Queen in Black (2026 series) #2

Hela, Asgardian Queen of Hel, has stolen the power of Knull, the King In Black, and become the new Queen In Black. But Knull has reinvented himself as a god of light but still evil. They have both set their eyes on Earth and Hela has launched an invasion. Iron Man is leading the defenders as various alien races bonded to Klyntar (Venom) black Symbiotes have landed at different spots on Earth.

In Tokyo, Japan it's Mentelleronites with the power to distort reality. Wolverine leaps down on 1 of them but on the way he transforms into various alternate versions, but its the real deal who stabs him in the head and lets Storm send lightning down his metal claws. (But the alien now without a Symbiote 'costume' finally looks similar to Orrgo, the example we've seen before.) Logan contacts Tony Stark to inform him Tokyo's secure.

Tony's in his Knullbuster black armour with Cable and they ready their 2 strike forces to go into space. Cable's sentient spaceship will take Team Light (Beta Ray Bill leading Dagger, Photon and Sunfire) to attack Hela's armada while Iron Man & Cable will travel with Team Dark via Cloak's teleportation (with extra members Agent Anti-Venom and Darkstar) to challenge Knull. Cable is reasonably happy with this as Plan A but wonders why they don't go straight to Plan B. Tony argues that Plan B is too risky. Nathan Summers pushes it but Stark is adamant. Hela's general Tyr, the Asgardian God of War, is watching this from afar. He reports to the Queen that Beta Ray Bill is heading for them. He might be able to reason with this ally of Thor but Bill isn't a true Asgardian even though he's currently taken the dead Thunder God's place in history. (We can see how this plays out in the QIB: Defenders Of Light And Dark mini-series.)

But for now Hela is more concerned with someone on Earth who seems to be connected with Thor in some way. She intends to investigate this Sigurd Jarlson (which she'll do in the QIB: Thor 1-shot). But now she's even more concerned with what's happening on Earth. She expected the Avengers would concentrate on their old foes the Kree and Skrulls but instead they sent Scarlet Witch and Vision against the Rigellians (last issue) and Storm and Wolverine against the Mentelleronites. This is unfortunate because these terraformers and reality-shapers were meant to carry out her true objective - carving her rune writ large into the Earth. This would give the Queen In Black power over Earth's goddess Gaea, and when she restores the Rainbow Bridge she can conquer Asgard and the others of the Nine Realms. But until then Asgard can't interfere with what she does on Midgard. Tyr reminds her about Knull but she says she has a weapon ready to defeat him too.

Last issue Spider-Man and his Spider-Friends (Black Cat, the Skrull Captain Alliance, Captain Spider (Dylan Brock in the Toxin symbiote) and Venom (currently Mary Jane Watson)) defeated the Kree Symbiotes and their All-Purpose Power Tool in New York. But this time Venomised Skrulls brought the APPT, and it consumed them as raw materials to produce the Symbiote Intelligence, a version of the Kree Supreme Intelligence. Now the Spider-Friends attack it. Spidey finds it ironic that CapA, the last vestige of the Kree/Skrull Alliance, is fighting a Kree Supreme Intelligence made of Skrulls. That SI extends a pseudopod ending in a large multi-fanged mouth that CapA holds off with his shield. Meanwhile more pods land.

Over in Tottenham Court Road, London both Captain America's plus Hercules, Lightning and Wonder Man (all representatives of the Avengers Emergency Response Squad) have arrived to deal with Chitauri Symbiotes. Pacifist WM starts ferrying civilians to safety while the sonic boom from Hercules' handclap knocks foes down while Lightning blasts them with, what else?, lightning and the 2 Cap's use their energy shields to good effect.

Back in NY the new pods have disgorged Kree Symbiotes who fire at Cat, CapS and MJVenom. MJ wants Felicia Hardy to take young Dylan B to safety in the Fantastic Four's Baxter Building HQ but he refuses to go. He points out that he's been a Venom much longer than her and is known as the Chainbreaker because he can separate symbiotes from their hosts. He transforms his symbiote from the Captain Spider image he 'inherited' from Rick Jones to his earlier Codex form, and he generates a spike at the end of his right arm with which to slash the Kree soldiers. But it doesn't work! Hela watches this with interest and realises who he is, the Prince In Black. But she knows that he can't break the Asgardian magik she used to create her symbiotes because the mortal realm doesn't recognise it since history was rewritten (at the end of the Immortal Thor series) to make Asgard never to have existed. Still she orders her minions to concentrate on capturing him. This triggers MJ to grab him to take him to the FF, but the FF come to them in the shape of Human Torch and ally Nova. The duo still leave and Spidey tells Captain Alliance he's going with them. The Skrull replies that things should be fine here now that John Storm, saviour of the Negative Zone, and Richard Rider, the man who stood when all else fell, are here - because they are Earth's greatest heroes(!).

As Codex and Venom flee they are met by another Kree landing pod which opens to reveal symbiote-ridden Marvel Boy/Noh-Varr, once leader of the Utopian Kree, who fires explosive fingernails(?!) at them. MJVenom is down and Noh-Varr clashes his Nega-Gauntlets together to swap places with the Symbiote Intelligence, which allows that being to end up with Codex inside its container. SM lands next to recovering MJ and they realise they'll need the best thief in the world to get Dylan out of there, but they also realise they don't know where Black Cat has gone.