Long before Kraven the Hunter got his own movie in Sony’s Marvel universe, he was a terrifying hunter who chased Spider-Man relentlessly.
Kraven the Hunter is so close to becoming a household name. The iconic Spider-Man villain just had a massive comics storyline, but he’s also featured in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and an upcoming solo film.
It’s a big step for the character. For much of the past 30 years, Kraven the Hunter has actually been dead. He’s been revived a handful of times, but more often than not, Kraven is someone who went after Spider-Man and came up short.
Despite being portrayed as a joke in several stories, Kraven was once a terrifying Spider-Man foe. After giving Spidey a run for his money in the Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and before his movie hits the big screen, here’s everything you need to know about Kraven the Hunter.
Who is Kraven the Hunter?
Kraven the Hunter’s first appearance
Kraven the Hunter’s first appearance is in The Amazing Spider-Man #15. Sergei Kravenoff is a big-game hunter who believes he has hunted every possible animal. He sets his target on his next impossible hunt: Spider-Man.
It doesn’t go as planned. Kraven attempts to drug Spider-Man, but he shrugs it off in time to escape. The two do battle over the years, with Spider-Man often coming out on top. Eventually, it begins to take a toll on Kraven.
Kraven’s Last Hunt
Kraven’s most iconic storyline is Kraven’s Last Hunt. Nearing death and at odds with his legacy, Kraven makes one last play to stop Spider-Man. He uses a poison to put Spider-Man in a coma, then buries him alive.
With Spider-Man out of the picture, Kraven attempts to understand his ultimate prey by becoming him. He eats fistfuls of spiders, dons a replica costume, and spends two weeks patrolling New York as Spider-Man – all while the real Spider-Man desperately tries to claw his way out of a grave.
Spider-Man finally breaks free and sets out to get his revenge on Kraven, who attempts to escape with the promise that he’ll never hunt again. He keeps his promise by taking his own life before Spider-Man can reach him. Kraven would remain dead for nearly 20 years, finally being resurrected by his wife and daughter in the 2010 event Grim Hunt.
Kraven the Hunter’s powers & weaknesses
Enhanced strength
Thanks to a serum, Kraven the Hunter has enhanced strength and durability. He takes it to even the playing field against the animals he hunts.
Kraven notably does not use any kind of weapon in most instances. In his earliest appearances, he preferred to fight his prey bare-handed in an effort to prove himself the superior hunter.
Later Kraven iterations did favor some weaponry, though it was rarely firearms or anything of that sort. He tends to stick to spears and knives, things that enforce his mentality as a hunter and capitalize on his enhanced abilities.
Slowed aging
A side effect of the serum is that Kraven’s aging is slowed down considerably. He is functionally immortal in some stories.
Despite appearing like a man of good health in his late 40s or early 50s throughout his entire run, Kraven is in his 70s during Kraven’s Last Hunt and over 100 years old by the time of his death in 2019’s Hunted.
Unspecified illness
At the start of Kraven’s Last Hunt, the side effects of using the serum are catching up. Kraven is starting to grow ill, despite the slowed aging and enhanced durability.
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It’s never really clarified if Kraven is suffering from some specific illness or is just generally unwell. He is definitively suffering the effects of just being alive for an incredible length of time, something which no treatment is alleviating for him.
Self-Doubt
Kraven’s biggest weakness: he has no faith in himself. The once proud and boisterous hunter is shaken by his many losses to Spider-Man, and it ultimately leads him to take his own life.
How much of this is due to his losses to Spider-Man, though? A significant factor in Kraven’s backstory is his family’s mental health. In particular, Kraven’s mother is implied to have had some form of mental illness, having grown delusional following the death of Kraven’s father.
Much is implied that Kraven himself is actually suffering from similar delusions. As a result, Kraven is often haunted by his own doubts, which causes him to fall just shy of his goals.
How strong is Kraven the Hunter?
Kraven the Hunter has enhanced strength; more specifically, he can lift up to two tons, but this varies across adaptations.
For example, in the first eight minutes of the new movie, he can be seen bench-pressing two men on top of a heavily weighted bar. However, his strength has been compared to Captain America and those who’ve taken the Super Soldier Serum – in other words, he could probably hold onto a helicopter as it tried to fly away.
How does Kraven get his powers?
In the comics, Kraven gets his enhanced abilities “via special herbal potions he periodically ingests.” However, it’s also worth noting that his powers go beyond those potions.
As the name suggests, he’s a master hunter. According to Marvel, he’s “proficient in certain exotic animal-like fighting techniques, and an expert in various jungle herbs and potions. His nerve punch attack can paralyze even Spider-Man and Tigra.
The movie may be changing Kraven’s origin story. While unconfirmed, it appears Kraven gets his powers when the blood of a lion drips into his wound, mixing with his DNA and giving him extraordinary abilities.
In the opening of the trailer, we see Kraven jumping through a window, chasing down a car, and leaping onto it, before ripping the door open.
We then see a young Kraven on safari, aiming down the barrel of a gun at a lion. He waits too long to shoot and the animal attacks him, chomping his body and flinging him around like a rag doll. As the lion stands over him, a droplet of its blood falls into one of his bite wounds, and it’s implied it gave him powers. “I stared death in the face, and for the first time, I saw my true self,” he says.
How tall is Kraven?
Kraven’s height varies across adaptations, but he’s broadly believed to be around six feet tall, if not a little bit taller.
This puts him at an equal height with all sorts of Spider-Man villains and other Marvel foes and heroes. It’s also worth noting Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s height: 5’11”, so he’s almost as tall as his comics counterparts.
Before Kraven the Hunter hits cinemas on December 13, check out our list of the best superhero movies of all time, and find out how to watch every Marvel movie in order. You can also read our list of the best movies of 2024.
