AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #637
“The Grim Hunt, Conclusion”
Writer: Joe Kelly
Penciler: Michael Lark and Marco Checchetto
Inker: Stefano Gaudiano, Matt Southworth, and Marco Checchetto
Art Assist: Brian Thies
Colorist: Matt Hollingsworth
“Hunting the Hunter, Part Four: Burning Bright”
Writer: J.M. DeMatteis
Penciler: Max Fiumara
Inker: Max Fiumara
Colorist: Fabio D’Auria
“Spidey Sunday Story Part Three”
Writer: Stan Lee
Penciler: Marcos Martin
Inker: Marcos Martin
Colorist: Muntsa Vicente
Cover Art: Mike Fyles
Variant Cover Art: Olivier Coipel, Mark Morales, and Justin Ponsor
Be warned – there are SPOILERS ahead!
Like the previous two, this issue has a main story and two backups, including a brief two-pager. I’ll focus primarily on the main feature and pepper in the backups as I go.
The Plot
Spider-Man hunts the hunters. Madame Web dies, but transfers her powers to Arachne. Spidey (with Arana) soundly trounces them and defeats Kraven. Kraven asks to be killed, but Arachne uses her new powers to show Spider-Man a vision of the future, which prompts him to spare Kraven. The next day, Kaine is buried by the spiders, who move on to new roles (with new costumes). Kraven and his family relocate to the Savage Land, where he promptly kills Sasha and Vladimir and reveals a plan for “survival of the fittest.” Alyosha runs off, not wanting to be part of it, but Ana runs after him with the promise that whichever lives will rebuild the family with Kraven. “After the credits,” Kaine bursts out of his grave, mutated.
The Good
This issue has another team-up of artists, with Michael Lark and Marco Checchetto splitting duty. While I didn’t care for Lark’s work this time around – which, frankly, looked very rushed in spots – Checchetto’s pages are a wonder to behold. In my humble opinion, this guy is a superstar in the making, and it’s a pity that he doesn’t get more regular work. Inking his own pencils, he gives the book a slick, smooth look. It doesn’t jive with Lark’s work at all (making me wonder why they were paired in the first place), but I actually prefer Checchetto’s work to the “main” artist.
Unlike last issue, which was padded filler, this issue has an extra-sized main feature, weighing in at 35 pages of story. With the backup features and the Epilogue, we get another 13 pages of story, giving us 48. That’s good value for the $3.99 price tag, and it makes the previous issues’ price point look bad in comparison. None of this stuff feels as half-assed as the previous issue – there’s a single writer again, and the story is much meatier. As for the nutritional value of that meat, well …
The Bad
… it’s not good. In fact, it’s pretty bad.
To put it mildly, this issue is a mess. It picks up well, continuing straight from the previous issue – but very quickly, something began to feel wrong to me as I read it. Kraven himself is leading his family against Spider-Man. Like I’ve stressed throughout these reviews, to the point of harping about it, the characterization of Kraven increasingly contradicts both the end of “Kraven’s Last Hunt” and the entirety of Soul of the Hunter. By the time Kraven’s soul passed on to the afterlife, he and Spider-Man were not only on good terms, they were friends. Kraven’s last experience on this plane of existence was hugging Spider-Man as he faded away. Why in the hell would he want to lead a pack of bloodthirsty charlatans – ones that he readily admits he’s not proud of – into battle against the man that saved his soul?
The Chameleon wants to get the hell out of there, and rightfully so. (He probably realized that he belongs in a better story. Besides, if Mysterio was allowed to disappear without explanation after Part Two, why couldn’t Chameleon?) Of course, he’s compelled to stay after being threatened by a twelve-year-old girl throwing a knife six feet from his head. Any reasonable supervillain would have told her to work on her throwing accuracy on the way out the door, but of course the Webheads like to try to make this child look like a badass at every turn, so he does what she says.
Yay! Madame Web is dead! Thank goodness, she never belonged in Spider-Man stories anyway. Wait, no! She passed her powers on to Arachne for some reason! Since when could she do that? Also, she’s not blind. Again, no explanation.
Anyway, the fight rages on. (Arana is included, of course, because she has to be spun off into her own series.) Spider-Man beats Kraven – OFF-PANEL, naturally, because it’s not like we would actually want to see that instead of two panels of Arana pulling Ana Kravinoff’s hair – and is about to finish him off when Arachne appears and dissuades him from doing so with a vision of the future. Again, this blatantly ignores everything we know about these characters. Spider-Man doesn’t kill people. That’s pretty much his M.O., to the point that criminals, supervillains, and even other superheroes mock and criticize him for it. But of course, since consistent characterization is not one Brand New Day’s strong points, he actually has to be told not to kill Kraven because it would be bad. I’m not making this up. (Sure, we get a cool montage out of it, but the ends do not justify the means in this case.) Then again, this is the same issue in which he rips half of Sasha Kravinoff’s face off, so any notion that Spider-Man is in character has gone out the window.
Spider-Man, Arachne, and Arana bury Kaine in a potter’s field on Hart Island (which is not identified as such in the actual comic). It had the potential to be a pretty nice scene, except for a couple of big problems. First of all, they clearly didn’t do their research. On Hart Island, like many potter’s fields, the bodies are buried in trenches – and, therefore, have no individual gravestones. Second, the main point of the scene was to show that Arana now wears Arachne’s costume, and that Arachne has adopted a different style for her new role. That’s right kids, they talk and joke about superhero fashion while standing in front of Kaine’s grave. Way to respect the dead, jerks.
Kraven relocates his family (minus Chameleon, who has finally managed to escape this disaster) to the Savage Land, then promptly kills Sasha and Vladimir. Alyosha runs off, and Ana chases him. We don’t see them again, but considering that the Webheads have spent the entire arc propping Ana up, we can just guess which one of the two will survive. This also seems to be a pretty expensive trip for Kraven to do what he could have done at his house anyway.
By the way, the lack of … well, anything between Kraven and Alyosha throughout the arc is very bothersome to me. After all, Alyosha slept with and then killed Kraven’s girlfriend Calypso. That would have made for a pretty interesting conversation. Another strange omission for the arc as a whole was the current Spider-Woman, Jessica Drew. I can only assume Bendis called “super-dibs” or something.
The backup stories didn’t do anything for me. I don’t really need to say anything beyond that, because they didn’t really leave me with any lasting impression other than the fact that I was very let down.
The Ugly
On the very last page of the issue, after the backup stories, we get a page of Kaine breaking out of his grave, apparently mutated into a humanoid spider-monster.
This takes away all meaning from his death, and it does it immediately. He should have degenerated as soon as he died. When Kaine first appeared, his degeneration was already so bad that he had to wear a protective suit. Now, not only does he not degenerate upon death, but he further mutates into a spider-monster. They forced him into Straczynski’s spider-totem mythos so haphazardly that they ignored all the previously established facts about the character.
Kraven is also back for the long haul. This makes me very, very angry, and I’ll leave it at that.
The Bottom Line
This arc really dive-bombed after the first two parts, collapsing under its own weight. Continuity gaffes, illogical story flow, and broken characterization doomed this issue and, ultimately, this arc. It isn’t the worst comic I’ve read in a while because of its bang-for-the-buck value and good artwork, but it was still a poor issue. 1.5 out of 5 webheads.
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But come on folks we got to witness the ultimate hand me down story for the sake of what ever, doing a quick cheep explanation.
By the sounds of it I am one of the few Arana fans out there not spider girl. but heart of the spider yes. This was a bit insulting not to just kaif
n or is it kaine but the readers as well.
this is how costume exchange went in my mind “Hey I don’t need my old costume any more I’m not using it, want arana.” She smile takes the costume and say “gee lady I have never met, before until now yes I will give up my own identity and take on your mantel (even though I won’t call my self spider girl nudge nudge wink wink say no more say no more) and hence the changing of a mental for no reason, was born this day the ultimate hand me down story. Since these two never meet in the first place and spider girl was mentored by marvel girl and not the other spider woman
but do teenage girls willing to give up their own personal identity, to take that of another womans and to be remade into a man image as well.
this is just one nuts opinion, I could be wrong.
Did it strike anyone as odd that Kaine’s tombstone said “Kaine Parker” on it? I get that it was meant to show that Peter accepted him as ‘family’ in the end, but here he is standing with two girls who are practically strangers. Didn’t they question where the name “Parker” came from? After the fights Peter has put up with some of his best friends in the superhero community, he just casually has a tombstone made for his clone, and then invites Arana and Arachne (two people he barely knows in either of his identities) to come see it?
I think the whole point of Peter/Spider-man going over the edge so to speak was the whole ponit of the Gauntlet from the get go….I dont’ agree with criticizing the story because Peter acts out of character…it was done intentionally because he has been put through hell for quite some time now and finally snapped. It could and would happen to amost anyone and Peter is one of the more “human” superheros in all of comics so it makes sense to me, and in the end, he redeemed himself by not going through with murder. I actually rather enjoyed this arc quite a bit though I did feel this issue was a bit of a letdown compared the the rest of the arc.
I don’t understand what changed that turned Araña into Spider-Girl. Just because Madame Web said so?
Spidey sure seemed to be on top of his game for a super-hero that has supposedly been through a “Gauntlet” to exhaust him.
Apparently Spidey has mood costumes….
And they totally passed up an opportunity to address the BND wipe-out of “the Other” stuff – stingers, organic webs, etc, etc.
I for one do not understand why people always go negative with everything that happens in these books. I’ve been reading/collecting Spidey since I was 7 (I’m now 31)… I check out crawlspace all the time and it never fails… the lizard story sucked, Kraven sucked, sucked, phail, horrible, blazy blah. I usually never post I just shake my head and enjoy the book for what it means to me and let the haters hate. Over the last 23 years there have been many story arcs and all of them could be picked apart and faults could be pointed out and many characters introduced that never caught on. This will continue to happen as long as Spidey is being produced. I read these reviews and I’m surprised at how much all the reviewers seem to dislike the book. Maybe it’s all about the reader? I for one enjoy the books for what they are…. an entertaining escape from my reality to a place where a character I can relate to in some ways… not all… is challenged and tested and overcomes obstacles thrown in his path the best way he can with what he has. I could relate to married Spidey…. I was married. I can relate to single Spidey and the difficulties in dating… I’m divorced. I can relate to blind rage Spidey when someone close to me has been hurt. I can relate to losing a loved one. Etc. etc. I don’t criticize every period and comma when reading these books. I don’t roll my eyes every time an artist makes Spidey not look proportionate. It takes all the fun out of it. I would like to end by saying I appreciate the crawlspace and enjoy the podcasts even when I don’t agree with each grade or reasoning. Keep up the great work and thank you for giving us a place to voice our opinions. Next time the book is looking for a reviewer I think I’ll put my time where my mouth is and drop mine in the mix.
I for one disagree with Peter’s mutilation of Sasha’s face. No matter how much that witch deserved it for what she’s done – especially regarding her involvement in what happened to the Connors family – Peter I think stepped over a line. I haven’t seen him this vicious with anyone, especially a woman. Threatening her life or showing her he meant business could have been done without that act. How does it make him better than Kaine?
Spider-Mount hit the NAIL on the HEAD. Thank you.
Did we really need the black costume to show that Peter was not the happy-go-lucky Spidey? I mean we had the same exact thing happen for the Back in Black arc when he was going to kill the Kingpin.
I do have to admit, though, that Peter ripping off Sasha’s face for Kaine was pretty sweet to see. I mean, the man isn’t going to be an angel all the time or above all moral corruption. What’s made Spider-Man great is that he has flaws and he can be pushed over the edge just like any of us.
… now that I think about it… who DID throw that dirt on top of Peter? Was that Kaine’s way of saving him? By burying him alive?
Story was okay but it could have been done better. I’ll just leave it at that.
Well I just read the main part of the book and here are my thoughts. The arc definatly respects Kraven’s last hunt. Kraven was definatly upset to be resurected. The book absolutly does not respect the Soul of the Hunter for the reasons mentioned in this review. However, I do think Kravens motivation for his actions in this book was to be killed by Spider-man and not to kill spiderman himself. The art by the two different artists is noticibly different enough that the common reader may not pick up on it unless told and I think who ever drew the sceans where Spider-man was hunting the hunters in the black costume did an amazing job making it feel almost Predator like. My main complaint is the whole Spider-man willingly going after Kraven and Sasha with the intent to kill them. I think if Kraven said kill me and then Spidey had to actually think it over would have been more effective than putting him in a blind rage over the losses of Kaine (his evil clone tormentor), Spider Woman a woman he doesn’t have a lot to do with), and Madam Web (an old lady who probably should have died a while ago who he also has an estranged relationship with. If they made Spidey’s decision more about killing Kraven out of friendship/respect than I think more peopel would have been happy with it. Two Stars for me.
I saying how I see it. The reason Spidey was willing to impale Kraven was that his ‘spider family’ was broken. Being connected to them, they were pratically his family ( he said Arachne and Arana were his ‘sisters’) AND we all know what happens when Spider-man’s family gets attacked. It happened in Back in Black. He nearly beat Kingpin to death and Aunt May was still alive!
I saying how I see it. Spider-man was on the verge of killing Kraven because his spider side was angry. Spidey is connected to other spider characters by …well the spider. The Kravinoffs hunted spiders so it was Spider-man’s arachnid side that lusted for blood.
I’d give the issue a 2.5 out of 5, but that is due to the art which I think fit the tone of the story pretty well. I think there were too many continuity gaffes, Peter was way out of character with wanting to kill Sasha, his own version of the mark of Kaine on Sasha’s face, and his desire to kill Kraven until Julia, the new Madame Web stops him by showing him the vision. Pete may get mad, he may even want to beat the hell out of someone, he may even toy with the idea of killing someone, but it has always been Peter’s own moral compass that stopped him, not some “vision” or his place in the “Web”.
I found the joking and witty banter at Kaine’s grave to be a bit disturbing. One would think the setting would call for a more somber mood. Sure Kaine and Peter shared no real love for one another, but the fact they were in a graveyard should have been sobering enough for three heroes present to remember what they had lost in this fight with the Hunters. Instead we get more focus on Arana, or Spider Girl, or Spider Arana or Arana Girl or whatever Joe Q is going to settle on calling her.
The resurrection of Kaine into some mutated being with spider eyes all over his face was just ridiculous. It happened way to soon, lessened his sacrifice, and at this point seems kind of pointless. They’ve done next to nothing with Kaine in the past ten years so there is little reason to believe he will take on any major part in a story any time soon.
Pretty weak way to end an arc that got all the hype that Grim Hunt got.
@LUNI_TUNZ: I actually value letteringt rather highly (and taught myself the skill specifically so that I could improve my art), but it’s not something that would ever be mentioned in a review, so I leave it out.
fuck Kraven Death stroyline… one of the first spidey comics i bought was SPider-Man#50 with the holographic eyes.
the spider! vs the hunter! and the coming of SPider-Man! wooot now thats Spidey on a mission!
I rather enjoyed this issue
my one qualm with it?
The vision that convinced spiderman not to kill kraven showed him being booted out of the avengers for being a murderer BY WOLVERINE! if it was cap or thing (iron man not so much) who threw him out then ok, but logan? the man is a mass murderer and that panel is just full of crap
Well to be fair, at the start of BND there was only one Kravinoff (Aloysha)
The writers then seen fit to add a wife (that wasn’t calypso) and daughter that have never been mentioned before in addition to bringing back Kraven and the grim hunter from the grave, so if there was too many members of the family it was entirely their own fault.
Very nice summary, as usual.
I have to say that I enjoyed this story, though it had its’ faults.
I have read elsewhere (and here somewhere) that some fans are unhappy with some of the inconsistencies in regards to continuity but that’s not that uncommon anymore. With 70 years of history to reconcile, continuity will soon matter no longer. It is lazy on the writer’s part to not do their research but it seems to be a common occurrence nowadays…
If you look at that story individually, without considering the great stories that preceded it (i.e. Kraven’s Last Hunt) for example), it was a pretty good story, IMO. The story itself had a few parts that weren’t necessary but overall, I thought it was a good way to bring Kraven back and eliminate some of the other Kravinoff family members – there were just too many of them anyways, IMO.
*Also, how come none of the Letterers get any credits, with the writers/pencillers/inkers, and what-have you? As a future Letterer this hurts my feelings.
I don’t understand why people seem to hate Kraven coming back to life. It doesn’t make KLH non-existant, or even out of continuity. And hell, who really stays dead in comics? Besides Gwen Stacy that is.
Oh well, also, I’m gonna be reading the reveiws for OMIT, with a bag of butter popcorn ready.
Gerard, I must admit the tone of your review this time was better balanced than previous ones. It was measured, giving credit to the artwork & value, while logically pointing out the continuity gaffes and why that bugged you. I for one, did read this at the LCS before reading this review. I would have to say that I agree with many of your comments, but cannot agree with the overall grade.
The tone of the story was reflective of KLH and I felt it was clearly shown that Kraven was very unhappy to be resurrected. Sure he did not show his “friendship” towards Spider-Man, but he was begging for Spidey to kill him at the end and was disappointed that his “masterpiece” (his suicide) wwas ruined. I agree that Kaine’s “sacrifice” was wasted with now coming back as a mutated spider being was silly. It would have been preferred all the dumb peripheral spyder characters would have been wacked.
For me, I give this issue a solid B- due to the artwork being good, the value high and despite the continuity gaffes, better than most.
I think the new reviews should be called “I hate BND…let me count the ways”
As good as ur points are, I actually didn’t think this issue or even this whole arc was all that bad. I was rather annoyed by the entire premise, but the writing I thought was surprisingly good considering some of the writings in the past. I was pleasently surprised they had Kraven not want to be ressurrected, and him killing the wife was awesome because she annoyed the crap out of me. The artwork was generally solid and there was a definite sense of gloom and doom to the story.
However you also pointed out what was lame about the arc. Kaine’s a random sacrificial lamb. I hated the Kravinoffs in general, not for what they were doing but because their characters were really annoying to me. Spidey wanting to kill Kraven, yeah maybe several years ago. Post “A Death in the Family” where he has the fortitude to spare Norman Osborn, no. He’s better than that at this point.
This was the best BND story since American Son IMO, but at the same time thats not saying much. I was entertained, but also let down. The continuity errors are all over the place and are too big to ignore. My personal opinion is a 3/5, but you’re the reviewer!
Keep up the good work man.
Just think of how much they had to piss on to hype Ana and Arana…
I’m curious Gerard did you think it odd Spidey somehow knows it was Madam Web that got stabbed just from the sight of blood on the floor in the boiler, when at the time Madam web wasn’t in the room but actually in the room with the fire with Sasha? That just really stuck out to me.
Anyways the end of this arc pretty much reduced Kraven to his pre KLH days, and for that I am not pleased.
For a change Gerard I read the issue myself before reading your review.
This issue made me angry, very angry, it was horribly written, felt like a bad fan fic in places and just really bad.
And it’s only gonna get worse from here…
This is the same Spider-Man that felt guilty over Kraven’s suicide right? Man this sounds stupid.
I know you’re a fan of Soul of the Hunter and the whole “Kraven made peace with Spidey” jimmer-jammer – but the reason Kraven wanted Spidey to kill him is because he didn’t want to be resurrected in the first place. Spidey is the only one who can end his immortality. The scene where Spidey is holding the spear and ready to impale him, Kraven he even says “thank you.” I think Kraven was hoping that their “friendship” would allow Spidey to kill him and restore his place in the afterlife.
However, believing that Spidey would even kill Kraven is another matter. I can understand his beef with Sasha (killing Mattie Franklin, killing Kaine, killing Madame Web, orchestrating the Gauntlet), and wanting to hurt her physically – but Kraven seemed like an innocent bystander to me.
Spidey was gonna KILL him? The Spidey who is always putting himself in other’s shoes with a “but for the grace of God” mentality? Have they not read any Stan Lee Spidey?
“The Chameleon wants to get the hell out of there, and rightfully so. (He probably realized that he belongs in a better story.”
That just made my day!
And after hearing about this issue I am disgusted by it
On a side note- Cant wait to get Soul of the Hunter!