Boxing Comics: Kraven's Last Hunt
April 5, 2007 13:16
Introduction
"Spyder, Spyder, burning bright,
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?"
As May 4th and the release of "Spider-Man 3" looms ever closer, we're going to see more and more of the cinematic black costume as the marketing ramps up. We're already experiencing this phenomenon in the comics themselves as Peter Parker finds himself donning the dark threads in response to the end of Civil War, Captain America's death, and Aunt May being shot by a bullet meant for Peter. It got me thinking about all the black costume stories over the years, and the one that stood out to me was a story that wasn't so much about the costume itself, but one where the black costume certainly fills a key visual role. The story I'm referring to is commonly referred to as "Kraven's Last Hunt" or sometimes "Fearful Symmetry" that appeared in WEB OF SPIDER-MAN #31 and #32, AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #293 and #294, and PETER PARKER THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #131 and #132 by J.M. DeMatteis and Mike Zeck.
This story takes place after Reed Richards stripped the alien symbiote from Spider-Man, but he's still wearing his homemade version of the black costume. The symbiote is either still stuck at Reed Richard's lab or currently loose in the city, I don't remember which. It's important to note, however, that AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #293 is part 2 of "Kraven's Last Hunt" and AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #298 features the first appearance, however brief, of Venom. There was something inherently scary and adult about this six part arc right off the bat when it became clear that Kraven the Hunter, a second-rate Spider-Man villain and member of the Sinister Six, had gone completely insane. Even Spider-Man saw that something was off when Kraven captured him early in the story. Instead of breaking into a long monologue Kraven detailing his nefarious plans, Kraven just raised his rifle and shot Spider-Man, presumably, dead. It was the kind of thing that Kraven never did before, but this story told so much from his perspective outlined his frustrations with being beaten by Spider-Man time and time again. Kraven's plan was to catch Spider-Man, proving that he is a superior hunter, bury him alive, and then tarnish Spider-Man's name by wearing the black costume and committing violent crimes. Specifically, Kraven targets another lesser known villain named Vermin who Spider-Man needed help to defeat. He figured if he could defeat Vermin alone, that would prove that he was better than Spider-Man in every way. For a simple villain like Kraven the Hunter, this plan is alarmingly elaborate, deeply personal, and surprisingly effective.
This story is about twenty years old so I don't feel bad about revealing the ending, but after Kraven successfully completed his plan, he felt that he had nothing left to prove and killed himself. It was such a shocking ending. Spider-Man was "killed", forced to dig himself out of his own grave, tasked with clearing his name, and just when he's about to reach some closure with Kraven over the whole fiasco, Kraven commits suicide. He was utterly and completely beaten in every aspect throughout the story. This is not how Marvel usually treats their top tier characters, and it's a shame that is the case because seeing a character go through this kind of abuse and come out on the other side changed is what makes good drama. Through the years, other writers have returned to this story as the one thing (other than the death of Uncle Ben of course) that continues to haunt Peter. When then "it" artist Todd McFarlane was given the reins to his own Spider-Man book, his initial arc titled "Torment" dealt specifically with the events of "Kraven's Last Hunt". This incident forced Spider-Man to raise his game a little, and he would never again underestimate a villain. The original Kraven the Hunter from this story remains dead to this day, and that's saying something in an industry where death and resurrection are treated as casually as the setting sun. If you've never read it, you should pick up the trade. It's one of the best Spider-Man stories around, and an excellent example of a dark, adult story done well in comics.
Here are my picks from this week.
- Dark Horse
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- Buffy the Vampire Slayer #2 - Giles, big Slayer melee, Amy attacks, and some Star Wars jokes.
- DC
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- Justice League of America #7 - The new JLA roster gets finalized.
- Marvel
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- Avengers: The Initiative #1 - A bunch of nobodies get bossed around by a bunch of C-listers.
- The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born #3 - I hate to say it, but we're still in awfully familiar territory here.
- Fallen Son - The Death of Captain America: Wolverine - Wolverine doesn't believe Cap is dead. Hey, Logan, neither does anyone else in the world. This has a nice Michael Turner cover, though.
- Ghost Rider: Trail of Tears #3 - Could Clayton Crain please do the art for all the comics in the world?
- The Immortal Iron Fist #4 - It's a buddy cop romp with Iron Fist partnered with Iron Fist. Brubaker and Fraction never let me down.
- Marvel Zombies vs Army of Darkness #2 - Ash tours more of the Marvel Zombies world, and this time with the Punisher. And is that Zombie Black Widow stuffing a poodle into her zombie mouth head first?
- Omega Flight #1 - It's the successor to Alpha Flight since they all got owned by that guy who absorbed all the lost mutant power from House of M. I'm kind of hating the art in this so far.
- Runaways #25 - It's Whedon's first Runaways, and it feels a little like Buffy just like Astonishing X-Men did at first. This art may take some getting used to as well.
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