We have crept across the cosmos... dragging the shadows of our planet over the length of the galaxy, one planet at a time... like a death shroud. You... are... next. 
Appearing in "Empyre's End"
Featured Characters:
- Talos (Main story and flashback)
Supporting Characters:
- Alliance
- General Kalamari
- Av-Rom (Only in flashback) (Bonds to an unnamed symbiote and joins the Symbiote Hive) (Apparent death)
- Keeyah (Only in flashback) (Bonds to an unnamed symbiote and joins the Symbiote Hive) (Apparent death)
- M'lanz (Only in flashback) (Death)
- Tarna (Only in flashback)
- Virtue (Ethan Edwards) (Only in flashback) (Bonds to an unnamed symbiote and joins the Symbiote Hive) (Apparent death)
Antagonists:
- Symbiote Hive (Main story and flashback)
- Numerous unnamed symbiotes (Only in flashback)
- Symbiote Dragons (Main story and flashback)
- Knull (Main story and flashback)
Other Characters:
- Emperor Hulkling (Theodore Altman) (Mentioned)
- Space Knights (Mentioned)
- Agents of the Cosmos (Referenced)
- Tarna's Symbiote (Referenced)
- Sleeper (Referenced)
Races and Species:
- Skrulls (Main story and flashback)
- Cotati (Mentioned)
- Spartax (Mentioned)
- Kree (Main story and flashback)
- Symbiotes
- Alien Gods
Locations:
Items:
- Symbiote Codices (Mentioned)
- Knull's Armor (Only in flashback)
Vehicles:
- General Kalamari's ship
- Talos' ship (Only in flashback) (Destruction)
Events:
- Empyre (Mentioned)
Synopsis for "Empyre's End"
As the Kree/Skrull Empire Alliance's armada passes through the Outer Realm en route from Earth's solar system, General Kalamari's ship comes across a lone escape pod broadcasting a distress signal warning not to attempt to rescue it. Retrieving the escape pod despite the warning, technicians open it to find Talos inside. Awakening in a delirious state, Talos exclaims that they have to escape and that something is coming.
Two days later, Talos regains consciousness to find General Kalamari at his bedside. Horrified at having been rescued, Talos demands that they leave the area immediately, Kalamari grousing that they were dispatched to the edge of Kree/Skrull Space to save him. Talos lamentingly states that it's too late and that they're all dead, General Kalamari asking if he means his crew and what they had found. Talos explains that not long after the war with the Cotati had ended, Emperor Hulkling had learned that several outposts on the edge of Kree/Skrull Space had mysteriously gone dark. Talos had been dispatched with a small squadron - Av-Rom, Keeyah, M'lanz, Virtue, and Tarna - to investigate Gnarrat, the latest of the colony worlds to go dark.
En route, Av-Rom remarks to Talos that he finds the silence unsettling, Talos remarking that his sensors aren't detecting any signs of life from the planet. Virtue remarks that the planet is still broadcasting but that all he's getting is static. Checking the sensor array, M'lanz remarks that she's picking up dozens of escape pods, though something is interfering with her scans to detect if there are any survivors. Declaring that even a faint signal is enough to warrant a rescue, Av-Rom dispatches Keeyah and M'lanz to retrieve them.
In space, M'lanz tries to peer through the porthole of one of the pods but comments that a dark, viscous liquid is smeared on the inside. As M'lanz takes the pod back to the ship, Keeyah decides to check if the others are in the same condition. In the cargo hold, Av-Rom rebukes Virtue for cracking a joke and opens the escape pod to reveal a Skrull inside... half covered by an amorphous black mass. As Av-Rom orders them to fall back, M'lanz immediately recognizes it as a symbiote. The symbiote bonds to the Skrull and grabs Av-Rom, shooting tendrils down his mouth and nose; Virtue dragging M'lanz to safety as she struggles against him. Pursued through the corridors by the symbiote, M'lanz smashes the control panel for a blast door, exclaiming that they need to warn Keeyah and the others; but the symbiote smashes tendrils through the viewport and snares Virtue, dragging him into the darkness as he yells at M'lanz to escape. M'lanz tries to warn Keeyah as he obliviously approaching one of the pods, but her signal is garbled. Seeing something approaching from the planet, Keeyah turns to see four symbiote dragons flying towards him. Keeyah rockets back towards the ship, desperately trying to contact the ship, but he's snared by tendrils of living abyss and engulfed - screaming in agony as the symbiote bonds to him and ruptures his suit.
Watching from the bridge, Talos incredulously asks Tarna if he's seeing things. M'lanz bursts into the room, asking if Keeyah is onboard, but Talos says that he's not. Lamenting that Keeyah is probably dead, M'lanz tells the others that the pods contain symbiotes - some of which have infiltrated the ship. Alarmed, Tarna tells M'lanz to get them out of there, but as M'lanz sets a course for Plutarch the symbiote dragons engulf the ship and fuse together into a single mass. Narrating, Talos states that neither Tarna nor M'lanz - both of whom had bonded to symbiotes previously - had ever seen anything like this before. A horde of symbiotes spawned from the dragons burst into the ship, and Virtue is engulfed and taken over by one of them. As the power goes out, Tarna approaches the window and grimly states that these symbiotes are nothing like those of the Agents of the Cosmos - full of bloodlust, hunger, and ice-cold hatred. As the windows begin to crack, Tarna recoils and exclaims that the dragons are trying to crush the ship; M'lanz triggering the self-destruct, altering the artificial gravity, and exclaiming that they need to get to the escape pods. Talos wonders if the escape pods can punch through the mass of living abyss cocooning the ship, M'lanz grimly saying there's only one way to find out.
As they step out into the corridor they're confronted by a horde of symbiotes manifested into humanoid forms, M'lanz telling them to run as she opens fire with her halberd. Brandishing a sabre, Tarna volunteers to hold them off while Talos and M'lanz escape; but Talos vetoes this and says they're escaping together. The symbiote-controlled Virtue approaches, snarling for his former comrades to surrender and embrace the darkness, and that they will end all suffering throughout the cosmos. M'lanz shuts off the artificial gravity, but the symbiotes quickly adapt - several of them amalgamating into a worm-like beast. M'lanz destroys it with her halberd, Symbiote Virtue recognizing M'lanz as a former symbiote host through her codex, snarling for her to rejoin the Hive and that resistance is futile. Charging her halberd, M'lanz shouts that she would rather die than bond to a symbiote again, lunging at Symbiote Virtue... who promptly obliges by impaling her with an arm-blade. As Talos watches in horror, Tarna urges him to not let M'lanz sacrifice be in vain and that they're running out of time.
In the cargo bay, they find Av-Rom cocooned by a symbiote. He begs them to kill him, but as Talos approaches wondering if he can be saved, a sinister voice speaks through Av-Rom and says it's too late - Av-Rom cutting the voice off by screaming for Talos to kill him. Taking aim with his energy gun, Talos asks for Av-Rom to forgive him. The voice mockingly states that there will be no forgiveness or mercy, the symbiote engulfing Av-Rom and snarling that it will especially savour devouring him. As Talos shoots Av-Rom, seemingly killing him, Tarna checks on the escape pods and remarks that they're functional. Talos seals Tarna inside, telling her to warn the Kree/Skrull fleet while he distracts the symbiotes. As Tarna's escape pod launches, the voice that had spoken through Av-Rom sarcastically comments that Talos is noble for sacrificing himself. Talos turns to see a towering humanoid entity with white hair, pale skin, claws, fangs; clad in black armor with red dragon emblems on its front and back. Petting Symbiote Virtue and Symbiote Av-Rom, the entity - Knull - states that his horde has dragged the shadows of its planet on a warpath across the cosmos one planet at a time, and that the Kree/Skrull Alliance is next. As Talos flees to one of the escape pods, Knull mockingly asks why he's bothering to run when there's nowhere he can hide that Knull won't find him. Knull declares his intent to devour the galaxy, but decides to let Talos escape - sinisterly stating that they'll meet again soon enough. Talos' escape pod punches through the living abyss cocooning the ship, but as it drifts away a symbiote dragon swoops in to devour it. Before it can do so, the ship self-destructs, distracting it long enough for the pod to escape.
In the present, Talos remarks that he doesn't know what happened to Tarna but hopes that she managed to escape; lamenting that it would have been better if he had died adrift in space. Aghast, General Kalamari asks why one of the most-decorated Skrull warriors would ever wish for such a thing; but Talos grimly states that General Kalamari would too if he'd seen what lurks in the abyss. Gazing out the viewport, Talos says that his pod's beacon wasn't a distress signal but a warning, but now it's too late. Outside the ship, Knull - astride a symbiote dragon - laughs as he swoops in for the attack.
Solicit Synopsis
SPINNING OUT OF EMPYRE, KNULL’S DOMAIN BEGINS!
FOR WEEKS, chaos engulfed Earth and space alike. First, the corpse of serial killer Cletus Kasady was bonded to a remnant of a mysteriously powerful alien symbiote, resurrecting his psychotic alter ego, Carnage.
THEN, the generations-long Kree/Skrull conflict reached a brutal head on Earth, with shocking and unforeseen consequences.
MEANWHILE one ancient entity at the edge of the universe has awoken. Born of hate and darkness, it’s the entity that feeds on chaos and brutality—and one group of unlucky fighters is about to face it head-on…Notes
- Although he is present on the covers of the issue, Bron Char doesn't make an appearance nor is mentioned.
See Also
- 16 image(s) from Web of Venom: Empyre's End Vol 1 1
- 1 reprint(s) of Web of Venom: Empyre's End Vol 1 1