In 2018, after the success of the Into the Spider-Verse film, folks online were creating their own personal “Spider-sonas,” as in, their persona if they were Spider-Men and Women. So I thought I’d join in on the fun with a quick character design.
I thought it would be best to draw upon the original Steve Ditko Spidey costume design, and modify that. The pose is inspired by the cover to Secret Wars #8 from 1986, the first appearance of Spidey’s black costume and the Venom symbiote. I used the black & purple with white trim look that I gave Hawk’s various outfits over in Hawk & Croc, with just a touch of the black costume from the third Tobey McGuire Spider-Man movie.
As for the name, I wanted something along the lines of “Venom,” but “Toxin,” “Poison,” and “Phage,” were already in use by other various Spider-Man villains. I looked up synonyms, and came across “Contagion,” and thought that would be cool codename, in the moment.
Of course, after the COVID-19 pandemic, I really need to reconsider “Contagion” as a name.
Sometimes, things seem like a good idea at the time, and you can get caught up in the moment. But then something else comes up and you may have to re-evaluate your previous choices. Learning from new experiences is how we grow into better people. And as we become better people, we can make the world better with us.