How was Knull awakened and set free, explained

"god is coming"

Throughout the events of Donny Cates' Venom (2018), that phrase is said over and over again by different beings who act scared out of their mind. Even worse, Eddie Brock's symbiote suddenly starts behaving strangely, talking in an ancient, unrecognizable language and being more lethal than usual. Eddie can't get ahold of it and takes pills to silence the voices in his head. Right out of the gate, it's clear that something bad will happen. And that something has a name.

Knull is a primordial being that existed before any other form of life. He floated in infinite darkness until the Celestials stepped in and created life and light as we know it. Enraged by their actions, the King in Black cuts off the head of a Celestial on his own and starts a crusade to end all living beings in the universe. Eventually, he met his match in the form of an unnamed warrior, and their battle left the supervillain stranded on a planet for centuries. In there, he discovered he could "bond" with other creatures, creating the symbiotes in the process.

All of his "children" shared a hivemind, from which Knull ordered them to invade and end countless planets while driving survivors insane. It was the perfect plan until another god - one of thunder - stepped in to end this reign of terror. When Thor struck one of Knull's creations (called Grendel) with lighting, the bond between the supervillain and the rest of the hivemind was severed. At that moment, millions of symbiotes rose and trapped the King in Black on what would come to be known as the planet Klyntar. For eons, he slept there, waiting to be set free until that dreadful day finally came courtesy... of Eddie Brock?

Absolute Carnage tells the story of Knull's escape

In Absolute Carnage, Cletus Kasady is brought back to life after being bonded with a piece of the Grendel symbiote (the ancient dragon that shared a direct connection with Knull). At that moment, he's briefly overtaken by the King in Black and comes to learn about his existence. Unfortunately, that brief experience was more than enough for Carnage to make it his personal mission to communicate with his god again and set him free. But how could that be accomplished?

During the events of Venom (2018) readers learn a symbiote never truly leaves a host after the two go their separate ways. Instead, the symbiote leaves a piece of itself behind, which is used to communicate key details about the host to the rest of the hivemind. These "codices" (as they're called) are described as cellular imprints - traces of a symbiote in the host's DNA. However, Venom and Carnage never knew about them because they've been disconnected from the hivemind for a very long time.

Cletus Kasady then learns that the more codices he collects, the closer he's to reconnecting to the hivemind and waking Knull. So he embarks on a violent crusade to rip and eat the spinal cords of everyone who's ever bonded with a symbiote. That leads him to his final target: Dylan Brock, who's protected by his father, Eddie Brock. During this confrontation, Eddie also bonded with multiple codices that were present in heroes such as Wolverine and Captain America (except they were obtained less violently) in order to be able to put up a fight. Unfortunately, that move was his ultimate demise.

If Cletus Kasady kills Dylan Brock and gets ahold of his codex, then the serial killer rejoins the hivemind and awakens Knull. However, if Eddie defeats Carnage, then the Venom symbiote absorbs its offspring, and the two separate sets of codices would unite resulting in the King in Black's return. There's no escape from this inevitable fate, so the Lethal Protector decides to get at least one victory and take Cletus down.

Absolute Carnage concludes with the god of symbiotes being freed from his prison courtesy of Eddie Brock's heroic acts to save his son. All the codices Venom and Carnage collected were more than enough to connect the Lethal Protector to the hivemind and wake one of Marvel's worst nightmares. It's an epic yet tragic tale that's worth revisiting before Venom: The Last Dance releases on October 25, 2024, and you can read our review of it here.

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