Queen in Black: Defenders of Light and Dark (2026 series) #1

In the Knull mini-series Hela, the Asgardian rule of Hel, usurped Knull's power and Klyntar black symbiotes and became the Queen in Black. But in response Knull became a god of light but still evil. In Queen In Black #1 he created hard light white symbiotes he called his Seraphim, and Hela's forces attacked Earth. But Knull isn't far behind. Tony Stark organised the defence of Earth, and sent some teams to tackle Hela's forces on the ground. But he needs some teams to go into space.

Tony meets with Cable, the mutant cyborg with the big guns, in Avengers Mansion to ask him to be part of this group, but he's not impressed with the lineup. Stark claims to have run it past some friendly symbiotes who know Knull and Beta Ray Bill who seems to know Hela (behind the scenes in QIB#1?), but that doesn't make Nathan Summers any happier. Iron Man says they only need to hold the enemy off until the Avengers and the Fantastic Four find a permanent solution. Now we see the lineup of 2 teams:- 1 to fight the god of light's forces has Darkforce users Cloak and Darkstar along with Agent Anti-Venom plus Cable and IM themselves. The other to fight the Queen In Black's fleet has Lightforce users Dagger and Photon with Beta Ray Bill and Sunfire. Cable will use his Bodyslide teleporting to pick up the rest of the teams.

In QIB#1 we saw him grabbing Agent Anti-Venom.

Now we follow Team Light into low-Earth orbit in BRB's sentient spaceship Skuttlebutt. Dagger (Tandy Bowen) has faced many things in her super-life but she feels facing an armada in space is way above her pay-grade. Photon (Monica Rambeau) has to remind her to activate Stark's protective nanites before the exit into space. Sunfire (Shiro Yashida) asks why Skuttlebutt isn't staying to help with her big guns. Bill says she needs to stay safe to report back if they fail.

They fly through space to an enemy spacecraft where they are met by a horde of aliens bonded with Klyntar symbiotes. Photon recognises Kree, Chitauri and Melleronites within the symbiote coverings. BRB declares it a mercy to the hosts to kill them along with the parasites that infect them. The alien 'Thor' sends lightning blasts from his hammer, Photon shoots microwave energy and Sunfire is a radioactive samurai. Those last 2 are uneasy about the host-killing bit but Shiro reminds Monica that they're preventing Earth's population from being infected by symbiotes too. Tandy still feels outclassed as he generates her lightbow to shoot deadly light darts.

Meanwhile Cloak (Tyrone Johnson) has transported his Dark team through the dark void within his cloak to beyond the edge of the Solar System. Iron Man is in his specially designed black Knullbuster armour. But Knull's total command of the whole electromagnetic spectrum has enabled him to detect their arrival and he sends his Seraphim against them. Cable blasts them with his big gun but unusually(?) also carries a distinctive shield, Darkstar (Laynia Petrovna) lashes out with her Darkforce and Anti-Venom (Flash Thompson)'s symbiote generates multiple tentacles each shooting a gun. Iron Man tells Cloak to hang back as Plan B while he blasts Seraphim to pieces but also erects his own shield. Knull sends light versions of his symbiote dragons to attacks Flash and Laynia but Tyrone comes to the rescue (to send the dragons into the Darkforce dimension in his cloak.

Hela and her lieutenant Tyr, Asgardian god of war, have noticed the Light team's attack on their forces and Tyr takes particular offence at Beta Ray Bill's presence. So he leaps down into the fray and tells Bill he should be on Hela's side because they are the few in the mortal plane who remember Asgard's glory. Dagger and Photon don't even know what Asgard is (because of the events at the end of the Immortal Thor series) and Sunfire is blasting foes too far away to hear what's going on. Nill and Tyr clash hammer against sword and BRB is laid low as Tyr claims that Hela intends to rebuild the Rainbow Bridge link to Asgard. The other 3 think Bill is surrendering, but the Thor substitute knows that the real Thor would want him to defend Earth with his Twilight Sword  as well as his hammer Stormbreaker. So he leaps back to the attack.

Cloak's cloak has swallowed some dragons and spit them out. But Cable believes they're still well-outnumbered and they should consider Plan B. Anti-Venom and Darkstar agree but Iron Man says it's still too risky, even when Cloak says he's ready. Knull decides to personally intervene, annoyed at the imposter Cloak claiming to have the Void (Knull's original home) in his cloak). He stabs Tyrone in the gut with his All-Light spear, and far away Tandy feels his pain as darkness bleeds from *her* stomach.