Long before the symbiote god Knull threatened the Marvel Universe as the King in Black, Spider-Woman’s costume may have heralded his arrival.
The all-powerful Elder God, Knull, has become incredibly important to the Marvel Universe in a relatively short amount of time. Since his first appearance in Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman’s Venom #3 in 2018, the creator and god of the symbiotes has emerged as a huge presence in Marvel history with huge implications for characters like Spider-Man, Spider-Woman, and Venom. Knull is absolutely terrifying, and the dragon-like symbol on his chest is very reminiscent of the iconic spider-symbol that adorns characters like Venom and Spider-Man’s black symbiote costume.
But in retrospect, another Marvel hero, Jessica Carpenter’s Spider-Woman, sported a look inspired Knull’s symbol before either of those heroes, which suggests that the conspiracy to bring Knull to Earth has been going on far longer than anyone realizes.
Over the past several months, Venom has explored the origin story of the spider logo on Venom’s chest and its relation to the similar symbol worn by Knull. Last year, fans speculated that the symbol was created when the Venom symbiote first bonded with Peter Parker, who unconsciously morphed Knull’s dragon symbol and Peter’s spider symbol together to create the slightly different white spider that’s defined his and Venom’s black costumes. That theory which was then confirmed by Donny Cates himself via Twitter.
While that origin brings Kull into the long-standing story of Spider-Man, it does raise a few questions and requires a retcon of the original canon. Back when Spider-Man first bonded with Venom in 1984’s Secret Wars, Venom and Peter shared a consciousness in the same way that Venom and Eddie Brock do. At the time, it was thought that Peter subconsciously created the white spider symbol after seeing the costume of Julia Carpenter’s Spider-Woman’s costume. Carpenter, who had just debuted and introduced herself to Marvel’s heroes in Jim Shooter and Mike Zeck’s Secret Wars #6, wore a black suit with long white boots, gloves, and a large white spider stretching over her chest around her sides.
Julia was brought in by a secretive government agency called The Commission who wanted to transform her into their own superhero. She was unknowingly brought recruited under the guise of being part of an athletic study, in which she was “accidentally” injected with a mix of spider venom and plant extract giving her powers similar to Spider-Man. As detailed in Ro Thomas, Dann Thomas, John Czop, and Fred Fredericks’ Spider-Woman #2 in 1993, she was given her costume by an unseen member of the Commission, along with her Spider-Woman codename.