"The Amazing Spider-Man: Kraven's Last Hunt" by Fred Schiller, Ken McDonald, James C. Owsley, Peter David, David Michelinie, Jim Shooter, and J.M. DeMatteis

 

            This following review is for the graphic novel “The Amazing Spider-Man: Kraven’s Last Hunt,” written by Fred Schiller, Ken McDonald, James C Owsley, Peter David, David Michelinie, Jim Shooter, and J.M. DeMatteis. This was featured in the Marvel Epic Collection presentation, so it featured the six-part crossover event, as well as several issues surrounding the event, which is why there were so many writers. This review will contain a few spoilers, so I hope I don’t detract from your interest in the book. This review will focus on each storyline individually and as a whole, so my usual scoring method will be slightly different for this book.

            The first story in this book was “Man of the Year.” This story was written in 1986, but featured elements from the future. Ironically, the future was 2015, and I am writing this in 2021, so for us, this is essentially an alternate past for us. Anyway, in 2015, Arno Stark had been chosen as “Man of the Year” for Time Magazine. Arno’s connection to Tony Stark was not explained in full detail, only that he had bought the company Stark Enterprises after Tony’s death, which also was not fully established, in case you wanted to know, which, unfortunately I cannot help you with. Arno has now taken up the mantle of Iron Man now. Arno had developed the “Planet Buster bomb,” which, obviously would cause a lot of damage if detonated, considering that it’s called the “Planet Buster.” It would kill a lot in detonation and cause more loss from the radioactive fallout. A terrorist named Robert Saunders broke into Arno’s lab and primed the “Planet Buster” and keyed the abort to his DNA, but Saunders was killed in an escape attempt. Arno had also been working on a time machine, so he decided to go to the past to take Saunders in to abort the explosion. Now, you’re obviously waiting on me to talk about how Spider-Man fits into all of this, which, honestly, I had been waiting on too as I read this. So, for those of you unfamiliar with Spider-Man, his real name is Peter Parker, he was bitten by a radioactive spider and now has adhesive fingertips and toes, enhanced strength and agility, a precognitive awareness of danger he calls “spider-sense” and he created web shooters which he can use to swing around and tie up bad guys. Anyway, Peter is hurting for money, and sells freelance photos of himself as Spidey to the newspaper, the Daily Bugle. His rent is overdue and the cashier of the Bugle is unavailable. Peter realizes he is being tailed by a little boy named Bobby Saunders, the son of a Bugle shareholder. So, yeah, you can probably guess who he’ll turn out to be, and Arno traveled back to 1986 for him. Spidey of course not knowing who Bobby will not grow up to be battles Arno as Iron Man to protect Bobby. The rest I shall not tell you and I hope I haven’t given away too much.

            The next story was “High Tide.” This featured a team-up/brawl between Spider-Man and the mutant X-Man known as Wolverine, who has a healing factor, a skeleton reinforced by the unbreakable metal adamantium, and three retractable claws in each hand. Wolverine’s friend from way back, Charlemagne, has been crossing off ex-KGB (this was written during the Cold War). “Charlie” is tracked to Berlin, and publisher of NOW Magazine, J. Jonah Jameson has sent Peter and reporter Ned Leeds to cover the story. Peter does not bring his costume with him as he is (once again) considering giving up being Spider-Man, but is drawn into the conflict when he finds Ned dead in his hotel room. That’s really all I can say without spoiling too much.

            The next story we shall call “Hobgoblin Revealed.” Peter had been dealing with a super villain called The Hobgoblin for a while now. Wilson Fisk (the Kingpin of Crime in New York City) calls Spidey in after a hit is carried out on the Hobgoblin and Fisk gives Spidey a file on the true identity of the Hobgoblin, but a thug formerly called Jack ‘O Lantern has now taken up the mantle of Hobgoblin.

            Next was what we shall dub “The Big Question.” Peter finally gathers up the courage to propose to Mary Jane Watson, his kind of ex-girlfriend, who, surprisingly says “no.” MJ then leaves for Philadelphia to see her sister, who, unbeknownst to MJ, is now in jail for stealing a priceless manuscript. It is now up to MJ to clear her name. Peter battles Alastair Smythe in New York, then follows MJ, but Smythe follows Spidey. After Smythe’s defeat, MJ realizes that she really loves Peter and accepts his proposal. I know, major spoiler.

            The next story is “The Wedding.” In this story, Peter and MJ are both having doubts about if they really want to go through with the wedding. I’m not going to spoil the will they/won’t they.

            Now, finally, “Kraven’s Last Hunt.” Longtime Spidey villain Kraven the Hunter resurfaces. Kraven severely drugs Spidey and then Kraven buries Spidey. Spidey is now half alive/half dead. Kraven then copies Spidey’s costume and assumes Spidey’s identity and of course besmirches Spidey’s integrity as a superhero. Peter now must attempt to defeat death. Meanwhile, the kind of super villain Vermin goes on a spree as the “cannibal killer.” Kraven now sets his sights on Vermin, preparing him for Spidey’s potential return. I’m stopping there and WILL NOT spoil the title.

            Okay, that’s all the stories in this graphic novel, so let’s do my scoring. Again, this is slightly different from most of my scorings as I’ve never reviewed this extensive a graphic novel. For those of you who DON’T know how I do a scoring, I first give my thoughts, then the accessibility of the book (how easy it is for non- or casual fans to pick up the book and understand the story), and finally, my numeric score. BUT! Considering there are multiple stories, I’m going to start with accessibility first for a change. If you have never had any experience with Spider-Man, this book is still easy enough to pick up and not get confused. This whole book is essentially self-contained and is a fair jump-on book. BUT! I do have a warning for casual fans. At this time, Spidey is wearing his black costume, it is not a symbiote, and it is not Venom like almost all of the other depictions. So if you know Spidey and you know the black costume, and you have never read a Spidey comic from 1984-1988, try to dissociate these two facts as they are NOT the same.

            Okay, now for my thoughts. For this instance, I’ll focus on everything one at a time and give a numeric score to each story, then I’ll review the book as a whole. For those of you who don’t know my scoring system, it’s on a one-to-ten scale, one being the worst, ten being the best.

            “Man of the Year”: Okay, this story did not satisfy me. I found it stale, and I think the timing of 1986/2015 having already passed had a major factor in this. So I give it a four.

            “High Tide”: This one totally interested me. I loved how Peter went to Berlin and had to buy a Spider-Man costume from a costume shop because he didn’t bring the black costume, and Ned’s death was just so shocking to me. I score it at an eight.

            “Hobgoblin Revealed”: Okay, I’ve got to say, I know there have been several Hobgoblins over the years, yet still this unmasking was still a sort of surprise to me. Numerically, I give it a seven.

            “The Big Question”: This totally moved me. MJ trying to clear her sister’s good name and standing up to her father and her realizing just how much she truly loved Peter showed her strength is an amazing way. I give it an eight.

            “The Wedding”: I’ll just give you my score: six.

            “Kraven’s Last Hunt”: I was totally surprised at the ending, but I felt the story was just too weak. Not much actually happened, and there was a lot of what I call wasted space. The dialogue was very limited, but the artwork was of good quality for comic book art at the time, and they say a picture is worth a thousand words, but a lot of these proverbial words were the same to me. While it is actually considered an outstanding story by fans, it just didn’t stand out to me. I’m sorry, but I give it a four.

            Now, for the book as a whole. I actually enjoyed the surrounding stories more than I liked the titular story. The last issue of “Kraven’s Last Hunt” in particular very much disappointed me, it was just too weak. To give it a final score as a whole, I unfortunately have to give it a five. Okay, I also have to say if I recommend it. I do not. My regulars know I am a very harsh scorer. If you are a true Spidey fan or a Kraven the Hunter fan, I can’t honestly predict how you would feel about the titular story. You may love it, you may like it, you may hate it. I won’t say I hated it, but the impact it had on me just wasn’t as strong as I had hoped. So, honestly, I can’t personally recommend it, but that’s just my opinion. If you want to read it, read it, see how you like it, but I just did not like it.

            Okay, that’ll do it for now. Keep an eye out for more content. I already have another book in my list I’m going to review coming up, and I think you might find another upcoming post to be rather interesting. I also have more of my B’ings complaint pieces and editorials planned, so if you like this post and you like my style, you should totally check out my other posts. So you can follow me on Twitter as well, tell your Marvel fans about me, leave comments (which has yet to be done in any of my posts), tell me about what you want to see on this blog and I’ll try to accommodate your suggestions as soon as I can, and till next time, Tim Cubbin… out!