Spider-Man: Kraven's Last Hunt

Marvel Titan Books #3

by Neil Kleid, J.M. DeMatteis (Text)

Born to a rarified breed of Russian aristocracy, Kraven the Hunter had stalked and killed every animal known to man, and considered himself the world's best big-game hunter. It was this confidence that brought him to New York years ago, in an obsessive quest to hunt what he considered the city's greatest prey: Spider-Man. But his target eluded him time and again, mocking him at every turn. Now, after years of crushing defeats against the web-slinger, Kraven has hatched one last plan to best Spider-Man. In a stunning instant of shocking violence, Kraven stands finally triumphant over Peter Parker's seemingly dead body. And to prove that he is the hero's master...Kraven will pull on his costume and become him! Experience the classic, genre-defining Spider-Man shocker like never before in this new adaptation!

Genres: Marvel, Comics, Fiction, Audiobook, Spider Man, Superheroes, Fantasy

277 pages, Hardcover

First published April 15, 2014

Reviews

[Page · Rating 1 out of 5]

DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK.

DO NOT PICK IT UP.

NO NO NO.

Go immediately to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Indiebound and purchase the original graphic novel.

The original graphic novel is a seminal Spider-Man story. It's a seminal comic book story. It's a terrific story, period, regardless of your reading tastes.

It's brilliantly written by J.M. DeMatteis, who is one of the best comic book writers - or any kind of writers - out there. It's a terrific examination of what makes a hero. What makes a villain. What is the line between them - if the line even exists. It's psychologically deep and dark and not a little twisted. It will make you gasp, and feel angry and not a little sad, but ultimately leave you hopeful.

It's also a love story. Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson are newlyweds. They are supposed to start their new life together, finally.

And it is stolen from them.

Peter must fight to get back to Mary Jane. Mary Jane must fight to find her husband, to stay strong even though she is alone at the one time she could reasonably expect to be half of a happy couple. Love - and the damage caused by lack of love - drives the narrative.

This book shits on the original, perfect story. It removes the marriage, because Marvel is currently run by immature misogynist douche bros who troll readers in place of telling new, original stories. And removing the marriage - crapping on the one story that many said proves that the marriage works and is perfectly in character for Spider-Man/Peter Parker - that's the only reason for the novel to exist. The original story truly is perfect as it is and doesn't need to be "prose-ified" at all. This novel is completely unnecessary and a total waste of trees and/or bytes.

So stay away from this senseless revisionist dung. Far away.

Go read the graphic novel.

You'll be so happy you did.

[hotsake (André Troesch) · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5.
I'm not sure why but I really enjoy novelizations and novels about superheroes, even more than actually reading the comics.

[Stewart · Rating 1 out of 5]

Whoa, was this awful. If it hadn't been an audiobook, I would have never gotten past the first chapter.

Graphic Audio's production value is excellent as always, but this story is just a turd.

Not recommended.

[Vinicius · Rating 4 out of 5]

Achei brabo mas o homem aranha tava mto chato. Tipo, a história do livro é mto boa, ja começa com o Peter revelando para MJ que ele é pika e ela fica feliz e entende o pq dos sumiços dele; em seguida começa a contar sobre os 2 vilões da história e descrever eles, até ai ok. Mas ai começa contar de uns mano que morreram e o peter conhecia, aí ele começa a sentir culpa da morte deles associando ela ao homem aranha, dai ele "morre", e fica fora da história por um tempo.Ai nessa parte foca no caçador, que inclusive é vilão bem doido que ao invés de querer matar alguem ou destruir, roubar, dominar o mundo e essas coisas de vilões normais ele quer apenas superar suas presas, que no caso agora foi o homem aranha. Enfim, tem toda a historia ai da treta dos 2 e o outro vilão que é o rattus, mas nisso tudo o homem aranha tava mto melancólico, sentia culpa por tudo, queria carregar peso da morte de uns mano, ficava remoendo as coisas... bem diferente do homem aranha piadista.
Essa história daria um belo HQ homem aranha noir.

[The Honest Book Reviewer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another book in my journey to read more novels based on comic book characters. I don't know why, but I adore books based on TV shows, computer games, comic book characters, movie franchises etc. There's just something about them I find draws me in.

This book did draw me in and I enjoyed the story. There's quite a lot of depth to this story. It's not just a plain old action novel. There's an underlying darkness to the whole book. In fact, it's very dark. There are themes about self-doubt, about ego, about trust and abuse, about mortality, about expectations, and fear of failure. Many of the themes are shown thrown multiple characters, but for varying reasons and with different results.

Another strong element to this story in the humanity it give the villains. There are two main villains in this book, and we see in them the same doubts and fears that normal people have. They are not just shown as evil. The story attempts to rationalise their actions, and it does a good job at doing so. I found that side of this book riveting. I wasn't aware that there could be such depth to the Spider-Man universe.

I don't think this would be a book for everybody. I think you would need at least a minor level of interest in the superhero world. But if that sounds like you, then I recommend giving this a try.

[Justin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Honestly I feel a bit odd giving this two stars because it’s not bad, it’s just not very good either. There’s way too much repetitive internal dialogue, and the outcomes feel predictable/inevitable. Yet I felt propelled along; I was intrigued and entertained as I went nonetheless. Take that for what’s its worth. I don’t denigrate nor do I recommend this book.

[Neil · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was between two and three stars for me; maybe 2.4 - 2.6ish? I liked most of it; some of it was just a little weird, and some of it was just . . . meh? I confess, I never read the comics that this book attempts to novelize; neither have I read the graphic novel. As I cannot compare the novel to the comics, I cannot comment on how well the author was able to tell the story in a prose format. However, considering what the author was attempting, I felt he did a good [adequate] job trying to tell the story of a super hero being broken down and then forced to rebuild himself in order to 'save the day' by the story's end.

I have to be honest, the story reminded me of a weird cross between DC's Knightfall and some of the characters from The Lord of the Rings (specifically, Gollum). You have the hero being battered and beaten down [a longer period of time for Batman than Spider-Man] before being driven to the edge of sanity, the hero being soundly defeated, somebody steps in to replace the hero for period of time [Azrael versus Kraven], and the hero having to fight back to reclaim his mantle and his good name. I felt like Vermin was standing in for Gollum, which seemed like a bit much, and maybe the comic books do a better job explaining why he was in the storyline as opposed to the book. I felt like the story could have been "better" without the character in it.

One thing that struck me as odd was in this story, Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson were not married, but I could swear they were married in the comics. If they were married at the time this story takes place in the comics, then the novelization takes into account the "One More Day" abomination of a story and how it reset Spider-Man's history. Either way, the relationship described between Peter and MJ seemed to be off in the story; it seemed to be missing some kind of oomph that made it "more special" than what was portrayed in the novelization.

I thought the author did a decent job attempting to describe the aftereffects Kraven's tranquilizer had on Spider-Man after he was shot and essentially buried alive. "Stuff" dealing with the mind and trying to describe how altered states of reality and (mis)perceptions can be radically altered from hallucinogenic agents is difficult to describe in words, but I felt the author did a decent job. At times, it got to be a bit much, and I found myself wishing he would have moved this portion of the story along a little faster. I kind of got tired of all of the arachnid-imagery throughout the book, especially when Kraven or Spider-Man were hallucinating; it got pretty old, pretty quick.

I know this is a "trait" of Peter Parker in the comics, that he blames himself for everything that goes wrong, no matter what. He feels he is responsible for every death, for every injury, that happens around him. He feels that every bad thing that happens in the world somehow can be traced to some action he took or failed to take. However, it does not translate well into a prose/novelized format. His constant "poor me/false martyr" symptoms are so annoying and appear to be nothing more than pathetic pleas for attention. There has to be a better way to present his feeling responsible for everything.

I "get it", that he has extreme guilt over being somewhat culpable for his Uncle Ben's death. The fact remains, though, that the criminal chose to shoot his Uncle Ben; Peter Parker and/or Spider-Man had nothing to do with the criminal actually raising his gun, pointing it, and pulling the trigger. That was the criminal's active choice; the criminal actively chose to shoot Peter's Uncle. Sure, Peter could have stopped the criminal from escaping, and he chose not to. But that does not make Peter directly responsible for Ben's death. He really needs to seek out some kind of counseling or something, either with Doc Samson or maybe somebody with S.H.I.E.L.D., because he is clearly having trouble coping with reality in terms of responsibility.

Maybe it works better in the comics because while this mental/emotional miasma that Parker experiences is "there" it is not "there" in the reader's face, all the time. Sure, Peter continually makes comments negative comments about himself, about "the Parker luck", and his generally negative outlook on life. However, in the comics "it is said" and then the story in the comic moves on [although Brian Michael Bendis does a great job making fun of this part of Parker's character in the Skrull Invasion and how ridiculous his constant cloud of negativity truly is], so it does not necessarily "focus" on this negative aspect of Peter Parker's personality/mental process. In the prose novel, the author focuses entirely too much on Peter's negative personality to the detriment of the book and the storyline.

I really "hate" characters like Vermin in the comics, especially with how comics more and more attempt to portray themselves as "reality" and taking place "in the real world." Vermin captures women and drags them into the sewers to eat them. Eventually, he surfaces in New York and continues his reign of terror and active cannibalism. Yet he is portrayed as being mentally handicapped [partly due to experiments performed upon him by Norman Osborne, according to the book] and locked away, so there is no "real" punishment that he suffers after murdering so many women and then eating them. It just bugged me.

It is somewhat funny reading this novelization, because the author has Spider-Man "losing control" and pummeling both Kraven and Vermin. However, despite Spider-Man having the "proportionate strength" of a spider, neither Kraven or Vermin are badly injured despite the beating given to them by Spider-Man. I suppose one might say that even though Spidey thought he had lost control, his "spider-sense" never really let him lose complete control to the point that Spidey would do something he would later regret (like killing either villain and then feeling guilty about it later for losing control like he did). Still, though, as hard as he was described as hitting Kraven, Kraven should not have been able to remain standing, let alone carry on as if nothing had happened to him. I suppose one could also make the case that Spidey had been buried alive for two weeks, and was extremely weak from his ordeal, which allowed Vermin and Kraven to survive their respective beat-downs on behalf of Spidey.

With Great Love Comes Great Responsibility - I liked that

The whole thing with Mary Jane Watson either dying or having a vision was really stupid and out in left field; it did not really add much to the overall story. Well, other than the quip about "with great love comes great responsibility".

It was an okay adaptation. Overall, I guess I liked/enjoyed it. It did seem to focus more on Kraven and his mental state as opposed to Spider-Man, which was okay, I suppose. It did make me want to seek out the "graphic novel" of the collected comics for this story line and compare. I am glad that I read it.

[Tim · Rating 1 out of 5]

I've faithfully read each of the new prose line Marvel has published over the last couple of years, but I'm not a fan of this one. Actually, that's not harsh enough. I hated this book. From the bulk of it being from Kraven's POV to the violent imagery, to the depiction of mental illness - it's just not for me.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my all time favourite Spider-man stories from the comic books. The good, the bad and the ugly represented by the hero, the hunter and the beast.

Honour above all else can be destructive.

With great love must also come great responsibility.

[Indah Threez Lestari · Rating 4 out of 5]

330 - 2020

[Jack · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kraven the Hunter is probably my favorite of Spider-Man's illustrious rogue gallery. I think what always drew me to his character was how formidable he was despite not having a major tool or enhanced power like Doctor Octopus or Green Goblin for example. Don't get me wrong, I know Kraven has taken advantage of mystical herbs and tonics and is not opposed to venturing into supernatural terrain to try to defeat the Web-Head, but for the most part he's a villain which utilizes his natural abilities as a hunter more than anything. Having a rogue who is fundamentally human makes his relationship to Spider-Man interesting on the count of his mortality, which is a subject that has been encroached in one of Spider-Man's most famous comic book storylines.

Kraven's Last Hunt was a 6-part storyline which was published between October and November of 1987. It's established a long-standing legacy as one of Spider-Man’s best storylines as it sought to define the relationship between Kraven and Spider-Man in the midst of their final encounter with one another. It’s a story well-known for it’s deep dive into the characterization of the two central characters and the dynamic they both share. Despite never reading the original comics, I decided to pick up the novelization of the famous story by writer Neil Kleid which was released in October 2014.

The story of Kraven’s Last Hunt follows Spider-Man in the midst of a personal crisis. After the death of his work friend Ned Leeds and the discovery that he was in fact the villainous Hobgoblin, Peter Parker is deep in reflection of his own mortality and the wider impact and danger Spider-Man puts all those around him in. As Peter is struggling to face his fear of death, Kraven the Hunter is in the process of accepting his own. Slowly dying and with little time left, Kraven devises a plan to hunt and destroy that one illusive prey that has illuded him all this time; Spider-Man. As events unfold Kraven and Spider-Man come to blows in a truly climatic fashion as Kraven doesn’t just seek to kill Spider-Man, but to replace him and achieve feats the spider never could.

I’m not sure whether it’s the prose format or whether the actual comic story is like this, but I found myself loving the narrative on some areas but disliking it in others. When the narrative focuses on the core relationship that Peter and Kraven share, it’s remarkably insightful writing. Seeing the dynamic between these two characters fleshed out in such a personal manner was really enjoyable to read. Especially from Kraven’s perspective, the way Neil wrote him to interpret his inner monologue allowed for all the more opportunity to flesh out the character and his struggles with mortality and his need to finish the hunt he started so long ago. Balance that with Peter’s own fear of his mortality and that of those around him, the story tackles these concepts on some fundamentally brilliant levels. However, on the other side of the coin, we have Vermin and Kraven’s own run as a self-imposed super hero. These parts of the narrative never felt as strong or as relevant to the narrative as the prior bits I discussed. They felt tacked on to give the story a bit more padding and it didn’t reciprocate with me all that well.

Another aspect of the book I struggled with is the writing. This was a 6-issue comic and while I admire Kleid’s attempt to adapt the story, it felt needlessly bloated and did not need to be 341 pages long. Every single sequence is overly explained and described in a way that feels unnecessary. This type of writing is appreciated when it came to the character dive stuff, but it isn’t specific to those parts. The entirety of the book feels a need to slow down and detail everything around the characters and the small details in which they move or function. It’s appreciated from a character perspective, but everywhere else is just drags the book up annoyingly.

I admire Neil Klied’s effort here with this novelization. I can’t whole heartly endorse it on the count of numerous elements that feel tacked on or unnecessary, I do however appreciate the character pieces of this story. At it’s heart Kraven’s Last Hunt is a story about mortality and how we all come to reckon with it sooner or later. Kraven and Spider-Man are essentially two sides of the same coin, as one struggles with their own mortality, one is finally embracing it and the intertwining of those two aspects is what makes this story so iconic.

[Harrison Delahunty · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is really, really bad.

Which is an abject shame, too. “Kraven’s Last Hunt” is quite possibly the best Spider-Man story of all time, up there with “If This Be My Destiny” and “The Night Gwen Stacy Died.” It is an everlasting tale about marriage, legacy, delusion, and most importantly: grief.

The first and arguably biggest mistake that this prose version makes is the excising of Peter and Mary Jane’s marriage. It makes everything so much less impactful, lowers the stakes by a serious degree, and takes away so much of the core of the original story. On top of that, the decision was made to accelerate the story to the 2010’s, when the novel was released. They only acknowledge this essentially once, making the change not only feel pointless but also opening numerous plot holes. The story simply doesn’t work in a modern setting.

None of this is helped whatsoever by the audiobook version, which is what I listened to. Despite this being the shortest audiobook I’ve gotten, it felt easily the longest and was excruciatingly difficult to go back to. Cheesy, over the top, and simply loud, it was unpleasant to an extreme. When I got this, I was hoping it would be the beginning of a string of Spider-Man novels that I could listen to on my commute, but this pretty quickly shut that down.

I don’t recommend this book to anyone, least of all Spider-Man fans.

[Calis Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm giving this one three and a half Stars, half a star gets knocked off due to all the psychological tangents that go on in this novelized version of one of Spider-Man's darkest entries.

Up until this story arc was written Kraven the Hunter was nothing more than a second-tier Spider-Man villain, not below the levels of the Beetle but not in the same league as Doc Ock or Green goblin. But this story cemented him among the upper echelon of Spider-Man villains. Spidey has to go through a lot of mental anguish here that's before and after his escape from Kravens burial of him. Peter Parker conflicts between himself and his alter ego whether he's the mask or the man. You'll have to read this yourself to make heads or tails of that and also while you're at it read the graphic novel along with this novelization this way all the mental tangents won't be as psychedelic because that's what it felt like as I was reading this book.

[Nuno Dark · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've never read the original comic book, but I know how legendary it is, I actually ordered this one by mistake.
Now, what to say, this book has some really cool concepts. Spider man and all other characters are looked on as real people and not comic book characters, with all the mental health issues that brings. And thats cool, and refreshing, no doubt. The problem is, the author goes over this ad nauseam. 80% of the book is the same characters lost inside their heads dealing with the same mental health issue over and over again, it's like the same scene repeated over and over. That completely destroys this book and makes it a chore to read. Had those scenes just happened and been done with, this book would less than a third of its size and would be a much better book.
Feels like a missed opportunity.

[Alex Cahill · Rating 3 out of 5]

A perfect holiday book, as it was a very easy read.

The first third/half of the book was pretty decent, with an intriguing style of writing. It could have been half its length and saved itself the weak petering out of the second half.

The writer does internal monologue quite well, and the themes of death and fear were very atmospheric.

Unfortunately, there simply wasn't enough content to fill the pages, so these monologues felt repeated too frequently, even though the plot hadn't progressed enough to justify it.

Having read a few other Marvel novels, what I did appreciate about this book was that it wasn't bloated with long fight scenes. It focused mainly on the inner thoughts of the heroes and villains, and that made it stand out among its brethren.

[Steve Howells · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spider-Man: Kraven's Last Hunt Prose Novel
by J.M. DeMatteis

This is a novelization of the graphic novel, based on the comic run, Spider-man Kraven’s Last Hunt.

We find Spider-man, married to Mary Jane Watson and the 2 of them are coming to grips with their married life, with her career and being married to a super-hero. His life all in all is pretty good and stable which is a rarity for Peter Parker.

Enter Kraven, who has been obsessing over Spider-man lately and feels as a hunter Spider-man is the one that got away. Of all the creatures he has hunted Spider-man has always bested him.

On a rainy night in NYC Spider-man, sickened by an illness, not at his best he comes face to face with Kraven and before Spider-man is aware he is massively on the defensive. The fight goes on and Spidey barely gets away only to find Kraven hot on his tail.

Spidey is shot and seemingly killed and Kraven buries him. Spider-man dead, yes or no????

This book deals with a re-occurring theme in Spider-man’s life, how can he balance being a super-hero with being a normal person and try to have a normal life. How much violence is too much to subdue a criminal.

Kraven dons the costume of Spider-man and becomes a violent sociopathic version of our web crawler, trying to deal with his own psychosis.

The book is quite violent and disturbing for a novelization of a comic book arc and I would not let pre-teens read this book as it may be a little to violent and disturbing for them.

[Herbert Gambino · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have not read the comic book counterpart to this novel. I will say though, that this does purely what book does better than a comic. And that is that you're able to get into the character's head. Think their thoughts, fear their fears. It's been about 8 months since I read this novel and I will say, I felt empathetic anguish for Spider-Man, I was grossed - creeped out at the annunciated hisses evoked from Vermin. The scenes in this novel of Kraven doing rituals, rituals in relation with many spiders were that of horror.

[Adam · Rating 1 out of 5]

graphic audios performance was excellent. the voice of Vermin really sold it. shame about the story. A lot of shouting and every single character seems to be struggling mentally about the same issue or another. there are some good twists and enjoyed the ending. I haven't read the graphic novel so I assume you would enjoy this a lot more if you did. there are some memorable moments but I wouldn't of made it thought this story if 'graphic audios' performance wasn't superb.

[Kelvin Reed · Rating 1 out of 5]

"Spider-Man: Kraven's Last Hunt" (2019) by Neil Kleid is a dreadful novel about Spider-man’s battle with longtime foe Kraven the Hunter. It’s based on several 1987 comic books. The amount of space given to other characters reduces Spider-man to a supporting character in his own book. Dark and depressing, the story includes a suicide and multiple murders—including scenes in which an innocent person is eaten alive. The audiobook production values are top notch. Not recommended.

[Sanuj Kulshrestha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Never thought Spiderman's condition would get so miserable. Died (not really), then lost his goodwill, resurrection, horror visions. And still, by playing by his own good guys' rules, he came out of it and save not just himself but his enemies too.

Spider-Man/Peter Parker is an inspiration.

[Bryce Willis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good adaptation of a comic story line. I think I would have rather read this as a comic but was glad I got to inject it this way. The story is a good one and things happen at a fairly good pace. I like the way each character is portrayed and the ending is a satisfying one. Overall I liked it but it never fully connected to me.

[Will · Rating 3 out of 5]

it was fine i guess
i tend to prefer novelisations over graphic novels because with graphic novels, they’re more expensive and i read them in half the time
but in this case i think reading the graphic novel is the way to go
this story also feels like it starts the “spider gods” and “being Spider-Man was Peter’s destiny all along” which i haaaaaaaaaate
don’t overcomplicate it

[Derrick · Rating 1 out of 5]

While the acting was superb, I didn't enjoy one of the bad guy characters. The content was very heavy and depressing and had lots of mature content in it. So, while I give the acting, story composition, etc.. and amazing start. The comic itself was not for me.

[SaDarius · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, what an amazing rendition of Kraven's Last Hunt. Beautiful character work and story. Perfect read for spooky season as I was creeped out immensely and felt the tension in every page. Wonderful read.

[Cynik · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have enjoyed most of these novel versions of comic stories I've tried but this one just didn't click for me. Characters tended to be too instrospective if not just crazy. A lot of time spent in their heads trying to explain their motivations but not advancing the story.

[Eric Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read a lot of negative reviews about this. However I thought it was a good story. Didn't care much for the characters though.

[Gaby Fraga · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great novelization. Really in depth on how it aproaches death as the theme for the comic run. I absolutely recomend :D

[Chris Crusan Jr. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Easily the worst book I’ve ever read. Absolute struggle just to finish. Would recommend staring at the wall over reading this book.

[Saloccini (Nick) · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Again some more light hearted reading. Interesting spiderman story id not heard about.