Warning: spoilers ahead for King in Black: Iron Man/Doctor Doom #1 and King in Black #2!
In the latest tie-in issue to Marvel Comics’ King in Black, Iron Man and Doctor Doom find themselves teaming-up against the most unlikely of adversaries. Following the aftermath of King in Black #2, Knull the Symbiote God has already claimed and corrupted several of the Marvel Universe’s heroes into his dark legions. However, nothing could have prepared Iron Man nor Doctor Doom to face the latest Knullified victims of the King in Black’s invasion: Santa Claus and his reindeer.
In the first two issues of King in Black, all of the Earth’s heroes united to prepare defenses against the coming invasion, but it wasn’t enough. By the end of the first issue, several heroes including Captain America, Cyclops, the Thing, and more were overwhelmed by symbiotes and subsequently joined Knull’s forces under his control. Not only that, but Eddie Brock was ripped from his Venom symbiote and thrown off the side of a skyscraper by the King in Black himself, completely powerless as he fell to the ground below. While Brock was in critical condition, Reed Richards and Iron Man rallied the surviving heroes to mount a second offensive, all while Iron Man himself used his Extremis technology to harness the power of one of Knull’s symbiotes in order to try and save Eddie. Unfortunately, the attempt failed and Brock seemingly died at the end of the second issue from Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman, leaving Tony Stark shattered but with newly powered-up armor.
King in Black: Iron Man/Doctor Doom #1 from Christopher Cantwell and Salvador Larroca picks up right after these events. At the beginning of the issue, Doctor Doom is meeting with Iron Man, who’s feeling guilty over his failure to save Eddie. Remarkably, the hero and villain at that moment see none other than Santa Claus himself flying in his sleigh with his reindeer. However, Santa has been corrupted by Knull as well, forcing Iron Man and Doctor Doom to work together to try and save him, despite their shared incredulity that Santa seemingly exists. Furthermore, as they try to save Santa, it’s revealed that his reindeer have been Knullified as well, having become “paindeer” as this dark Santa calls them. While Iron Man and Doom attempt to save Santa, Doom shows little mercy to the dark and corrupted animals, quickly terminating them all with a blast of fire from one of his gauntlets.
With no flying reindeer, the sleigh and its formerly jolly driver crash down to the city below, and Iron Man is able to use the powers of his new Extremis/Symbiote armor to clear Knull’s infection from Santa Claus. While the restored Santa calls both Iron Man and Doctor Doom by their real names and refers to them as nice and naughty respectively, Iron Man isn’t convinced that they saved the real Santa, especially not after he finds ID declaring the man the owner of a holiday decor supply store. Humorously enough, Doom is actually willing to entertain the possibility of Santa’s existence all the same. There certainly are stranger things to be witnessed in the Marvel Universe.
Though Santa survives the battle, this means that the casualties from King in Black thus far include the Sentry, Venom, and now Santa’s eight reindeer, an odd grouping if there ever was one. However, that doesn’t make the loss of the classic holiday creatures any less tragic. While Iron Man expresses doubt that this was indeed the real Santa, his explanation doesn’t explain where the flying reindeer came from. Were they just symbiotes and nothing more? If that’s true, that would thankfully mean that readers didn’t just see Dasher and Dancer being torched by Victor von Doom in this King In Black one-shot. All the same, this fun story underlines Knull’s commitment to despoiling everything good and pure.
