The Amazing Spider-Man: Grim Hunt

The Amazing Spider-Man (1999) (Collected Editions) #37

by Joe Kelly, J.M. DeMatteis, Fred Van Lente

Several years ago, one of Spider-Man's greatest enemies, Kraven the Hunter, stalked his last prey, dying with a violent, misbegotten honor. Now, two women claiming to be his wife and daughter have tracked Spider-Man, through the urban jungle, weakening him through the Gauntlet while they prepare to attempt an unholy resurrection. They're hunting Spiders...and Spider-Man's friends and namesakes are in their sights. J.M. DeMatteis, author of the classic "Kraven's Last Hunt" returns to the Amazing Spider-Man with Max Fiumara to explore an unknown confrontation between Kraven and Spidey's violent doppelganger KAINE.

Collecting:

Amazing Spider-Man #634-637, Grim Hunt Prologue and material from Web Of Spider-Man #7 & Spider-Man Origin Of The Hunter.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Spider Man, Marvel, Superheroes, Comic Book, Fiction

168 pages, Paperback

First published November 3, 2010

About the author

Librarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name

Reviews

[Jeff]

This is grim. Dour, depressing, gloomy; everything a Spiderman story is usually not. Where’s the Quip-head?

Here you have the family of third-rate villain Kraven trying to raise him from the dead. I say, why bother? Against them, you have most of the Spider-powered super heroes/family. Sorry, it’s spelled s-p-y-d-e-r. And Spiderman’s evil clone (GAH!!!!), Kaine, figures into this mess. I know, like a clone in a Spiderman story is a bad thing.*

To make it worse you have murky art that you don’t quite know what it is trying to picture. A fight, a foot, a punch, a pizza dinner, Ben Franklin? It's anybody's guess.

*For you comic novices, it is a bad thing. A very, bad thing.

[RG]

Losing interest in this series but I'll continue and get to Slotts run

[Anne]

It's a serious Spider-Man story.
You know, the kind without any jokes.
Blasphemy, I say!

Ok, it's not the worst thing I've read, but it just doesn't have a very Spidey feel to it.
Part of the reason for that is because Spider-Man isn't really in this very much. It's mostly a story about Kraven, and by extension, his wacky family. Even Kaine (one of Peter's manymanymany clones) gets more page time than Parker.
In fact, if you're in the mood for a Kaine and Kraven story...well, then you've found your book!
However, if you're looking for something that's not dark and depressing?
Keep looking.

The plot sounds something like this:
Kraven's dead. His bat-shit crazy wife is determined to bring him back with Spyder-blood voodoo. Or something along those lines.
At any rate, Sssssssspyders must die!
So the Krazy Kravens start targeting anyone who wears the Spider mantle.
As a fun side note, it appears that one of the Kraven Klan is a werewolf!
In the backdrop, Madam Web kind of narrates the story in her wishy-washy rambling way.
If the WEB is cut...
He doesn't know...
If only they could see...
Ok, old lady. Either tell us what's going on or shut up!
Anyhoo.
Lots of Spider-people have dramatic moments, Kraven tells his backstory, Kaine entertains us with the first time he met Kraven, and sandwiched in there are a few scenes with Peter.
Then...
There's a death, a Kraven family feud, and more Madam Jabberweb.
Don't worry, folks! It all works out in the end.
Sort of.

Anyway. Should you read this?
Well, how the hell should I know that?!

[Wing Kee]

For all the build up...meh.

World: The art is okay, it is very of it's times and it is what it is. The world building here is okay, as it pulls on a lot of the magic spider stuff from before which I enjoyed. I liked the call back to Kraven and the pieces that were used. I do wish the scope of the Spiders could be bigger but oh well.

Story: It was okay, nothing really special. For the build up this was rather ho hum and nothing all that special. Sure there were spiders a plenty but u felt it was not enough. Also the Kaine story that went along with it was also rather boring. I will say that for something like this there is little consequence of note and the end just brings back an old character instead of the huge fight we would have expected.

Characters: Peter is Peter, the rest of thr spiders were fun and interesting, wish there was more time for them. The Kravinov was rather ho hum and one dimensional. Forgettable.

It was a forgettable event that should have had bigger fallout and stakes then what we got.

Onward to the next book!

[Frédéric]

Boy, the Kravinoffs are real nutcases. The famous Gauntlet saga concludes here with Sasha Kravinoff's totally crazy plan put into its final motions.

This arc is particularly violent for Spider-Man, an effect accentuated by the dark and realistic drawings of Lark or Checcheto, depending on the episode. The back-up story of Kaine and Kraven is also well done, with cleverly placed underlying links to the famous Kraven's Last Hunt arc.

A good arc, which can be read on its own – there is a good summary at the beginning – but which is best enjoyed as a continuation of The Gauntlet.

[Roman]

Для мене - одна із кращих арок павучка (з тих, що пішли від Brand new day) за сюжетом, понурим кліматом та візуальним оформленням. Хоча не без хаосу та трішки не до кінця знаними мені персонажами. Побічну історію Кайна та Крейвена навіть не хотілось читати, бо основна історія тримала в напрузі. Якраз цей хаос та друга міні-історія не дають мені поставити 5, але в якості примітки роблю невеличкий відгук.

[Dan]

Really torn for a rating on this....at times I loved it, and other times the flashback scenes seemed perplexing and bothered me. So I guess I will give this a solid 3 stars. Worth at least picking it up and checking it out.

[Antonio]

2,5 ⭐

[Μιχάλης]

Τι παιρνεις αν συνδυασεις μια απο τις καλυτερες (Kraven's Last Hunt) με μια μα-καλα-δεν-την-εκρυψαν-κατω-απο-το-χαλι (The Other) ιστοριες:
Μια ιστορια που, αν δεν προσπαθουσε τοσο, ισως και να μην ηταν τοσο απογοητευτικη

[Anthony Rizzie]

If you have read Kraven's Last Hunt and followed the Kravinoff family and characters since then, The Gauntlet storyline capped off by Grim Hunt was well done. Yes, this was a far more serious read without the quipping and humor but there is reason for that. I thought the tone was perfect, and the other characters involved all had purpose. To each their own of course, but I thoroughly enjoyed this and found it riveting start to finish.

[Emre Yavuz]

3,5/4
Çoktandır bu tarz sert Örümcek Adam hikâyeleri okumuyordum. İyi geldi.
Serinin iddialı ciltlerinden biri.

[Timothy]

3 1/2 stars.

I've been a big Spider-Man fan ever since I was a kid. He was my all-time favorite super-hero, until I ran across the senior citizen version of Dominic Fortune, so I'm always up for a good Spider-Man story/series. The "Spider-Man: The Gauntlet" series tells the stories about Spider-Man's fights with old and new foes, orchestrated by the Kravinoff family in an attempt to soften Spidey up for "The Grim Hunt" (Compiled in a separate volume).

Vol. 4 of the series, Juggernaut, is comprised of 4 different story arcs. The first, "The Sting", involves Spidey following a man he believes to be his rommate's (Michelle) new boyfriend to a meeting of shady characters. It turns out that this is a meeting of thugs vying for the right to wear the costume of the original Scorpion. The party is crashed by a new, female version of The Scorpion who also wants the costume for reasons of her own. The story was rather tame and uninteresting. The main villain, "The Hood", didn't seem all that powerful or interesting, and Spidey didn't seem to have much to do. The art in this one was also sub-par. I'm sure they were trying for some kind of "gritty" vibe with it, but it just came across as unfinished and unpolished. Fortunately, the art in the rest of the book was much better.

The second story arc, "Something Can Stop the Juggernaut", finds Spidey fighting on the side of the Juggernaut, for a change, to help save him from a new incarnation of Captain Universe. This is a nice return to some of the straight-forward, old-style Spidey stories. There's jokes, action, spectacular fights, and a nice little twist involving Juggernaut and the powers of Captain Universe. Perhaps the best part was how it was, basically, a continuation of the story from the very first time Spidey and Juggernaut tangled.

The third story was a bit of a puzzle. It really had nothing to do with the whole "Gauntlet" story arc, unless you consider Spidey losing a chance to interview for a job as part of the psychic and/or emotional weakening that is supposed to be leading up to "The Grim Hunt". Basically, Peter Parker is on his way to interview for a job when he runs across Crusher Creel, The Absorbing Man, tearing up the street. Of course, he has to change into Spidey to stop the mayhem, thereby losing out on the potential job. It almost seems like they dropped it in as a bit of a comic interlude.


The fourth, and final, story arc is a reprinting of the original, two story first battle between Spidey and Juggernaut started in "Nothing Can Stop the Juggernaut". My biggest complaint with this was that they put it in the wrong place. If they're going to do "Something Can Stop the Juggernaut" as a continuation of this one, why not put it first? (I've had this complaint with other Spider-Man compilations, where they tell the story of what happened after before they tell the story of what happened before.)

All in all, a pretty fun little trip through Spidey-land with some good artwork. If you're a Spider-Man fan who hasn't had a chance to check this series out, I would definitely suggest you give it a look-see. If you're new to the Spider-Man universe, you might want to start somewhere else and build up to this one. One word of warning, though. If you're going to read "The Gauntlet" series, start with vol. 1 and read them in order. There are things that happen in the earlier volumes that are referenced here (such as why Peter Parker is going out on job interviews), so you might be confused if you didn't start at the beginning.

[Andy]

Despite being initially dubious, I've been quietly pleased with the recent Gauntlet storyline. If you haven't read the preceding 5 volumes, don't be too concerned as they really don't add much. Though billed as a collective web leading to this event, the Kravinoff's never really had enough involvement throughout to count and Spidey is always fighting villains and encountering personal strife, so no different to normal really. Still, they were good stories and acted to build a level of excitement for this pay off.

Grim Hunt really serves as a direct follow up (albeit one separated by over 20 years of continuity) to Kraven's Last Hunt, a classic and deservedly respected Spidey story. Spoilers present therein:

My fear with this story was a resurrection of Kraven. His death was powerful and I feel should be honoured; he didn't need to be brought back as his heritage continues in Spidey's world through his family. Yet, he is brought back. I still have mixed feelings about it (especially the magical aspect to it all) though I thought it was done fairly well.

What we get is a dark and gritty story, bringing together some of the mystical sides to Spidey with a partial resurrection of the Spider-totem story-lines (again, something I actually quite liked). A large knowledge of Spider-Man continuity is required here (new readers should find Wikipedia helpful in filling gaps). We get Pete, Vermin, the Kraven clan, two Spider-Women, one Spider-Girl, Madame Web, Kaine and Ezekiel. Even MJ and Harry briefly turn up (plus a bunch of wild animals that are never really explored).

There's quite a lot of death too, some rather shocking as old character die, some get changed and some get new starts. Spidey (near the end) acts in a way we've not seen before, almost as though possessed while hunting the Kravinoff's. Actually, I wasn't sure whether the Spider-force had taken him over, especially with what he does to Sasha and what he almost ends up doing to Kraven. There's so little speech from him, that you wonder whether it truly is him. The artwork through all of this is fantastically dark, perfectly suiting the tone.

There's a lot going on here (plus the numerous back-up stories collected). It feels epic and important and it does change some elements of the current Spider-Man universe. Overall, I liked it. I'm still not certain about Kraven being alive again, but it's a powerful story and holds up with the original death of Kraven (and if you haven't read that, go get it). Maybe not great for newbies but a good read.

[Salman Titas]

"Spyder! Spyder! Burning Bright
In The Forests Of The Night,
What Immortal Hand Or Eye
Could Frame Thy Fearful Symmetry?"

Okay, before someone sues me, I know the original poem starts with Tyger, but this was the one used in the comic.

I have to admit, this story was satisfactory. Very, very satisfactory. The art is good. The artist could have tried drawing a better Julia, but otherwise it blends in with the tone of the story, which is very dark. This story arc is riddled with violence, blood and death. Three key members of the spider-family die, though one of them eventually returns.

We see the dark side of Spider-Man. I know this has been said before. He showed a glimpse of it back in Goblin's Last Stand, Death of Jean DeWolf, Back in Black, and many others. But none like this. Spider-Man had once said, "I looked over the edge, didn't liked what I saw and walked away." Let's just say he might have to reconsider that, in light of events.

[Nick]

Grim Hunt is the sequel to the classic Spider-Man story Kraven's Last Hunt from the 1980s by J.M. DeMatteis. While not as good, the story is a dark, thrilling conclusion to the Gauntlet storyline that dominated the Amazing Spider-Man title for a number of months. This edition also includes an untold Kraven story by DeMatteis and a number of short filler pages that help to understand the background of everyone's favorite crazy Marvel family, the Kravinoffs. What's most refreshing about Grim Hunt is the spare-no-expense bleakness that Joe Kelly brings to his script. This is a beaten Peter Parker, on the brink of doing things he would normally never consider doing, let alone follow through on. The shared art duties by Michael Lark, Stefano Gaudiano and Marco Checcretto establishes the dark, seedy underbelly necessary for this tale.

[Mike]

Van Lente keeps coming through with a cool angle on Kraven's origins. Casey does a passable job with a backup of Spidey and MJ - but Mahfood does a crazy job of art-ing like a funhouse mirror array. (Let's not even talk about the DeFalco/Spider-Girl crap.)

Surprise: Joe Kelly can write a straight, somber, moody, almost creepy story - and doesn't fall back on his comedic talents to ruin the effect. Impressive art that fully supports the seriousness of the story. Story goes where I didn't expect (eventually) though no one should be shocked at a comic-book resurrection anymore.

The backup Kaine/Kraven story is good (great art).

The Stan Lee story? What the hell are they thinking? He's not running the place anymore - there is *no* reason to keep pulling this pedestrian shit off the company fridge and publishing it.

[Simone]

Se volete leggere la mia recensione, cliccate qui!

http://ascwblog.blogspot.it/2016/02/l...

[Fizzgig76]

Reprints Amazing Spider-Man (2) #634-637, Amazing Spider-Man: Extra! #3, and Web of Spider-Man (2) #7 (May 2009-September 2010). Kraven the Hunter took Spider-Man to his darkest moment. When he defeated and buried Spider-Man alive, Kraven himself was pushed to the edge and ended his own life. Now, Kraven’s children and his wife intend to bring Kraven back from the dead and start the Grim Hunt. Spider-Man has been pushed to the limits by his enemies and now he is primed for the hunt. It is going to take everyone in Spider-Man’s “family” to stop Kraven, and not everyone will survive!

Written by Joe Kelly with additional stories by Fred Van Lente, Phil Jimenez, J.M. DeMatteis, and Zeb Wells, Spider-Man: The Grim Hunt is a Marvel Comics superhero collection. Following Spider-Man: The Gauntlet—Volume 5: Lizard, the collection features art by Michael Lark, Phillipe Briones, Phil Jimenez, Marco Checchetto, Stefano Gaudiano, and Max Fiumara. In addition to Amazing Spider-Man (2) #634-637 (August 2010-September 2010), the collection features additional stories form Amazing Spider-Man: Extra! #3 (May 2009) and Web of Spider-Man (2) #7 (June 2010).

I hadn’t read any of The Gauntlet when I read Spider-Man: The Grim Hunt. While it doesn’t feel like it was necessarily, it might have helped the story. Kraven the Hunter has never been my favorite character and Spider-Man: The Grim Hunt didn’t change my opinion.

I’ve had this experience before with Joe Kelly. I like a lot of his ideas, but I’m not a huge fan of his execution. The Grim Hunt throws a lot at you in a quick period of time and ties into the J. Michael Straczynski run. It unceremoniously dispatches Mattie Franklin and sets up the poorly used Julia Carpenter as the new Madame Web. There is too much going on, and the characters deserve better…even Kraven’s clan.

The story also suffers from Marvel’s printing style at the time. Amazing Spider-Man was on a rapid-fire twice a month schedule and the issues also feel a bit weighty in comparison with other titles. Marvel put the back-up story of Kaine vs. Kraven as a four issue story in the back of each issue and the story kind of sets up Kraven’s Last Hunt. I wish that this had been told a different way and the choppy nature of writing it, had me just going back and rereading it as a whole after I read The Grim Hunt. It probably would have been better served as a stand-alone one-shot instead of a back-up story.

Spider-Man: The Grim Hunt feels like a big moment put in a little, insignificant package. The lead up to the story and the ramifications of the story were rather big, but it reads like any other Spider-Man story. Marvel followed the big storyline with the “One Day More” explainer series “One Moment in Time” and then “Origin of the Species” before kicking Spider-Man into high gear again with “Big Time”. Spider-Man: The Grim Hunt is a necessary read to understand what is happening in Big Time, but don’t expect to be wowed. Spider-Man: The Grim Hunt is followed by Spider-Man: One Moment in Time.

[Kris Shaw]

So this is supposed to be the payoff? After plowing through all 5 Gauntlet hardcovers, this is what it all leads to? While not horrible, I felt underwhelmed after that much investment, both in time and money. No spoilers, only these gripes: Ret-cons suck, as do resurrections. There is some sucky dialogue in here too, with Spider-Man doing several "..." replies, and even Arana saying "BTW...". I wish that I were kidding about that, but Joe Kelly is such a lazy writer that he saved a few keystrokes by doing that. Rather than have her say "By the way", they had her say something that has more syllables, as if anyone would really do that. Horrible writing.

[Rocky Sunico]

After so much build-up and gathering so many different Spider-Man villains, we ended up with this? I have to admit the sheer length of the larger storyline built up far too much anticipation for the core part of this arc leaving a rather disappointing story in its wake. It could have been a lot better and maybe more focused but instead, we just continued to dip into the spider mythos without committing too deeply to anything with the Kraven family being weird and with only incidental appearances by some of the other villains recruited into this effort. Why?

[Thomas Crawford]

This arc serves to sort of “trim the fat” off of Spider-Man canon, eliminating a bunch of former supporting spider-cast members and Kraven the Hunter knock-offs in one fell swoop. Also doesn’t quite tie off all the threads of The Gauntlet, the previous story that theoretically led into this one.
Still, some fun fights and does a good job as both a storyline reset and setup for future storylines. I sure hope the next arc isn’t revisiting one of the most universally disliked spider-man stories of all time!

[Bob]

"Grim Hunt" is probably the only good comic to ever feature Mattie Franklin, Mdm. Web, Kaine, or Ezekiel Sims.

It does help that they all have grisly, if sadly temporary, deaths.

If that sounds like I'm blooodthirsty, yes, after the awful Mdm. Web movie & JMS's awful Totems Saga, I'm owed some bloody catharsis.

Also, unlike the story shortly before it "Something Can Stop the Juggernaut" an unworthy sequel to classic Spidey story "Nothing Can Stop the Juggernaut", "Grim Hunt" is a worthy sequel to classic Spidey story "Kraven's Last Hunt".

[Daniel]

Takes two flavours of Spider-Man I don’t like - Dark and Mystical - and makes a pretty engaging story out of ‘em. Probably helped by the build-up towards this story over the last few trades. Little Spider-Family event comic, kind of like a grim version of Into the Spiderverse (with admittedly less exciting characters). It turns out rushed in the end, but all in all one of the better stories of the pre-Slott run.

[Amanda Shepard (Between-the-Shelves)]

Kraven the Hunter honestly has never been my favorite Spider-Man villain, so this was just okay for me. It gets a bit dark there towards the middle, without that usual Peter Parker/Spider-Man charm and wit. Usually he can add a bit of lightheartedness to a grim situation, but apparently not this time.

The art in this one also just felt okay, nothing really stood out to me. An all right Spider-Man comic, in the scheme of things.

[Muzaffer Gümüşsu]

Kraven olayı artık kabak tadı verse de konu işlenişinin epey karanlık olması hoşuma gitti, bazı anlarda Daredevil okuyormuşum etkisi yarattı. Ayrıca Kraven'ın Son Avı'nın yazarı J. M. DeMatteis'in ek hikayesinin geçmişle kurduğu bağlantı da güzeldi. Yine de artık ne Kaine ne de Kraven görmek istemiyorum...

[Keith]

Yeesh! A bloody, gruesome story with a dark and depressing tone. And worst of all Spidey came across here as flat, one-dimensional, and humorless. The art was stiff and overly muddy and dark too. Glad I got this one from the library and didn't pay for it.

[Kameron Nettleton]

I've read Kraven's Last Hunt and now this, and I've decided something: Kraven is a lot more interesting to me in theory than in actuality. This had some cool Spider-Man stuff, but Kraven and his family just didn't do much for me.

[Joakim Ax]

The Gauntlet has all led up to this. The Grim Hunt. Villains returning and heroes ending there is quite alot going on within the 4 main issues. One or two twists that spices things up for future storylines.

[Enes Aktürk]

Uzun süredir build-up'ı yapılan amansız av hikayesini sonunda gördük. 4. Ciltteki hikayenin direkt devamı niteliğinde. Bu serileri en ciddi Spider-man hikayesiydi. Ama bu kadar hype' a daha iyisini beklerdim. 3.5/5

[Tristan PastranI]

THE WRITER IS VERY SMART FOR WITE THIS.