See there you go. Then why does Knull? Freaken Cates man… lol
The Knull logo is a dragon not a spider. From Marvel Fandom which references Venom 4…
“After forging All-Black, Knull created a suit of symbiote-armor from the Living Abyss. The armor was originally solid black, but after he founded the Symbiote Imperium he emblazoned its chest and back with a red dragon emblem.”
I agree. Expected something more storyline driven since they waited to release the art.
Toxin doesn’t have a spider symbol
It looks like Venom’s logo. The only difference is they added a tail at the end. “Come on Marvel really?”
Mania is the only other one I can think of with a spider like symbol.
Also I’d say the looks are sort of left up to the artist in these cases… Cates might have some say or input if he put in his script but I think most of this interpretation is left to the artists.
As far as Cates is concerned, I was referencing his out of canon writing style. My post was poorly worded to make my point. While Knull may not have a Spider logo on his chest, Cates does consistently writes outside of the established lines, so to speak, to conveniently fit what is needed for his story. Ask Alana all about it. 
We have discussed this Cates topic at length in another thread, so I don’t want to highjack this one to talk about Cates’ writing style. All good, my friend. 
That is a great question. I’d be curious to know how much input the writer has, if any, into the designs of the characters they create fir their stories. I’m going to ask comic writers that very question whenever I see them from now on.
1 Like
It was always my understanding that it’s a case by case basis. You don’t hear so much of it these days, but for a lot of classic characters you’d hear some designs attributed to the artist, some the writer, some both.
I’d assume these days it’s probably writer gives the framework description to the artist. Depending on how important the new character may be I’d assume the artist may go back to the writer with their product and then tweak it from there.
All really an assumption though.
I agree 100%. He definitely does and has rubbed some old timers the wrong way because of it. But I do think that criticism can be a little unfair (At times) as writers have been changing established continuity for years. It would be near impossible to write a character that has been around for 10-20-30-70 years without contradicting something that was written previously. At the end of the day the writer needs to write an entertaining story and appears the way he sells books he’s doing that. I think his personality and the ways he always out there rubs a lot of people the wrong way. He seems to want, and get, a lot of credit which in turn also brings a lot of criticism along with it.
Agreed… and it’s all “fiction” anyways… either enjoy the current story or not… It’s like Dan Slott, I don’t focus on all the absurdities, contradictions or whatever he did or might of done to Spider-Man, I just think his writing sucks overall, so I simply stopped reading him.
1 Like
The story has to be written within the established rules otherwise there is nothing to create tension, because anything is possible at any time. Not writing within the established rules is just lazy. But, this is moot as we have already had this discussion. But Cates won’t even write within his own established rules. In Absolute Carnage it was first hinted that all the ‘codeces’ must be collected in order to free ‘Knull’. Then as the story progressed it was established that you don’t need all the codeces, but just the ones that fit the story, and that some codeces were more ‘important’ than others. He literally made it up as the story needed. The whole codex thing was poorly planned and poorly executed. Cates’ stories may be fun to read, but it is lazy, lazy writing that when examined closely, does not really make sense. I found it a chore to read Cates’ stuff. To each their own though.
Are there rules when it’s all make belief? Let’s be honest, where are these established rules? You know, someone over there at Marvel likes this Donny Cates cause he sells books… so I don’t think they care that much about “established rules”… 
Also, remember… comics have people who can fly and shoot lasers out of their eyes… so, I have a hard time defending rules within a fake make belief story and universe… 
1 Like
It does not need to be defended, but, every good franchise/world/story has established rules. These rules, fir comic book purposes, is essentially the canon of said universe/world. The rules are created by the writers in order for the writers to have something to write around. The rules should drive/limit the characters decision making, and the characters decision making should drive the story. It allows the writer to build tension in the world he is writing in by setting ‘limits’ within the readers view of the world. The limits allow consequences for the characters decision making. If there are no consequences for the characters decision making, then it makes it difficult for the reader to care about the decisions made by the characters that drive the story. When those rules are broken, it makes for a poor story with no tension or drama. You can find many examples of this in the recent Star Wars trilogy. Those films, especially the last one, coloured way outside of the lines that Lucas established for his Universe and as a result, they were snore fest, crappy movies (one among many reasons, imo).
I think your over thinking it… Just comics… Just made up fictional stories…
I was going to go into this scenario where the artists and writers shouldn’t obey any rules, not even gender (think Thanos suddenly has boobs and hips next story arc), just to prove the point rules are necessary . But then thought about it and if the fans don’t like what they’re doing, don’t buy their product and leave it at,that.
Yes… We need a Lady Thanos… Submit your idea to Marvel now @D-Rog or I’m stealing it and submitting it. 
That would be Gamora or Nebula