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Insomniac Games developed a thrilling superhero adventure in Marvel’s Spider-Man and the continuation in Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, where we saw our favorite web-slingers take down a plethora of iconic villains. Now in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Peter Parker and Miles Morales need to team up to avoid being captured by Kraven the Hunter.
Although Kraven never interacted with Morales in the comics, he and Parker have had a bloody history. Kraven’s desire to best Spider-Man quickly evolved into an infatuation, and then finally, a crazed obsession that drove him mad. The two share a unique dynamic among Spidey's adversaries.
A Hunter Is Born
Sergei Kravinoff was born in Volgograd, Russia in 1917, during the Russian Revolution. Kravinoff’s family was part of the autocracy that the Russian citizens tore down in favor of the Soviet Union, and they fled to the United States.
When he got older, Kravinoff journeyed to Africa where he discovered his true talent: hunting. He fought against several ferocious beasts in the wild, and he transformed into one of the world’s greatest hunters. From that point on, he was known only as Kraven the Hunter.
Kraven was unlike any other hunters before him. Kraven believed using weapons like guns was considered cheating, and did not truly prove how worthy of a hunter you are. Instead, Kraven trained himself to subdue his prey with his bare hands.
Kraven develop the skills required to accomplish this feat by drinking potions from a witch doctor named Calypso. She gave him herbal potions that enhanced his physical stature, drastically improving his strength and speed to equal that of the wild animals he’d encountered. As a bonus, the potion slowed his aging and extended his natural life for several years.
Hunting Spider-Man
After conquering all manner of wildlife throughout the world, Kraven became disinterested in hunting, until encountering Spider-Man. Kraven studied the web-slinger and envisioned capturing him, something no one has done before.
With the help of the potions from Calypso, Kraven proved to be a formidable opponent for Spider-Man. However, his first attempt to ensnare the web-slinger failed, even with the help of Spidey’s other foe Chameleon.
Seeing that Spider-Man might prove to be too much for him alone, Kraven joined forces with Doctor Octopus, Vulture, Electro, Sandman, and Mysterio to form the Sinister Six. This was the first iteration of the villain group, but even the combined firepower and intellect of these six villains could not defeat Spider-Man.
The Last Hunt
The repeated defeat at the hands of Spider-Man began to drive Kraven mad. His sanity started to deteriorate as his aggression against the hero built up inside of him. Kraven even mistakenly thought Deadpool was Spider-Man, because he was at the time bonded with the Venom symbiote. Before Kraven departed their fight, the symbiote advised the hunter to use a gun the next time he encounters Spider-Man.
The Last Hunt storyline covers Kraven finally getting the better of the webhead. Even though Kraven made it a point to never use guns for hunting in the past, his obsession to capture Spider-Man consumed him. Kraven shot Spider-Man and buried him at his estate.
But to truly show he was superior to Spider-Man, Kraven put on his costume and roamed New York. In his brief stint as Spider-Man, Kraven brutally attacked criminals that resulted in 15 men in the hospital and one killed. Kraven also captured the villain Vermin, someone that Parker needed help from Captain America to defeat.
While Kraven was masquerading as Spider-Man, the real web-slinger rose from his grave. Kraven did shoot Spider-Man, but with a tranquilizer dart. Kraven confronted him and explained how he’s proven to be better than him after capturing Vermin alone.
After releasing Vermin for Parker to pursue him again, Kraven left his confession for the police explaining that he had impersonated Spider-Man. With his honor restored, Kraven took his own life.
Kraven’s Resurrection
Death in Marvel comics is usually a temporary concept, and that’s the case with Kraven. In The Grim Hunt storyline, Kraven’s wife Sasha Kravinoff crafted a plan to bring Kraven back from the dead. The Kravinoff family caught Spider-Man and sacrificed him in a ritual to resurrect Kraven.
It’s revealed that Parker’s clone Kaine took his place, and was killed instead for the ritual. This mistake cursed Kraven, and now he couldn’t die unless his death was carried out by Spider-Man himself.
Kraven begged for Spider-Man to kill him, but he spared his life. In defeat, Kraven took his family to the Savage Land. He wanted them to get stronger by surviving in the jungle, to which Sasha objected. Kraven killed her without hesitation, while his children went with him to the jungle.
The Great Hunt
Following a confrontation with a newly revived Kaine, Kraven requested aid from the High Evolutionary. They created 87 clones of Kraven, and the hunter would raise them as an army. When he returned to the Savage Lands to see how many clones survived the wild, Kraven was surprised to see only one come back.
The clone explained that he killed the other clones to prove he was the only one worthy of the Kraven name. Kraven named him the Last Son of Kraven, and the pair hatched a plan to capture other hunters and force them into a survival arena in Central Park.
Besides the hunters, Kraven also coerced Spider-Man to join the fray, still hoping that the web-slinger will take his life. However, Spider-Man managed to subdue Kraven and save the prisoners without surrendering to his extreme demands.
The End Of Kraven
With that act, Kraven finally understood the ideals that Spider-Man lives by. The hunter freed the remaining prisoners and told Spider-Man that the Great Hunt was over. In one last attempt to break the curse, Kraven tried something new: he put on Spider-Man’s costume again and let himself be killed by his son.
Because Kraven embraced Spider-Man’s morals, he more or less embodied the hero’s spirit, and the curse allowed him to die. Kraven was buried wearing Spider-Man’s costume at his estate, and left a note for his son, the new Kraven the Hunter.