Is there an argument that God created the universe that does not require a special pleading?

The most common argument for creation is that all things must have a creator and so there must be a creator for something as complex as the universe including life on Earth. Who or what created the creator? Presumably, a God who could create this must be far more complex than humans. How could something that complex come into existence without a creator but the universe could not? The only answer I can see to this question is the special pleading that the rule of all things needing a creator doesn't apply to God.