Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 5 No. 22: Kraven’s Last Last Hunt…again

Credit: Humberto Ramos, Victor Olazaba, Edgar Delgado, Erick Arciniega (Marvel Comics); from

Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 5 No. 22

Stillanerd’s Nerdy Nitpicks (with lethal spoilers)

More from Comics

• 6 reasons why Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is perfection
• Invincible season 2: Every key difference from the comic and the TV show (S2E3)
• X-Men: 6 reasons why Marvel’s mutants are the best superhero team
• Harley Quinn renewed for a fifth season on Max (and it’s well-deserved)
• Marvel Comics announces seven important X-Men comic books

• “Which of you is to be sacrificed first?” Why even ask them that question, Kraven Jr.? Better yet, why even announce your presence at all? Aren’t hunters supposed to be quiet when stalking their prey?
• “What a trophy you will be worthing of stealing?” What exactly are you saying here, Kraven Jr.? Are you saying Black Cat isn’t supposed to be your kill even though you clearly were going after her and Billy? Or did you say that because Black Cat is a thief and you thought it’d be ironic to steal the life of someone who steals?
• Oh, great! We’re going back to this spider-totem, “web of fate” mysticism that’s never fitted a character like Spider-Man at all. Then again, because it’s Kraven who saying all this, perhaps we’re meant to think it’s utter nonsense.
• Okay, Kraven is correct about most kids being afraid of spiders. But to take as proof that spiders are “nature’s purest predator” and “it’s most nightmarish hunter?” Seriously? What about sharks? Or snakes? Or wolves? Or lions and tigers and bears?
• “[I] desired to make [your gifts] my own.” Nice of the comic to remind us that, long before Doctor Octopus became the Superior Spider-Man, Kraven did it first during “Kraven’s Last Hunt,” and it made much more sense.
• Okay, so Arcade’s instructions are if Spider-Man kills Kraven, he’ll deactivate the Hunterbots which will then safely unplug the wealthy weekend warriors. Then he’ll “send [his] drones to save Billy Connors and the Black Cat.” Only the drones are the Hunterbots, which can only be piloted using a VR headset. Which also means they can only be operated by a human host. So who’s Arcade going to get to pilot those Hunterbots? The weekend warriors who he just freed?
• Thanks for Kraven’s potions, Spider-Man once again has a vision of Mary Jane dead in her apartment, which may be either a hallucination or, given his spider-sense, a premonition. Only…how does Kraven know what Spider-Man sees? It’s not like he has any telepathic powers or anything. Is he just assuming that Spider-Man sees MJ dead? Because what if Spidey didn’t see that?
• And Spider-Man becomes Sherlock Holmes all of a sudden as he realizes the wounds on the guards’ bodies are not consistent with claw marks. This despite the fact that Spidey’s senses are still dulled by Kraven’s potions and that he’s currently beating the snot out of Kraven in a blind rage.
• Seems that Kraven Jr. really isn’t that good with a knife if Black Cat can still survive a direct stab wound to the back. Either that or her luck powers caused to knife to miss all of her vital organs. Come to think of it, how come Black Cat didn’t use her luck powers to even the odds against Kraven Jr. like, say, cause a tree branch to suddenly snap and fall on him?
• And without warning, there’s a third-person omniscient narrator. Then again, having emulated most of “Kraven’s Last Hunt” already, might as well go out with some J.M. DeMatteis style caption boxes.
• “I don’t get it–what happened?” Did you not hear all the Hunterbots saying “System Shutdown,” Scorpion?
• To count up which villains survived, there’s Vulture, Scorpion, Rhino, Tarantula, White Rabbit, Panda-Mania, Scorpio, Armadillo, the Owl, the Hippo, the Squid…wait…where’s Stegron? What happened to Stegron? You better not be telling me that the mighty Stegron the Dinosaur Man is dead, comic!
• Yes, Spider-Man! Mary Jane’s in trouble! Go save her! Just don’t forget about Black Cat and Billy Connors. Um, Spidey? Black Cat and Billy? You’re just going to leave them alone in Central Park, at night? When there’s still all those super villains still roaming around? Spidey?
• In hindsight, we probably should’ve realized that wasn’t the real Spider-Man considering how the real Spidey has a huge knife slash across his abdomen. Not to mention the differences in body types, which Kraven Jr. should’ve noticed. Then again, the art does make this hard to tell.
• So which one of Kraven’s kid clones took their family photo? And how come all 87 of his “kids” weren’t in the photo? On a related note, why did Kraven have the rifle in the coffin if he wasn’t going to use it?

Now that “Hunted” is over, do you think it was worth the hype and build up? Was killing off Kraven again the right call? Do you also think that Kraven never should’ve been brought back to life to begin with? Also, with Amazing Spider-Man No. 23 acting as an epilogue, what do you expect will happen in that issue?