When Plan A fails, apparently you teleport two gods into the same room and hope they punch each other
There are complicated superhero strategies.
There are dangerous superhero strategies.
And then there is Cable’s plan:
Take Knull. Take Hela. Put them together. Let cosmic hatred do the rest.
Honestly?
I’ve heard worse.
Queen in Black: Defenders of Light and Dark #3 closes out this tie-in mini-series with Earth still stuck between two extremely unpleasant options. Hela has become the Queen in Black, while Knull has transformed himself into a god of light. Two strike teams—Team Light against Hela and Team Dark against Knull—are trying to keep both away from Earth while Cable’s mysterious Plan B waits in the background.
Written by Al Ewing and Tom Waltz, with art by Zé Carlos and colors by Fer Sifuentes-Sujo, the finale is basically one giant cosmic relay race where the baton is an angry god.
PROS
The most entertaining thing about this issue is finally discovering exactly what Plan B is.
And it is beautifully ridiculous.
Cable’s idea is essentially mutually assured destruction: exploit Knull and Hela’s hatred for one another and transport them directly into the same battlefield.
Easy!
Except Knull is currently somewhere beyond the solar system.
So the heroes construct what might be the most unnecessarily elaborate Uber route in Marvel history.
Cloak pulls Knull into the Darkforce Dimension.
From there he gets passed to the Astral Plane through Amelia Voght.
Then Magik takes over in Limbo.
Manifold handles another jump from the Moon.
And eventually everyone reaches “Ground Zero,” where Hela is waiting.
Imagine Knull checking his itinerary.
Darkforce → Astral Plane → Limbo → Moon → angry goddess.
One star. Would not travel again.
It’s a very comic-booky concept, and Zé Carlos makes each location visually distinct enough that the journey never feels like characters simply teleporting between interchangeable backgrounds. The Darkforce material is appropriately creepy, the Astral Plane turns colorful and strange, and Limbo becomes one enormous monster-filled traffic jam.
The issue also pays off Cloak and Dagger’s recent transformation nicely. Their bond survived Knull literally stabbing Cloak with the All-Light, and now both feel upgraded rather than simply redesigned. They function as important pieces of the plan rather than decorative crossover guests.
Then comes the main event.
Knull versus Hela.
The book has spent three issues building toward this collision, and thankfully it doesn’t disappoint visually.
Knull attacks with all the confidence of someone who has recently discovered religion and decided the religion is himself.
Hela responds by basically asking:
Cute sword.
Remember who used to own you?
Their fight is enormous, violent and gloriously melodramatic. Knull boasts. Hela boasts harder. Symbiotes fly everywhere. Gods get stabbed.
Tuesday.
The heroes also get their moment when it appears Hela has defeated Knull. Team Light and Team Dark immediately pile onto her while she’s distracted, with Beta Ray Bill delivering a particularly satisfying Stormbreaker-assisted hit.
For approximately thirty seconds, everyone thinks:
We did it!
Which in a penultimate crossover chapter should always be translated as:
Something horrifying is about to happen.
CONS
The downside of having such a huge ensemble is that several characters essentially become very cool-looking pieces of teleportation equipment.
Agent Anti-Venom, Darkstar, Sunfire, Photon and others all contribute, but some barely get enough room to register as individuals before the plot races toward the Hela/Knull showdown.
And while the interdimensional relay is fun, there’s a certain comedy to Cable presenting Plan B as this incredibly sophisticated contingency when the actual strategy boils down to:
Make the villains fight each other.
Cable owns an enormous gun and apparently also subscribes to playground conflict resolution.
FINAL GRADE: S for SHOWDOWN SHOWTIME!!!
Then the issue reveals the joke was on everyone.
Hela seemingly defeats Knull.
The heroes seemingly defeat Hela.
Problem solved.
Except Knull starts laughing.
Turns out he wanted Hela to consume him.
He allowed her to believe she had destroyed him so he could attack from within, take her power and combine glorious light with endless darkness into something even worse.
His new title?
The King in All.
Because “King in Black” apparently wasn’t dramatic enough.
And just when Knull believes he has become the ultimate cosmic nightmare, he looks toward Earth…
…and finds the entire planet transformed into the enormous symbiote-covered Venomworld created over in Queen in Black #4.
Knull’s response is basically:
Wait.
What’s THAT?
Perfect.
Defenders of Light and Dark #3 is chaotic, flashy and proudly ridiculous—the kind of tie-in finale where gods fight, dimensions become subway stops and the heroes’ brilliant master plan succeeds just long enough to make everything considerably worse.
Now onto Queen in Black #5.
Apparently we’ve upgraded to Planet Venom. 🖤🌍
