What is Gorr the God Butcher’s Necrosword and how does it work?

One of the most exciting things about the newest movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor: Love and Thunder is the introduction of one of the greatest Thor villains of all time. Christian Bale will be playing Gorr the God Butcher, a being who has a vendetta against every God in the Marvel universe, and who won’t rest until they are all wiped out.

Gorr was not always a God-killing psychopath, it took his family dying of famine for his belief in the Gods to lapse. That is until he saw some Gods fighting in the sky. Enraged by the knowledge that Gods did exist but they did nothing to save his family, Gorr took one of their discarded swords, called the Necrosword, and used it to slaughter the Gods. But what is this weapon of Gorr’s and how is it so powerful?

What is the Necrosword?

The God to whom the Necrosword originally belonged was also its creator, Knull, God of the Void. Knull was the God of darkness in the Marvel comic books and he was created by Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman, first appearing in Venom Vol. 4 #3. Knull was the creator of the symbiotes, including Venom. The Necrosword, whose true name is All-Black, is a symbiote itself. 

The Necrosword was retroactively attributed to Knull, but it doesn’t mean that the sword’s backstory makes less sense. It does mean that the Necrosword was created in 2013, before Knull, and it was created by Jason Aaron and Esad Ribić, first appearing in Thor: God of Thunder #2. When the Necrosword bonded to Gorr it powered him with immortality and a score of other abilities, mostly ones that Knull possessed, effectively turning Gorr into a God. This was possible because the Necrosword fed off of the energy of a slain God.

In the comics, the All-Black was one of the most powerful weapons in the Marvel Universe. Gorr even used the weapon to create a God-bomb, a bomb powerful enough to wipe out the Gods. Because the weapon was a symbiote it responded directly to Knull and actually bonded to a few different beings in the Marvel universe, including Galactus and Loki. The weapon was created to kill Celestials, so Gorr had no problem using the Necrosword to kill Gods. 

With Sony still owning the Spider-Man side of Marvel’s universe, it’s unlikely that the MCU will stick to the origins of All-Black as Knull created the symbiotes and was the major villain of a recent Venom-led event in the comics. Hopefully, the Necrosword is somehow referenced back to the symbiotes, even if it’s a vague passing reference of the sword coming from an alien world.

Gorr the God Butcher will debut in Thor: Love and Thunder and we’ll see how many Gods he manages to kill with the Necrosword. Hopefully, the MCU version sticks somewhat close to how the Necrosword worked, even if they do not touch on its symbiotic origins. 

Find out more about the MCU’s Necrosword when Thor: Love and Thunder thunders into theatres on July 8, 2022.