Spider-Man: Kraven's Last Hunt - Deluxe Edition

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What [Kraven] plans to do is kill Spider-Man and then take his place - prove that he can be a better Spider-Man than Spider-Man. What he becomes, of course, is not Spider-Man, but what he perceives Spider-Man to be. In a sense, what Kraven becomes is something akin to Frank Miller's Dark Knight character. [...] One of the things about Peter Parker, with Spider-Man, is that he doesn't just put on a mask and become "the Spider-Man." He doesn't become transformed into this dark creature of the night. No matter what costume he has, no matter what he does, Peter Parker is always a very human, passionate, caring guy. Kraven doesn't know that. And that is the major difference here. [1] Another thing I found interesting is that the whole story is told though the reflections of Kraven, Vermin, Spider-man and Mary Jane. There isn´t much dialog between characters, these inner thoughts lead the whole thing and in general seem well written. The thoughts that MJ has when Peter goes missing show a lot of frustration I really liked that. Then, Mary Jane goes out looking for him, when she finds him, she realizes it`s not really him but someone disguised as him. I think this would`ve turned her insane, this could`ve been an interesting part of the story, about someone trying to be strong when the one she loves goes missing on his quest for justice. In “The Brothers Karamazov,” Dostoyevsky writes, “The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for.”

There’s a Kraven story (Kraven’s First Hunt) that basically retells the Lee/Ditko story with attractive, modern art and a focus on Kraven’s character. I enjoyed it. In the Atomic Mass Games product Marvel Crisis Protocol, the tactics card “ Fearful Symmetry“ appears as a Tactics card. The card allows the Kraven model to be replaced with a Spider-Man Peter Parker model if Kraven removes the Spider-man from play. This new Spider-man is controlled by the player that controlled Kraven previously.Kraven, a long-time Spidey villain, decides that he will hunt Spider-man as apparently Spider-man is the last creature he's been looking to defeat. But he also wants to prove that he’s a better Spider-man than Spider-man – for some reason. Enter Kraven, who has been obsessing over Spider-man lately and feels as a hunter Spider-man is the one that got away. Of all the creatures he has hunted Spider-man has always bested him. 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. It was a list featuring material from all Marvel universe and Kraven’s Last Hunt was surpassed only by Civil War and The Death of Gwen Stacy.

Hope Spot: A villainous example. When the spiders that Kraven has kept in a glass cage congregate to form a gigantic and monstrous spider, he initially believes that it is an hallucination induced by the drugs he has assumed and his own obsession with Spider-Man and he tries to fight it off. But he soon concludes that it is real and is dragged into the cluster of spiders, finally losing what little sanity that he still has. But what’s critical to the central ideas of “Last Hunt” is that while Spider-Man is thrown into one of his most disturbing challenges, he himself isn’t turned into a darker character. Instead, the temptation to turn a bright hero into a tortured protagonist is fulfilled through Kraven usurping the place of Spider-Man and taking over multiple comics in his attempt to prove himself better than his enemy. In doing so, Kraven lives out an obsession born from a fundamental misunderstanding of the hero while Peter Parker must cling to hope and love to survive his near-death ordeal. 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.Writer J. M. DeMatteis explained that the story was intended to explore Spider-Man's character and how others perceive him: An issue of Marvel's satire series What The--?! spoofed "Kraven's Last Hunt" as "Raven's Last Hunt." The spoof featured the character's animal likeness, Raven the Hunter, as well as that of Spider-Man, Spider-Ham. Amazing Spider-Man #289-294, Annual #20-21, Spider-Man Versus Wolverine, Web Of Spider-Man #29-32, Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #131-132 Richard Wenk revealed that Kraven the Hunter's proposed stand-alone film will draw inspirations from Kraven's Last Hunt, and that the film would include Spider-Man. [10]

The last one worth reading is “Hunting The Hunter,” which was surprisingly decent. It’s Kaine vs Kraven. It's also a love story. Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson are newlyweds. They are supposed to start their new life together, finally. Of course, any voted list or any published list will be polemic and questioned until Ragnarok, but still, it was clear that Kraven´s Last Hunt was something worthy to read and curiously enough I found a TPB on the local comic book store so I decided that it was time to meet this story.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.

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. It’s Peter’s love for Mary Jane Watson that compels him to rise from the grave and find the strength to defeat Vermin. In the end, this love is what soothes his grief and allows him to move forward from all this trauma. After the showdown with Kraven and Vermin, Kraven decides to take his own life, I like how that scene got portrayed, but there doesn´t seem to be a real explanation on how he found that peace.

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Buried Alive: Peter suffers this fate after Kraven drugs and defeats him. It takes him two weeks to wake up from his state and break out of the coffin. 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. Salicrup concludes, "The audience certainly has very strong feelings and emotional attachments to that character, perhaps now, more than ever. Many fans first read that story when they were eleven or twelve years old, and it obviously had a great impact on them. I'm still told by fans at comic conventions about how that story scared them when they were kids." Even I think that the story is a statement why the super-heroes are always able to win (and survive) in the comic book reality, since over there, the super-villains didn’t work or react like the real life criminals. In 1994, DC published DeMatteis' Batman/Joker version of the story as "Going Sane" in Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #65-68.