Amazing Spider-Man: Kraven's First Hunt

Collects: Amazing Spider-Man #564-7 (2008)

Released: April 2009 (Marvel)

Format: 112 pages / color / $14.99 / ISBN: 9780785132431

What is this?: A new hunter arrives in town, one who wants to destroy Spider-Man.

The culprits: Writer Marc Guggenheim and pencilers Phil Jimenez and Paulo Siqueira

OK — Spider-Man: Kraven’s First Hunt will be the last Spider-Man title for a while. I hadn’t planned on reviewing it so close after Brand New Day, v. 3, but I didn’t have on hand the book I had planned on reviewing (Promethea, Book 3), and Kraven’s First Hunt is the fill in.

With First Hunt, “Brand New Day” is kinda over, and the writers have to figure out a direction to go with the books. They decided, somewhat strangely, to go with yet another child of Kraven the Hunter. (That guy got around.) Thankfully, this time the child’s name has nothing to do with The Brothers Karamazov.

The arc doesn’t quite work for me, though. A great deal of the suspense is predicated on the hunter’s identity being secret; the villain’s desire to “hunt” Spider-Man and the return of Vermin is a hint, with the name “Ana Tatiana Kravinoff” being revealed in the last panel. But the surprise is spoiled well before then; the book is, after all, titled “Kraven’s First Hunt,” and that’s the name of the arc, which is plastered on every title page. There is no mystery, and it seems there’s no real reason to get excited about yet another Kravinoff. (Yes, I know, she and her mother become important over the next two years.) The biggest surprise is that Ana is only 12 years old.

She certainly doesn’t look it. She only appears shorter than Spider-Man and his roommate, a full-grown man, in a few isolated panels. But that’s really the only problem I have with penciler Phil Jimenez’s design of the character. Ana’s appearance is outré, visually striking without seeming too over the top. Her eye makeup echoes the face paint of hunters, and that and her upswept blonde hair give her a distinctive look. As a teenager, she might get second looks, but she wouldn’t be that out of place at a high-school party — well, if she weren’t wearing the catsuit-ish costume. But even that dull costume has a leather chest / shoulder guard that has the lion’s eyes from Kraven’s old costume subtly worked into its design.

So. Writer Marc Guggenheim’s surprise is lost, and he had to know that marketing would blow it. But the story doesn’t completely work without that revelation. The purpose of the story is to build up Ana for a later story, and Ana manages to “ruin” the lives of Peter and his new roommate, Officer Vin Gonzalez. But the ruination is brief and quickly put right, and her identification of Spider-Man is erroneous; Ana is a tough fighter, but tough fighters are a dime-a-dozen in the Marvel Universe. And Spider-Man was handicapped during their fight. Were it not for her name and visual, she would be just another one-arc villain for Spider-Man, one I wouldn’t expect to see again. (I lie; no one would waste that visual by not reusing the character.)

Two other stories are included in this volume. One is a throwaway story from Spider-Man: Brand New Day — Extra #1 (like there was going to be a second issue); in the story, Harry Osborn learns that friendship, even with an unreliable doofus like Peter, is more important than finance. The second, Amazign Spider-Man #564, is a fight between Spider-Man and Overdrive, with Vin not being able to decide which of the two is the real criminal. It’s an amusing story despite having three different writers: Guggenheim, Dan Slott, and Bob Gale. The physical comedy is excellent, and the way Overdrive tells the story to his boss is hilarious. (As is the way his boss’s goons plan to execute him.) Meanwhile, Vin’s story is poignant; his hatred for Spider-Man is so great he throws away an afternoon with his father at Yankee Stadium in order to chase Spider-Man around the Bronx.

The art, as usual in the Brand New Day relaunch, is great. Paulo Siquiera provides the art for #564, Patrick Olliffe for Brand New Day — Extra, and Jimenez for the “Kraven’s First Hunt” arc. All do excellent work with the action scenes, and Siquiera is a natural with the humor. (Not so much for Olliffe, but I didn’t really think the Zeb Wells-written story was that funny.) Jimenez excels with his biggest task, the design of Ana Kravinoff. Credit for the “First Hunt” arc should also go Andy Lanning and Marc Pennington, who provided finishes for Jimenez’s art.

From what I understand, the introduction of Ana Kravinoff and her surprisingly young-looking mother, Sasha, is a big deal. It doesn’t feel like a big deal, though. Perhaps I’m expecting the consequences to be too heavy too early. Still, rather than the first appearance of Venom or even Mr. Negative, this feels like the introduction of Azrael in the Bat-books, who readers didn’t realize was that important when they read Batman: Sword of Azrael in 1992. (Probably because he wasn’t supposed to be.) Still, the art is quite nice.

Rating: (2.5 of 5)

Spider-Girl, v. 10: Season of the Serpent

Collects: Spider-Girl #52-9 (2002-3)

Released: January 2009 (Marvel)

Format: 184 pages / color digest / $9.99 / ISBN: 9780785132134

What is this?: May makes a romantic choice, goes to an alternate universe, and fights a villain far more powerful than she is.

The culprits: Writers Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz and pencilers Pat Olliffe and Ron Frenz

Some series you keep buying because of momentum. It hooked you in the beginning — characters, plot, writing, art, something — and you still want to find out how it ends. But you’re not excited any more. If you took a deep look at your buying habits, you’d probably be better off not spending the money on that series any more. Not that you’d want to admit that.

I have to admit, the Spider-Girl digest series was getting that way with me. It hadn’t found its way into that category yet, but if I was being honest with myself, it was only a matter of time. And then along came Spider-Girl, v. 10: Season of the Serpent, and I don’t have to worry about momentum being the only thing making me buy this series.

Finally, May makes a decision about her love life, instead of endlessly vacillating. Mary Jane’s pregnancy finally — finally — ends. May comes closer to making her peace with Kaine, Alison Mongrain, and Felicity Hardy. We finally see Blackie Drago again. In short, the background plots seem like they are moving for once, and that injects some interest into the story. It felt as if writer Tom DeFalco was going to let some of them simmer forever.

The main plot is above average, but it doesn’t generate as much interest as the side plots. The Sons of the Serpent, a hate group, are back, and this time they are backed by Seth, an Egyptian serpent god. Of course this means May is vastly overmatched, which makes the story a bit more entertaining, and it allows her to experience her own trapped-underwater / mother-figure-needs-medicine / won’t-give-up moment that Spider-Man gave us in Amazing Spider-Man #33. The Serpents and their hate-group activities get short shrift; they’re there simply as a bunch of goons you can safely hope get beaten up. Whatever time it might take to make them interesting is given over to an alternate universe story that takes up most of two issues. While those issues do provide some characterization, it seems mostly a vehicle to bring Captain America to the M2 universe. Not that there’s anything wrong with that; it just seems to sap the narrative flow a bit.

The art is good, if not spectacular, once again. Pat Olliffe provides most of the pencils, with Ron Frenz, who co-wrote the issues he penciled, chipping in at the beginning and end of the volume. The two artists’ styles blend remarkably well, something that doesn’t seem to happen all that often. I have to give Frenz extra points for drawing May in a slightly different style of clothing while she was considering giving up the superheroing life.

The contents of Serpent takes some of the sting out of the new $9.99 digest price; for the first time I can remember, one of Marvel’s digests has more than six issues. In this case, it’s eight, and that seems like a fair deal for $10. The rumors have the next volume allegedly containing seven issues, which is not as good but doesn’t feel like Marvel’s trying to cheat me — unless the $12.99 price is also correct, and then I’m getting ripped off.

Still, even if I’m not looking forward to that price, Serpent has me looking forward to the next digest.

Rating: (4 of 5)

Spider-Man Visionaries: Kurt Busiek, v. 1

Collects: Untold Tales of Spider-Man #1-8 (1995-6)

Released: August 2006 (Marvel)

Format: 176 pages / color / $19.99 / ISBN: 9780785122043

What is this?: A collection of Spider-Man stories told in the ’90s but fitting into his early days.

The culprits: Writer Kurt Busiek and artist Pat Olliffe.

With certain writers, you know what you’re going to get. Alan Moore is going to give you stories with nearly impenetrable depth, many literary allusions, and bits of magic. With Grant Morrison, you’re going to get new versions of Silver Age stories that seem like they were originally read by a 9-year-old on LSD and were written by a 40-year-old on peyote. J. Michael Straczynski writes stories that … well, I don’t know actually, but it might come out a little late. Joss Whedon writes stories with sharp, cutting-edge dialogue that come out much, much later than Straczynski’s stories.

Kurt Busiek writes straight superhero stories. Some of them have disarmingly retro feel — well, all of them do now, because Busiek don’t do decompression. But they are often the kind of stories that would fit in with the ‘80s or even earlier, and critics often say they are excellent — not as nostalgia pieces but in their own right.

Spider-Man Visionaries: Kurt Busiek, v. 1 comes near the beginning of Busiek’s career. The stories in Visionaries are from Untold Tales of Spider-Man, a title that filled in the gaps between Spider-Man’s early adventures in the ‘60s. Usually, I dislike retcon series and stories, because they can’t tell any stories that change the status quo. But early Spider-Man — and probably all of Marvel’s Silver Age, for that matter — is a better fit. Stan Lee and Steve Ditko told the original stories with relatively broad strokes, allowing Busiek the opportunity to fill in some detail work. And if you can write a good Spider-Man story, it doesn’t have to be of earthshattering import; it just has to be entertaining.

There’s no worries there. Busiek has a firm grasp on both Spider-Man and the era. His Peter Parker is neurotic, simultaneously shunning and desiring acceptance from his classmates, learning to date for the first time with the confidence his new powers have given him, and fretting over money and Aunt May. The stories are fun, although his new villains aren’t all that interesting. (Which isn’t a problem; if they were supposed to appear for the first time at the beginning of Spider-Man’s career and haven’t been since, they have to lack something.) Two stories stick out for me: Spider-Man and the Human Torch teaming up to unravel the Wizard’s riddles and capturing him (#6) and Harry Osborne dealing with Spider-Man, the Enforcers, and his father’s deteriorating mental state (#8).

As I mentioned in the review for Last Hero Standing, I like Pat Olliffe’s work. It’s easy to see why someone could see his work on Untold Tales and think of him for the retro-styled tales of Spider-Girl and other retro-feeling tales. His Spider-Man and Peter Parker aren’t swipes of Ditko, but they do echo the first Spider-Man artist’s work, especially with the underarm webs on Spider-Man’s costume and giant glasses on Peter. The storytelling is simple and at times elegant, with little flash but with plenty of style. Shifting inkers don’t help his cause but aren’t a major source of concern.

If I were a quibbler, I’d note most of Busiek’s contributions to the Spider-Man canon have disappeared without a trace, and I don’t care about Sally Avril and Jason Ionello, his additions to Peter’s high school. But that’s not fair; it would have been extremely difficult for anything in this short-lived, set-in-the-past series to stick. It’s more useful to concentrate on Busiek and Olliffe’s work in bringing out a series of simple, worthwhile stories with a supporting cast at a time when such stories were in short supply.

Rating: (3.5 of 5)

Last Hero Standing

Collects: Last Hero Standing #1-5 (2005)

Released: September 2005 (Marvel)

Format: 120 pages / color / $13.99 / ISBN: 9780785118237

What is this?: The heroes of the future Marvel Universe face a dark threat as their cohorts are kidnapped.

The culprits: Writer Tom DeFalco and artist Pat Olliffe

Now in Canceled Alternate Future Theater, we have Last Hero Standing. Do you care whether future versions of Marvel heroes live or die? Do you even know who the featured, younger heroes in this book are? I’m going to guess the answer to both is “No” and proceed from there.

At a couple of points early in the MC2 Universe’s existence, it had three titles, but within a year and a half of the imprint’s founding in 1998, it had been pared down to one title: Spider-Girl. This left several loose ends, with both new characters and familiar Marvel Universe characters still running around. To capitalize on this, Marvel released Last Hero Standing.

In Hero, superheroes begin disappearing — Wolverine, Spider-Man, the Thing, one of the Ladyhawks — and the other heroes blindly investigate. As more are abducted and the remaining heroes come closer to finding the truth, the missing heroes return as ‘90s version of themselves, albeit without pouches, spikes, or shoulder pads. No, they’re grittier and grimmer, and they are out for the blood of those they loosely define as villains. Meanwhile, the aged Captain America wrestles with failing abilities in an environment in which small failures could lead to death — his or another’s.

There’s not much to say about Hero, good or ill. It’s most of a universe folded into a single limited series, much in the *ahem* proud tradition of 2099: World of Tomorrow. Cramming umpteen heroes into one story means plot will likely be more important than characterizations. True, the Avengers and Spider-Girl display differentiated personalities, but none of them make an impression.

And the plot is not one of writer Tom DeFalco’s stronger MC2 efforts. The abduction, mind control, and last-second saving the day aren’t anything new. The ending will hinge on whether you get choked up by the fate of alternate future versions of familiar characters. DeFalco leans more on Marvel heroes readers are more familiar with than he did in the A-Next run, but the jarring effect of the normally heroic characters becoming vicious is cushioned by the passage of years between the 616 Universe and MC2 — we don’t know what happened during those years.

Pat Olliffe does his usual good work on an MC2 title. Interestingly, this is one of the few times I’ve gotten to see his work in a full-size reproduction rather than a digest, and I’m surprised how much the smaller size and cheaper paper seems to harm his work. Seeing Olliffe in a normal size makes me realize the digests might not be as big a bargain as I thought. It still won’t stop me from buying future digests, but this does alert me as to what I’m missing.

Still, I have to say this is an underwhelming book. If you want to know more about the history of the MC2 Universe, you read Hero. If not, go elsewhere. It’s as simple as that.

Rating: (2 of 5)

Spider-Girl, v. 7: Betrayed

Collects: Spider-Girl #34-8, 51 (2001, 2002)

Released: November 2006 (Marvel)

Format: 144 pages / color digest / $7.99 / ISBN: 9780785121572

Despite the name, there seems to be a singular lack of betrayal in Spider-Girl, v. 6: Betrayed.

Betrayal of any of the protagonists, anyway. Writer Tom DeFalco spends the book amiably advancing plotlines — the second Spider-Man, Spider-Girl’s new power, Normie Osborn’s career plans, Raptor’s rehabilitation, Phil Urich’s aspirations. It makes for a surprisingly low-key volume, especially given the incipient gang war.

And DeFalco’s setting up even more plotlines, with Flash and the Black Cat’s daughter Felicity in Midtown High and their difficulties with their son, Gene. A former Spider-Woman and surprise reveal comes to see Peter about the new Spider-Man. The soap operas at May’s high school are a little tiresome; other than May’s relationships (none at the moment) and the amusing Moose / Courtney pairing (dimwit Moose thinks dumpy Courtney is Spider-Girl), I just don’t care.

This volume also includes a fill-in issue, #51, by Sean McKeever and Casey Jones, about a freshman with a crush on May. He writes her a mash note just before his family moves away (to Northern Plains — Wisconsin, one supposes, this being written by McKeever). Mostly forgettable, even the fight between Spider-Girl and a female Electro.

And that’s the problem with this volume, in a nutshell. Nothing’s really at stake, there’s a lot of fighting, and I can’t be bothered to care about the villains. Funny Face and Crazy 8 are a little too “wacky” for me, and Mr. Nobody is a little too knowing of the conventions of the genre. Canis is interesting, though, in a Lobo Brothers rip-off sort of way.

Pat Olliffe provides his usual level of art; having to spends so much time on Crazy 8 and Funny Face doesn’t’ do him any favors, although Felicity and Felicia Hardy are impressive (and not in a cheesecake way, either). There is a color separation problem on several pages late in my copy of the book, although it doesn’t interfere with the comprehension.

Unless you’re thrilled by Funny Face, Crazy 8, and more Phil Urich Golden Goblin, the surprise Spider-Woman revelation is about the only outstanding moment in Betrayed.

Rating: (2.5 of 5)

Spider-Girl, v. 6: Too Many Spiders!

Collects: Spider-Girl #28-33 (2001)

Released: June 2006 (Marvel)

Format: 144 pages / color (digest size) / $7.99 / ISBN: 0785121560

Spider-Girl is Marvel’s little title that could. Based on an issue of What If? (v. 2), Spider-Girl is the last survivor of a doomed comic line (M2) that focused on characters about a generation later than the current Marvel Universe. This continuity is dominated by the offspring of current heroes, and Spider-Girl is May Parker, daughter of Spider-Man.

The series lasted 100 issues and will be relaunched as Amazing Spider-Girl in October. Part of its longevity comes from the sale of cheap digest reprints to the bookstore market. Spider-Girl, v. 6: Too Many Spiders! is the latest of these volumes.

Writer Tom DeFalco and artist Pat Olliffe tell old-school stories, stories that hearken back to the early days of Amazing Spider-Man. That’s good, in many ways; there aren’t many books that consistently give readers simple, straightforward superhero stories. It’s strange, but it’s true.

On the other hand, DeFalco (and Olliffe, who’s listed as co-plotter) retell / mine / copy old Spider-man stories. In this volume, May deals with losing her powers, which her father has done more than a few times, and then she regains them, as he always does. Other choices seem a little iffy. A new Spider-Man comes to New York, a probable link to the Clone Saga — now there’s a plot graveyard no one wants exhumed. The Steel Spider is a joke, and even 20 years after his last appearance, the joke’s wearing a little thin. Perhaps most bizarre, DeFalco choose George Washington Bridge — a former associate of the outlaw mutant Cable, a former high-ranking member of SHIELD, and a character I don’t think he’s ever had much contact with — as president of the United States. Weird.

This volume feels very missable. May lost her powers at the end of the previous volume, and in Too Many Spiders, she has to deal with it. She’s spunky, and she grows as a character, realizing she has responsibilities whether or not she has powers. But the powers unsurprisingly come back by the end of the volume, and the issues collected seem to be waiting around for that to happen. Nothing happens in May’s love life. There’s an issue with the Steel Spider, and a few taken up with Raptor and the Buzz, none of which are too exciting. Neither one of them is a villain now; in fact, the world seems to be taking it easy on May while she’s lost her powers.

The fights lack oomph; May battles the Avengers, Tony Stark’s superpowered lackey, the reformed Raptor, and the new Spider-Man. None of these are villains. The characters of Normie Osborn, Raptor, and the Buzz are softened so that they don’t / can’t provide any opposition to May, and even Mary Jane and Peter aren’t able to effectively butt into May’s life like they want. The lack of a good villain, the lack of a menace or even a challenge adds to the feeling of missability.

The storylines with Raptor, Normie, and the Buzz moving toward the right side of the law also interesting, but they lack a little something; May has no doubt of their sincerity, so she has no qualms about defending them against her pals in the Avengers. The reader knows May is right as well, so there’s no tension. Unless this is a set up for stories down the line about at least one reformed villain, the part fails to live up to its intrigue. Besides, May isn’t exactly awash in catch villains. She can’t really afford to give them up.

Because of the circularity of the powerlessness plot, Too Many Spiders seems like a cul-de-sac. It’s not an essential volume; on the other hand, its strengths lie in the strengths that have been infused into the Spider-Girl title: the setting, the old-school style, and the smoother continuity.

Rating: (2 of 5)