What Reheated Hell Is This?

So I picked up Black Cat #12 today - now you know part of what Friday's post will be - and I get to the last page, where there's a "To Be Continued. . ." No big, to be expected. Flip the page for a glimpse at next issue's cover, it's a black page saying "Black Cat will return in King in Black."

OK, first off, did we need to the end credits bit to the comics? I know, lost cause. Movies are the dog, comics the tail, for all that the comics are the source.

More importantly, does this mean Black Cat is canceled? I mean, the issue itself teases a second Annual that hasn't come out yet, so surely the book isn't done, right? With Giant Days and Unbeatable Squirrel Girl ending last year, there's not really any competition to it being my favorite title at the moment. But this is Marvel, so expecting them to actually keep track of things like having an editor's note touting a book that might not being released would not be beyond them. The comic shop owner didn't know, figured it could be, or it might just be on a break for a bit.

I was actually desperate enough to turn to Twitter* to see if series writer Jed MacKay had anything to say. He says the book will be back, at some point. I was unclear on how far off that is, since it sounded like a couple months in one tweet, and longer than that in another.

But OK, the book is not gone for good. At least one thing went right today**. But what is with this King in Black stuff? I know it's connected to all this weird symbiote god stuff that's been swirling around in Venom-related stuff the last few years, which is more than I'd like to be aware of. Who at Marvel decided we needed events focused around the symbiotes now?

As someone who a) is far from immune to the allure of nostalgia, but also b) lived through the symbiote madness of the '90s, I am a bit lost at this development. Why do the symbiotes need a god, or a king, or whatever it is? I was perfectly fine with symbiotes each just wanting to find a nice host to bond with. They'd make the host stronger, the host would sustain them. They don't particularly care about their offspring (Brock's symbiote didn't even mention it left behind what became Carnage). Makes them sort an element of random chaos in the universe. Like that bit during War of Kings where the Shi'ar slapped a symbiote on Raza of the Starjammers. You don't know where one might appear, or what purpose it might be used towards.

Maybe that's the Brood's purpose in the Marvel cosmology. Or maybe it's Adam Warlock's. Shows up, starts some shit, make headaches for everyone.

Now they sound like just another threat led by some powerful Mista Big out to subjugate everyone else. Whee.

* Just one more piece of evidence this is the darkest timeline.

** Despite not drinking, I think a lot about that Patton Oswalt routine about depressing alcohol ads. The one for Dewar's, Dewar's: At least one thing will go right today. Granted, I have that feeling about things sometimes. Soda, a run I go on, occasionally doughnuts.