Kraven's Last Hunt

Kraven's Last Hunt

Web of Spider-Man #31-32, Amazing Spider-Man #293-294, Spectacular Spider-Man #131-132

Originally released in 1987

Written by J.M. DeMatteis

Art by Mike Zeck

Going through Venom's first appearance got me wanting to read more stories from that era; Kraven's Last Hunt is a pretty significant Spider-Man story, and one that I hadn't read before, so it seemed like a good fit.

Kraven is going through something of a midlife crisis, feeling like he's going to die soon and wanting to do something with his life.  "Something" involves murdering Spider-Man and covering himself in spiders before eating them.

As Kraven rapidly loses his mind, the perspective switches between four characters - aside from Peter and Kraven, we also get the points of view of Mary Jane (who's newly married to Peter and worrying because he hasn't come home) and Vermin. Vermin is an almost feral villain who lives in New York's sewers and is terrified of Spider-Man and spiders in general.

By the end of the first issue, Kraven has tracked Spider-Man down, tranquilized him with a rifle (despite him generally avoiding guns), and buried him alive.  Kraven has become so obsessed with surpassing Spider-Man that he's taken to wearing a copy of Peter's black suit and thinking that he needs to become the Spider.

Kraven's thoughts are erratic and contradictory, jumping all over the place.  He alternates between viewing his father as a man of honour and seeing him as pathetic, while he reflects on how his mother went insane.

Kraven roams the city, assaulting thugs in a twisted attempt to prove that he's surpassed Spider-Man. It takes Mary Jane a few moments to figure out that it's someone else under the mask, but as far as the city knows, Spider-Man's gone berserk, and Mary Jane can't risk telling anyone what she knows.

To my surprise, Spider-Man remains buried alive for two weeks while Kraven poses as him, which was much longer than I expected.  Kraven drugged him to simulate a state of death, which seemingly resulted in him not needing food or air either.

In order to prove, once and for all, that he's superior to Spider-Man, Kraven tracks down Vermin and assaults him. Vermin had previously been beaten by Spider-Man and Captain America working together, as neither one could beat him on their own, making him the perfect target in Kraven's eyes.

Once he's broken free, we get a touching moment between Peter and Mary Jane where Peter returns home.  His thoughts of her, and his desire to stay alive and return to her, are what kept him going once he regained consciousness, and the art clearly shows how much the two of them love and missed each other.

After the newlyweds have been reunited, Spider-Man tracks down Kraven, leading to the climactic final showdown.

Kraven has caged up Vermin, unleashing him on Spider-Man to prove that the wall-crawler couldn't defeat Vermin even though Kraven could.  Once he's satisfied, he allows Vermin to escape into the city and lets Spider-Man give chase, vowing that he will never hunt again.

Reflecting on how his mother was said to be insane, Kraven grabs his rifle and shoots himself, as his perceived victory seemingly leaves him with nothing left to live for.  It's a chilling climax, and it's hard to believe that this is the same J.M. DeMatteis that wrote Justice League International.

The battle with Vermin is more of a winding-down after that, despite Vermin being a cannibalistic murderer and rat-man.  Peter has to struggle with his own fears and rage to see that deep down, Vermin is someone who's a human and in need of help. This story started out with Peter attending the funeral of a minor thug while in costume, so it makes for a nice bookend showcasing Peter's kindness and optimism.

I can see why this story is so highly regarded.  In addition to highlighting Peter's kindness and Mary Jane's realistic concern over Peter's lifestyle, it takes a less major or less explored Spider-Man villain and puts him down a path of obsession and madness, slowly losing his mind as Spider-Man goes from a man in a costume to prey for him to hunt to the physical embodiment of his country's downfall.  It's unclear what, if anything, caused Kraven's madness - at first, I thought that he was diagnosed with cancer or another fatal disease and wanted to go out on his own terms - but it's never clear, which makes it that much scarier.  I thought this was an excellent story, and it has me wanting to look into more of J.M. DeMatteis's work, as I wasn't aware that he wrote this story and I'd like to see other stories that explore his range.