::Do we need a Kraven the Hunter movie? I’m not sure that we do!::
It could've been worse—we might have gotten a "Hunter" Thompson movie instead!
Despite being named after the famous gonzo journalist (and sharing a last name with Peter's Frenemy Flash Thompson), he's a third-rate Kraven knockoff who popped up in the Seventies once or twice. I'm guessing somebody at Marvel created him in a moment of pique when whoever the current Editor-in-Chief was (until Jim Shooter in 1978, it was revolving door of EiCs—Marv Wolfman, Gerry Conway, Archie Goodwin) said they couldn't use Kraven for one reason of another.
Because of his name the character stuck in my mind somehow, which was fun when, during that brief period my former wife and I worked for Marvel, I threatened to make him the incoming baddie if our editor didn't choose somebody for us.
We also had a Karl Rove analogue who my wife, I thought brilliantly, made a devoted grandfather as well as an utter scumbag—I wanted to write a lot more about this guy once she put that twist on him!
Kraven did have a great story in kravens last hunt, a truly grisly story that involves him shooting spider man in the face, putting on his costume and trying to prove he's better. It's a masterpiece, taking spidey to dark places and somehow not being the edgelord mess it could've.
This film sounds like that mess. A film that doesn't get kraven in a dark place worked because he was the bad guy, a dying man desperate to prove his worth. Instead he's a muscly brooding anti hero for some reason. They can't even have him at least hunt animal villains like the recent game or the mediocre crossover with a great concept hunted, give it some spectacle. It has the issue most bad comic movies have focusing on "see see the thing" instead of writing a story. Sony was so desperate for it's own universe it failed to see the actual characters it could use and grasped at straws.
JM DeMatteis is very good at being dark without tipping into edgelordery – and for that matter, drama & comedy (cf. JLI); what I’m saying is he’s a great all-around writer.
Kraven’s Last Hunt is what’s most responsible for putting Kraven in at least the lower A-list of Spider-Man villains…and also, is a story you cannot do without Spider-Man, mid-career and in a committed relationship. So why even bother with a Kraven solo movie in the Spider-Man Minus Spider-Man Cinematic Universe. I think the best option here (if one must) would’ve been to just play off Kraven as black comedy.
No disrespect to Kraven's Last Hunt, which is of course the definitive Kraven story, but I'd say what made Kraven an A-list Spider-Man villain was when Ditko put him in the original Sinister Six all the way back in 1964.
I remember Kraven the Hunter showing up in the [generally excellent] Squirrel Girl comics. It seems like a bit of an in-joke, like, "let's add this totally forgotten Marvel character into the mix for a while, I bet some people will think we just made him up". All I remember is that he had a Russian accent, and that his vehicle was a custom job known as a "Kra-Van".
I resent the implications of this review. There are a LOT of us Kraven fans. We call ourselves Kraviacs, for the record, and we number in the tens.
From an adaptation perspective, the issue is that they can't let Kraven the villain actually be a villain, so they changed him. Kraven isn't an animal lover. He is a HUNTER, he HUNTS, it's in his NAME. He HUNTS anything that's a challenge, and sometimes it's a human, sometimes it's an elephant. He HUNTS for trophies, and will never do it for financial gain.
I guess you can make a movie where Kraven stabs like ten guys in the throat (in insert shots prepared specifically to elevate this from a PG-13 to an R-rated movie after the fact). But you can't have him hunt animals, even though so many Americans still go on wildlife safaris to hunt all the time.
Glad the Rhino kept his pants on in this movie. Yes, it's R-rated, but you can't have THAT.
::Do we need a Kraven the Hunter movie? I’m not sure that we do!::
It could've been worse—we might have gotten a "Hunter" Thompson movie instead!
Despite being named after the famous gonzo journalist (and sharing a last name with Peter's Frenemy Flash Thompson), he's a third-rate Kraven knockoff who popped up in the Seventies once or twice. I'm guessing somebody at Marvel created him in a moment of pique when whoever the current Editor-in-Chief was (until Jim Shooter in 1978, it was revolving door of EiCs—Marv Wolfman, Gerry Conway, Archie Goodwin) said they couldn't use Kraven for one reason of another.
Because of his name the character stuck in my mind somehow, which was fun when, during that brief period my former wife and I worked for Marvel, I threatened to make him the incoming baddie if our editor didn't choose somebody for us.
We also had a Karl Rove analogue who my wife, I thought brilliantly, made a devoted grandfather as well as an utter scumbag—I wanted to write a lot more about this guy once she put that twist on him!
Kraven did have a great story in kravens last hunt, a truly grisly story that involves him shooting spider man in the face, putting on his costume and trying to prove he's better. It's a masterpiece, taking spidey to dark places and somehow not being the edgelord mess it could've.
This film sounds like that mess. A film that doesn't get kraven in a dark place worked because he was the bad guy, a dying man desperate to prove his worth. Instead he's a muscly brooding anti hero for some reason. They can't even have him at least hunt animal villains like the recent game or the mediocre crossover with a great concept hunted, give it some spectacle. It has the issue most bad comic movies have focusing on "see see the thing" instead of writing a story. Sony was so desperate for it's own universe it failed to see the actual characters it could use and grasped at straws.
JM DeMatteis is very good at being dark without tipping into edgelordery – and for that matter, drama & comedy (cf. JLI); what I’m saying is he’s a great all-around writer.
Kraven’s Last Hunt is what’s most responsible for putting Kraven in at least the lower A-list of Spider-Man villains…and also, is a story you cannot do without Spider-Man, mid-career and in a committed relationship. So why even bother with a Kraven solo movie in the Spider-Man Minus Spider-Man Cinematic Universe. I think the best option here (if one must) would’ve been to just play off Kraven as black comedy.
No disrespect to Kraven's Last Hunt, which is of course the definitive Kraven story, but I'd say what made Kraven an A-list Spider-Man villain was when Ditko put him in the original Sinister Six all the way back in 1964.
I remember Kraven the Hunter showing up in the [generally excellent] Squirrel Girl comics. It seems like a bit of an in-joke, like, "let's add this totally forgotten Marvel character into the mix for a while, I bet some people will think we just made him up". All I remember is that he had a Russian accent, and that his vehicle was a custom job known as a "Kra-Van".
Entertaining!
This movie? Not so much, it seems, yeah.
I...think most adults reading Squirrel Girl probably know who Kraven the Hunter is. He's not an obscure character.
That said, yeah, I love that series and I love that version of Kraven.
I resent the implications of this review. There are a LOT of us Kraven fans. We call ourselves Kraviacs, for the record, and we number in the tens.
From an adaptation perspective, the issue is that they can't let Kraven the villain actually be a villain, so they changed him. Kraven isn't an animal lover. He is a HUNTER, he HUNTS, it's in his NAME. He HUNTS anything that's a challenge, and sometimes it's a human, sometimes it's an elephant. He HUNTS for trophies, and will never do it for financial gain.
I guess you can make a movie where Kraven stabs like ten guys in the throat (in insert shots prepared specifically to elevate this from a PG-13 to an R-rated movie after the fact). But you can't have him hunt animals, even though so many Americans still go on wildlife safaris to hunt all the time.
Glad the Rhino kept his pants on in this movie. Yes, it's R-rated, but you can't have THAT.
Fromtheyardtothearthouse.substack.com
Man, you are trolling Kraven fans *hard* with this one.
I mean, fans of the character. Obviously I'm not suggesting there are fans of the movie.
Iconic write up