Comics Exactly what was Kraven trying to accomplish in 'The Last Hunt'

[Donald Thomas]

Praise from Donald Thomas?! I can now die in peace...

Aloha,
It would be so much better if you lived a long and fruitful life.
Spidey rules

 

[masteryoda]

so all in all, the whole story was in vain and kraven got nothing from it. He could have killed himself before it all started.

Exactly, that's the tragedy of Kraven.

 

[ragingdemon155]

This is a great topic.

Anyway, my feelings on this particular story have pretty much been stated already in this topic.

First off, it is easily one of my favorite Spider-man stories. I never got a chance to read it when it was originally published. When I first became a member at this site everyone here kept talking about it like it was the Holy Grail or something lol. So went out and bought the TPB a couple of years back and I was blown away.

The message I always got from the story in regards to "What Kraven was trying to prove"...was that he wanted to better Spider-man. It was an obsession and he drives that point home plenty of times through out the story. Spider-man was completely demoralized in this story. He was beaten and buried alive. In a sense Kraven "killed" him and let Spider-man come back so he would know that he was defeated.

Donald Thomas and other members on this topic hit it right on the head though. I think he realized that he could truly never be the better man. Kraven might have understood the "crime fighting" aspect of it but, he could never understand the human aspect of it all. That "Human" side is what separates Spider-man from everyone else.

Kraven realized that, as evidence by his speech at the end before Spider-man goes after Vermin. In the end Kraven gains nothing at all. He fails in doing what he sought out to accomplish.

In a sense Spider-man once again defeated him.

 

[Vile]

All in all it had to be done...so Mysterio could have that awesome line before putting a bullet in his own head!

"I don't know who is going to enjoy this more, Devil. You or me."
"Why's that?"
"Because I stole this one too. From Kraven."

*blam*


=)

 

[November Rain]

Alright today i will be taking extracts from the text of the fifth copy.

They said my mother was crazy, a woman of rare breeding...true nobility and a tender heart. Driven out of Russia by the trotskys and Lenins. Driven to America where she was overwhelmed by the poverty. The filth. The utter mundanity of life here. Finally locked away like an animal:

Trapped abused, Terrified.

And my father his spirit broken, allowed it. And I, just a child, could only watch..as helpless as she was. They said my mother was insane; That she took her own life: They lied

It seems in this very sentence we get a glimpse of Kraven's reasoning towards wanting to take his own life and finally getting to grips with his mother's suicide (which i wasn't actually aware of until writing this post). This is all fine and dandy.

Her life was stolen from her, Stolen by The spider

It seems this term the Spider is repeatedly used as a metaphor for something. It's as if every man has their own spider. To really get a glimpse of what it is i'll have to get some quotes from Kraven from chapter three when he is actually engaged with Vermin but i'll do that at a latter date.

Here is a bit from when he encounters spidey for the first time after he is buried

Oh I see now; I understand in a way I never could before. This costume adventurer called Spider-Man is just that A Man. And yet within him is something more, something great, something aweful.

The essence of the deomon that brought russia to ruin, the demon that destromed my father;consumed my mother, The demon i have long last defeated

I take it he is again referring to the spider. But i wonder if the spider within peter parker is the same one he is referring to earlier or if peter parker's powrs are just a representation/personification of those feelings.

Yes, Yes, I hear you, I understand it's almost time...but not yet. Not till my victory is complet, and it will only be complete when he understands, But he doesn't understand

This is a lead up to the trial that kraven has arranged for him.

SOme pennies have started to drop for me but i will reveal them at the end of this post. This story may have been far deeper than i have originally thought of and that may be saying quite a bit.

Yes your old foe vermin. the newspapers have been calling him the 'Cannibal Killer'

But we know what he Really is, Don't we? THe perfect fusion of man and anima;, A vile, tormented beautiful beast....That i have beatne and captured. I.

I could feel him out there, spider-man, i could touch his soul and i knew what role he had to play in our little game. He was the final test. The final proof.

You were unable to defeat him Alone, YOu and captain america could barely do it together. But I defeated him.

This is the finale, Spiderman

So he's set up the fight for spidey

I was naive once, before i left this corrupt excuse for civilization behind. Before i found the honour and dignity I'd lost when my country...my parents..fell to the SPider...in the primitive wilds of africa. Hear me spider; hear me, man. Hear the triumph of Kraven. It frightens you doesn't it? You know the game is over and you've lost.

Oh there is still a world out there for you to torture and feed upon...entrails to chew up...minds to spit out...but you kno longer have Kraven in your power..and that not only scares you, it saddens you.

And in some stragne inexplicable way...it saddens me too.

Alright, it seems in this little section it easily describes Kraven's feelings towards spidey and he has thought of him as some kinda bully he could never over power, it also gives the impression of what this metaphoric spider that tormented him, his parents and mother russia may actually may be. Capitalism, the west perhaps?

so here is a lil bit about the fight itself

It's not enough to display the truth: the truth must be set-free. Experienced first hand!

I break it up at this point because vermin is shouting 'please don't hit me' and then kraven is thinking he won't have to. I don't particularly get that scene.

Anyway onwards

Hurt him Vermin, and in hurting him, in defeating him, you'll make him see.

I 'killed' the SPider; I became the spider, I vanquished the one foe the spider couldn't. ALl the years of shame, erased. Honour so long sought, so long elusive will be restored.

So here is where i get the impression that in Spidey's failing attempts to defeat vermin, kraven will have restored all the honour of all the defeats he has gotten from spiderman.

But then again, he also refers to the spider. Is this the metaphoric spider he has been referring to earlier on, I.e. the dominant aggressor against others, or actually spiderman himself.

He then goes on to say 'They said my mother was insane', the first and also last line of his monologue.

Now in this fight, spidey has lost the uppper hand and then he catches vermin's hand and beats him taking out his frustrations of how kraven buried him on him. this is reflected also in the pictures of the rat and spider and the rat on its back foot. Spidey's about to lay a final blow and hesistates, looks over at kraven and says no. This shows he could have finished vermin if he wanted but decided not to. Kraven has a smurk on his face and vermin then pounces on spidey (the rate splats the spider).

This is when Kraven has decided his point has been made. Spidey wants to chase after vermin

The spider is alive in him, there will undoubtedly be others to rise up in opposition but it no longer my concern. My spider is gone. Now ther is only a man

A good man, i think. how strange that i haven't been able to see that until now! No matter i do see, and seeing, spider-man, I thank you and bless you. If one such as Kraven can give blessings.

There is one final thing i see, something i don't think i was capable of seeing until now. every man has his spider and perhaps i have been yours


every man...ever woman...every...nation...every age...has its spider. you have been mine. what a burden, what an honor.

so it comes to this and Kraven lets spiderman go knowing he will catch vermin.

Notice he is no longer referred to as the spider and is now referred to as Spider-man in this last section after His somewhat victory.


Reading this all now, I feel Kraven's mother somehow commited suicide to escape some long drawn out torment of having to flee her home and come to the states. I think Kraven witnessed this abuse and it was at the hands of some humans. However he felt that these humans and what they did were incapable of compassion and that made them animals. What they did to his mother was something only an animal could do.

So he then took this obsession to africa where he could then prey on other animals as the animals prayed on his mother, father and africa and he was able to find peace and honor in besting the biggest and wildest.

Until spiderman came, the ultimate manifestation of man and beast, one that reminded him and brought back what it felt like to see his mother hurt. With all of this and his inability to best him, he focussed all of those buried emotions into one thing, The spider and that became the reason for all his wrongs in life. The way spiderman opressed his ability to get honour was the same way the spider has supressed his parents and his country. So what he ultimately needed to do was to beat the spider and then separate the entities he saw of spiderman into the spider and the man.

He managed to first beat teh spider by becoming a better aggressor than him, taking down vermin single handedly easy peasy.

Secondly he had to be able to see the compassion and realise that he wasn't a monster like those who had hurt his mother and that was by putting vermin in a position similar to his mother who was now scared of spiderman his captive who had abused him (or secretly kraven). He needed to see how far spiderrman was going in the battle and the fact he didn't take the final blow showed he was no monster and the spider he was wanting to battle and defeat was not there. He was like the bully that no longer had a handle over him because he saw the bully was just a person at the end of the day. A man.

IN doing this Kraven had finally managed to defeat all the illusive animals on his quest for peace and be freed of the guilt of him and his family being tormented by animals (or people who acted like animals towards them). Once he did this, he found peace. A different type of peace that his mother found by commiting suicide (escapism from the torment) but a inner peace of restoration of honour.

I don't know if it was ever meant to be as deep as that when it was first written but that's pretty much the only interpretation of it i can muster that means nothing contradicts itself. I'm not a fan of the whole 'he was crazy' outlook cause kraven is an old school batman for me and i prefer this deadly sane approach to life.

what do you all think about this break down