X-Men and Spider-Man #4
The Mutant Hunter
Recently…[1]
Ed, a member of the Morlocks de-powered following M-Day, and his pal Joe Buggs fled from the tunnels they called home as they were being hunted by an unrelenting killer.[2] Ed was the only survivor and he goes to the X-Men to explain what happened. He insists that although he looked a little different, the man who killed Joe Buggs was Kraven the Hunter.[2] Cyclops thanks Ed for his information and Nightcrawler takes him off to get something to eat while the rest of the X-Men confer with one another. Wolverine’s senses have confirmed that what Ed told them appears to be the truth, at least as far as Ed understands it. When Colossus points out that Kraven the Hunter is dead, Shadowcat reminds him how that doesn’t mean much especially considering that he was also considered among the dead until recently.[3] Cyclops asks Wolverine to get in touch with Spider-Man.[4]
Soon enough Spider-Man meets up with the rest of the X-Men at the scene of Joe Bugg’s murder.[5] Spider-Man looks at the body and admits it does look like its something Kraven could do, but points out that the villain was dead last he checked. He also mentions how Kraven has family members who could have done this in his honor and asks if he can use Cerebra to try and figure that out.[6] After Spider-Man webs up the body so they can give it a burial, the X-Men take him and the body of Joe Buggs back to the Xavier Instititue.[7] However, when Spider-Man checks Cerebra, he determines that it could not have been any of Kraven’s known relatives. When Nightcrawler asks why Ed thought he saw Kraven, Spider-Man points out that his former foe was quite prolific in his day, he and Cyclops both remissness over the time they fought Kraven and the Blob years earlier. While Cyclops remarks how much he’s changed over the years, Spider-Man realizes his life hasn’t been all that different since he’s still broke, unemployed, and finding new ways to take a beating.[8]
That’s when Wolverine recalls how, a few years later, they uncovered the fact that Kraven was working for Mister Sinister to collect the DNA of the original X-Men and how Spider-Man later worked with later X-Men teams to shut down Sinister’s attempts at creating clones. That’s when Spider-Man begins putting things together, wondering if Mister Sinister cloned Kraven. That’s when the lights in the mansion go out. Just as Nightcrawler is wondering what they have to fear over a clone of Kraven, they are ambushed by the clone who somehow managed to evade detection from both Spider-Man’s spider-sense and Wolverine’s enhanced senses. He tosses a flashbang on the ground to blind his prey. Wolverine tries to attack first, but somehow this Kraven clone is able to deceive his senses. When Colossus tries attacking their opponent, the Kraven clone uses a knife made out of Vibranium to force him to revert back to flesh and blood. That’s when Spider-Man webs Kraven to the wall while the X-Men help their wounded.
Getting a good look at their foe, they notice that other than having white skin like Mister Sinister and being bald, this clone is the spitting image of Kraven the Hunter. When Spider-Man starts questioning the clone about its origins it thinks back to when it emerged from the cloning vats owned by Mister Sinister. At first, it thought it was the original Kraven, but Mister Sinister explained that his creation was so much more than his predecessor. Sinister had created the clone to be his perfect mutant hunter as he wished to collect the DNA of the last remaining mutants post M-Day. Sending the clone out into the world, Mister Sinister promises to give the creature a name after it succeeds in his mission. Snapping back to reality, the clone breaks free and announces he gave himself his own name, calling himself Xraven.
With their enemy free, Nightcrawler attempts to weaken Xraven by grabbing him and teleporting all over the room in rapid succession. However, Xraven is immune to this tactic and slashes Kurt with his knife. When the rest of the X-Men and Spider-Man try to pile on, Xraven demonstrates the ability to generate ice as well as fire optic blasts. Cyclops quickly deduces that Xraven has all of the powers of the original X-Men at his disposal. Cyclops calls him nothing but a cheap copy and tries to match his optic blasts wit Xraven’s. They are evenly matched until Xraven uses a bolo to knock Cyclops out. When Shadowcat tries to phase Xraven through the floor to a holding cell in the Mansion’s sub-basement, Xraven feints this by using his telepathy to stun her.
When Spider-Man points out that Mister Sinister didn’t leave much of the original Kraven if Xravin is resorting to holding a girl hostage. This angers Xraven and Cyclops recalls how the clone of Spider-Man they encountered previously was able to defeat Sinister by shaming him and suggest they try the same tactic. Cyclops tells Xraven that Sinister treats his “children” as puppet saying that the mad geneticist manipulated him since he was a child and opens up his mind to Xraven. Reading Scott’s mind, Xraven sees all the times Sinister manipulated him, this sudden shock allows Shadowcat to break free.[9] This upsets Xraven enough that he tosses more flashbangs on the ground to cover his escape. In the aftermath of the battle, they X-Men all realize that they were all wounded in the battle and that Xraven collected their DNA. Spider-Man is almost insulted because once again Sinister didn’t both with him, but Cyclops assures him that getting Sinister’s attention is not something to want. They also apologize to Spider-Man since he got sucked into their world by Sinister. Spider-Man thinks nothing of it and reminds Cyclops how he and the X-Men have a long history together that dates back to their early days.[10]
By this time, Xraven has returned to Mister Sinister’s lab with the DNA samples he collected from the X-Men. However, instead of handing them over, Xraven crushes the vials in his hand and attacks his master, refusing to be a slave any longer, destroying Sinister’s lab in the process. While back at the X-Mansion, Spider-Man is giving an impassioned speech about how Spider-Man and the X-Men have always been champions of justice and friends. He concludes by saying that what they do is the best there is. Wolverine interrupt to tell Spider-Man that he got his catch phrase backwards, annoying the web-slinger who was trying to have a moment.[11]
Recurring Characters
X-Men (Cyclops, Wolverine, Shadowcat, Colossus, Nightcrawler), Spider-Man, Mister Sinister, Morlocks
Continuity Notes
Chronologically this story takes place at the beginning the Brand New Day and story arc. Spider-Man appears here between Free Comic Book Day: Amazing Spider-Man #1 and Giant-Size Astonishing X-Men #1 and New X-Men (vol. 2) #42 and Astonishing X-Men (vol. 3) #13 for the X-Men. That places this story as occurring during “year twelve” of the Modern Age. The events of the past three issues have occurred roughly nine, five, and three years prior to this story.
This admission is a surprise to the X-Men as, at the time of this story, Kraven the Hunter had been dead for about five years by this point, having committed suicide during Kraven’s Last Hunt (Web of Spider-Man #31-32, Amazing Spider-Man #293-294, and Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #131-132)
Colossus sacrificed his life to trigger a cure for the Legacy Virus in Uncanny X-Men #390. However, it was later revealed that he was revived by Ord to study mutants and determine a way to destroy them, he’d resurface again in Astonishing X-Men (vol. 3) #3-6.
Cyclops mentions how Wolverine has been spending a lot of time with Spider-Man recently. He is referring to the fact that the pair have been members of the New Avengers since the team was formed in New Avengers #1-5.
Nightcrawler reminds Spider-Man how he attacked him the first time they met. That was in Amazing Spider-Man #161. Spider-Man was searching for a sniper who was killing people and mistook Nightcrawler for the killer (spoilers: it was actually Jigsaw)
At the time of this story, Spider-Man has had encounters with three of Kraven’s sons, Vladimir (who was active from Spider-Man #47 until his death in Spider-Man #55), Aloysha (who has been active since Spectacular Spider-Man #243) and Ned Tannengarden (who was active from Get Kraven #1-6) He will later meet his daughter Anastasia and her mother Sasha in Amazing Spider-Man #565.
The X-Mansion has had a memorial cemetery for fallen mutants since New X-Men #154.
Spider-Man mentions being unemployed. This story takes place shortly after Amazing Spider-Man #545, prior to Civil War #1-7, Peter was exclusively working for the New Avengers until he renounced the recently passed Super-Human Registration Act, making him an outlaw. Although Spider-Man managed to erase everyone’s memories of his idea post Amazing Spider-Man #545, it didn’t fix his employment problem. He will start working for the Daily Bugle again in Amazing Spider-Man #546.
Indeed Mister Sinister has been an ever present force in the life of Cyclops. The memories Xraven digs up are:
Mister Sinister experimented on Cyclops since he was an orphan, as revealed in Uncanny X-Men #241 and again, in more detail in back-up story in Classic X-Men #41-42.
He also pulls an image of the death of Madelyne Pryor. Also explained in the Inferno event, Madelyne was a clone of Jean Grey created during a period when Jean Grey was believed dead as Sinister wished Scott and Jean to produce a child. (see Uncanny X-Men #239-243 and X-Factor #36-39 and Annual #4)
The massive two page spread shows a number of times that Spider-Man and the X-Men have either fought each other or teamed up, these iconic scenes include:
The time that the X-Men were tricked into battling Spider-Man by Factor Three in X-Men #35.
The time that Spider-Man was hunted by Iceman on behalf of Sam Bullet in Amazing Spider-Man #92.
The aforementioned battle between Spider-Man and Nightcrawler from Amazing Spider-Man #161.
A scene of Scott Summers and Jean Grey calling up to Spider-Man from a rooftop is from Marvel Team-Up #4.
When Spider-Man and the X-Men battled a robot created by the Lords of Light and Darkness in Marvel Team-Up Annual #1.
A scene of Spider-Man with Wolverine (in his brown and orange costume) is adapted from the cover of Marvel Team-Up #117.
Also pictured is the time when Spider-Man helped the X-Men battle the Juggernaut from Marvel Team-Up #150.
Lastly, there is a scene of Spider-Man and the 90’s era X-Men is adapted from the cover of Spider-Man Team-Up #1.
Wolverine’s catch phrase is “I’m the best there is at what I do, but what I do best isn’t very nice.” was first uttered in (where else?) Wolverine #1.
