tearing apart the Sentry in a brutal act of revenge for the powerful hero doing the same to his servant Carnage.
Earth's Mightiest Heroes fell against Knull's power, with most of them possessed by symbiotes. A small band of X-Men ed the initial battle in New York, but they too were defeated, with Storm's lightning unable to disrupt the symbiote god to any significant degree. In the wake of that defeat, the rest of the X-Men have retreated to Krakoa, licking their wounds and refusing to commit any more mutants to the battle. They fail to understand the sheer scale of the threat because Knull will eradicate man and mutant alike.
Marvel's March solicitations suggest there is hope for the X-Men who have come under Knull's sway - and it comes from an unlikely source. Savage Avengers #19 is a King In Black tie-in that will see Conan the Barbarian hired to free the X-Men from the symbiotes. Here's the full solicit:
- SAVAGE AVENGERS #19
- Gerry Duggan (writer)
- Kev Walker (artist)
- Cover by Valerio Giangiordano
- Two-tone variant cover by Michael Cho
- Conan’s heist of the Hellfire Club goes awry when the mutants hire his sword to help free Storm and Cyclops from Knull.
- us for some March Madness starring Conan, Deadpool, and the Marauders.
Conan the Barbarian fits surprisingly well with the modern Marvel Universe, and this promises to be an entertaining team-up. Kate Pryde's Marauders pride themselves on essentially being the mutant equivalent of pirates, and Conan will fit right in with them. But it will be intriguing to see why they believe Conan can help them free Cyclops and Storm from Knull. If he can accomplish this feat, then the X-Men will regain their greatest tactician and one of their Omega level mutants. It will be a potential game-changer in the battle against Knull. Meanwhile, note that Gerry Duggan is actually the main writer of Marauders, so the character arcs and voices should be handled perfectly.
King In Black is proving one of the most enjoyable events for years. One of the advantages of this kind of event is that it allows for unexpected, unprecedented team-ups between characters who hail from different parts of the Marvel Universe. In this case, it seems Conan the Barbarian is about to prove himself the X-Men's last hope - and it's going to be exciting to see how things play out.
