In doing so, he was able to psychologically torture his hero and add a level of depth to a villain who had never benefitted from such exploration. So what makes 'Kraven's Last Hunt' so great? Why has it been able to stand the test of time as one of Spider-Man's best tales? Salicrup has a thought. Breaking Ultimate Universe News at New York Comic Con! Children of the Vault! | CBH Live! October 20, 2023 I don’t know if you use to read the introduction on the TPB’s editions. I do it and not always they are something any of value, but if you ever decide to read this story and you get this same edition, please, read the introduction. Spyder! Spyder! Burning bright, in the forests of the night, what immortal hand or eye, could frame thy fearful… symmetry?

Kraven dons the costume of Spider-man and becomes a violent sociopathic version of our web crawler, trying to deal with his own psychosis. Uno de los grandes títulos de Spiderman, y de esos el más oscuro sin duda. Partiendo de una historia que en inicio estaba escrita para Batman y que por entonces no interesó a DC, tenemos aquí a un personaje, Kraven, que siempre ha estado en la lista de villanos menores del trepamuros. Kraven decide restaurar el honor que cree haber perdido venciendo a su rival imbatible y poniéndose luego en su lugar para demostrar que puede ser mejor que Spiderman. To prove his final point of superiority, Kraven releases Vermin and goads him to battle Spider-Man. Vermin defeats Spider-Man, but Kraven intervenes before Vermin can kill him. Kraven allows Vermin to go free, and tells Spider-Man he can pursue Vermin if he desires, but that Kraven's hunting days have ended. This story is very well narrated, and although our favorite neighbor does not appear physically much, he is always present in the story. Iconic is the image of Peter rising from the grave in the middle of a storm, as is the end of the story. Peter: That's what it's all about, isn't it? Yesterday, Ned Leeds, today, Joe Face. Tomorrow... Aunt May? Mary Jane? Me? Funny. I'm out there facing death every day as Spider-Man — But I never really think about it. Guess I don't let myself. Yet so many people I love have died before their time: Uncle Ben, Captain Stacy, Gwen — now Ned... do I think I'm somehow immune? I'm going to die. But not yet.Superior Successor: Kraven defeats Spidey, then takes up his costume, going out to vanquish Vermin, which all three men point out required Captain America's help the last time Vermin was fought. This is Kraven's big goal before he allows himself to die — proving that he could be a better Spidey than Spider-Man. He of course misses the point: there is no Spider-Man. Only Peter Parker, as The Hunter realizes that Spider-Man's humanity and compassion is what defines him and gives him purpose, which Kravinoff himself doesn't have. I have slain the Spider. Become him. I have hunted as the Spider hunts... consumed the Spider's prey. I have proven myself his superior in every way." And as both Kraven and Spider-Man slip into hallucinations, their fears manifest into physical representations. Is this all in their heads? Or is there something supernatural at play? The creative team leaves just enough room for interpretation to let Kraven’s madness seep into and influence the real world. But it’s their panel layouts and pacing that turn the story into a hypnotic fever dream. Kraven's Last Hunt actually holds up fairly well. The art is better than most of the art from the time period and the writing is actually some of the best Marvel had in the 1980's. Kraven has his finest hour and then Spider-Man has one of his. There are a couple moments in this storyline that remind me of Spider-Man lifting that giant hunk of machinery off of himself during the Ditko run. It shows what Spider-Man is all about. For Kraven, defeating Spider-Man and proving that he was worthy of taking the mantle of a great, mythic beast was the last reason to live. After years of mental anguish and with his last, madness-propelled desire attained, Kraven takes his own life.

At the beginning Spider-Man visits the wake for Joe Face, a snitch he had sometimes had pumped for information, leaving some money to help pay for the funeral. This starts him on reflecting his own mortality. The story was originally intended to run entirely in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man, but editor Jim Salicrup decided to publish it as a crossover through all three Spider-Man titles, arguing that the impact of Spider-Man being killed would be lost if there were other Spider-Man stories running at the same time. [2] While working on the story, DeMatteis commented, "I'm not looking beyond those six issues. The storyline really does not enter too heavily into the continuity of the other books. In fact, I almost think you could take these issues and put them on their own as a mini-series or graphic novel." [1] Kraven the Hunter has stalked and killed every animal known and only one has ever escaped him. The enhanced superhero known as Spider-Man. This is something that Kraven's pride cannot deal with and he launches his greatest quest yet, to hunt and kill the Spider-Man. He hunts the webslinger down and shoots him with a tranquilizer. Kraven then buries Spider-Man alive. But this is not enough to quench Kraven's thirst. The Hunter then dons the web-slinger's costume and roams the streets as Spider-Man, brutally beating criminals with a violent frenzy that the Spider-Man would never do. Kraven goes after Vermin, a cannibal murderer that Spider-Man needed Captain America's help to defeat. Kraven captures Vermin, proving to himself that he is a better hero than Spider-Man ever was. In the mid-1980s, John Marc DeMatteis proposed a Wonder Man limited series involving Wonder Man's half-brother, the Grim Reaper, in which Wonder Man is buried and ultimately crawls out of the grave. Tom DeFalco turned down the proposal. [1] Years later, DeMatteis reworked the scene of a hero coming out of the grave into a Batman story exploring what would happen if the Joker actually killed Batman. According to DeMatteis, it would effectively turn the Joker "sane". When DeMatteis pitched the story to DC, however, it was rejected because it happened to be somewhat similar to Batman: The Killing Joke, another Batman story that was in development at the time. [2] DeMatteis then reworked the story to use Hugo Strange in place of the Joker, but this, too, was rejected. [3] Finally, DeMatteis pitched the idea again to Marvel, this time with Spider-Man and a new villain he came up with specifically for the story. Marvel editorial accepted the revised proposal. [2]From its start, we see that Kraven views “The Spyder” as a mystical force greater than a mere human and something he can claim for himself by slaying his enemy and symbolically wearing his skin. To become “The Spyder,” Kraven destroys the last remnants of his sanity through some venomous brew of drugs. But in the first of these six issues, DeMatteis also puts us in the mind of Spider-Man, where we see that our hero is first and foremost the human and compassionate Peter Parker and that the dark figure criminals fear is only a mask.