Venom 4: King in Black – Summary and Commentary

Eddie Brock lives in isolation after the events that devastated San Francisco. A mysterious object crashes to Earth and emits a signal that causes a violent reaction in Venom. The signal is a call—a remnant of Knull, the god of the symbiotes, beginning to awaken after eons of imprisonment.

Black matter spreads across the planet, devouring forests, swallowing cities, and turning the sky red. Symbiote dragons soar through the clouds, infecting entire populations. People vanish into the sludge, re-emerging as mindless extensions of a growing hive. The threat is no longer just personal—this is extinction.

Peter Parker is forced into the conflict after an attack on New York leaves part of the city consumed by a living symbiote dome. Eddie tracks him down, and despite their mutual distrust, they recognize they must work together. Venom resents Spider-Man's moral rigidity, while Peter fears Venom's unpredictability. They agree to a fragile alliance.

Knull's history reveals itself through Venom’s fragmented memories. He was the first—an ancient being of darkness who created the symbiotes to extinguish light across the universe. Venom, unlike the others, was born with doubt and fled. That act of rebellion makes Eddie and Venom uniquely capable of resisting Knull’s psychic control.

A scientist named Dr. Evelyn Park deciphers ancient texts connected to the symbiotes. She discovers that Knull is not just awakening—he is descending. Earth is his next conquest. His form takes shape in orbit, a towering silhouette behind clouds of cosmic fog. Humanity’s time is running out.

Cities fall one by one. Symbiote masses erupt from the ground and sky, absorbing military weapons and turning resistance fighters into hosts. Survivors flee into underground tunnels and collapsed ruins. The world becomes a battlefield of black tendrils and fire.

Spider-Man becomes infected during a failed mission to rescue survivors but resists full transformation through sheer will. The symbiote attached to him temporarily merges with Venom, creating a hybrid powerful enough to fight back against the swarm. Peter’s resistance gives Venom hope—symbiotes can evolve beyond Knull’s control.

Eddie begins experiencing shared visions with Knull, who speaks to him in dreams. Knull sees Venom as a traitor and Eddie as a mistake. He offers Eddie a choice: surrender and be spared, or resist and be erased with the rest of humanity. Eddie refuses.

Dr. Park creates a device that can sever the connection between Knull and his hive mind by amplifying the genetic signature of the rebel symbiote. To activate it, Venom must merge with Knull directly and deliver the signal from within. Doing so could destroy them both.

The final battle takes place inside a massive cathedral made of living symbiote flesh, floating above Earth. Venom, Peter, and a handful of resistance fighters fight their way to the core, where Knull awaits—an immense, skeletal figure wrapped in darkness. His voice shakes the structure, speaking in ancient tones.

Eddie and Venom confront Knull in single combat. The battle is both physical and psychic. Eddie relives his memories—loss, rage, guilt—weaponized by Knull to weaken him. Venom shields him, absorbing the pain and stabilizing Eddie’s focus. Together, they detonate the signal inside Knull’s mind.

The hive collapses. Across Earth, symbiote creatures scream and disintegrate. The cathedral falls from orbit, burning through the atmosphere. Eddie and Venom vanish in the explosion. The sky clears. Humanity begins to recover.

Spider-Man emerges from the rubble carrying Venom’s shattered form. A piece of the symbiote still pulses faintly. Peter offers it refuge—not as a weapon, but as something more. The film closes with Peter walking through a ruined city, Venom’s voice whispering quietly, no longer monstrous, but uncertain.

Knull’s threat is gone, but the universe is forever changed. The symbiotes are free, no longer bound to a hive, and Earth has become a scarred frontier between light and shadow.

The film's tone is darker and more mythological than previous entries. Light is minimal; darkness dominates both the visual and emotional palette. Music builds tension with low drones and haunting choral textures. Scenes of destruction are vast but grounded, emphasizing dread over spectacle.

The relationship between Eddie and Venom reaches its most intimate point. Venom expresses fear and love in subtle gestures—protecting Eddie during psychic attacks, hesitating before the final sacrifice. Eddie, in return, shows loyalty not out of necessity, but choice.

Spider-Man represents the moral contrast. His struggle is not with darkness inside him, but with accepting that compromise may be necessary. His interactions with Venom force him to redefine what heroism means when survival is the only goal.

Knull is portrayed not just as a monster, but as a force of nature—indifferent to life. He speaks in riddles, manipulating emotion like a puppeteer. His presence in the film elevates the conflict from action to cosmic allegory: light versus void, voice versus silence, choice versus destiny.

The absence of humor sets this entry apart. Comedy, when it occurs, is nervous or tragic. The levity of earlier films is replaced with tension and urgency. Every scene pushes the characters forward or deeper into despair.

Visually, the film draws from horror and science fiction. Shadows move on their own. Buildings writhe. Black rain falls upward. The horror is both intimate and planetary. The viewer is made to feel small.

Venom 4 does not end with victory—it ends with cost. Eddie is gone. Venom survives, but diminished. Spider-Man carries the weight of two worlds. Humanity is saved, but not whole. The story suggests there is no final peace, only the next test.