Queen in Black (2026 series) #4

Hela, Asgardian Queen Of Hel, stole the power of Knull to become the Queen In Black but he became a god of light to get his own back and the Solar System is now their battleground. Various heroes are defending Earth from Hela's forces which are various alien races with Klyntar Symbiotes (like Venom). Meanwhile Iron Man has sent 2 teams against the gods themselves as Plan A - Team Light vs Hela in Earth orbit, Team Dark Vs Knull on the edge of the Solar System. But IM and Cable also have Plan B in reserve.

In London an Avengers team (the 2 Captain's America, Hercules, Lightning and Wonder Man) are fighting Symbiote Chitauri. They're hoping for backup from Britain's MI-13 but the only 1 that turns up is Outlaw (the British Punisher) with some non-lethal big guns. He explains that MI-13 is fighting all over London. But their budget's been severely cut recently because the New Hydra Party claims that superheroes corrupt young minds and the Prime Minister has given in to their demands. Whatever, they all return to the fight.

Storm and Wolverine continue fighting Symbiote Mentelleronites in Tokyo who continue to respond by distorting reality. The duo start off as X-babies and then Logan transforms into an armoured version. Meanwhile in Pisa Atlas and Goliath are still contending with giant Skrull Symbiotes, currently imitations of the Brute That Walks and Zzutak. But Beast and Emma Frost (in the X-Men's Blackbird plane) report more of the foe landing in pods, and Symbiote properties mean that Emma can only mentally take them out 1 at a time. Scarlet Witch and Vision are still at the Giza pyramids where Wanda Maximoff handles incoming pods containing Symbiote Rigellians by invoking Aggamon to send them through portals to the Purple Dimension.

For a break we pop in to see how Team Dark are faring against Knull. They've done reasonably well against some of his light-Symbiotes but Knull is now smashing Tony Stark in his KnullBuster armour. Cloak and Agent Anti-Venom try to help but Cable with Darkstar calls on Stark to move on to Plan B. Tony still thinks it's too risky but he agrees.

Back on Earth in New York Captain Alliance, Human Torch and Nova (having beaten Marvel Boy (Noh-Varr) and fought the Symbiote Supreme Intelligence) now face the Symbiotised ex-Herald Of Galactus Firelord with Kreebiotes in support. Richard Rider is running out of Nova Force when Thing joins in by clobbering FL. But despite his mighty blows Ben Grimm can't dodge his foe's fiery blasts.

Invisible Woman and Mr Fantastic are in a spacecraft near the Fantastic Four orbiting space station and Sue Richards is holding off 3 Kree warships with forcefield bubbles. They'd been waiting for Black Cat to bring them genetic material of the Kree Supreme Intelligence to reboot the Symbiote SI, but Felicia Hardy has instead flown her own craft to attack the SSI directly in New York. (All this was covered in #14 of her current series). Now she drops the seed bomb and the SSI is converted into the KSI who now claims to have foreseen this 10,000 years ago and has plans deal with the situation. And the Kree Symbiote soldiers collapse in pain.

Torch, Thing and the Skrull Captain Alliance see this. Thing takes the fight back to Firelord. Nova gets Johnny Storm to emit his powerful Nova Flame which Rider uses to repower his Nova Force. Thing and SCA hold FL in place while Nova sends the result straight at their foe knocking him down and out.

We now get a flashback to the inaugural meeting of Dark and Light teams in Avengers Mansion where Cable explains Plan B which is a Mutually Assured Destruction scenario. They've arranged a chain of teleporters across various realities to bring Hela and Knull together. In the present we get a glimpse of them both fighting each other in Hela's flagship (but the details will be in QIB: Defenders Of Light And Dark #3).

Now Reed Richards is back in the FF's Baxter Building HQ with Spider-Man where he's initiating a plan based on info from Venom (in the current Venom #261). During the 2024 Venom War event the Venom Symbiote bonded to Eddie Brock and his son Dylan at the same time. He's hoping to do the same thing now with Dylan and Mary Jane Watson who's currently wearing the Symbiote. The aim is to then use Dylan's Chainbreaker ability to take all Hela's Symbiotes away from her. Unfortunately the Venom Symbiote is currently infected with Eganrac (the anti-Carnage which is expressed as the gold-coloured parts of MJ's 'costume'). But MrF intends to make use of that. Guided by Toxin (Dylan Brock), Reed's equipment should be able to siphon off the Eganrac which should give Venom a power boost.

He starts the process and all over the world the Symbiotes are affected. But Dylan and MJ are unexpectedly covered in a mass of Symbiote stuff. Reed guesses that there's something magical about Eganrac (he's right, Chthon was involved in it's creation). Half a world away Scarlet Witch senses a darkness and a great joining in the near future. Reed finds he can't reverse or stop the process.  And all the Symbiotes in the world turn into Symbiote stuff which joins together to engulf the globe. And Mary Jane appears to everyone in the Venom mindscape to tell them that there is now just 1 Symbiote - Venomworld.