YMMV / King in Black

• Awesome Moments:
  • In the Black Panther tie-in, T'Challa manages to use Klaw's sonic device combined with Wakanda's shield to not only obliterate all invading symbiotes, freeing his people, but also punch a massive hole in the sphere of symbiotes covering the planet, letting the sun shine on Wakanda for the moment.
  • Savage Avengers #17 was equally enjoyed since it was the first team-up of Deadpool and Conan, also marking the first time Deadpool teamed up with someone not of the Marvel Universe.
  • While horrifying, Knull easily killing Sentry, one of Marvel's most powerful characters, via ripping him in half is an undeniably impressive feat that establishes just how much of a threat the titular King in Black poses.
  • How do they one-up this in the final issue? A Captain Universe-cosmically powered Venom fuses Mjolnir and the Silver Surfer's board into a battleaxe shaped like his spider-emblem and absolutely decimates Knull — seemingly killing him once and for all.
• Base-Breaking Character: Carrying over from his mixed reception in Venom (Donny Cates), Knull is either a cool and intimidating villain with interesting lore and great build-up, or yet another overpowered villain with no charisma. The fact that he's coming off the heels of two Symbiote-related events either helps or hinders him, depending on how you feel. The fact that he rapidly has overtaken other franchise origins has not helped.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!:
  • Many people have complained about the similarities this event has to the Venomized event, which also features heroes being converted by Symbiote-related enemies, the alien invasion aspect, and Knull bearing similarities to the Poison Queen.
  • Some critics have pointed out that Donny Cates more-or-less recycled the plot of Damnation, with Knull filling in for Mephisto and Eddie Brock filling in for Ghost Rider.
• Older Than They Think: The Human Torch was among the Venomized heroes, and some readers found it weird that could happen, as symbiote had a Weaksauce Weakness in fire. However, this is not the first time that Johnny has been bonded to a symbiote: it has already happened in Fantastic Four #360 (during Tom DeFalco's run, where Johnny is taken over by a symbiote called Dreadface) and briefly in the out-of-continuity Marvel Adventures Spider-Man#24, where Johnny tries to steal Spidey's black suit (before it became Venom) out of jealousy before he inadvertently burns off the symbiote by attempting to flame on.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Despite returning to Earth to help Venom fight Knull and serving as Dylan's protector in earlier issues, Sleeper is strangely absent from the event. It's even mentioned in-universe that Sleeper could've potentially saved Eddie from his temporary death when Iron Man searched for a symbiote to heal him in King in Black #2.
  • While the Dark Carnage symbiote escaped on a shark and Cletus has been bonded to a symbiote for a similar amount of time as Eddie or Flash, neither half of Carnage appears in King in Black. This is especially notable as Carnage was the one that freed Knull, but Knull instead gives his gratitude and attention to his ancestor Cortland of all people. To be fair, if it weren't for Cortland, Cletus would have never been born to free Knull in the first place. Carnage: Black, White, & Blood #2 exposits that Cletus' codex was piloting the Dark Carnage symbiote — hence their absence in the Hive-Mind — and touches on what the "Crimson Leviathan" was up to during King in Black, while also setting the stage for Extreme Carnage.
  • A criticism levelled against Knull is that he shows up, curb-stomps the Sentry, Venom, and the rest of Earth's heroes... and then effectively does nothing but lounge on his throne for most of the event, remote-piloting symbiote-dragons and conjuring avatars to take part in some of the tie-ins.
• Unexpected Character:
  • Symbiote Spider-Man: King In Black features a pretty unexpected selection of characters for the storyline; Kang the Conqueror, Rocket Raccoon, Monica Rambeau (as Captain Marvel) and Ulik the Troll. The antagonist of the event is the very obscure character Mister E, who hadn't appeared in 40 years.
  • King In Black: Black Knight features Aero and Sword Master, two of China's heroes that don't have any relationship with either symbiotes or Black Knight, helping Dane Whitman against the invasion.
  • Downplayed with Silver Surfer, who hasn't taken part in any big fights on Earth for long, but did fight Knull in Silver Surfer: Black.
  • No one foresaw the Uni-Power to be the God of Light.
• Win Back the Crowd: Despite criticisms, the event has been better received than Empyre, since the characters act logically and don't pass the Idiot Ball around.