Tropes Media Browse Indexes Forums Videos Ask The Tropers Trope Finder Media Finder Trope Launch Pad Tech Wishlist Reviews Tools
Cut List New Edits Edit Reasons Launches Images List Crowner Activity Un-typed Pages Recent Page Type Changes Changelog
Tips
Creating New Redirects Cross Wicking Tips for Editing Text Formatting Rules Glossary Edit Reasons Handling Spoilers Word Cruft Administrivia FAQ
Tropes HQ
About Us Contact Us Advertise DMCA Notice Privacy Policy Report Bug
Go Ad-Free Changelog
  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Highlight Links
 

Follow TV Tropes

Following

Characters / Marvel Comics: Kraven the Hunter

Go To

    open/close all folders 

Kravinoff Family

    Sergei Kravinoff / Kraven the Hunter 

Sergei Kravinoff / Kraven the Hunter

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kravenspidey_3230.jpg

Alter Ego: Sergei Nikolaevich Kravinoff

Notable Aliases: Spider-Man, the Scarlet Spider, the Unhuntable Sergei

Species: Human Mutate

First Appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man #15 (August 1964)

"I can endure the frustration no longer! I must battle and defeat my greatest mortal enemy—or else, everything that has gone before is but a hollow mockery! The mask of Spider-Man must one day cover that plaster head—even if I pay for the victory with my very life!"

Sergei Kravinoff was the son of a Russian aristocrat who fled after the communists came to power. When his father remarried, he accused him of dishonoring his mother's name, and tried to make life difficult for his half brother Dimitri (who would become the Chameleon). Deciding to leave home, Kraven took up being a big game hunter and was quite good at it, especially considering he doesn't like to use ranged attacks, preferring to take down animals as large as rhinoceroses with his bare hands. One reporter, not knowing how to spell his name, shortened his last name Kravinoff simply to Kraven, and so began his legend as Kraven the Hunter. During one such hunt he met Calypso, a jungle priestess who gave him special elixirs which gave him the speed and strength of the greatest jungle beasts. Bored by regular animals, Sergei got a surprise invite from his brother to deal with a new prey: Spider-Man. While faring well against him in their first encounter, Spidey always managed to defeat him in subsequent fights.

Growing more and more frustrated with his life and his failures, Kraven realized that he was fading away, and so decided to do one last hunt. Capturing Spider-Man soon after the hero's honeymoon, he shot him with a rifle, buried him, and then began masquerading as him. However, he hadn't actually killed Spidey, but had tranquillized him. While Spider-Man returned to stop Kraven, Sergei took his defeat with grace as his temporary victory had finally proven his superiority, and committed suicide soon afterward. Years later, his wife Sasha and his children Alyosha and Ana enacted a ritual to resurrect him using Spider-Man's blood. This backfired due to them accidentally using Spider-Man's clone Kaine, and Kraven was revived as an immortal being. Wanting nothing more than to die again but unable to be killed by normal means, Kraven took to pursuing anyone tangentially related to Spider-Man.

  • Animal Motifs: Lion. While Kraven has associated himself with various other animals over the years, his uniform has always incorporated a lion's mane and it's the animal to which he most often compares himself. During one of his battles with Black Panther, a lion was superimposed behind Kraven to contrast the panther that appeared behind, well, Black Panther.
  • Aristocrats Are Evil: Kraven's family was old russian aristocracy before the rise of the Soviet Union. Their fall from grace led to a lot of unresolved issues in Kraven himself.
  • Ate His Gun: Shot himself in the head with a shotgun after defeating Spider-Man.
  • Ax-Crazy: To varying degrees; it clearly runs in his family.
  • Back from the Dead: Is imperfectly resurrected during Grim Hunt, and fully resurrected by Kaine in his Scarlet Spider run.
  • Badass Family: Though they don't get along all that well.
  • Badass Normal: Though he's often depicted as getting some kind of enhancement before or after meeting Spidey. During Jason Aaron's run on The Incredible Hulk, he manages to disable the green goliath via adamantium wires and fishhooks. He lays the trap so effectively that one wonders if Spidey's Spider-Sense is the only way he's ever managed to best Kraven.
  • Big Brother Bully: He was like this to his half-brother Dmitri when they were young, technically; Dmitri didn't know at the time they were half-brothers.
  • The Beastmaster: Both he and his son Alyosha were known to use trained African great cats (and even an elephant in one case) in battles from time to time.
  • Boisterous Bruiser: He can be played as a larger-than-life warrior on his more heroic days.
  • Blood Knight: Kraven can also be played as a completely unhinged man who lives for battle in his worst ones, most famously in the iconic Kraven's Last Hunt.
  • Breakout Villain: After basically being written off as a B-list villain for decades to where he was ultimately Killed Off for Real in 1989, the sheer popularity of Kraven's Last Hunt ironically propelled him to becoming one of the most popular and enduring members of the rogues gallery, even being the Big Bad of a few major storylines.
  • Came Back Wrong: Thanks to Kaine sabotaging the ritual he was "cursed with un-life", and only Peter or another connected to the Web of Life can kill him. Mentally, he's all there, just angry about it — Madame Web even mocks his wife for assuming he's changed. He's exactly the same, she just prefers not to remember him that way.
  • Charles Atlas Superpower: Kraven's usually around the "peak human" level, which means he's not as strong as some big hitters in Marvel, but he can often pull off some fairly ridiculous feats of strength, resilience and agility (the latter in particular being a field he can keep up with Spider-Man).
  • Death Seeker: He's this in Kraven's Last Hunt and has become this after being brought back.
  • Doesn't Like Guns: Well, for most of his career, anyway. This goes for arrows as well since he prefers to take down animals with his bare hands. Madness made him willing to use them in the worst way possible. He wasn't all-too fond of technology in general, most of the time. His son Alyosha never had any problem using a rifle, and Vladimir's arsenal was very high tech.
  • Driven to Suicide: After defeating Spider-Man and regaining his lost honor, he killed himself.
  • Egomaniac Hunter: Was able to hunt and kill anything until he fought Spider-Man.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Thoroughly subverted. While he and Chameleon are brothers, they really don't like one another. Kraven also doesn't treat his wife and kids very well, partly because he's understandably pissed off at them for bringing him back to life.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: It's revealed in The Amazing Spider-Man (2018) that Kraven hates poaching with a passion, and also despises modern big game hunters, viewing them as Miles Gloriosus who rely on poachers and traps to kill their prey without any effort, before bragging about their so-called bravery.
  • Evil Poacher: It's definitely illegal to hunt Spider-Men. Supposedly he was the regular kind of poacher (as in, for the black market) before he got bored, and the Chameleon piqued his interest in hunting harder prey.
  • Face–Heel Turn: He was a member of a prototypical version of the Avengers during the 1950s.
  • Fantastic Racism: After his daughter Ana tells him she has become an Inhuman, his response is to try and kill her.
  • Foil: Several writers have used him as one to Black Panther, noting that they're both noblemen with a big cat theme and a connection to the African continent who gain their power from jungle herbs.
  • Go-Go Enslavement: At one point, Kraven captured Tigra and kept her as a mind-controlled slave: lolling at his feet like Princess Leia before Jabba the Hutt (although, to be fair, Tigra was already dressed in a bikini before he captured her).
  • Goofy Print Underwear: Depicted wearing pink heart-print briefs during his appearance in Rocket Raccoon (2016).
  • Great White Hunter: Used to be a picture-perfect great white hunter archetype as a legendarily skilled European aristocrat hunter operating in Africa (Kenya, to be more precise). But when he ran out of animals to hunt...
  • Heel Realization: Had one shortly before committing suicide.
  • Hot-Blooded Sideburns: Ditko used to draw him with an impressive set, although they've been mostly abandoned since.
  • Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: Initially thought Spider-Man was some sort of fantastic beast, and continued pursuing him to regain his lost honor.
  • Husky Russkie: Kraven is descended from Russian nobility who fled the communist uprising and built like a circus strongman.
  • Hypocrite: He claims to hate poaching with a passion despite by all logic, he is a poacher himself.
  • I Gave My Word: Is a man of his word in spite of all his flaws.
  • Immortality Inducer: Was imperfectly resurrected by his wife and children, and could only be killed by an entity connected to the Web of Life, leading to him picking fights with Agent Venom and Kaine in the hopes that one of them would be able to put him down for good.
  • Ironic Name: His nickname is almost exactly (and pronounced the same) as the word "craven", which is an old english word for cowardly. Kraven is a lot of things, but he is always defined as being suicidally brave.
  • Kick Them While They Are Down: Kraven tracks down Agent Venom in the hopes that the "spider's shadow" can end his undeath, and during their fight Flash is stripped of the symbiote by some giant bats. Kraven is outraged that the man he was fighting is handicapped and tries to kill Flash for besmirching his honor.
  • Kill and Replace: During the story arc Kraven's Last Hunt, Kraven seemingly kills Spider-Man, and then proceeds to use the costume of the hero to prove himself a better vigilante. Spider-Man is revealed alive as he had been merely drugged, and confronts Kraven before the villain commits suicide.
  • Killed Off for Real: At the end of Hunted he manages to sidestep the curse connected to his revival and gets his clone to kill him permanently. Considering his clone then takes up the mantle, and Chameleon plans to make sure he's never revived again, it's likely he's gone for good.
  • Legacy Character: His son Alyosha took his place while he was dead, and his daughter Ana has also tried to take up the mantle. Later, a clone of his took up the mantle.
  • Long-Lived: The effects of the jungle potion have dramatically altered Kraven's aging process to the point that he has aged little, if at all, over several decades. Despite being over 70 years of age, he has the physical appearance of a 30-year-old man.
  • Loophole Abuse: His immortality curse states that either the Hunter kills the Spider, or the Spider kills the Hunter. Problem is, most of the Spider-People around him follow Thou Shalt Not Kill. By the end of Hunted, he takes advantage of the time that he was Spider-Man during Kraven's Last Hunt and makes himself the Spider, having a clone of himself (who obviously doesn't share Peter's rule against killing) become the Hunter, allowing the clone to kill him for good.
  • May–December Romance: Was involved in a relationship with Calypso, who is decades younger than him.
  • The Mentally Disturbed: Kraven's mother fell victim to mental illness later in her life and it's been suggested that he may have inherited the illness.
  • Noble Demon: Believes himself to be this. In practice, not so much.
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The first clue Spider-Man gets that something is off about Kraven in Kraven's Last Hunt is when the hunter approaches him with a gun.
  • Older Than They Look: The effects of the jungle potion have dramatically altered Kraven's aging process to the point that he has aged little, if at all, over several decades. Despite being over 70 years of age, he has the physical appearance of a 30-year-old man.
  • Really Gets Around: He's had quite a few lovers, and it shows. While Sasha is definitely Ana's mother, it's not certain whether Vladimir was her son, and Alyosha certainly wasn't. Then there was Calypso, which was a May–December Romance for Kraven. Kraven's father was the same way (Dmitri was illegitimate, which was why Kraven never told him they were brothers) and Alyosha can be worse than his dad sometimes.
  • Retcon: During an appearance in The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, he went through a Heel–Face Turn (dubbing himself "The Unhuntable Sergei"). Then the Hunted storyline rolled around, showing him back to being a villain. That same story revealed that Kraven had created multiple clones of himself, suggesting that "The Unhuntable Sergei" was one of those clones.
  • Sanity Slippage: His mother had psychosis, which Kraven inherited.
  • Secret Identity Apathy: Kraven is a Spider-Man rogue who has demonstrated this fairly consistently. Despite chances to do so in Kraven's Last Hunt and in Hunted he refuses to learn Spidey's identity when given the chance. He says a number of times that he feels Spider-Man is the "true self" and wishes to liberate the "totem" (i.e. the persona and mystique associated with Animal Motifs) from the human who embodies it, and as such the idea that Spider-Man could be a human, leave alone Peter Parker, is hard for him to comprehend.
  • Self-Made Man: Rebuilt his family's fortune from the ground up in an attempt to find purpose and to restore his dignity. He found little fulfillment in it, but the connections from doing so set him on the path to becoming the infamous hunter with his money from the same funding his supervillain exploits.
  • Shout-Out: The first names of every known member of the Kravenoff family except Ana are also the names of character from The Brothers Karamazov; Word of God says this was done intentionally. His character as a whole is a tip of the hat towards The Most Dangerous Game (the story that named the trope) and its central antagonist (Count) Zaroff, a egomaniac Warrior Poet who hunts humans likewise.
  • Spell My Name With An S: Writer J.M. DeMatteis (who wrote Kraven's Last Hunt and introduced Kraven's second son) writes Kraven's last name as "Kravinov", as opposed to "Kravinoff".
  • Suicide is Shameful: In the one-shot Soul of the Hunter, Spidey learned from the embodiment of Death that he and Kraven share a spiritual bond, and that Kraven's soul could not find the peace he craves because of Kraven's suicide; he could only be saved if Spidey agreed to intervene on his behalf. At first, Spidey refused, given what Kraven did to him, and Death cannot force him. However, eventually, Spidey feels a small amount of pity, and fights and defeats Kraven's soulless corpse, letting his spirit rest in peace. (Sadly, it wouldn't last...)
  • Tragic Villain: Not always, but he was famously depicted as such in Kraven's Last Hunt, being shown ultimately as a profoundly lonely and hollow man trying to find meaning in life while struggling with a untreated mental disorder. Post-revival he is also ultimately just a guy who wants to die for good.
  • Unholy Matrimony: Sasha is just as crazy and evil as he is, possibly more so in regards to the latter.
  • Unwanted Revival: Was resurrected by his wife and children, but the revival was botched, and he was brought back as an undead. He was pissed about it, killing Sasha and most of the people she worked with shortly after. Chameleon even points this out, reminding the others that Kraven ended his own life in the first place.
    Chameleon: Has anyone stopped to consider the fact that this man shot himself in the head? How do you know he wanted to come back?
  • Villainous Crush: After defeating Spider-Man in Kraven's Last Hunt, Kraven gently caresses his cheek. Peter is very creeped out by this.
  • Villain Decay: He was absolutely terrifying in his first appearance, successfully reducing Spider-Man to a hunted animal (though Spider-Man ultimately managed to give him a taste of his own medicine). Subsequent appearances showed him more like a Villainous Underdog who was outmatched against Spidey in a straight fight, and other continuities tend to outright treat him as a joke villain.
  • Villainous Valor: Kraven's bravery in fighting superhumans for sport while adamantly sticking to his "rules" (such as staying relatively human and not using actual guns) is often remarked upon.
  • Warrior Poet: He's prone to philosophizing about life, hunters and prey.
  • Wicked Cultured: In the 1990s animated series, at least. In one episode, he quoted Solzhenitsyn: "I know the Prussian moon/And I know the Prussian stars."
  • Worthy Opponent: Came to view Spider-Man as such, as detailed in his inner monologue in Kraven's Last Hunt.
  • Wrestler of Beasts: Kraven disdains using guns and bows, preferring to take down animals with his bare hands. He claims that his punch once felled a rhino.

    Vlad Kravinoff / Grim Hunter 

Vlad Kravinoff / Grim Hunter

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1463674_spider_man_handbook_pg08.jpg

Alter Ego: Vladimir "Vlad" Kravinoff

First Appearance: Spider-Man #47 (June 1994)

Grim Hunter is one of the sons of the original Kraven The Hunter.

  • Cat Folk: He was revived by his family as a human-lion hybrid.
  • Killed Off for Real: Killed by a maddened Kaine Parker. He was later revived as a lion-hybrid by his family, only to be killed by his father, who considered his condition a sorry state.
  • Mercy Kill: He was killed by his father out of mercy for what he had been made into when the Kravinoff family went to the Savage Land.

    Alyosha Kravinoff / Kraven the Hunter II 

Alyosha Kravinoff / Kraven the Hunter II

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/alexei_kravinoff_earth_616_from_punisher_war_journal_vol_2_14_cover.jpg

Alter Ego: Alexei Sergeevich "Alyosha" Kravinoff

First Appearance: Spectacular Spider-Man #243 (February 1997)

"Of course he bites. He has teeth. How do you think he eats— intravenously? What you really want to know is, will my dog bite you?"

The son of Kraven the Hunter, he too is a skilled hunter and tracker. Unlike his father his enhanced abilities are natural and he can talk to animals.

  • Bed Trick: Hooked up with Calypso after she tracked him down, thinking he was Sergei — and only saw fit to tell her the truth after they slept together.
  • The Beastmaster: Alyosha has demonstrated the ability to silently communicate with animals, though the full nature of this power is unknown.
  • Co-Dragons: For his step-mother Sasha alongside his sister Ana.
  • Dreadlock Warrior: He eventually changed his hairstyle to dreadlocks to imitate his father.
  • Killed Offscreen: His death isn't shown, but Ana later confirmed she did kill her brother.
  • Post-Rape Taunt: His reveal that he's isn't Sergei involved mocking Calypso after they'd slept together.

    Ana Kravinoff / Kraven the Hunter III 

Ana Kravinoff / Kraven the Hunter III

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/4438233_4015801360_ana_k_8.jpg

Alter Ego: Anastasia "Ana" Tatiana Kravinoff

First Appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man #565 (September 2008)

" Prepare, Spyder! The end has come! The Grim Hunt is here!"

13 year old daughter of Kraven the Hunter. Now walking in her father's footsteps, she continues the hunt for Spider-Man. Crystal revealed that Anastasia was Inhuman on her mother Sasha's side of the family.

  • Cain and Abel: She killed her brother Alyosha in order to prove herself worthy to her father.
  • Co-Dragons: For her mother Sasha alongside her brother Alyosha.
  • Fatal Flaw: Her arrogance is often the reason for her being defeated.
  • Little Miss Badass: She's not very tall but she sure is Kraven's daughter.
  • Morton's Fork: Kraven told her that either she killed her brother Alyosha and showed him she was worthy of his title, or die. She chose to kill her older half-brother.
  • Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: Completely sat out on her father's plot during Hunted.
  • Super-Strength: She has some degree of superhuman strength and speed and was able to fight Spider-man and Vermin likely due to the herbs her father and brothers used.

    Sasha Kravinoff 

Sasha Kravinoff

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/anastasia_kravinoff_earth_616_and_aleksandra_nikolaevna_earth_616_from_amazing_spider_man_vol_1_567_0001_7.jpg

Alter Ego: Aleksandra Nikolaevna Kravinova

First Appearance: Amazing Spider-Man #567 (October 2008)

"Come back to us... your family calls you... your family needs you. Sergei... come back to me, my love! Come back to me, Hunter! King of Lions and Emperor of the Wild! Kraven the Hunter! You are reborn!"

Kraven the Hunter's wife, born Aleksandra Nikolaevna. During the events of the Grim Hunt storyline, she sets up an elaborate plot to bring Kraven back from the dead and ruin Spider-Man's life. Her efforts lead to Kraven being resurrected, but Kraven Came Back Wrong due to them sacrificing Spidey's clone Kaine to do so, ultimately killing Sasha by breaking her neck.

    Last Son of Kraven / Kraven the Hunter IV 

Last Son of Kraven / Kraven the Hunter IV

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/last_son_of_kraven_earth_616.png
Click here to see as Kraven the Hunter 

Alter Ego:

Notable Aliases: Last Son of Kraven, Sergei Kravinoff

First Appearance: Amazing Spider-Man Vol 5 #16 (April, 2019) note ; Amazing Spider-Man Vol 5 #23 (August, 2019) note 

"They think it is about the kill. They are wrong. A soldier distances themselves from their enemy. The aim is desensitization. Hate. Whatever it takes to pull the trigger. The hunter does the opposite. The hunter tries to understand their prey. They want to know how it thinks, what it loves, what it fears. It is why the best hunters are empathic. A good hunt is an act of respect. It requires sacrifice. It requires planning. It requires timing. A good hunt is poetry. It is art. A good hunt is about planning for the unexpected. And in the end... ...the best part is not the kill. It is the shared understanding between you and your prey. That it was a fight well fought— —and fairly won."

After he was resurrected, Kraven convinced the High Evolutionary to create 87 clones of himself. This last clone hunted and killed his 86 brothers to become Kraven's sole heir. After killing his "father" he became the new Kraven the Hunter.

Alternative Title(s): Kraven The Hunter

Previous

Index

Next

  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Wide Load

Important Links

Ask The Tropers Trope Finder Media Finder Trope Launch Pad Tech Wishlist Reviews Go Ad Free!
Crucial Browsing
Resources
Top