King in Black (event) and Venom
King in Black (event) Writer: Donny Cates / Various
King in Black (event) Artist: Ryan Stegman / Various
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Venom Writer: Donny Cates
Venom Artist: Iban Coello
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Are Marvel Comics good at major crossover events?
It’s a huge question, one that elicits incredibly positive and negative responses from passionate comic book fans. To an extent, nearly every answer is very subjective, based on each reader’s event consumption. Which events have they read, and which did they miss? And of the events they have read, did they read the whole thing, or just part of it?
While the core story of a major event will often end up neatly collected in a six issue trade, it’s very normal for the entire event itself to be ten times this size, if not bigger. Spending roughly $250 to read over 1,500 pages is a huge request, even of the most hardcore aficionados. And with Marvel and DC currently both releasing a few events each year, it’s near impossible to have the time and money to get through all of them and still manage to read many non-event comics.
With this in mind, it’s fair to say that the strong fan opinions on the comparative quality of Marvel Comics crossover events aren’t even close to being fully formed. It’s difficult to get through one complete event. It’s basically impossible to have read every single issue of every Marvel event, and then to have some reasonable method of measurement of which events are superior, especially when factoring in fading memories and how comics have evolved.
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But that’s not to say that the quality of major crossover events can’t be assessed. The contemporary critical consensus conveys clearly how well the event was received as it was being released. Thanks especially to the internet, we can easily look back in time to gauge the relative quality of multiple events, if only to get a reasonable, ballpark comparison.
Sales results can often equate to a solid estimate of quality, but they can also be wildly off the mark. Fans may go all-in on an event that is an excellent idea, is starring tier-one characters, or is driven an all-star creative team, but that ends up being poorly executed. Other events can be creatively superb but lack an obvious selling point, bringing about commercially lacklustre results.
Some events stand the test of time, with collected versions of the core story finding new readers long after the whole event’s initial publication. Some events are later used as source material for high quality movies and TV shows, which keep the best of what worked creatively and cut what didn’t. Both can result in a whole comic book event being remembered with rose coloured glasses.
The fairest ways to measure the quality of a major event likely come from comparing it to the publisher’s most recent events, to its objectively classic benchmark events, to previous events involving the same or similar characters, and to any previous events with similar storylines (particularly sequel events).
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Considering Marvel Comics recent major events, the successes of ‘King in Black’ could not have come at a better time. Marvel’s most recent major event before King in Black was 2020’s ‘Empyre’ event. It comprised of roughly 30 issues (+ four prelude and five aftermath issues). It was built around a six issue main series, 15 issues comprising of event-specific series and one-shots, and nine related crossover issues from ongoing Marvel series. It’s worth noting that ‘Empyre’ was delayed by nearly four months as a result of real world impacts, which saw 19 scheduled tie-in issues cancelled. Unfortunately, critical and fan reception was not good at all, with criticism focused on an underwhelming yet convoluted plot (perfectly paralleled by the ‘Empyre’ Wikipedia plot synopsis’ current 11,330 word length).
Unfortunately for Marvel, the reaction to their previous smaller 18 issue ‘Iron Man 2020’ event was also fairly poor, with its worst critics deeming it “boring”, “disappointing”, and “something best left unread.” The overall response to ‘Outlawed’, the 19 issue event that followed ‘Empyre’, was reasonable, but it also came with its own issues. A new lineup of the New Warriors team was supposed to launch as part of ‘Outlawed’, under the mentorship of the original team. The new characters - Trailblazer, Screentime, Snowflake, Safespace and B-Negative - met considerable backlash online, particularly due to the use of internet slang in their names, as well as the perceived political agenda of the writing and designs.
Which brings us to Marvel Comics ‘King in Black’ major crossover event, with its main storyline ably coupled with their concurrently running ‘Venom’ title. If you’re not familiar with ‘King in Black’, the event sees the earth overtaken by Knull, an evil God from before the creation of our universe. He’s hell bent on the destruction of earth, essentially using a symbiote army to do his bidding. He’s formed a symbiote sphere around the planet to cut it off from the sun. Giant symbiote dragons are flying around destroying everything in their path. He’s even turned the whole of New York City ‘symbiote’. Symbiote-covered streets and buildings attack and take over any people and superheroes they can, turning them into vicious creatures under Knull’s control, who then in turn attack and turn other people. In short, it’s a big old mess for the entire planet, especially as Earth’s Mightiest do not fare well with the initial planetary takeover.
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‘King in Black’ is driven almost equally by the main five issue story and the ongoing ‘Venom’ series, both written by Donny Cates. Ryan Stegman handles art for the main ‘King in Black’ series, and it was exciting to see him paired again with Cates, as they worked together on eight of the first ten issues of ‘Venom’ when it began in 2018. Iban Coello is also back on art for the ‘Venom’ series, having previously handled half a dozen issues in collaboration with Cates. It’s very cool to see these experienced and skilled partnerships reform for the event, and set a really solid basis for all the related material to build off of.
And there is a lot of related material. In addition to the main ‘King in Black’ story and ‘Venom’, there are another 60-odd issues that are event-specific and related to the event. There’s two five-issue background series set before things kick off: ‘Symbiote Spider-Man: King in Black’, and ‘King in Black: Namor’. There are six event-specific series set around and during ‘King in Black’: ‘Atlantis Attacks’, ‘Black Cat’, ‘King in Black: Gwenom vs. Carnage’, ‘King in Black: Planet of the Symbiotes’, ‘King in Black: Return of the Valkyries’, and ‘King in Black: Thunderbolts’.
There are ten ‘King in Black’ one-shots, some starring big name Avengers such as Black Panther, Captain America, Iron Man, Hulk and Spider-Man, and others led by more minor characters like Black Knight, Ghost Rider, Scream, Doctor Doom, the Marauders, Wiccan and Hulkling. There are also nine regular Marvel series crossing over with the ‘King in Black’ event: ‘Daredevil’, ‘Deadpool’, ‘Fantastic Four’, ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’, ‘Miles Morales: Spider-Man’, ‘Savage Avengers’, ‘Spider-Woman’, ‘S.W.O.R.D.’, and ‘The Union’.
For true event completists, there’s also the anthology collection ‘Knull: Marvel Tales’, the ‘King in Black’ handbook, and ten ‘True Believers: King in Black’ issues, a series of reprints highlighting key moments from Marvel history related to the event.
It’s an understatement to say that Marvel went all-in on ‘King in Black’. Excitingly, on the whole, their execution was superb. For skeptical comic book fans, it’s not unfair or incorrect to think “A huge event built around Venom? He’s arguably not even a second-tier Marvel character!” Though he’s been around for nearly thirty years now, and is no stranger to on-screen appearances, even a cursory look at the publishing history of ‘Venom’ shows it’s a sometimes title for Marvel, with fewer than 100 ‘Venom’-titled issues printed over various limited series and a few monthly series. He’s not one of Marvel’s all time classic characters. If you asked an average fan of comic books to name their favourite ‘Venom’ storyline, some would likely bring up ‘Spider-Man’ and the symbiote suit, rather than Venom’s own books and his pairing with Eddie Brock. But there’s been a lot of love for the ‘Venom’ series since it started again in 2018. The passion that Cates and his artistic collaborators have brought to the book is certain, and it’s a smart move by Marvel to get behind what their most passionate creators are working on, rather than just leaning heavily on their biggest characters.
If you’re overwhelmed by the thought of the entire 60-ish issue ‘King in Black’ event, consider taking on the main five issue miniseries in conjunction with the ‘Venom’ title, and then cherry-pick at least some of the event’s wealth of related material. It does vary in quality, and very little of it is vital to understand the main storyline, so you’re likely best off leaning into your favourite characters. The standout is the four issue ‘Black Cat’ event-specific mini-series, written by Jed MacKay and art split between C.F. Villa and Nina Vakueva. The ‘Spider-Woman’, ‘Thunderbolts’, ‘Deadpool’, ‘Immortal Hulk’, and ‘Iron-Man/Doctor Doom’ issues are also particularly enjoyable, and well worth a read.
‘King in Black’ was Cates and Stegman’s swansong with Venom, with the pair wrapping up their time with the character almost immediately after the event’s conclusion. To say that ‘King in Black’ sees them going out on top is a huge understatement. It’s arguably now the definitive highpoint for the entire ‘Venom’ title, and it feels safe to say that will remain the case for a long time into the future.
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