In Knull #1, the King in Black was stripped of his throne, his army, and nearly all of his power, forcing him to become something far more dangerous: a cornered god. Al Ewing and Tom Waltz smartly reframed Knull as a horror figure crawling through Marvel’s cosmic underbelly rather than looming over it, while Juanan Ramirez delivered gore-soaked, shadow-drenched visuals that made every page feel unholy. Now in Knull #2, the series wastes no time escalating Knull’s revenge.
Knull #2 opens on The Sanctuary V, where Thanos observes a violent species that has run out of prey and is killing each other. Thanos makes quick work of them and soon commands these creatures. While Hela was the looming threat over Knull in the last issue, it’s clear the creative team wants to expand their villains to Thanos in a more direct race for power.
After the cold open, the issue turns to Knull, who is still fleeing in a spaceship stolen from Hela. Now free from his prison and back in motion, Knull goes hunting for a mysterious golden relic from his own past, something that could help him claw his way back toward the crown of the King in Black. That means important flashbacks to the cosmic days when nearly nothing existed. Fans of Marvel Cosmic storytelling will dig the near-Heaven vs. Hell confrontation, as well as new context regarding the light side that is Knull’s foil.
Dark versus light, let’s go!
Credit: Marvel
Captions do a lot of the heavy lifting in this issue, but with the mythological style flashback, they fit right in. Even still, the exposition heaviness of the series is apparent when you consider the last issue. Thankfully, there’s a bit more attention to Knull as a character, though there’s still a long way to go to make him more than a power-hungry god.
The last third of the issue focuses on Knull getting closer to his goal, and the opening wraps around into a satisfying bookend. Over the last two issues, it has been made very clear that Knull is quite powerful, even when depowered to near zero, but given the threat he’s facing, it’s going to be hard to believe he can outmatch Marvel’s most famous cosmic villain.
Art by Juanan Ramirez, with colors by Erick Arciniega, suits the god-tier characters on full display. Colors do a lot of work to create heavenly visages of Knull’s enemies in the flashback, while Knull’s wispy shadow powers add a bit of supernatural weirdness to him. There’s a bit of symbiote activity too, adding the liquid monster to a few panels. Knull’s immense strength is easy to see when he rips characters in half.
Knull #2 broadens the scope in a big way, pulling Thanos into the mix and digging deeper into Knull’s ancient origins. Writers Al Ewing and Tom Waltz lean hard into mythic Marvel lore, using dense captions and cosmic flashbacks to give weight to Knull’s quest for his lost power. The issue sometimes buckles under exposition, but the scale feels appropriately epic, and Ramirez’s shadow-drenched, violent artwork keeps the momentum high. With Thanos now in direct opposition, the series feels poised for a brutal clash that could test just how far a fallen god can climb back.
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