Origins[]

At the dawn of the Seventh Cosmos, Knull was found by the Celestials and was recruited as the King in Black.^[16] However, he created the first symbiote from his shadow, shaped into a sword, and used it to behead one of the Celestials. For this, Knull was banished by the other Celestials, but within the slain Celestial's head, the primordial symbiote was tempered using the Celestial's divine power.^[2][14]

A Necrosword made from living darkness, All-Black was wielded by Knull during the dark god's deicidal rampage, earning it the moniker of the Godslayer.^[2] All-Black was metaphysically tethered to the decapitated Celestial's undead corpse, which was trapped in the Realm Between and became a grotesque afterlife imprisoning the souls of those slain by the Necrosword.^[14]

The God Butcher[]

After Knull was incapacitated during a battle against a group of golden-armored gods, All-Black left him and bonded to a misotheistic alien called Gorr, who unwittingly followed in Knull's footsteps, used it to slay gods across the cosmos, and earned the title of the God Butcher. Feeding off the slain gods' blood, All-Black corrupted Gorr into a kind of evil god himself, bestowing him with immortality and a host of other abilities resembling those Knull had possessed.^[8][17] As a result of Knull and Gorr's deicidal campaigns, All-Black became the subject of countless stories and legends containing grains of the truth,^[18] with its history being recorded in a divine tome called the Saga of the God Butcher. After being beaten by mortal followers of Thor, Gorr discovered he could use All-Black's living abyss to create semi-sentient creatures called Black Berserkers, which he used to assist him in his killing spree.^[19]

Taken to the far future of Earth-14412, Gorr used All-Black to construct an artificial planetoid at the edge of space that served as his base of operations for nine-hundred years. All-Black subsequently served as both the detonator and payload of Gorr's Godbomb, which was intended to spread the symbiote's eldritch darkness across time and space so that it could kill every god that ever had and ever would exist across the timestream. In his final battle against Gorr alongside his past and future selves, Thor was able to absorb the Godbomb's blast, bonding to All-Black and using it to finally defeat Gorr, though All-Black stored Gorr's consciousness within itself prior to his death.^[5] Before All-Black could corrupt the dying Thor as it had Gorr, King Thor used the Thor-Force to purge it from his younger self's body as he resurrected his past self. To keep Young Thor from claiming All-Black out of arrogance and hubris, he cast the Necrosword and Gorr's dark world into a black hole.^[1]

Displaced on Earth-14412[]

Assumed to have been destroyed, All-Black instead subsumed the black hole. Millennia later, Thor was forced to bond to All-Black when Galactus returned to Earth intending to finally devour it, attacking Thor's granddaughters and throwing Thor into deep space. All-Black influenced Thor into attempting to kill Galactus before secretly transferring to the Devourer of Worlds, leaving everyone to believe it had been destroyed by Thor's final attack.^[20] After their battle, King Thor gave Galactus leave to consume Mars instead; but while Galactus was devouring it, the symbiote sword revealed itself and bonded to the Devourer of Worlds, turning him into the Butcher of Worlds.^[21]

All-Black influenced Galactus into going on a planet-destroying rampage, killing several of Ego's offspring. When Ego sought revenge on the Butcher of Worlds, All-Black transferred to the Living Planet, transforming him into the Necroworld. Ego proceeded to devour Galactus, finally making him pay for all the planets he had destroyed.^[22]

While bonded to Ego, All-Black carried out its creator's deicidal mission by killing the last of the Celestials, compelling its host to travel what was left of the cosmos and devour whatever he came across. However, soon after rendering the Acanti extinct, Ego was challenged for possession of All-Black by King Loki;^[23] who successfully claimed and bonded to it, dubbing himself Loki the All-Butcher.^[24] Loki and All-Black would go on to fight King Thor, as witnessed by Ulysses and the Goddesses of Thunder.^[25][26]

War of the Realms[]

After bonding to the Venom symbiote, Malekith the Accused used it to manifest All-Black in the present,^[27] and figth Thor. All-Black was infused in Thor's hammer to create the Black Hammer of the Accursed, however, Malekith was defeated by Thor with the reforged Mjolnir, All-Black was destroyed and the Venom symbiote reconstitued itself.^[28]

Battle at the End of Time[]

Wielded by Loki, All-Black manifested corvid Black Berserkers called "Necro-Ravens" to kill Thor's granddaughters; and over the course of Loki's battle with his brother disemboweled Thor and blackened the Sun.^[29] When Loki resurrected Gorr as the "God of God Butchers," Gorr reclaimed All-Black and used it to defeat both Thor and Loki.^[5] After being decapitated by Atli, Gorr's consciousness took over All-Black and the primordial symbiote began consuming the very universe itself - becoming "All-Black the Necroverse".^[4] Manifesting a black hole, All-Black attempted to devour Thor but was destroyed when the All-Father unleashed the full power of the God Tempest from within Mjolnir.^[9]

King in Black[]

Through Knull's power, All-Black was reborn in the present using the living abyss of Zak-Del's Exolon as a conduit.^[10] Once-more in the hands of its creator, All-Black was wielded by Knull during his attack on Earth, though its connection to the Headless Celestial was severed by the remaining Valkyries -- robbing it and Knull of the vast majority of their power.^[15] Despite this setback, Knull wielded All-Black against Thor Odinson and impaled him with it.^[30] Afterwards, All-Black was destroyed by Dylan Brock with the help of Jean Grey, releasing Thor.^[11] All-Black was manifested again by Knull in preparation to resume his duel against the Silver Surfer and was wielded during his fight against Venom - who was wielding the power of the God of Light - in an attempt to kill him. However, All-Black was easily destroyed by Venom -- who subsequently tore off Knull's symbiote-armor, depriving him of the ability to re-summon it.^[12]

War Against the Absent Throne[]

Within the Venom symbiote's mental world, Dylan Brock learned that Eddie had suppressed his true power and potential when Knull had tried to take over his body, and in reclaiming his power recreated All-Black from the Venom symbiote's living abyss.^[13] Transforming the Necrosword into a katana, Dylan used it to fight his father, who had just transformed into Bedlam.^[31] Stopped from killing Eddie by the intervention of Ms. Marvel, Dylan discovered he could only sustain his Codex transformation for brief periods of time before the Necrosword's power began to damage his body.^[32]

God of Carnage[]

Meanwhile, Carnage embarked on a quest across the Ten Realms to become a God-Butcher, until it reached Niffleheim.^[33] Carnage hunted down Malekith in Hel and extracted the codex left in his body from when he had bonded to the Venom symbiote and manifested All-Black during the War of the Realms.^[34][27] After freeing Drorin Runehewer, a master blacksmith, Carnage demanded the dwarf use the codex as a template to forge a modified replica of All-Black.^[27]

Drorin began working on the codex, but tried to immolate Carnage using the heat of the stars used by the Godmaker forge. However, thanks to Jon Shayde's unwitting help, Carnage was able to free itself and consumed the corpses of the dwarves left in the wake of the God of Hammers' rampage, assimilating the traces of Uru left in their flesh, blood, and bones. Undergoing a divine transformation, Carnage manifested a bident it called All-Blood.^[35]

All-Black is sentient and possesses a malevolent will of its own, though it was subservient to its creator Knull and seeks to carry out his agenda of purging all life from the universe, especially the gods.^[2][18] Like other symbiotes, it is capable of communicating with its hosts and seeks to corrupt them;^[1] being indicated to have influenced the already misotheistic Gorr into becoming the deicidal God-Butcher,^[8][2] trying to influence All-Father Thor into killing Old Galactus,^[20] and corrupting Old Galactus into the monstrous Butcher of Worlds.^[21]

The first and most-powerful symbiote manifested by Knull from the living abyss,^[2] All-Black is metaphysically tethered to the undead corpse of the Celestial used to refine it, which supplies it with power in exchange for assimilating the souls of those slain by the Necrosword.^[14] In addition to the abilities bestowed by lesser symbiotes, All-Black grants its host powers similar to those of Knull himself.^[8] As a result, Gorr -- a mere mortal -- was able to kill countless gods and essentially became a dark god himself, able to simultaneously defeat three versions of Thor.^[8][18] It is also able to fire blasts of dark energy, to augment the wielder's own divine abilities, and kill immortal beings as powerful as the Celestials, Galactus, and Ego.^{[18][2][36][37]}

• Superhuman Strength: All-Black augments its host's strength to the extent that a mortal such as Gorr was able throw chunks of a moon into space; best Young Thor, present-day Thor, and All-Father Thor in combat all at the same time;^[18] and single-handedly defeat millions of gods in open combat, including one that supposedly "wrestled with black holes for fun." However, it is meant to be wielded by a god: Knull was able to decapitate a Celestial with a single strike,^[2] King Thor was able to defeat Galactus in single combat,^[36] Galactus effortlessly destroyed countless planets using its power,^[22] Ego used it to devour the last of the Celestials of Earth-14412,^[23] and Loki effortlessly destroyed Ego as a test of his newfound power.^[37]
• Superhuman Durability: While wielding All-Black, Knull was able to survive prolonged combat against armies of hundreds of other gods; while Gorr able to survive a massive lightning bolt summoned by Thor, the Godblast of an Odin-Force powered All-Father Thor - which propelled him "several light years" away in a matter of seconds - and survived being immersed in a star to no ill effect.^[18] When thrown into a black hole in an attempt to destroy it, All-Black was unharmed and eventually assimilated the singularity.^[38] Loki was also engulfed in Ego's magma while destroying him to no ill effect.^[37]
• Superhuman Speed: By manifesting wings, All-Black enables its host to fly at hypersonic and possibly faster-than-light speeds, as when Gorr quickly overtook Thor during their first encounter.
• Superhuman Reflexes: Gorr was able to catch Thor rather easily off guard, as well as many other gods.
• Longevity: After bonding to All-Black, Gorr lived for at least three-thousand years and still looked to be in his prime.^[39][19]
• Regeneration: While bonded to All-Black, Gorr was able to recover from a lightning strike within four days with no signs of injury from the incident. He was also able to regenerate or reattach his arm after it was severed by Thor.^[19]
• Constituent-Matter Manipulation: While All-Black's original and preferred form is that of a sword,^[2] it is able to shapeshift to create clothes, armor, wings, weapons, and tendrils from its living abyss. It can also be used to create semi/fully sentient entities as minions, such as the shadowy beasts known as the "Black Berserkers".^[40]
• Dark Energy Manipulation: All-Black is capable of wreathing itself in or discharging blasts of purple energy -- as seen during Knull's battle with the Silver Surfer,^[17] and when Gorr used it to blow up a Space Shark in his battle with young Thor.^[18] It was also capable of augmenting the innate energy projection abilities of its hosts, as seen when All-Father Thor used it to strengthen both his Thorforce and mystical lightning when battling Galactus, turning them black.^[20]

Chain-Breaker: When wielded by Dylan Brock, the Necrosword catalyzes his transformation into his King in Black form, Codex, and can be used to channel his ability to sever symbiotes from the Hive-Mind.^[31] However, prolonged use of the Codex transformation causes Dylan pain due to his half-human body being unable to handle the Necrosword's power.^[32]

Knull notes that All-Black's forging gave it and most subsequent symbiotes a psychosomatic fear of intense heat and sonic vibrations.^[2] Despite this, All-Black was not only able to survive being thrown into a star to no ill effect but turn it black - causing an assortment of ill omens in the process.^[18]

• According to Old Galactus, this is the same weapon "that carved the first dawn from the stone of the endless night."^[20]
• The history of All-Black and its various wielders is recorded in a self-writing divine tome called the Saga of the God Butcher, currently in the possession of the Goddesses of Thunder.^[29]

• The word "Necro" comes from Greek word nekro, which translates to "dead".
• Despite its name, All-Black was mostly red in coloration while wielded by Knull.^[2][17]
• Several lesser symbiotes have manifested Necroswords in apparent emulation of their progenitor:
  • After the Venom symbiote was captured by Malekith during the War of the Realms,^[41] he tortured and imbued it with the Dark Elves' Dark Magic in order to use it as a weapon against Thor; wielding it as as the "Venom Blade/Symbio Sword".^[42][43] However, it was later established by Carnage that it was actually All-Black.^[27]
  • An unnamed symbiote which had been trapped in the City of Sickles for an unknown number of years bonded to the dying Conan and took the shape of a sword to aid him and his allies in the fight against Kulan Gath and Jhoatun Lau.^[44]
  • After Eddie Brock bonded to a gestalt symbiote made out of codices, Eddie manifested a sword similar to All-Black in order to kill Dark Carnage.^[45]
• Donny Cates identifying Knull's Necrosword in Silver Surfer: Black as the All-Black symbiote on Twitter implies that his armor may be an extension of the All-Black symbiote that remained bonded to him, as Venom (Vol. 4) #4 established that Knull didn't create his symbiote army and become their god until after All-Black had been stolen from him by Gorr and King Thor #2 reveals that All-Black is capable of bonding to multiple hosts simultaneously, which is supported by comments made by Brunnhilde in King in Black: Return of the Valkyries #2. Conversely, the appendix of King in Black #1 indicates that Knull is capable of reforming All-Black from any source of living abyss.