“ | The first of the race your kind calls symbiotes began life as a blade. I pulled its shape from my own and cast its living edge in the fire of the first creator I felled. | „ |
~ Knull monologuing the origin of All-Black. |
“ | All-Black the Necrosword. The blade that slew a billion gods. The black weapon of Gorr the God Butcher. The last hope for planet Earth. | „ |
~ King Thor reaching out to bound with All-Black. |
All-Black the Necrosword, or simply known as All-Black, is a malevolent dark deity that has existed for billions of years. It is said to be the first symbiote made and is regarded as the most powerful of its kind. While it has been bonded and wielded by different hosts, it's most well-known for being the weapon crafted and wielded by Knull, the god of the symbiotes.
Personality[]
Like most symbiotes, All-Black possesses a will of its own and corrupts the mind of the hosts it bonds to. It feeds off of the negative emotions of its hosts and enhances them to greater lengths as means to spread its chaos and drive its hosts' bloodthirsty intentions. Despite this, it showed a completely obedient side of itself when bonded to Knull, likely due to it being his very creation.
History[]
Background[]
Some time after the Big Bang occurred, Knull would manifested the first member of the symbiote race known as All-Black. All-Black was born from the very dark and shadowy nature of Knull himself. Originally created as a weapon, All-Black would later on bond to various hosts and play major roles in different wars and conflicts.
Notable Hosts[]
Knull[]
The original host of All-Black was the very being who created it, Knull. Knull was the evil, sinister deity that originally forged All-Black as the weapon known as the Necrosword. Knull used this sword to cut down cosmic entities such as the Celestials, wage war and genocide on various races and planets. Knull later decapitated a Celestial with his sword, in which the head would serve as his temporary base before later becoming the mining station known as Knowhere, while the body became an afterlife world for those that were slain by All-Black in the Realm Between. This would establish a strong connection between the Celestial and All-Black as it would absorb the souls of those that were killed by it.
When bonded with Knull, the symbiote gained a mixture of red and black to its color, and later donned Knull a full set of armor, reminiscent that of a dark knight. During this time, Knull also came into conflict with the Silver Surfer, but was eventually defeated by him.
Some time later, Knull came in conflict with a pink alien in golden armor where the two crashed onto an unknown planet. There, the symbiote was taken away from Knull and bonded to the alien known as Gorr. Though Knull was aware of the sword being taken away from him, he chose not to take it back and instead focus on expanding the race that would eventually become known as the Klyntar.
Knull later recreated All-Black by using Zak-Del's Exolon as a conduit, after battling him and left his body drift into space. Wielding his weapon once more, Knull used it during his invasion on Earth and battled against Thor when he came to save the world. All-Black was not as powerful as it once was as the connection between it and the Celestial had been broken by the Valkyries, however. It was initially destroyed by Dylan Brock with Jean Grey's assistance, but Knull was able to recreate it once more and used it to battle against his old rival, the Silver Surfer, before eventually facing his counterpart, the God of Light, as its powers were in possession of Eddie Brock. Eddie was able to defeat Knull in the end and in turn, destroyed All-Black alongside with its host.
Gorr[]
Perhaps the most infamous host of All-Black was Gorr himself and was (chronologically speaking) the second host to bound with the symbiote. Gorr bonded with All-Black after taking it from Knull, who was grievously injured in battle with a god that Gorr ended up killing. All-Black remained bonded to Gorr for years and during its time with him, Gorr adapted an alias for himself known as Gorr the God Butcher, where he used the symbiote's powers to enslave and slaughter many gods across the universe. As time went on, the symbiote continued to further increase Gorr's hatred and anger for the gods, eventually making him become mentally unstable and sadistic towards those he despises.
Gorr mainly took on the appearance of a hooded cape with the symbiote, but he also formed his very own suit of armor with it as seen when torturing the Asgardian, Volstagg. Gorr used All-Black to construct various weapons, including the infamous Necrosword and created his own mindless, obedient army of symbiotic monsters known as the Black Berserkers. He also used it to create constructs of his wife and son, Arra and Agar, grieving over and refusing to accept their deaths. The symbiote was eventually separated from Gorr by Thor, but he would later reunite with it where he overpowered its will and used it to transform the universe into the Necroverse. He would eventually lose it in his last battle with Thor once more.
Thor Odinson[]
During his battle with Gorr, Thor was able to strip the symbiote off of him for a brief moment after absorbing the blast from the Godbomb and bonded to it, being granted the power of All-Black itself. With All-Black bonded to him, Thor proceeded to vanquish Gorr with it. Afterwards, King Thor helped stripped the symbiote off of his younger self and took it to a place that nobody but him would be able to find it.
Old King Thor[]
In the distant future, King Thor came into conflict with Galactus, who wished to devour Earth in its weakest state. Refusing to let Earth fall under Galactus', Thor battled against the cosmic deity, but was beaten brutally. The battle raged on to the point where Thor had no other choice but to seek out a power great enough to defeat Galactus, that being All-Black. Thor came across the symbiote in a black hole he hid it in and bonded with it. Thor then returned back to Earth where he was able to defeat Galactus and send him off to Mars. Unknown to Thor, however, All-Black had went on to bond to its next host.
Galactus[]
The symbiote bonded to Galactus, while the cosmic deity was consuming Mars and proceeded to corrupt his mind. As a result of bonding to the symbiote, Galactus became corrupted by the sinister and dark influence of the symbiote. He became Black Galactus, the Butcher of Worlds, in which he thought out to completely destroy worlds entirely, rather than eating them.
After destroying various planets, Black Galactus came into conflict with Ego the Living Planet. Ego killed him as an act of revenge, as Galactus had killed his grandchildren and thus avenged their deaths. However, Galactus had managed to stab through Ego in his mouth and as Ego bit his arm off, the All-Black proceeded to bond with Ego, making him its new host.
Ego the Living Planet[]
Following the death of Galactus, Ego wandered through the galaxy, destroying the armada of the Kree'ar Empire and sought out with the intention of wiping out the Celestial race. However, he was challenged by a small, green worm for his weapon, in which he pridefully accepted. As 99 years have passed, Ego was constantly wearing himself out as he could not kill the creature that remained on him. The worm had driven him mad, due to the constant whispers it exchanged to his head. Ego eventually accepted defeat and surrendered the symbiote to the worm, who revealed itself to be Loki Laufeyson. Loki then proceeded to kill Ego with his newfound power.
Loki Laufeyson[]
Some time after bonding with Ego, the Loki of Earth-14412 challenged Ego for possession of All-Black. Loki eventually won the battle and claimed the symbiote as his own. When bonded with it, Loki's appearance changed quite a bit as the symbiote provided him a black, torn cape and a more alien appearance.
With All-Black in his possession, he used it to kill Ego and then later used it to battle against the Thor from his Earth and attempt to kill his granddaughters. He also used the symbiote to extinguish the sun, as well as to recreate the Black Berserkers into his own army called the Necro-Ravens, in which he sent them out to seek out and kill the Goddesses of Thunder.
Loki eventually had the symbiote taken away from by Gorr after resurrecting him but nonetheless, he continued to play his role in assisting Thor on stopping Gorr from destroying the universe.
Powers and Abilities[]
Being the first of its kind, All-Black possesses many powers that are similar to the kind that various symbiotes provide for their host, albeit to a far greater extent. These include the following;
Powers[]
- Superhuman Strength: All-Black provides its host strength that surpasses beyond human strength. When the symbiote was bounded with Gorr, it provided him strength that made rival with Thor and was able to take on his two other counterparts, Old King Thor and his past self. Knull was also granted immense strength when he wielded the symbiote as his weapon, as he was able to slice a Celestial's head off with ease. Other beings such as Galactus were able to use its strength to destroy various planets.
- Superhuman Durability: Those bonded with All-Black are granted durability that allows them to tank heavy blows and attacks from divine and mystical powers from gods and cosmic entities such as Thor.
- Superhuman Speed: All-Black provides its host the ability to move and react at incredible speed, possibly reaching to speed that surpasses light. This is notably shown when Gorr wielded the symbiote, in which his speed was a match against the three Thors.
- Longevity: In addition to its superhuman characteristics, the symbiote also grants its host for long periods of time. When bonded with Ego, Ego have lived for at least ninety nine years with it while Gorr had lived for over thousands of years.
- Hyper-Regeneration: Like many other symbiotes, the All-Black provides its host the ability to regenerate wounds and missing limbs from their bodies.
- Constituent-Matter Manipulation: All-Black is able to take on various different forms with its shapeshifting abilities, depending on what its host desires. Most of the time, it takes on the form of a sword known as the Necrosword, but it can also create clothing, armor, clones and armies of monsters.
- Dark Energy Manipulation: All-Black grants its host the ability to generate and manipulate a source of of dark energy that can be converted into deadly blasts, capable of destroying planets and rivalling the power of the Power Cosmic and Mjölnir. This energy also acts as an augmentation for powerful beings such as Old King Thor and increases the damage of the powers they already possess.
- Power Nullification: The symbiote was created for the purpose of killing deities and cosmic entities. As such, All-Black provides its host the ability to nullify the effects of immortality that these very beings may possess, allowing them be slain by the weapon. In addition to this, the symbiote grows more in power every time the host uses it slay various divine entities.
Trivia[]
- All-Black's origin was initially ambiguous and was believed to be a dark entity of sorts before its origin was fully established in Venom Vol 4 #4, where it was revealed to be the first symbiote created by Knull.
- Despite its name, All-Black gained a bit of a red variation in its color when it was bonded to Knull. The reasoning for this is currently unknown.