Five years of thinking Kraven's Last Hunt was overrated

I used to roll my eyes every time someone called it a top 10 Spider-Man story. The premise felt too grim for a character I grew up reading. But last month I finally sat down and read the full 6-issue arc from 1987 without skipping around. The way J.M. DeMatteis wrote Peter Parker's internal struggle during those weeks in the grave actually hit hard. That panel where he claws out of the dirt and says "I have to live" got me good. Has anyone else had a classic story they dismissed for years until they gave it a real chance?

2 comments

2 Comments

eric_johnson20d ago

Wait wait wait, you actually thought Kraven's Last Hunt was overrated for FIVE YEARS? I read it for the first time a few months back and that dirt-clawing panel wrecked me too. The way DeMatteis wrote Peter just trying to survive in that coffin was way more intense than I expected from an 80s comic.

rubyj1120d ago

You're describing exactly what happened to me. That panel where his hands are just raw from clawing at the dirt... I had to put the book down and take a walk around my apartment. For something that came out in the 80s, the whole trapped-in-a-coffin sequence felt way too real, like he wasn't just fighting Kraven but his own panic attack. I still think it's overhyped in some ways, but that part earned every bit of the praise.