Who is Kraven the Hunter and why should we care?

If Sony’s strange “film universe” encompasses that Spider-Man It owned the rights to characters were not Spider-Man first started a few years ago, it felt like it was already halfway to the bottom of the barrel. Venom, to be sure: the character had a high level of recognition, a distinctive visual design and, against all odds, the absolute commitment of a first-rate actor working to bring it all to life. But if your second offer is Jared Leto’s Morbiusand then follow along with him Madam WebThey don’t exactly distance themselves from the claims that an entire multi-billion dollar franchise project is little more than an exercise in ridiculous futility. Enter Kraven, the hunter.

The Russian big game hunter, played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, has always been something of a contradiction for fans Spider-Man Comics. On the one hand, the lion-clad Kraven only manages to do so by not being the most ridiculously dressed member of Spidey’s rogues gallery very Competitive anti-fashion show – I’m looking at you, Shocker. And Mystery. And… you see, it’s a long series of tragic costume choices from the start. On the other hand, they were Kraven’s big, signature storylines So It’s impressive that he managed the near-impossible task of staying dead for more than 20 years in the Marvel Comics universe, because no one had the courage to try to reverse his time-defining death. For a guy whose entire character is built from Stan Lee and Steve Ditko taking cues from old “man chasing a man” fonts For a comic from 1964, this is a really impressive series.

Here is a brief explanation of the life and times of Sergei Nikolaevich Kravinoff – the man, the myth, the magical killing curses and unexpected squirrel friendships – in the hope of explaining why The It might actually be worth making an entire movie about the owner of a special novelty vest and bringing you up to speed on his story before you watch the movie.

The most dangerous game

Kraven’s real-life origins aren’t difficult to understand: it takes about a page to portray the man as a world-famous hunter stepping out of a boat The Amazing Spider-Man #15 to name Richard Connell’s classic short story “The Most Dangerous Game.” Like his literary compatriot General Zaroff, the jaded Kraven believes that only man can provide him with the hunting challenges he seeks – and if that man is overpowered, all the better. By giving Spider-Man an antagonist who is actively interested in hunting him (rather than just executing the usual mix of scientific disasters and robbery schemes that their hero can get involved in), Lee and Ditko deliberately bring Peter Parker into the fold Position where it works best: On the back foot. Because one constant about Kraven over his 60 years of existence is that, despite his eclectic selection of sleeveless tops, he has always posed a credible threat. Sergei’s advantages on the field are numerous: Magical herbs that give him enough strength so that Spidey doesn’t accidentally cut off his head in the first fight. Enough resources to bring all kinds of nets, equipment, poison arrows, etc. in his regular attacks. A number of allies, most notably his persistent enemy/half-brother/henchman The Chameleon (who actually predated him as a Spider-Man villain before being incorporated into his mythos). But it’s his hunting instincts and the challenge they present that make Peter’s spider-sense – that quasi-mystical ability to detect threats before they strike – what define Kraven dangerous. Many comics have portrayed Spider-Man as the New York underworld’s greatest predator, plucking madmen from the shadows and tying them to lampposts with ease; Kraven stories inevitably reconfigure the wall-crawler as prey.

Despite all this, for the first two decades of his existence, Kraven was just one of Spider-Man’s villains, fighting him either alone or as a member of the Sinister Six. He certainly made life difficult for the web-slinger by forcing Peter to run away and avoid snares and traps. But it’s part of the central conceit of Spider-Man The everyone Supervillain is just another nuisance in the endless hustle and bustle of young adulthood. It wasn’t until 1987 that the character stopped just throwing punches and actually threw one Effects.

Kraven’s Last Hunt

There’s a certain irony in the fact that the most famous story of Kraven the Hunter wasn’t written for the character at all; According to his own statements, JM DeMatteis pitched both Marvel films And DC has been coming up with stories about a superhero who literally crawled out of the grave for years Spider-ManThe editors finally bit. The plan was to use an original villain for the atmospheric, murderous piece, until DeMatteis realized that Kraven was a perfect fit for the dark melodrama he had envisioned. The actual plot details of “Kraven’s Last Hunt” – that was so big that it took up all three seasons Spider-Man comics when they came out in 1987 – inevitably get stuck in the details of the comics of that era. (Cannibal supervillain Vermin, now remembered for this and pretty much nothing else, plays a prominent role.) But the basic beats are pure opera: Kraven decides he’s getting too old to jump around on rooftops any longer, and decides to defeat Spider-Man once for all by forgoing his usual bare-handed approach and shooting Peter with a gun. (Readers were led to believe that the web-slinger was dead, and it’s possible that some of the bigger jerks in the audience even believed that.)

Kraven slips into Spidey’s costume and demonstrates his take on a superior version of Spider-Man, beating, brutalizing and even killing New York’s lesser villains. When a calmed Peter drags himself from his own grave two weeks later – thank you, magical super tranquilizers! – Kraven kicks his ass again, writes a suicide note exonerating Spider-Man for the murders, and then fatally shoots himself. A little nihilistic and maybe even a little silly, but it was a victory of sorts – one so powerful that Marvel kept the character dead for the next 22 years. (Apart from the odd ghost story or resurrected corpse; they were still comics, after all.)

Modern Kraven

But in comics, no one stays dead forever (at least as long as there’s profit to be made), and so Kraven inevitably survived his own final hunt. The resurrection occurred in 2009 and depended on intricate magical shenanigans involving Kraven’s family, his numerous children, and his general survival-of-the-fittest attitude. (Few comic book characters we’re supposed to find even remotely sympathetic have killed more of their own offspring than this guy.) He’s actually dead again As far as we know, at the moment he was trying to carry out a downright ridiculous plan that involved cloning himself almost 100 times and having all the clones fight each other to see which one was the best. (Pro tip: When the words “Spider-Man” and “clone” appear in the same sentence, smart nerds make themselves scarce.) Interestingly, though, the best comic issues have been about Kraven since his resurrection were not in Spider-Man books or even those aimed exclusively at adults: instead, it was a charmingly silly all-ages comic centered around one of Marvel’s most popular and least likely heroes.

Kraven The Hunter appears in the first issue of 2015 The unbeatable squirrel girl actually makes a certain amount of sense, at least if you’re already attuned to Ryan North’s hilarious, smart and surprisingly heartfelt comic. After all, Squirrel Girl – real name Doreen Green, originally one Iron Man The joke character who has taken on larger-than-life importance in the past few decades – based on animals, Kravens on animals, why wouldn’t the two cross paths? But his portrayal in the series also demonstrates an underlying reverence that has always lurked at the roots of the character’s “love of the hunt,” a sense of fairness that, at least on the surface, permeates many of his Spider-Man fights. (And that will probably go a long way toward making the Aaron Taylor-Johnson version at least superficially likeable to moviegoers.) Kraven, after all, doesn’t fight to kill or steal: He hunts Spider-Man because he believes he does he is the biggest target on the planet. It reflects the values ​​of North’s comic that, after they get into an inevitable fight, Doreen defeats her opponent not through violence or a clever squirrel attack, but by convincing him that there are even better opportunities to hunt – possibly huge ones through chases Underwater monsters like octopuses or other deadly animals. Ultimately, some broader Marvel silliness got in the way – see above about Clone Boy Fight Club – but in the end North took advantage of the character’s repeated appearances Unbeatable squirrel girl to tell a truly moving story about change, as Doreen’s faith in him helps Sergei be a little less murderous and a little more on the side of the angels. This lurking potential for good was at the core of many of Spider-Man’s villains and was usually used to tragic effect. It was really cute to see it translated into a comic for younger readers.

On the hunt

Which brings us back to this week and the blood-soaked arrival of an R-rated film Kraven the Hunter in theaters. Trailers for the film suggest that some biographical details have been moved around: the film’s character’s biggest familial conflict is with his father (Russell Crowe), who was largely unimportant in the comics, while his powers now appear to come from lion’s blood. (Although his girlfriend Calypso, who provided some of his improvements in the comics, is played by Ariana DeBose in the film.) There’s also no Spider-Man to hunt, which feels like a pretty big gap for a character feels that needs to be overcome. All of the original basic motivations are linked to the hero. (Instead, the motivation is now largely based on revenge, which suggests how brutally violent the film is intended to be.) However, the basic concept of the character – a guy so good at hunting that it’s practically a superpower – clearly remains preserved, even if director JC Chandor appears to be taking a more down-to-earth but confident approach to the film. For 60 years, Sergei Kravinoff has had a core of something compelling, even noble, that goes beyond even the basic characteristics of a colorful supervillain; It remains to be seen whether Taylor-Johnson’s performance and Chandor’s film can bring these elements to the surface or simply drown them in waves of cartoonish blood.