Grim Hunt Chapter Three

At the Bronx Zoo, the night watchmen are making their rounds when they find a bunch of dead spiders littered on the ground. Turning the corner they are horrified to see that the lions have gotten out of their pen.

Meanwhile, Sasha Kravinoff bathes the recently resurrected Sergei Kravinoff, the original Kraven the Hunter.[1] She tells him how she has sacrificed so much to bring him back to life. As the lions in the zoo rip the guards to shreds, Sasha tells her husband that he is needed in the world as it has grown fat and lazy in his absence. The hunter is need so their family can fulfill its destiny. Once the bathing is complete, Kraven gazes at the body of Spider-Man, whose death brought him back to life. His body has been impaled to the wall among all of Kraven’s past trophies. Kraven finally breaks his silence and tells Sasha to show him his family.

Meanwhile, Araña and Arachne have been locked up with Madame Web. Araña in particular is taking Spider-Man’s death really hard and asks why this all happened. Arachne has decided that this is all Madame Web’s fault. The elderly clairvoyant can only sit on the other side of the room babbling about how the web has been broken. That’s when the Grim Hunter enters the cell occupied by the three women. At that same moment, Kraven meets with his family and takes their scent. Seeing Ana for the first time in years he is surprised how much she has grown.[2] That’s when he notices that Vladimir is not present and demands to know where he is.

Down in the dungeon, Arachne and Araña try to fight off the Grim Hunter, but the man-beast is far too savage for them. However, before the creature can sink his teeth into Araña’s throat, Kraven arrives and beats the creature into submission. He demands to know what happened to Vladimir, and Sasha explains that he was the test subject to determine if the resurrection formula could bring Sergei back to life.[3] She tells him that his son has served him well and that his fate is in Kraven’s hands. Kraven tells his wife that she has no idea what she has done and that none of this is right.

Elsewhere in the city, Mary Jane and Harry Osborn are walking in the rain. Mary Jane is worried that she hasn’t heard from Peter in a while, but when Harry suggests that she talk to him, she explains it is complicated.[4] Harry tells her that she doesn’t know from complicated, pointing out that his girlfriend Lily Hollister was impregnated by his father.[5] That’s when they notice a mischief of rats come pouring out of the sewers. Harry thinks that it’s just the storm driving the rats out of the sewers, by Mary Jane finds this all familiar somehow and suspects that there is something seriously wrong.[6] Elsewhere in the city, zoo animals are on the loose and are attacking people in the streets. From her window, Norah Winters takes photos of the gorillas outside while talking to her mother, saying that she is considering leaving New York after all the recent weirdness.[7] As all this chaos is going on, Madame Web considers how the Kravinoff family has torn the web and that spiders, like nature itself, abhores a vacuum.

Back at the Kravinoff estate, the Chameleon voices his concern that his brother is not entirely there. Sasha insists that her husband just needs time to adjust to being resurrection, but the Chameleon points out how Kraven committed suicide and suggest that perhaps he didn’t want to come back. Kraven sits silently in his throne room gazing at Spider-Man’s lifeless body. Ana and Sasha join him and when the his daughter asks his father if he is proud of her, but he doesn’t speak. Getting to her knees, Ana Kravinoff asks her father what she can do to make things better. When he suddenly moves to try and strike her, Ana instinctively stabs him in the chest with one of her daggers. Although Sasha chastises her daughter for trying to kill her husband, Sergei tells Ana that she did as well as this was how she was trained.

Down in the dungeon, Madame Web smiles as her clairvoyance allows her to see what is transpiring upstairs. Although he was fatally stabbed, Kraven is still alive and he demands to know what Sasha had done to him as he has been cured with unlife. As he chokes Sasha she explains how she used the potion and sacrificed Spider-Man to bring him back from the dead. That’s when Kraven gets up close to the copse of the web-slinger and takes in his scent. He recognizes it, but tells her that this isn’t the real Spider-Man, but an impostor. That’s when they unmask the body and discover that it is actually Kaine, Spider-Man’s clone. Sasha assures her husband that they will make this right, but he tells her that this is not for her to fix.

At that moment, Peter Parker pulls himself out of the earth of the graveyard. He remembers how he was fleeing the Kravinoff family and fell into an open grave. He was confronted by Kaine who then knocked him out and stole his costume, deciding to finally be a hero. Rushing into the Kravinoff manor, Peter kicks down the front door and finds Kaine’s dead body in a coffin. Pinned to the front of the coffin is Spider-Man’s black-and-white costume with a note that reads “Hunt Me.”

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Kraven the Hunter, Sasha Kravinoff, Ana Kravinoff, Aloysha Kravinoff, Chameleon, Grim Hunter, Araña, Arachne, Madame Web, Kaine (corpse), Mary Jane Watson, Harry Osborn, Norah Winters

Continuity Notes

1. Kraven committed suicide during Kraven’s Last Hunt. See Web of Spider-Man #31-32, Amazing Spider-Man #293-294, and Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #131-132. Per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616, Kraven killed himself six years prior to this story.

2. According to Amazing Spider-Man #567, Ana would be about 13 years old at the time of this story. Per the Sliding Timescale that would have made Ana about 7 years old when her father killed himself.

3. Vladimir Kravinoff, aka the Grim Hunter, was killed by Kaine in Spider-Man #50. Sasha sacrificed Spider-Woman (aka Mattie Franklin) to resurrect Vladimir in Amazing Spider-Man #634. However, because she wasn’t a “pure” spider it turned Vladimir into the lion-esque creature that appears in this story.

4. Peter and Mary Jane have been broken up since Amazing Spider-Man #545. The details of their break up was detailed in Amazing Spider-Man #605.

5. Harry has been dating Lily Hollister since Amazing Spider-Man #545. Lily was also secretly the villain known as Menace by using equipment she found hidden in Norman Osborn’s home. She discovered that she was pregnant. At the time of this story everyone believes that the baby is Norman Osborn’s. It’s later revealed that the baby is actually Harry’s. For more on Lily Hollister read Amazing Spider-Man #584-588, Amazing Spider-Man #567-573, and Amazing Spider-Man #595-599. The revelation about Harry’s baby is revealed in Amazing Spider-Man #642-647.

6. Mary Jane’s sense of deja vu is because she witnessed a similar occurrence during Kraven’s Last Hunt.

7. Norah refers to “lizardpalooza”, which is a reference to the Shed storyarc which took place in Amazing Spider-Man #630-633.

War

Kaine had been hired by a Chicago mobster to eliminate Kraven the Hunter. When he refused to accept double the payment to drop the bounty, Kaine had his throat slashed by Kraven. Presuming his opponent to be dying, Sergei Kravinioff orders two of his servants to drag Kaine out and give him a proper burial. Sergei is disappointed in Kaine’s easy defeat because, for just a moment, he thought that the assassin was something more.

However, Kaine is far from dead and uses his Mark of Kaine to cauterize the wound on his throat. Then, after killing the servants, enters Kraven’s throne room. By this time, Kraven is gone and his assistant — Mwanga — once again implores Kaine to leave because nothing good can come from continued conflict with Kraven. Hearing Kraven howling like a wild animal outside, Kaine goes outside to the graveyard to face him.

There Kraven stands before an open grave prepared for Kaine and asks him if he can hear the jungle in his mind. As it turns out, the knife which Kraven used to slash Kaine’s throat was also drugged. Kaine denies hearing anything, thinking that the drugs can’t work on a clone like him. That’s when he is swarmed by lions, but Kaine easily slaughters the big cats with his bare hands. In the aftermath of the battle, Kaine considers how Kraven thought he was something more. He admits that until tonight he always thought of himself as something less than human, but his encounter with Kraven has apparently changed that and runs back into the mansion.

Kraven follows after him and discovers, much to his misery, that Kaine has murdered Mwanga with one of his spears. Kraven’s sorrow turns to anger and Kaine tells the hunter to bring it on. Having drank some of Mwanga’s blood, Kraven sees Kaine for what he truly is, a savage copy of Spider-Man, and that soon he can find the peace he so strongly desires.

Recurring Characters

Kraven the Hunter, Kaine

Spidey Sundays Part Three

Spider-Man is heading home after meeting with Mister Fantastic to solve a problem with is latest invention. He is unaware that he is being followed by Brain and Bull, two criminals who escaped to the web-slinger’s world from another dimension. As Spider-Man enters his apartment, the pair hope to uncover Spider-Man’s secret identity.

Inside, Spider-Man muses how his invention could make him famous enough that they will make a movie about him. As he changes into Peter Parker and goes about working his invention he is unaware that his is being observed by Bull and Brain. However, the two nitwits don’t see Spider-Man unmask and when they see Peter Parker, they assume that he is Spider-Man’s sidekick.

Getting a good look at the invention, Brain becomes more interested in it than Spider-Man’s secret identity because he realizes that they are building a time machine.

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Brain, Bull

Continuity Notes

• Kraven the Hunter’s life is connected to the Russian aristocracy which was abolished following the October Revolution of 1917. Unlike other characters who exist in the Modern Age, Kraven’s life has been extended by unexplained means. The closest reference to his prolonged life is made in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #6. One could make the assumption that Kravne’s lifespan has been extended by the various potions and serums he uses to enhance his physical abilities.