote. 

Afterwards, Knull began to experiment with darkness and created different beings. He eventually settled upon the planet Klyntar, where he took control of his selected creations. First, the All-Black was used to extend his domain and power by giving rise to the symbiote army. This army consists of all of the first-generation symbiotes who were entrusted with a mission to destroy all life and light and restore Knull’s possession of the cosmos.

The first generation does include our familiar Venom as well as some of his former companions: Riot, Lasher, Agony, Misery, Scream, Phage and more. The symbiotes were given the ability to reproduce asexually by releasing seeds which require a host to implant and grow the symbiote body. For example, Venom birthed his son Carnage when a piece of him interacted with Cletus Kasady. Later, Carnage birthed Toxin when a piece of him interacted with Peter Parker and his radioactive blood.

At some point, the symbiote army turned against Knull. They decided that destroying the entire universe and leaving it in darkness was not in their best interests. The symbiote creations turned against Knull and imprisoned him on the planet Klyntar. 

In response to this betrayal, the eldritch god created predators to destroy the symbiotes. These were called Xenophages, which were bloodthirsty and regenerative creatures that had the sole purpose of tracking down symbiotes across the universe and eating them. In the Venom movie, the Xenophages are portrayed as blind, only able to track symbiotes when their codex is active. 

A codex is a special signal of power that forms when a symbiote has achieved maximum potential with its host. According to the Venom film, the codex is created when a symbiote’s host dies but it chooses to save the host’s life. Afterwards, the codex becomes an indication that the symbiote and host have achieved complete unity. 

Knull, who is binded by the All-Black symbiote on the planet Klyntar, requires a codex in order to be able to break from his prison and unleash chaos. He sends Xenophages after Venom, who has achieved perfect symbiosis and a bright codex with his host, Eddie Brock. Knull has yet to break free from his prison, but when he does he will destroy all creations of the cosmos and start again with only darkness.

Another thing that Knull has done in the comics is using the binding symbiote to create dragons to assist Xenophages in finding a codex. While this is unlikely to happen in the future Sony films, it’s yet another way to show just how powerful Knull is.

The one thing that is for sure is that Knull is at a level far beyond the likes of any villain we have seen so far in the MCU. As a matter of fact, he can easily destroy Thanos, Ultron, Kang the Conqueror and Doctor Doom all by himself. He could even handle Galactus, who is more powerful than the celestials, by taking control of him.

Unfortunately, Knull’s fate has been sealed already. He is being written by Sony, after all. Fans only hope that he is done justice even if his power is scaled down.