What do you think?
Rate this book
The Amazing Spider-Man (1999) (Collected Editions) #35-37
The Amazing Spider-Man: The Gauntlet - The Complete Collection, Vol. 2
Spider-Man's run through the gauntlet of his deadliest foes concludes, but can he survive the Grim Hunt? Spidey must tackle one of the most unyielding enemies he's ever faced - but it turns out that something can stop the Juggernaut, and that means big trouble for both of them! Then, the Lizard is back - deadlier than ever! But as the Kraven family's plans come to fruition, the hunt begins - and it's Spider season! Sasha and Anastasia Kravinoff are preparing an unholy resurrection, and that puts our friendly neighborhood wallcrawler and his arachnid allies - as well as the Black Cat - in the firing line! Can Spider- Man get through this latest challenge without a death in the family? COLLECTING: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (1999) 627-637, GRIM HUNT: THE KRAVEN SAGA (2010) 1, AMAZING SPIDER-MAN PRESENTS: BLACK CAT (2010) 1-4, MATERIAL FROM WEB OF SPIDER-MAN (2009) 6-7
504 pages, Paperback
First published October 13, 2010
11 people are currently reading
69 people want to read
About the author
Fred Van Lente
1,355 books320 followersFred Van Lente is the New York Times-bestselling author of comics as varied as Archer & Armstrong (Harvey Award nominee, Best Series), Taskmaster, MODOK's 11, Amazing Spider-Man, Conan the Avenger, Weird Detective, and Cowboys & Aliens (upon which the 2011 movie was based), as well as the novels Ten Dead Comedians and The Con Artist.
Van Lente also specializes in entertaining readers with offbeat histories with the help of his incredibly talented artists. He has written the multiple-award winning Action Philosophers!, The Comic Book History of Comics, Action Presidents! (all drawn by Ryan Dunlavey), and The Comic Book Story of Basketball with Joe Cooper (Ten Speed September 2020).
He lives in Brooklyn with his wife Crystal Skillman, and some mostly ungrateful cats.
Van Lente also specializes in entertaining readers with offbeat histories with the help of his incredibly talented artists. He has written the multiple-award winning Action Philosophers!, The Comic Book History of Comics, Action Presidents! (all drawn by Ryan Dunlavey), and The Comic Book Story of Basketball with Joe Cooper (Ten Speed September 2020).
He lives in Brooklyn with his wife Crystal Skillman, and some mostly ungrateful cats.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
December 8, 2021
Sadly - this collection did not live up to the promise of Volume 1 for various reasons. We have a good collection of talented writers and artists but the "payoff" is weaker than it should have been. I would still say it is an enjoyable series of Spider-man tales with the Juggernaut, Lizard and Kraven the Hunter's family but oddly enough the Black Cat mini-series was the most fun to read.
What I liked about Gauntlet 1 was we got some nice stand alone stories of some great Spider-man villains, Sandman, Mysterio. They were fun. Spider-man was Spider-man and not a mopey idiot. The villains were fun and well utilized for entertaining stories.
I didn't like, in the first volume, were the out of character moments of Peter Parker faking a photo to try to help JJJ only to have JJJ throw him under the bus. Peter would NEVER fake a photo and to do it to "help" JJJ was stupid. Unsurprisingly - this never gets followed up in this volume (other than the fact - Peter is out of work).
Also - Aunt May was taken over by the Negative Man and turned into a horrid b***h who belittles Peter and throws everyone out of her boarding house. Nobody thought "hey, something is wrong?". How is this resolved in this volume? In one panel (she just shakes it off) with no real payoff.
Both of those examples give you the weakness of having multiple writers on a book. One writer comes up with an idea and leaves it to others to conclude it, but the other writers hate the idea and give up on it so there is no conclusion.
The "stand alone" stories here aren't as strong. We get Roger Stern trying to relive past glories by revisiting the story everyone loved "Spider-man vs the Juggernaut" but he throws in Captain Universe and the story is a mess.
We Zeb Wells with the gorgeous art of Chris Bachalo. The art is wasted on an over the top horror tale with the Lizard. And we get one of those "top ten worst moments in comics" where the Lizard eats his own son. Yeah - that was a spoiler - but you need to be warned because it is shock for shock sake. It isn't like I was moved by this disgusting moment. I just thought "look at this idiot writer trying to make a name for himself". Shock without drama/stakes is just gratuitous violence.
Then we get - the payoff? *sigh* They couldn't just say "hey this is a collection of Spider-man stories with his best villains"...no. Sadly, they try to say "this was all part of a bigger scheme to wear Spider-man down so he could be easily defeated by the Kraven family...who need his blood...to bring back Kraven from the dead." Really? I didn't get the sense of that at all before the Kraven story started. Sure Spider-man fought a lot of villains but he does that EVERY DAY!! I would even excuse that if I didn't see Joe Kelly totally botch all this "lead up" with a really piss poor Spider-man story that looked like it recycled other stories "we will kill all the Spider totem beings". Yeah - I read Spider-Verse" and JMS' run. Been there, done that. They did it 1000 times better. Also - the call back to Kraven's last hunt was also poorly done. Yikes. I love Kraven and I am glad he's back but just bring him back - spare me the "Peter has been pushed to his limit!!" story. Again - that has been done before and MUCH better than this. In this one he looks like he has the flu. Just rest a few days Peter and you'll be fine.
Then we end with a Black Cat mini which was surprisingly fun (although, perhaps reminds me of Catwoman stories) and a couple of shorts about the women in Peter's life that were fun reads.
This isn't the worst Spider-man but after the first amazing volume I am really sad how badly Joe Kelly couldn't finish this off with a great story. Oh wait..I almost forgot - Spider-Man gets tricked by the Chameleon because his spider-sense is turned off..how? Never clear. But Joe Kelly needed it off so he just wrote it off. I.e. bad writing.
What I liked about Gauntlet 1 was we got some nice stand alone stories of some great Spider-man villains, Sandman, Mysterio. They were fun. Spider-man was Spider-man and not a mopey idiot. The villains were fun and well utilized for entertaining stories.
I didn't like, in the first volume, were the out of character moments of Peter Parker faking a photo to try to help JJJ only to have JJJ throw him under the bus. Peter would NEVER fake a photo and to do it to "help" JJJ was stupid. Unsurprisingly - this never gets followed up in this volume (other than the fact - Peter is out of work).
Also - Aunt May was taken over by the Negative Man and turned into a horrid b***h who belittles Peter and throws everyone out of her boarding house. Nobody thought "hey, something is wrong?". How is this resolved in this volume? In one panel (she just shakes it off) with no real payoff.
Both of those examples give you the weakness of having multiple writers on a book. One writer comes up with an idea and leaves it to others to conclude it, but the other writers hate the idea and give up on it so there is no conclusion.
The "stand alone" stories here aren't as strong. We get Roger Stern trying to relive past glories by revisiting the story everyone loved "Spider-man vs the Juggernaut" but he throws in Captain Universe and the story is a mess.
We Zeb Wells with the gorgeous art of Chris Bachalo. The art is wasted on an over the top horror tale with the Lizard. And we get one of those "top ten worst moments in comics" where the Lizard eats his own son. Yeah - that was a spoiler - but you need to be warned because it is shock for shock sake. It isn't like I was moved by this disgusting moment. I just thought "look at this idiot writer trying to make a name for himself". Shock without drama/stakes is just gratuitous violence.
Then we get - the payoff? *sigh* They couldn't just say "hey this is a collection of Spider-man stories with his best villains"...no. Sadly, they try to say "this was all part of a bigger scheme to wear Spider-man down so he could be easily defeated by the Kraven family...who need his blood...to bring back Kraven from the dead." Really? I didn't get the sense of that at all before the Kraven story started. Sure Spider-man fought a lot of villains but he does that EVERY DAY!! I would even excuse that if I didn't see Joe Kelly totally botch all this "lead up" with a really piss poor Spider-man story that looked like it recycled other stories "we will kill all the Spider totem beings". Yeah - I read Spider-Verse" and JMS' run. Been there, done that. They did it 1000 times better. Also - the call back to Kraven's last hunt was also poorly done. Yikes. I love Kraven and I am glad he's back but just bring him back - spare me the "Peter has been pushed to his limit!!" story. Again - that has been done before and MUCH better than this. In this one he looks like he has the flu. Just rest a few days Peter and you'll be fine.
Then we end with a Black Cat mini which was surprisingly fun (although, perhaps reminds me of Catwoman stories) and a couple of shorts about the women in Peter's life that were fun reads.
This isn't the worst Spider-man but after the first amazing volume I am really sad how badly Joe Kelly couldn't finish this off with a great story. Oh wait..I almost forgot - Spider-Man gets tricked by the Chameleon because his spider-sense is turned off..how? Never clear. But Joe Kelly needed it off so he just wrote it off. I.e. bad writing.
December 11, 2025
This is post Brand New Day Spider-man, so Peter isn't married to MJ, and his main girlfriend is Carly, who works for the NYPD (just to situate where this Spidey takes place - this is just before Dan Slott's huge run). There are a number of separate stories in this Complete Collection volume, of varying quality, and by the various of Spidey in this epoch.
The first story lasts for three issues and is a throwback in that it's written by old-time Spider-man writer, Roger Stern. The art is good, by Lee Weeks, and the story is a follow-up to Stern's Spidey/Juggernaut fight. It throws Captain Universe in the mix too, which references the Cosmic Spider-man from early 300s ASM. This is all pretty enjoyable, and it's cool to have an old-school Spidey story.
Next is a story by Fred Van Lente (whom I always like), and here he delivers an unusual story from the POV of the lumbering Man-Thing, in his swamp. This story truly is experimental and won't be to everyone's taste, but I appreciate it. The Lizard is also a focus, and this flows into the next story by Zeb Wells and Chris Bachalo. That is an alright Lizard story, and one that's pretty.
The Lizard is the proverbial Gauntlet, engineered by the kids of Kraven the Hunter to push Spider-man beyond his endurance levels. This story of the Kravinovs is entitled 'The Grim Hunt', and it's by Joe Kelly and drawn by Michael Lark. Unfortunately, this story is disappointing, i find. I love Lark, from Gotham Central and Lazarus, so I was hyped up to experience his art here on Spider-man. But it's OK, maybe the story's not quite there.
The Kravinov kids are hunting Spiders (not just Peter, but other Spider characters like Arana, Julia Carpenter, Kaine, Madame Web and Mattie Franklin), all in an echo of the classic story, Kraven's Last Hunt. There's a lot of potential in these elements, and the art, but I find the story is pretty lackluster altogether, unfortunately.
There is next a short Kraven/Kaine story, which must've been a backup over several issues, written by Kraven's Last Hunt scribe, JM DeMatteis. It's OK as far as a story about Kaine (a clone of Peter) goes. Then, lastly, there's a Black Cat mini by Jen Van Meter and drawn by the excellent Javier Pulido. Colours, visuals and sense of play is all great here.
All in all, an OK Spider-man book with the numerous writers of the era. Some good artists and writers with some throwbacks to classic stories. It's alright, just not next level, which I was hoping particularly The Grim Hunt might be.
The first story lasts for three issues and is a throwback in that it's written by old-time Spider-man writer, Roger Stern. The art is good, by Lee Weeks, and the story is a follow-up to Stern's Spidey/Juggernaut fight. It throws Captain Universe in the mix too, which references the Cosmic Spider-man from early 300s ASM. This is all pretty enjoyable, and it's cool to have an old-school Spidey story.
Next is a story by Fred Van Lente (whom I always like), and here he delivers an unusual story from the POV of the lumbering Man-Thing, in his swamp. This story truly is experimental and won't be to everyone's taste, but I appreciate it. The Lizard is also a focus, and this flows into the next story by Zeb Wells and Chris Bachalo. That is an alright Lizard story, and one that's pretty.
The Lizard is the proverbial Gauntlet, engineered by the kids of Kraven the Hunter to push Spider-man beyond his endurance levels. This story of the Kravinovs is entitled 'The Grim Hunt', and it's by Joe Kelly and drawn by Michael Lark. Unfortunately, this story is disappointing, i find. I love Lark, from Gotham Central and Lazarus, so I was hyped up to experience his art here on Spider-man. But it's OK, maybe the story's not quite there.
The Kravinov kids are hunting Spiders (not just Peter, but other Spider characters like Arana, Julia Carpenter, Kaine, Madame Web and Mattie Franklin), all in an echo of the classic story, Kraven's Last Hunt. There's a lot of potential in these elements, and the art, but I find the story is pretty lackluster altogether, unfortunately.
There is next a short Kraven/Kaine story, which must've been a backup over several issues, written by Kraven's Last Hunt scribe, JM DeMatteis. It's OK as far as a story about Kaine (a clone of Peter) goes. Then, lastly, there's a Black Cat mini by Jen Van Meter and drawn by the excellent Javier Pulido. Colours, visuals and sense of play is all great here.
All in all, an OK Spider-man book with the numerous writers of the era. Some good artists and writers with some throwbacks to classic stories. It's alright, just not next level, which I was hoping particularly The Grim Hunt might be.
August 19, 2025
"WHY DON'T WE GRAB A COUPLE EGG CREAMS AND TALK THIS OVER LIKE MEN -- IN THE 1930s?"
- Spider-Man to Captain Universe.
"ALYOSHA, RIGHT? FREDDIE MERCURY CALLED AND WANTS HIS VEST BACK."
- Spidey giving fashion tips to Aly Kravenoff.
Spider-Man finds the "unstoppable" Juggernaut in a crater, beaten like he owed someone money. The Absorbing Man absorbs some webbing.
Lizard's origin in two shorts. One tells of how a man used reptile DNA to regrow a lost limb, while another (featuring Man-Thing) of how a reptile escaped it's mammalian flesh prison.
The Lizard finally "sheds" his skin. Written by Zeb Well and (mostly) penciled by Chris Bachalo. I can see why Marvel would give Wells a title. I just wish that run had gone this well. Bachalo's work is so busy here that he needed an additional penciller and, like, five inkers to make deadline. Really good stuff!
A brief origin for Sasha Kravinoff setting her up as a hunter, equal to the man she married. Young Ana reads her father's hunting journal.
The Kraven's are after "spyders." Spidey must build a spider army to prevent the Kravens from completing their "Grim Hunt."
Kaine and Kraven slug it out one-on-one.
Black Cat gets tangled up with the Kravenoffs. Best story of this book.
Two shorts about MJ and Carlie. So good.
Since this includes Bachalo's art and the Cat Story, this is getting five stars.
- Spider-Man to Captain Universe.
"ALYOSHA, RIGHT? FREDDIE MERCURY CALLED AND WANTS HIS VEST BACK."
- Spidey giving fashion tips to Aly Kravenoff.
Spider-Man finds the "unstoppable" Juggernaut in a crater, beaten like he owed someone money. The Absorbing Man absorbs some webbing.
Lizard's origin in two shorts. One tells of how a man used reptile DNA to regrow a lost limb, while another (featuring Man-Thing) of how a reptile escaped it's mammalian flesh prison.
The Lizard finally "sheds" his skin. Written by Zeb Well and (mostly) penciled by Chris Bachalo. I can see why Marvel would give Wells a title. I just wish that run had gone this well. Bachalo's work is so busy here that he needed an additional penciller and, like, five inkers to make deadline. Really good stuff!
A brief origin for Sasha Kravinoff setting her up as a hunter, equal to the man she married. Young Ana reads her father's hunting journal.
The Kraven's are after "spyders." Spidey must build a spider army to prevent the Kravens from completing their "Grim Hunt."
Kaine and Kraven slug it out one-on-one.
Black Cat gets tangled up with the Kravenoffs. Best story of this book.
Two shorts about MJ and Carlie. So good.
Since this includes Bachalo's art and the Cat Story, this is getting five stars.
March 10, 2023
A delightful little tale, if your idea of a good time is a father gruesomely devouring his own child on the page. This story gets praise from readers who fantasize about being edgelords, but if you take away the shock value it's....mediocre at best.
And what is up with writer Zeb Wells's obsession with killing fictional children...?
And what is up with writer Zeb Wells's obsession with killing fictional children...?
January 10, 2021
This one is hard to rate. The first half was great and the second half was a bunch of filler. Really enjoyed the climax and ending of the Gauntlet storyline leading into The Grim Hunt. Could have done without the last 40% of the book.
October 9, 2023
Intense and well written. More solo stories from Black Cat please!!!
March 22, 2023
Lots of Great Back Story
Great GN, but very long.
Loved all the back story. It was good to learn more about the Black Cat and Peter Parker's clone.
Great GN, but very long.
Loved all the back story. It was good to learn more about the Black Cat and Peter Parker's clone.
March 10, 2023
Reread: Mar 9-10 2023 (2 stars)
On reread, I didn’t hate this quite so much as my initial impressions, but it’s still not great.
The main things to add here are that the Juggernaut story really isn’t all that offensive in spite of being a bit pointless; being written by Roger Stern helps it at least be fun. Lee Weeks does art and it’s rather strikingly like a smoother version of what JRJR did on JMS’s Spider-Man run, which is overall very pleasant.
“Shed” at the very least has an interesting concept and it follows through on that concept to its logical conclusions. Zeb Wells manages to make it readable, even in spite of Bachalo’s abysmal pencils.
“Grim Hunt” is made all the more insulting, however, by having recently read through all of the Brand New Day stuff. These writers had just tried to ape off of Kraven’s Last Hunt with the extremely lacklustre and hacky “Kraven’s First Hunt” storyline, which makes this arc feel even more soulless. This is especially so given that the entire thing undermines the ending of Kraven’s Last Hunt.
I would also now say that the Black Cat issues are one of the better parts of the book. These issues are lighter, have strong art from Javier Pulido, and are in general breezier and more fun to read than the rest of the “grittier” stories in the book. The excerpts from the Many Loves of Spider-Man issue end up feeling more like filler fluff, especially being so far removed from Carlie being at all relevant.
Initial Review: Dec 26-27 2020 (1 star)
What a horrible collection of stories.
The first Complete Collection of the Gauntlet storyline was already a bit nonsensical and messy, but at least it was somewhat followable and had some good ideas. This second volume fails in basically every aspect in terms of the legacy of a multiplicity of Spider-Man characters, throws in a couple immeasurably dull storylines for good measure, and worst of all wastes forty-five of your American dollars.
The first storyline, comprising Amazing Spider-Man numbers 627-629, is an inconsequential and eminently skippable Juggernaut/Captain Universe story. Skip it.
The second story is a short, cute story with good art by Todd Nuack but there's not much else to it. Read it if you want an inoffensive time-waster.
The entirety of the "Shed" story, comprising the content from Web of Spider-Man 6, the Shed Prelude and Prologue, and ASM 630-633, is abysmal. It shreds the character of Curt Connors irreparably (to the point that, even ten years later in Spencer's run he still has to try and mend this), is drawn by the truly awful Chris Bachalo (whose art is somehow on the front cover of this collection), and is just generally messy and hard to decipher. Skip it.
The last big chunk of actual Spider-Man stories is that of "Grim Hunt." These issues are the content from Web of Spider-Man 7 (incongruously named "Gauntlet Origins: Kraven"), Origin of the Hunter, the Grim Hunt Prologue, and ASM 634-637. While this storyline actually has some moments, especially the art of Marco Checchetto, it's overall not great and a really poor follow-up to Kraven's Last Hunt. Unless you're a massive Kraven/Kaine fan, skip it and go read Last Hunt, or even Nick Spencer's more recent Hunted.
This is followed by an aftermath-style story for Grim Hunt titled "Hunting the Hunter". Despite being written by DeMatteis himself, and therefore being solidly written in a vacuum, this four-part story is just somewhat uninteresting. Similarly to the previous chunk, you should only read this if you're really big on either Kraven or Kaine.
The Black Cat issues are overall rather inconsequential and have very little to do with Spider-Man. If you're somehow a big fan of the way Felicia's character was treated during the Brand New Day era, then check it out; otherwise, you can skip this one too.
The collection, at long last, concludes with the content of the Many Loves of the Amazing Spider-Man issue. The first story focuses on Carlie Cooper and Gwen Stacy; this one's okay. The second story focuses on Mary Jane, which gets massive points for being drawn by Ron Frenz himself.
Overall, don't waste your time.
On reread, I didn’t hate this quite so much as my initial impressions, but it’s still not great.
The main things to add here are that the Juggernaut story really isn’t all that offensive in spite of being a bit pointless; being written by Roger Stern helps it at least be fun. Lee Weeks does art and it’s rather strikingly like a smoother version of what JRJR did on JMS’s Spider-Man run, which is overall very pleasant.
“Shed” at the very least has an interesting concept and it follows through on that concept to its logical conclusions. Zeb Wells manages to make it readable, even in spite of Bachalo’s abysmal pencils.
“Grim Hunt” is made all the more insulting, however, by having recently read through all of the Brand New Day stuff. These writers had just tried to ape off of Kraven’s Last Hunt with the extremely lacklustre and hacky “Kraven’s First Hunt” storyline, which makes this arc feel even more soulless. This is especially so given that the entire thing undermines the ending of Kraven’s Last Hunt.
I would also now say that the Black Cat issues are one of the better parts of the book. These issues are lighter, have strong art from Javier Pulido, and are in general breezier and more fun to read than the rest of the “grittier” stories in the book. The excerpts from the Many Loves of Spider-Man issue end up feeling more like filler fluff, especially being so far removed from Carlie being at all relevant.
Initial Review: Dec 26-27 2020 (1 star)
What a horrible collection of stories.
The first Complete Collection of the Gauntlet storyline was already a bit nonsensical and messy, but at least it was somewhat followable and had some good ideas. This second volume fails in basically every aspect in terms of the legacy of a multiplicity of Spider-Man characters, throws in a couple immeasurably dull storylines for good measure, and worst of all wastes forty-five of your American dollars.
The first storyline, comprising Amazing Spider-Man numbers 627-629, is an inconsequential and eminently skippable Juggernaut/Captain Universe story. Skip it.
The second story is a short, cute story with good art by Todd Nuack but there's not much else to it. Read it if you want an inoffensive time-waster.
The entirety of the "Shed" story, comprising the content from Web of Spider-Man 6, the Shed Prelude and Prologue, and ASM 630-633, is abysmal. It shreds the character of Curt Connors irreparably (to the point that, even ten years later in Spencer's run he still has to try and mend this), is drawn by the truly awful Chris Bachalo (whose art is somehow on the front cover of this collection), and is just generally messy and hard to decipher. Skip it.
The last big chunk of actual Spider-Man stories is that of "Grim Hunt." These issues are the content from Web of Spider-Man 7 (incongruously named "Gauntlet Origins: Kraven"), Origin of the Hunter, the Grim Hunt Prologue, and ASM 634-637. While this storyline actually has some moments, especially the art of Marco Checchetto, it's overall not great and a really poor follow-up to Kraven's Last Hunt. Unless you're a massive Kraven/Kaine fan, skip it and go read Last Hunt, or even Nick Spencer's more recent Hunted.
This is followed by an aftermath-style story for Grim Hunt titled "Hunting the Hunter". Despite being written by DeMatteis himself, and therefore being solidly written in a vacuum, this four-part story is just somewhat uninteresting. Similarly to the previous chunk, you should only read this if you're really big on either Kraven or Kaine.
The Black Cat issues are overall rather inconsequential and have very little to do with Spider-Man. If you're somehow a big fan of the way Felicia's character was treated during the Brand New Day era, then check it out; otherwise, you can skip this one too.
The collection, at long last, concludes with the content of the Many Loves of the Amazing Spider-Man issue. The first story focuses on Carlie Cooper and Gwen Stacy; this one's okay. The second story focuses on Mary Jane, which gets massive points for being drawn by Ron Frenz himself.
Overall, don't waste your time.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews