Comic Info
Comic Name: Web of Spider-Man (Volume 1)/Spectacular Spider-Man (Volume 1)/Amazing Spider-Man (Volume 1)
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: J.M. DeMatteis
Artist: Mike Zeck
# of Issues: 6
Release Date: 2008
Amazing Spider-Man (1) #293
Reprints Web of Spider-Man (1) #31-32, Amazing Spider-Man (1) #293-294, and Spectacular Spider-Man (1) #131-132 (October 1987-November 1987). Kraven the Hunter is back and this time he’s got a plan. After taking down Spider-Man and burying him alive, Kraven impersonates him. While the public questions why Spider-Man has suddenly turned violent, Spider-Man fights to free himself from his grave. Spider-Man and Kraven have faced off in the past, but this face off could mean only one man will walk away. Will Kraven succeed in hunt?
Written by J.M. DeMatteis, Amazing Spider-Man: Kraven’s Last Hunt was a multi-issue crossover series that connected Web of Spider-Man, Spectacular Spider-Man, and Amazing Spider-Man. The storyline has also sometimes been known as Fearful Symmetry, and features art by Mike Zeck. It was well received and was one of the last few Amazing Spider-Man issues before Todd McFarlane took over the title.
Kraven’s Last Hunt was one of those storylines that I had heard a lot about (I really started collecting seriously around the time it was published), but I had never tracked down. When I finally found a discount copy, I thought I would read it. I wish I had read it earlier since it is one of the better Spider-Man storylines.
Web of Spider-Man (1) #31
The story is smartly written and the art is fantastic. I really enjoy the black costume period of Spider-Man (before Venom appeared and ruined the black costume as a result). It was the ’80s, and darker comic characters were a theme. While Batman just altered his comic a bit, the black Spider-Man costume changed the normally light Spider-Man into someone who really could blend into the shadows.
The story is solid, but I will admit that it does get a bit sidetracked with the Vermin storyline that runs through the comic. What the story does for me is that it re-energizing a tired old character like Kraven. I always through Kraven was a bit of lame character, but this made him scary and more threatening that a Mutual of Omaha Wild Kingdom Marlin Perkins.
The story had a bit of a sequel in the graphic novel Spider-Man: Soul of the Hunter and early issues of the 1990s Todd McFarlane Spider-Man also dealt with the events of Kraven’s Last Hunt. A What If? issue (Volume 2 #17) questioned what if Kraven had just actually killed Spider-Man instead of tranquilizing him…and the comic was unceremoniously copied by Kevin Smith for his Guardian Devil storyline in Daredevil (yes, it is still copying even if you admit it was a copy).
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