Warning: spoilers for Marvel's King in Black #1 and Atlantis Attacks #5!
Marvel's the Sentry was torn in half in grisly revenge for his earlier defeat of Knull's herald, the serial-killer symbiote known as Carnage.
With symbiote-infested Celestials descending from the sky and an abyssal shield forming around the Earth, cutting it off from outside aid, things have rarely looked more dire for Earth's heroes, which is why they'll be glad to know that they're about to receive help from an ally they don't even know exists.
Following the battle between Mike Nguyen's mind-controlled Hulk and Namor's forces, the gamma-powered hero Amadeus Cho has quit Marvel's Agents of Atlas, stricken at having taken Nguyen's life. It's a heart-rending development for the young hero, but the very end of Atlantis Attacks #5 - from Grek Pak, Robert Gill, Ario Anindito, Rachelle Rosenberg, and VC's Joe Sabino - shows that it also disqualifies him from the plans of Mr. Lao, the dragon advisor to Jimmy Woo and his undercover team of heroes.
Way back in 2006, Agent Jimmy Wood learned that his life had been a lie, and the villain he'd been fighting for years had actually been testing him to see if he was fit to lead the Atlas Foundation, aka the Eternal Empire - a crime syndicate that has operated for centuries, undetected by Marvel's heroes. A hero at heart, Jimmy accepted with a plan to use the Foundation's resources for good, re-forming the Agents of Atlas, who gave the outward appearance of super-villains while making the world a better place.
But why pretend to be villains at all? The answer is Mr. Lao, an ancient dragon who acts as the advisor to the competing forces who run the Eternal Empire, ultimately revealed to be the real hand on the tiller. In recent years, Jimmy has come to a more complex understanding with Lao, recently learning that there are far more ancient dragons than he ever knew, and that they're technically the Earth's dominant species, using humans as pawns in their schemes rather than enter into a Dragon War that would raze the Earth itself.
Thankfully, the dragons' power means that they have as much to lose from the King in Black as anyone else, and it's clear that Mr. Lao is going to be coordinating part of the fight back against Knull as King in Black moves forward. With ancient knowledge stretching back into history, and a hidden web of s and resources, Mr. Lao is actually one of the characters best-positioned to hurt Knull, especially because Earth's dragons would be able to meet Knull's formidable Grendel dragons like for like. As Amadeus officially ditches his leadership of the Agents of Atlas, the scene cuts to Mr. Lao and Jimmy, with Lao saying: "It's all right, he couldn't bear the weight of the crown. He'd never have been ready for what's coming." Jimmy then declares it's time to help a king.
With the shadows of Knull's Grendel dragons overhead, readers could be forgiven for thinking Jimmy is referring to an alliance with Knull, but the tease for the next issue's cover shows the team fighting alongside Namor - someone with his own dragon concerns, and a recent ally after the events of Atlantis Attacks. How effective Mr. Lao and the Agents of Atlas will be against Knull remains to be seen, but Namor seems to be taking an important place in the event, and with the Avengers' big gun having fallen in seconds, it seems like sneaky tricks and hidden weapons are the only option left - areas in which Mr. Lao and the Agents of Atlas excel.
