| “ | 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 entity that has existed for billions of years. It is said to be the first symbiote to come into existence 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 its creator Knull, the primordial god of the symbiotes.
Personality[]
Like most symbiotes, All-Black possesses a malevolent will of its own and corrupts the mind of the hosts it bonds to, influencing them to purge all life and all Gods from the Universe. 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 manifest the first of the symbiotes known as All-Black. All-Black was formed from Knull's own shadow. 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[]
Knull, the creator and first host of All-Black.
The original host of All-Black was the very being who created it, Knull. When the Celestials arrived in the void to create the cosmos, he was enraged that his kingdom of darkness is being despoiled. In an act of retaliation, he creates All-Black from his own shadow and shapes it into an immensely powerful sword. He first used it to decapitate a Celestial, which resulted in Knull being banished deeper into the void by the other Celestials. Knull used the slain Celestial's head as a forge and a temporary base, where he forged and refined All-Black using the divine powers of the dead Celestial. However, this led him to accidentally give the symbiotes their vulnerability to fire and sonic frequencies.
Bent on reclaiming his dark kingdom, Knull began using All-Black during his deicidal campaign to slay other gods and conquer the cosmos, becoming a legendary figure that installs fear and terror amongst divine beings. While the slain Celestial's head later became the mining station known as Knowhere, its undead body meanwhile became a grotesque afterlife in the Realm Between that serves to imprison the souls of All-Black's victims. 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, All-Black gained a mixture of red and black to its color, and later donned Knull a full set of armor, reminiscent to that of a dark knight. During this time, Knull came into conflict with the Silver Surfer, but was eventually defeated by the latter, though it proved to be temporarily as Knull recovered to continue his conquest.
At some point, Knull battled an army of golden-armored gods empowered by the Light, and was able to slay all of them save for a lone survivor. Engaging the survivor in a duel, their ensuing clash resulted in the two crashing onto a desolate planet. There, All-Black left Knull and bonded with an alien named 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 drifting 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. 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[]
Gorr the God Butcher.
Perhaps the most infamous host of All-Black was Gorr himself and was (chronologically speaking) the second host to bond 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 used the symbiote's powers to slaughter many gods across the universe, earning him the title of the God Butcher. As time went on, the symbiote continued to further increase Gorr's hatred for the gods, eventually making him become mentally unstable and sadistic towards those he despises.
All-Black mainly took on the appearance of a hooded cape, but also formed with Gorr the latter's very own suit of armor as seen when torturing the Asgardian Volstagg. Gorr used All-Black to construct various weapons, including the infamous Necrosword and his own mindless, obedient army of symbiotic monsters known as the Black Berserkers. Gorr also used the symbiote to create constructs of his late wife and son, Arra and Agar, grieving over and refusing to accept their deaths. All-Black was eventually separated from Gorr by Thor, but Gorr 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 him of All-Black for a brief moment, after absorbing the blast from the Godbomb, and bonded to it, allowing him to be granted the power of All-Black itself. With the symbiote 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. Unbeknownst to Thor, however, All-Black had went on to bond to its next host.
Galactus[]
Black Galactus, the Butcher of Worlds.
All-Black bonded to Galactus, while the cosmic deity was consuming Mars and proceeded to corrupt his mind. As a result of his newly-formed bond to the symbiote, Galactus became corrupted by the sinister and dark influence of All-black and became Black Galactus, the Butcher of Worlds, in which he sought out to completely destroy worlds entirely, rather than eating them.
After destroying various planets, Black Galactus came into conflict with Ego the Living Planet. Because Galactus had killed Ego's grandchildren, Ego killed him out of vengeance, thus avenging their deaths. However, Galactus had managed to stab through Ego in the 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, who then proceeded to kill Ego with his newfound power.
Loki Laufeyson[]
Loki bonded with All-Black the Necrosword.
The Loki of Earth-14412 challenged Ego for possession of All-Black and eventually won the battle, allowing him to claim the symbiote as his own. When bonded with it, Loki's appearance changed quite a bit as All-Black provided him a black, torn cape and a more alien-like appearance.
With the symbiote in his possession, he used it to kill Ego and then later to battle against the Thor from his Earth and attempt to kill his granddaughters. Loki 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.
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