Earth’s mightiest heroes prepare a plan to fell the Godking Knull with more than a few surprises along the way in King in Black #2 Written by Donny Cates, penciled by Ryan Stegman, colored by Frank Martin, and lettered by Clayton Cowles.
Forrest Hollingsworth: Equally good plotting and artistic beats, a funny and yet earnest Peter Parker, Dracula?! Justin, it has finally happened: King in Black has narrative cohesion and we’ve got a lot to talk about.
Justin Partridge: It’s a Goopsmas Day miracle! (Ed. note: God bless us everyone!) We got drive! We got stakes! And we got some CHOICE Merry Marvel weirdness! All it took was a dud of an opening and first solo Venom tie-in issue to get there! I cannot wait.
“How Hard is it to Kill One Man?”
FH: Picking up immediately where Venom #31 leaves off, King in Black #2 starts with a complete and total brutalization of Eddie Brock. Bent grotesquely backwards, broken and supine (Ed. note: Just how I like my men) on an utterly obliterated car (can’t tell the make or model – I’m going with Subaru) Eddie is, despite Peter Parker’s pleas and assists, entirely unresponsive. Not dead, mind you, but not exactly living either, and certainly not for much longer if dramatic moves aren’t made. It’s a high stakes call to action, and as we’ll see throughout the Avenger’s and others failed attempts to ebb Knull’s encroachment across all of Earth, a narrative attempt at fully asserting just how important Eddie — and by extension Dylan — are to winning this war.
And I have to say, Justin, that despite minor annoyances like a rehash of the Venomized Avengers (not just from Beyond issues ago, but also from Bunn’s recent run – seriously?) and some clunky dialogue “the FF lab”:, I’m quite on board with where this issue starts and where it’s trying to get us to by its closing. What about you?
JP: OH BIG TIME. I think opening directly after Venom #31 is a really smart choice and instantly gives this issue some real-deal stakes which was much appreciated.
I also think the choice to make it PETER that picks up him is really strong too. A choice then given another extra beat of shippy heart as we see that none other than Peter’s best boyfriend Johnny Storm is playing the assist here. It’s just VERY nice to see Donny and the art team moving at a decent clip NOW, especially after the relatively decompressed openings of this crossover.
FH: Yeah! Peter’s voice is well realized as he has all the reason in the world to leave Eddie for dead (“I hate Symbiote stuff”) but decides not to, and even in his earnest way of kind of chaperoning Dylan, but everyone else is…off.
I mentioned in our intro that the plot and artistic beats here are generally good, mostly as a vehicle to get Eddie and Dylan to where they need to be with some apocalyptic action along the way, but the character beats are notably lacking. Reed rehashes some jealousy over Namor and Sue’s supposed trist, Blade teleports from NYC to Chernobyl instantaneously, Xavier and Magento rail against supporting the cast in a way I don’t think is true to the ethos of Krakoa (The X-Men are explicitly not xenophobic), and Knull has but a line or two. Why do any of them care about these petty things in the Symbiotic shadow of the end of the world?
This kind of narrative hyperfocus is a challenge, especially as events like War of the Realms and Empyre juggled multiple character beats, A and B plots, and more holistic villain development competently, and without overreliance on their tie-in issues. King in Black is not succeeding in the same way, and its focus feels narrow and hollow thusly. Famously, plotting and writing are not the same thing, and the difference between the two is readily apparent throughout.
JP: No, you are totally right. And even through the surface-level comic book glee I get from a good Reed/Namor pissing contest and the acknowledgement of Marvel’s version of Dracula (who I’ve been told IS NOT Black Tom, which…I am still dubious about), it still just FEELS…fairly empty on the page, like you said. Almost as if he is just only engaging with the characterizations that he’s most familiar with just a bit of touches on what’s currently happening in their books (like some scant mentions of Krakoa and the current plight of Jason Aaron’s Avengers).
But that’s kinda the game when it comes to these big crossovers, right? Like it’s a big, smashy-pew pew kinda thing and you just have to roll with and take the characterizations at face value. But even like you said, Empyre was able to juggle that stuff and still make the moments feel real. Hell, even as somebody who unironically loves Fear Itself, there is precedent to have these events feel like they matter and not breaking the characters.
This just still feels like nobody is more invested in this than Donny, but he’s still VERY much assuming that we are just as invested as HE is. Without really doing the legwork to MAKE us care beyond “Shit is really dire right now, isn’t that SO THRILLING?!”. Like it is to a point, but I worry that if I was someone just coming to this event blind, without having invested in the time in the Venom title, I still won’t have much to really grab onto here. Again, it’s VERY frustrating, especially with an issue like that that I largely liked, but still can’t really commit to investing in emotionally.
FH: I try not to be overtly direct about or with creators when I’m engaging with work, but it’s very obvious that Cates is writing with all of his inspirations on his sleeve here, and to a degree that kind of hinders a narrative sense of disbelief. Namor and Blade as some of the last standing heroes against Knull’s legions? All we need is for Thor and Cosmic Ghost Rider to swoop in and save the day.
“I’m Going to Need A Dragon”
FH: The second half of the book is really centered on that one goal the event is exceptionally coherent about: making Dylan Brock matter. And I don’t mean that in the sense of mattering on Venom’s terms, which he has for some time, but more around mattering to the larger Marvel universe in the same way his father does.
Incorrectly assuming that Tony Stark is always right, the remaining Avengers and other Non-Knullified of Earth’s heroes attempt to corral allies and one of Knull’s Symbiote dragons to save Eddie’s life for well…convoluted narrative reasons. It doesn’t work, but it was never meant to. Instead, the entire scene is structured around a full scale reveal of Dylan’s powers to the B-cast as he explodes an Extremis-corrupted Symbiote dragon off of his dad’s body (I said it was convoluted!), removing the immediate threat and making a good case for Dylan as a nuclear scale weapon in the war against his maker.
The only unintended side effect being that Eddie flatlines to close the issue. Whoops! Justin, hit me with your best short form eulogy for one Edward Charles Allan Brock, because if there’s one death I think is going to be short form itself, well.
JP: Here Lies Eddie Brock. He Only Scored Once.
(Ed. note: Symbiote. For Sale. Never worn.)
I have to say, THIS stuff I found myself enjoying a bit more than I expected. I kind of wish it didn’t take thirty plus issues of a solo comic and TWO crossover events to get there, but whatta ya gonna do?
But again, you nailed it. This is finally explicizing a lot of shoe leather plotting we’ve already had to slog through with Dylan and gives the plot a nice little shot in the arm with the display of his full powers to the assembled ‘Vengers in the room. Which then nicely dovetails into the issue’s cliffhanger with the Second Death of Edward Charles Allan Brock. I also very much like Peter being his foil, spurred on by a “deathbed promise” between him and Eddie. It’s these quieter, more introspective moments that I think the book (and Donny overall) excel at so it’s nice to see that coming through again during the big end of the world stakes of the event.
But mostly, I am just excited Dylan finally has something to DO NOW. We probably sound like a broken record by now, but after issue after issue after issue someone telling you a character is important and then said character just kinda constantly stands on the sidelines while plot happens AROUND them, it gets…frustrating. BUT NOW, everybody’s seen his powers and how they could possibly turn the tide against Knull with them, I am anxious to see if Donny and company capitalize on this.
Dollars to doughnuts, Dylan gets a super shitty codename by the end of this event. Something like…”Tarpit” or like, “Slime-Talker” maybe.
FH: They already have Scream so my money is on “Whisper” or “Death Rattle” or something.
I agree that amidst all of the noise elsewhere in the issue, this scene is very well done. There’s an intimacy and a visual tenseness that I appreciate, the way things actually feel in the barely controlled chaos of an emergency room. Tony stumbling in with Symbiote sickliness working its way into his suit, Eddie’s conditions worsen in a suitably gross way – tubes and madness riddling his broken body, the ever present and increasingly erratic lines of the EKG, and of course, the way it all melts away to a singular operating light and Dylan’s tears in the end. When the narrative most hinges on them delivering, Stegman, Mayer, Martin and Cowles all do their part. Rendered utterly ineffective, only Dylan is left to stand against Knull.
JP: Oh yeah, absolutely. And having the scene play out amid the chaos of the hospital room does again give it an intimacy that I think Donny is starting to stumble through more and more.
Speaking of Stegman and company, HOLY hell was the panel with Valkyrie SO GOOD. Not only is it a wonderful visual expression of one of Jane’s most overlooked powers, but it’s such a brilliant single panel image. The hulking skull of death hanging over him as he still clings to life. That’s Good Stuff.
FH: All in all, an uneven but enjoyable second part with a coherent sense of direction and scale that our opening salvo was severely lacking. In Venom #32 – Eddie’s fall continues and so does our column just two weeks from today! Enjoy the Symbiote season and we’ll see you next time True Slimelivers.
Marvelous Musings
- Eddie Brock would absolutely not wear underwear with the Symbiote.
- WHAT WOULD BE THE POINT?! Gotta get that goop-on-skin contact, man.
- Dracula has apparently been residing in Chernobyl since the early days of Aaron’s Avengers run. A fact I wouldn’t have had to look up if I, uh, cared.
- Tony absolutely did not invent Extremis, SMH yet another example of billionaires taking credit where it isn’t due.
- Or Donny forgetting to do his legwork on previous runs. This might be this issue’s “Donny Forgot Cable is a Teen Now”.
- “Knull shouldn’t be able to do that…but he did” is a kind of power scaling totally bereft of meaning. The story would be better served by establishing or using limiters from elsewhere in the universe and then breaking them as needed.
Justin Partridge has loved comics all his life. He hasn't quite gotten them to love him back just yet. But that hasn't stopped him from trying as he has been writing about them now for a little over a decade. With bylines at Newsarama, Shelfdust, PanelXPanel, and more, Justin has been doing the work and putting in the time! Comics have yet to return his calls. Usually he can be found on Twitter screaming about Doctor Who.
Forrest is an experimental AI that writes and podcasts about comic books and wrestling coming to your area soon.
