Amazing Spider-man Epic Collection: Kraven's Last Hunt

The definitive Kraven and Spidey story. Just plain epic. Fantastic Edition.

Questa collezione quasi omnibus è perfetta per tutti i newbie del mondo di Spider Man. Prima della vera storia di Kraven, ci sono vari racconti che introducono il Peter Parker di Kraven. Un Peter Parker che accetta costume e responsabilità, un Parker che accetta di diventare Spider Man. Perfetta uscita di scena di Kraven. Un personaggio sempre secondario ma che qui ruba la scena a tutti.

Kraven shows that even in his own little neck of the woods, Spiderman isn't always top dog. This story resonated with me like no other as a youth and I've been telling people about its power for thirty odd years now I reckon. Fantastic stuff.

Kraven's Last Hunt is widely considered to be the best Spider-man story ever told, and I tend to agree. If that's not reason enough to buy this Epic Collection, it also features the build-up and wedding of Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson. This is just an all-around classic Spider-man collection set during the last golden age for the character. Must-buy. 5 stars.

A new Spider-Man movie this year means a whole bunch of Spider-Man Epics in quick succession, and this is possibly the best of the bunch. This one's volume 17 and collects material from 1986 and 1987. The highlight is certainly the title story, but as that's at the end of the volume, there's quite a bit to talk about before we get there. One thing to note is that while, in my opinion anyway, the best Spidey stories are those with a certain lightness of touch, most of the tales collected here are of a darker bent, which is a much harder tone to pull off with the character. While many 'dark' Spider-Man stories fail, I think that most of these succeed admirably. The collection opens with an annual story pitting Pete against the Iron Man of 2020 (which was a lot further off back then, true believers), a slight tale albeit one with a cruel twist ending. Then there's a game-changing crossover with Wolverine that takes both heroes to divided Berlin in a devastating story that leaves Spidey emotionally shattered and down one old friend. The fallout from that special continues into the main Amazing Spider-Man book as the identity of the Hobgoblin is finally revealed, before Peter faces off against the latest incarnation of the Spider-Slayer. It's not all doom and gloom, though; in amongst all this angst everyone's favourite everyman finally successfully pops the question to Mary-Jane and readers are treated to the wedding of the year, a rare ray of hope in this otherwise downbeat volume. Their honeymoon is short-lived, however (especially as it takes place in one of the other two Spider-titles, natch), and they return to find Kraven waiting... Kraven's Last Hunt is one of those seminal, legendary Spider-Man stories, and for good reason. Running through all three Spider-Man books but created entirely by writer J.M DeMatteis and artist Mike Zeck rather than by the titles' usual teams, it's a pitch-black tour de force that sees one of the webhead's less prominent villains take centre stage with a shocking final plan. Psychological, brutal, gorgeous to look at, this is as good as Spider-Man (if not superhero comics in general) gets. Even for the normally extras-laden Epic Collections, this volume is blessed. We get covers for the various trades that have collected material included in this book, an issue of Marvel Age devoted to the wedding (including a Mary-Jane cut-out paper doll!), material from the Wedding tpb that includes photos of the real-life ceremony that was staged and the concurrent storyline in the Spidey newspaper strip, house ads and plenty of Mike Zeck pencils from Kraven's Last Hunt. This is absolutely fantastic stuff, and you won't regret picking it up.