Kraven the Hunter gets its first trailer
Once you’re on his list, there’s only one way off. Aaron Taylor-Johnson is Kraven The Hunter – watch the red band trailer now. The hunt is on exclusively in movie theaters October.
Tag Archives: Kraven the Hunter
Diamond Select Toys in Stores this Week: Invincible, Marvel, Power Rangers and Pacific Rim!
Five new items are hitting stores courtesy of Diamond Select Toys, and you’re definitely going to want to track them down. With Minimates, action figures and dioramas from Marvel, Invincible, Power Rangers and Pacific Rim, there’s something for everyone. You could say it’s the best of all worlds!
Invincible TV Deluxe Action Figures Series 3 Asst.
A Diamond Select Toys release! The battle continues! A third series of deluxe action figures based on the hit Invincible animated series has arrived, and two new fighters have entered the arena! Teen Team member Dupli-Kate and spacefaring pugilist Allen the Alien make up Series 3, and each figure features multiple points of articulation, accessories and a display base. Each figure comes packaged in a full-color window box. Sculpted by Chris Dahlberg! (Item #AUG222394, SRP: $24.99/ea.)
Marvel Comic Gallery Kraven the Hunter PVC Diorama
A Diamond Select Toys release! It’s time to hunt the most dangerous game! Sergei Kravinoff, a.k.a. Kraven the Hunter, stalks his way into the Marvel Gallery Diorama line, and he’s targeting Spider-Man! This approximately 10” PVC sculpture depicts Kraven, spear in hand, as he crouches among the bamboo, and comes packaged in a full-color window box. Designed by Caesar, sculpted by Alterton! (Item #JUL222482, SRP: $59.99)
Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers Minimates Series 2 Box Set
A Diamond Select Toys release! It’s Morphin’ Time again! Series 2 of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Minimates completes the team, with the Red Ranger, Black Ranger, Yellow Ranger and White Ranger! Each Minimate features 14 points of articulation, interchangeable parts, removable helmets and multiple heads to depict different cast members! Plus an array of weapons! All four come packaged in a full-color window box with original art on the opening cover. Designed and illustrated by Barry Bradfield!(Item #SEP222421, SRP: $24.99)
Pacific Rim Gipsy Danger Deluxe Action Figure
A Diamond Select Toys release! Look out, kaiju, here comes Danger! The original monster-smashing Jaeger returns in this all-new figure from DST! Standing approximately 8.5 inches tall, and featuring interchangeable hands and weapons, this fully poseable action figure features over 18 points of articulation and comes packaged in a full-color window box. Designed and sculpted by Big Shot Toy Works! (Item #AUG222399, SRP: $39.99)
Sony shifts Madame Web and Kraven the Hunter release dates
Sony announced some new films and shifts on already announced release dates. Two Spider-Man universe films are getting a bit delayed, we’ll just need to wait a little bit longer to see how these turn out.
Madame Web, starring Dakota Johnson and Sydney Sweeney, is moving from October 6, 2023 to February 16, 2024.
Kraven the Hunter, starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson, is also moving from October 6, 2023 from January 13, 2023.
An untitled Sony/Marvel film is also set for release on July 12, 2024.
Diamond Select Toys New Pre-Orders: Ahsoka Tano, She-Hulk, GI Joe and More!
It’s almost July, which means it’s time for another batch of pre-orders from Diamond Select Toys and Gentle Giant Ltd.! This month, The Crow rises, Cobra strikes, Magneto wins, Elektra dares, Kraven hunts, She-Hulk grins, Ahsoka returns, Leia infiltrates and a Purge Trooper, uh, purges! It’s the Best of All Worlds! They all ship in early 2023, so pre-order at a store near you!
The Crow Eric Draven 1/6 Scale Resin Mini-Bust
A Diamond Select Toys release! It can’t rain all the time! Eric Draven returns from the dead in this, the first resin mini-bust based on The Crow! Eric wears his borrowed trenchcoat, with the Crow on his shoulder, atop a base patterned after the roof of his apartment. Measuring approximately 6 inches tall, this 1/6 Scale mini-bust features detailed sculpting and paint applications, and is limited to only 2000 pieces. It comes packaged with a certificate of authenticity in a full-color box. Designed by Caesar, sculpted by Rocco Tartamella!
Mini-Bust SRP: $120.00
GI Joe Minimates Series 2 Carded Box Set
A Diamond Select Toys release! The forces of Cobra strike back! This new footlocker box set features four carded G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero Minimates, and they’re all Cobra operatives! Cobra Commander, Storm Shadow, Destro and The Baroness each come on a retro-style blister card, and each 2-inch Minimate features multiple points of articulation and fully interchangeable parts. The four carded figures come in a footlocker-style storage box. Designed by Barry Bradfield!
Box Set SRP: $39.99
Legends in 3D Marvel Comics Magneto ½ Scale Resin Bust
A Diamond Select Toys release! Magneto was right! Show your allegiance to the one-time villain, former leader of the Brotherhood, now X-Man in good standing Magneto with this new 10-inch bust! Digitally sculpted in approximately ½ scale, this Legends in 3D bust sits atop a detailed base featuring the rubble of the Xavier Institute and is limited to only 1000 pieces. It comes packaged with a certificate of authenticity in a full-color box. Designed by Joe Allard, sculpted by Sandro Luis Sampaio!
Bust SRP: $175.00
Marvel Comic Gallery Elektra as Daredevil PVC Diorama
A Diamond Select Toys release! There’s a new protector of Hell’s Kitchen, and it’s not Matt Murdock! Matt’s former lover Elektra dons the red mask as the all-new Daredevil, as seen in recent Marvel Comics. Made of high-quality PVC, she stands approximately 10 inches tall and features detailed sculpting and paint applications. This sculpture comes packaged in a full-color window box. Sculpted by Alterton!
Diorama SRP: $59.99
Marvel Comic Gallery Kraven the Hunter PVC Diorama
A Diamond Select Toys release! It’s time to hunt the most dangerous game! Sergei Kravinoff, a.k.a. Kraven the Hunter, stalks his way into the Marvel Gallery Diorama line, and he’s targeting Spider-Man! This approximately 10” PVC sculpture depicts Kraven, spear in hand, as he crouches among the bamboo, and comes packaged in a full-color window box. Designed by Caesar, sculpted by Alterton!
Diorama SRP: $59.99
Marvel Animated-Style She-Hulk Statue
A Diamond Select Toys release! Cutest attorney ever! Hot on the heels of her first TV trailer, this animated-style sculpture of She-Hulk is based on the Marvel Comics variant cover artwork of Skottie Young! Measuring approximately 5 inches tall atop a black disc base, it is limited to only 3000 pieces and comes packaged with a certificate of authenticity in a full-color box. Sculpted by Casen Barnard!
Statue SRP: $49.99
Star Wars Rebels Ahsoka Tano 1/6 Scale Mini-Bust
A Gentle Giant LTD release! The Togruta returns! As seen in Star Wars: Rebels, Ahsoka Tano appears, dressed in a white robe and holding a staff with her friend Morai on her shoulder. This 1/6 scale, approximately 6-inch resin mini-bust features detailed sculpting and paint applications, and is limited to only 3000 pieces. It comes packaged with a certificate of authenticity in a full-color box.
Mini-Bust SRP: $129.99
Star Wars Rebels Ahsoka Tano 1/6 Scale Deluxe Mini-Bust
A Gentle Giant LTD release! The Togruta returns! As seen in Star Wars: Rebels, Ahsoka Tano appears, dressed in a white robe and holding a staff with her friend Morai on her shoulder. And this web-exclusive Deluxe version includes a separate Clone Trooper helmet, bearing the mark of Ahsoka’s troops! This 1/6 scale, approximately 6-inch resin mini-bust features detailed sculpting and paint applications, and is limited to only 500 pieces. It comes packaged with a certificate of authenticity in a full-color box.
Mini-Bust SRP: $129.99
Star Wars Obi-Wan Kenobi Purge Trooper Premier Collection 1/7 Scale Statue
A Gentle Giant LTD release! Jedi beware! As seen in the new series Obi-Wan Kenobi on Disney+, the Purge Trooper is trained for one purpose: hunting Jedi! This 1/7 scale statue stands approximately 10 inches tall and depicts a black-and-red-armored Purge Trooper marching with his blaster at the ready. Limited to only 3000 pieces, it comes packaged with a certificate of authenticity in a full-color box.
Statue SRP: $200.00
Star Wars Return of the Jedi Leia in Boushh Disguise Premier Collection 1/7 Scale Statue
A Gentle Giant LTD release! Princess no more, Leia Organa goes undercover to rescue her true love in this all-new Star Wars statue by Gentle Giant Ltd. Disguised as Boushh, a bounty hunter, Leia holds a electro-shock lance and features an interchangeable head so she can wear or hold her helmet, and if you change out her right arm she’s holding a thermal detonator! Standing approximately 10 inches tall and limited to only 3000 pieces, she comes packaged with a certificate of authenticity in a full-color box.
Statue SRP: $200.00
Kraven the Hunter Comes to the Battlerealm in Marvel Contest of Champions
The hunt is on! Kraven the Hunter has arrived in The Battlerealm! Find out more about Kraven’s story in MARVEL Contest of Champions as Kabam debuted an all-new motion comic revealing the new Champion coming to the popular mobile fighter. Here is a quick look at what The Contest has in store this month:
A mysterious flower originating from The Savage Lands has started to destroy communes within The Battlerealm! S.H.I.E.L.D., hoping to contain the threat, sets up a cordon to halt the spread of the flower.
Spider-Man is tasked with leading an expedition into The Savage Lands to help identify the locations of the flower. Helping him with this goal is The Summoner and a guide hired by S.H.I.E.L.D, Kraven the Hunter!
Kraven, feeling there’s an ulterior motive to S.H.I.E.L.D.’s interest in The Savage Lands, uses the opportunity to investigate those who hired him. This sends Spider-Man off course and brings them into contact with Champions who want to exploit the resources of the Savage Lands for themselves. Why is S.H.I.E.L.D. in the Savage Lands? Why do Champions want these mysterious flowers? Find out this month!
Sergei Nikolaievich Kravinoff was once known as the world’s greatest hunter, often killing his prey with his bare hands. Despite his success he grew bored with hunting big game, so he decided to hunt for more dangerous and powerful prey. He chose to hunt Spider-Man, someone he saw as a real challenge worthy of his skills, however his constant failure to defeat Spider-Man led him into a path of villainy and insanity.
Other MARVEL Contest of Champions updates, including bug fixes, 6 Quests unlocking throughout the month, and more can be found HERE. Also check out Kraven’s Champion Spotlight.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson Goes from Quicksilver to Kraven the Hunter in Sony Film
Sony has announced that Aaron Taylor-Johnson has nabbed the lead role in Kraven the Hunter. The character is a Spider-Man villain and the film is part of Sony’s plan to expand their corner of the Marvel film universe. The first step beyond the Spider-Man films was Venom which blew away the box office and is getting a sequel later this year. Numerous other films have been announced or are rumored to be in the works. Kraven the Hunter is set to be released on January 13, 2023.
J.C. Chandor is directing the film with a screenplay by Art Marcum, Matt Holloway, and Richard Wenk.
This is the fourth comic film franchise for Aaron Taylor-Johnson to be a part of. He starred as Dave Lizewksi/Kick-Ass in the film Kick-Ass which spawned video games and a sequel. He then went on to play Pietro Maximoff/Quicksilver in Avengers: Age of Ultron. He will also play Lee Unwin in The King’s Man, the latest entry in the film franchise based on the comic series The Secret Service which has released two previous films.
Kraven the Hunter was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko and debuted in The Amazing Spider-Man #15. The character is usually depicted as a big-game hunter who constantly wants to prove himself to be the world’s greatest hunter. He has been a villain clashing with Spider-Man, Black Panther, and more and is a founding member of the supervillain team, the Sinister Six. But, he’s also at times been a hero allying with Squirrel Girl and even Spider-Man.
Unboxing: Marvel Legends Spider-Man and Kraven Two Pack
Spider-Man and Kraven face off in this Marvel Legends two pack that allows you to recreate the iconic battles between the two.
Spider-Man is wearing his black symbiote suit while the Kraven the Hunter figure is an updated version from the Marvel Legends Infinite series.
How do these figures face off as toys and each other? Find out!
You can order yours own now:
Target
Amazon
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Review: Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #26
Unbeatable Squirrel Girl takes a little break in issue 26 for a special in-universe zine comic written and drawn by various heroes, villains, and denizens of the Marvel Universe. In real life, they are all written by Ryan North with Erica Henderson switching roles with her Jughead collaborator Chip Zdarsky to pen a surprisingly sultry Howard the Duck story. It’s a fun sampler that mostly hit and very little miss from the much vaunted series of three panel Galactus gag strips by Garfield‘s Jim Davis to Anders Nilsen and Soren Iverson’s poignant story of Wolverine befriending a Sentinel and shotgunning a beer with his adamantium claws. The series Unbeatable Squirrel Girl has a lot of fantastic action, jokes, and the occasional superhero parody, but it’s a book where Doreen listens to both her opponents and allies and tries to work things out with eating nuts and kicking butts. S
So, it’s fitting, we get this comic that is written by a wacky range of POVs beginning with Squirrel Girl herself who stutters through the intro about his being a fundraiser zine. We get to listen to Kraven, hear Spider-Man’s retort, and see the world through Tippytoe’s eyes, which is drawn and colored in an adorable manner Madeline McGrane’s art and colors make this frame story definitely look like a zine you might pick up at the local coffee shop or one of those fancy schmancy zine stores in bigger stories. It’s followed up by Chip Zdarsky going the closest he’ll ever get to his work on Sex Criminals in a mainstream comic with Erica Henderson doubling as a film noir director, but more awkward. They use close-ups and small panels of Howard the Duck and his femme fatale/client like they’re egging Marvel editorial to linger on this scene more while adding a funny caption. Zdarsky doing Big Two interiors is a big treat, and he barely holds back.
Tom Fowler’s Brain Drain story is a nice showcase of the underrated Unbeatable Squirrel Girl supporting character and hews the closest to Henderson’s usual style on the book. His take on Brain Drain is philosophical, adorable, and structured like the computer science programs that the character loves. It’s oddly motivational too and worth a reread thanks to its erudite writing style. Speaking of rereads, Carla Speed McNeil draws a Loki comic that only makes sense forwards and backwards and is a great example of how the comics medium allows for flexibility of meaning using Loki as a litmus test. It’s a wonderful double page spread, and the best Loki story since Journey into Mystery.
After this, Michael Cho draws a Kraven the Hunter comic/Spider-Man diss story, which is a pretty fun riff off “Kraven’s Last Hunt” and features dead presidents. His art has a light hearted old school vibe while having a subversive take on superhero/supervillain relationships kind of like the main Unbeatable Squirrel Girl title, but from the bad guy’s perspective. It’s followed up by a one page retort from Spider-Man with some gorgeous, yet still funny digital painting work from Rahzzah, who teams up later in the book to do Nancy Whitehead’s photo collage comic with the help of North, who channels Dinosaur Comics in the strip. It’s a well-designed remix story that will make the non-artists reading this comic smile and the kind of mash-up that you would find in a real zine.
But the heavy hitter of the bunch is Anders Nilsen and Soren Iverson’s Wolverine story that is fitting for an artist who had done a comic called Poetry is Useless. Anders Nilsen has a minimalist Euro style perfect for a comic about Wolverine getting talked out of killing a Sentinel, who challenges him to look past his shiny mutant killing exterior and team up with him to beat up some kaiju. (Sadly, this part of the story is off panel.) Wolverine gets a big epiphany moment when he realizes that he’s “hating and fearing” the Sentinel just like the X-Men have been treated for most of their career. This story is proof that more Fantagraphics and Drawn and Quarterly guys should draw superhero comics.
Following this weighty, yet fun story is a couple of candy confections. Unbeatable Squirrel Girl colorist Rico Renzi draws an adorable and faux edgy Batman parody starring the one and only Tippytoe. It pokes fun at Batman’s angsty backstory as well as the fact that Tippytoe always plays second banana. Renzi’s art style is similar to the cartoon The Amazing World of Gumball with lush digital backgrounds and colors. Finally, Jim Davis, whose work I was familiar with eons before I ever opened a Marvel comic, transposes the classic Garfield and Jon relationship to Galactus and the Silver Surfer. It’s the same dad-ish, three panel punchline jokes, but told in a more cosmic key, and Davis has a lot of fun showing Galactus doing his planet devouring, face stuffing thing. His literal eye popping Silver Surfer has a similar manic energy to Robin Williams’ Genie in Disney’s Aladdin.
Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #26 is a real treat as independent cartoonists, the creator of Garfield, and even the book’s colorist get to take a stab at some of the more familiar faces in the Marvel Universe while also giving Squirrel Girl’s supporting cast a moment in the sun. It’s sometimes poignant and always funny.
Story: Ryan North, Erica Henderson Art: Madeline McGrane, Chip Zdarsky, Tom Fowler, Carla Speed McNeil, Michael Cho, Anders Nilsen, Rico Renzi, Jim Davis Colors: Madeline McGrane, Chip Zdarsky, Rico Renzi, Rahzzah,Soren Iverson
Story: 9.5 Art: 9.0 Overall:9.2 Recommendation: Read
Back to School: Ultimate Spider-Man #20-21
Back to School is a weekly issue by issue look at the beloved superhero teen comic Ultimate Spider-Man. In this week’s installment, I will be covering Ultimate Spider-Man #20-21 (2002) written by Brian Michael Bendis, penciled by Mark Bagley, inked by Art Thibert, and colored by Digital Transparency.
Live from New York City is the Kraven the Hunter and Dr. Octopus show aka Ultimate Spider-Man #20! While the Kraven van is traversing the “wilds of New Jersey” to intercept Spider-Man, Dr. Octopus is trashing Justin Hammer’s limo and trying to get him to confess to his illegal genetic experiments to the reporters. This causes Spider-Man to get involved even though he’s sympathetic to the fact that Doc Ock has huge metal tentacles grafted to his body. They fight back and forth, and Dr. Octopus has some special upgrades to his arms like electric shocks and machine guns. The TV reporter on the scene starts to get Spider-Man’s story right and points out his selflessness at trying to keep the fight away from the journalists and camera people. The turning point in the battle when Spider-Man hilariously pants Doc Ock with his webbing, and this distracts the villain enough for Spidey to finally deliver a beatdown and break some of his tentacles. The TV reporter, Traci Hale, is about to get Spider-Man’s side of the story when Kraven shows up at the worst time possible.
Ultimate Spider-Man #21 begins with Kraven wanting to fight Spider-Man to the death while the hero just wants to save Justin Hammer’s assistant from the wreckage of his limo and go home. (Hammer has just passed away from a heart attack.) The fight between Spider-Man and Kraven is ridiculously one-sided, and Spidey knocks out the “showbiz phony” with one punch. Before swinging away, Spider-Man talks to Hale about why he’s a superhero and acknowledges that the mask might scare people off, but he wants to protect the people close to him from crazy supervillains and glory hounds like Kraven. Everything seems to be coming up Spider-Man when the NYPD arrests Kraven and his camera crew for their actions, and Sharon Carter and SHIELD takes Dr. Octopus into custody. However, the Parker luck strikes again when Aunt May asks about Peter’s whereabouts when he comes home at 3 AM, and he can’t lie convincingly to her. She is afraid of losing him, and this triumphant superhero is officially grounded. The comic ends with Dr. Octopus mumbling to himself in a SHIELD cell about how Peter Parker is Spider-Man. Uh oh…
Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley seriously stick the landing in the final two issues of “Double Trouble”, get what Spider-Man’s all about, and even write Aunt May like a realistic, caring parent and not a naive doormat. Ultimate Spider-Man #20 is masterfully paced with just enough Kraven and walks and chews bubblegum by featuring the final throwdown between Spider-Man and Dr. Octopus along with the shift in media perception of him. Bagley and inker Art Thibert show Spidey leap, kick, and contort while the news reporter on the scene realizes his strategy of keeping the battle away from the TV cameras and the selflessness of protecting Justin Hammer, a man who majorly trashed him in the press. Most of the issue is laid out in “widescreen” double page spreads like it’s on TV and Traci Hale’s narrative captions juxtaposed with the action shots makes it feel like we’re an audience and not in Spider-Man’s head like in previous issues.
On the surface and for the meat of the plot, “Double Trouble” is about Spider-Man struggling against and finally beating a 21st century reimagining of his classic villain, Dr. Octopus. But the real bad guy in the arc has been public perception of Spider-Man, which comes from a variety of things, including the bias of the Daily Bugle, the fact that Justin Hammer pinned nuclear sabotage on him, and the fact that he wears a mask and is shy around cameras not wielded by his alter ego, Peter Parker. That perception starts to turn around in Ultimate Spider-Man #20 and #21, and the most triumphant moment of the arc isn’t when he finally takes down Doc Ock, but when the bystanders and press on hand start cheering for him. Spider-Man has taken his share of beatings recently, and it’s nice to see him pull out a win in both his own and the public’s eye.
To take things a step further beyond Spider-Man’s in-story relation to the press, Ultimate Spider-Man #20-21 and the “Double Trouble” story as a whole are a battle between reality TV and news journalism, or news for entertainment versus news for knowledge and truth. As a former cartoonist for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Brian Michael Bendis has made news media a recurring theme in Ultimate Spider-Man, especially through the supporting character of dogged reporter Ben Urich, who takes down the Kingpin in the comic’s second arc. Kraven’s reality TV antics and the Daily Bugle and talk shows’ negative perception are targets of Bendis’ ire throughout the arc while an actual on-camera interview with Spider-Man and a filmed news story of him gets more positive treatment. The satire is definitely painted with a broad brush, but Bendis and Bagley show that mixing news and entertainment can be deadly in the case of Justin Hammer’s death and Kraven’s action. Bendis extols the virtues of fair, transparent reporting that exposes corrupt institution, like Traci Hale’s work with Spider-Man and the real story behind the attack on Justin Hammers factory, and is a little bit hampered by the fact that he wears a mask. Also, he doesn’t play a role in the plot, but Ben Urich is the last media member to leave when SHIELD takes charge of the crime scene.
The scene where reporter Traci Hale interviews Spider-Man gets why he is such a lovable, everyman type of hero. Unlike Dr. Octopus’ almost religious utterances of grandeur, Justin Hammer trying to make a profit illegally and get away with it, and Kraven’s insensitive showboating, Spider-Man is “like this guy who [fell] backward into some powers”. Bendis’ use of “like” and his straight shooting response to the reporter, Spidey sounds like a kid, who isn’t quite ready for prime time, but has values and convictions to go with the jokes about him being the product of spiders and humans cross-breeding. I liked how Bagley cuts from the interview to Mary Jane and the Daily Bugle staff watching him on TV to show that his message are getting out there through the news media even though Peter doesn’t interact in person with MJ in these two issues.
Kraven being treated like a total and utter joke and not a “final boss” type villain in the slightest is really cathartic after all the panel time he has hogged in this storyline. He gets to be the cliffhanger of Ultimate Spider-Man #20 eliciting groans from Spider-Man, the media, and all the bystanders after Spidey has put his body and life on the line to protect them from Dr. Octopus’ rampage. Up to this point, Kraven has taken himself way too seriously with Bagley’s close-ups of his pre-hunt “meditation ritual” and his constant grandstanding about wanting to kill Spider-Man. So, it’s pretty awesome to see Spider-Man demolish him in a few pages, dodging all of his blows easily with the whoosh of Bagley and Thibert’s speed lines, and finishing him off with one punch that has him crumple woozily like a college freshman at the end of their first bender. The one punch finish is both a reminder of how “fake” reality shows are and a reminder that Spider-Man cares about more important things, like justice and his family, than ratings or demos. But why did Kraven the Hunter need so much panel time in the first place? I guess it was Bendis and Bagley trying to troll fans of “Kraven’s Last Hunt” and set him up as an actual threat hidden beneath cringeworthy reality TV tropes and then showing that he really is just a tomato can of a baddie.
Unfairly, Mark Bagley sometimes gets accused of copying and reusing panels in his artwork and collaborations with Brian Michael Bendis. Well, he definitely puts that idea to rest in the closing scene of Ultimate Spider-Man #21 where he proves he and Art Thibert can do domestic drama just as well as spreads of Spider-Man swinging, kicking, and webbing. His facial work is stellar during the extended conversation between Peter and Aunt May, but his gesture work is even better like the three panels of May putting up one finger each when she grounds Peter from the Daily Bugle, seeing Mary Jane, and makes him go straight home from school. It’s kind of funny to see a triumphant superhero get upbraided by his guardian, but Bendis and Bagley add some pathos too like when May cries in her hands after sending Peter to his room. She truly worries for her nephew, who is the only family she has left after Uncle Ben’s death.
On a realism level, Aunt May is bound to have some questions about Peter’s bruises that he gets from fighting crime and his unexplained whereabouts, especially when he goes to fight Dr. Octopus in New Jersey. Bendis doesn’t portray her as a fool when she calls all of his possible locations, including the Daily Bugle and Mary Jane’s house, and May leaves Peter enough rope to hang himself with his lies. You can see the pain and exhaustion in her face when she tells Peter that she is afraid for him and doesn’t want to lose him, like Ben. Honestly, grounding seems like a suitable punishment if someone doesn’t know about his superhero alter ego of Spider-Man, and this scene is a reminder that even though he is improving as a superhero, Spidey is just a teenager and doesn’t have full freedom just yet.
I applaud Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley for deciding to end the “Double Trouble” arc of Ultimate Spider-Man on a character beat in a similar way to Ultimate Spider-Man #13. Ultimate Spider-Man #20-21 is a perfect, modern version of the “Parker luck”. Sure, Spider-Man now has a positive media reception and has defeated both Dr. Octopus and Kraven the Hunter, but he’s grounded because he came home late and lied multiple time to his aunt. This part of Spider-Man’s character is super relatable because honestly it’s hard to keep all the balls juggling in your personal, family, romantic, work, and school lives and be successful at all of them. Also, being grounded sucks and is a more realistic obstacle than Aunt May marrying Dr. Octopus or the wackier situations of Silver Age Spider-Man.
In Ultimate Spider-Man #20-21, Bendis and Bagley combine a parent’s worst fear with superhero melodrama and it’s the winning formula to finish off “Double Trouble”. Ultimate Spider-Man #20 is especially clever because readers get to see the shift in Spider-Man’s perception by the outside observers in real time because his fight against Dr. Octopus is being filmed by the evening news and other media outlets.
Back to School: Ultimate Spider-Man #18-19
In issue 18, the midpoint of Ultimate Spider-Man’s third arc, Spider-Man finally gets to throw down against Dr. Octopus. He starts confidently with jokes and webbing to Ock’s tentacles, but then he is the first Spider-Man villain to break free from his web fluid and starts beating on him. Dazed and confused, Spider-Man ends up on the outside of the lab surrounded by NYPD officers, who grab him and immediately get into a verbal fight with SHIELD about who’s in charge of bringing him in. In the hubbub, Spider-Man escapes and evades some NYPD divers, who only get a big piece of his costume, and returns home where Mary Jane helps patch him up. They watch TV, and he’s angry that Justin Hammer is using him as a scapegoat for the attack on his nuclear plant so he doesn’t have to answer questions about his relationship with Otto Octavius. Then, Mary Jane describes herself as “the Betsy Ross of superheroes”, gives Peter a good night kiss and goes home. The issue ends with Aunt May coming home a little early, and Peter is afraid she’ll discover his secret identity.
With enough ninja maneuvering and awkward one-liners about bowel movements at the beginning of Ultimate Spider-Man #19, Peter avoids spilling his secret identity to Aunt May while losing a chance at tasty chicken nuggets from KCC. (Because apparently only DC is allowed to use KFC and Colonel Sanders in their comics.) The scene shifts to school where footage of Kraven the Hunter tracking Spider-Man’s scent is being filmed. Gwen Stacy asks Peter about his bruises, but he deflects her questions while Kraven does his scratch and sniff thing. Later, Mary Jane sews Peter a new Spider-Man costume and leaves abruptly after a conversation where she thinks that he might be romantically interested in Gwen. All the while, Justin Hammer is dodging reporters, dealing with a PR nightmare, and is confronted by Spider-Man, who calls him out for making him a target of the press when Dr. Octopus is the real bad guy. Hammer offers him money to kill Octavius, but Spider-Man doesn’t take the bait and hitches a ride on top of his limo because Hammer is going to his New Jersey lab to negotiate a deal with Dr. Octopus. The issue ends with Hammer being trapped as Dr. Octopus has called a press conference to expose him while Kraven is getting to ready go to Jersey and hunt Spider-Man in the “wild”.
The media isn’t just Peter Parker’s day job (Or after school part time job in this version of Spider-Man.) in Ultimate Spider-Man #18-19, but ends up driving how he feels and some of Brian Michael Bendis’ plot too. It’s a major stressor on him, and Mark Bagley and Art Thibert draw several scenes of Peter muting the TV or throwing objects at it when news reporters accuse him of being a nuclear terrorist or hope that reality TV star Kraven the Hunter kills him. He’s still the shiny new thing that gets people buying newspapers and turning on their TVs and the star of the 24 hours news cycle because everyone knows bad news is more appealing and sells more paper than good news. Instead of laughing off the press coverage, Bendis has Peter react like an actual human being, who has to see negative things about themselves flashing 24/7. He does make jokes about Daredevil looking like a tool and Iron Man’s more positive media image continuing his coping mechanism of humor in scary or annoying situations with or without the mask.
On the flip side and even with metal appendages fused to his body, Dr. Octopus spins the media into almost his favor, which is kind of amazing for a murderer and domestic terrorist. It’s maddening to see Peter fight with the media like it’s a supervillain and see his antagonist win them over and expose the seriously-needs-to-hire-a-new-PR-person Justin Hammer in a single cliffhanger page. Dr. Octopus’ motivation is revenge against the man who set him up to fail as a corporate saboteur, but he wants to publicly humiliate Hammer, which is honestly more painful than an appendage to the heart.
There is more suspense and a feeling of danger in the scenes when Spider-Man is evading Dr. Octopus, the NYPD, and SHIELD agents than in the whole government conspiracy/cover-up/amnesia plot that has them chasing Spider-Man in the first place. Bendis slurs Spider-Man’s words in the caption boxes, and inker Art Thibert draws attention to the bruises that cover his body after almost being crushed to death by Dr. Octopus. After the fun opening flourishes, Doc Ock physically destroys Spider-Man, and the usually loquacious webslinger goes monosyllabic because of the pain.The combination of injuries and the emergence of heavily armed NYPD cops almost out of nowhere puts Spider-Man way on the defensive, and an arrest or unmasking seems imminent.
It’s to Bendis and Bagley’s credit that they lean on the internal sniping between the NYPD and SHIELD over whose “collar” Spider-Man is and use this to give Spidey a quick escape instead of him just running away on his own steam. Bagley delivers a beautiful nine panel grid with a muddy palette from coloring studio Digital Transparency showing the Herculean effort that Spider-Man makes to elude the NYPD divers. The water is no sanctuary for him, and the sequence captures the difficulty of every underwater video game level delivered in a single comic page as Spidey strains, swims, and ends up sacrificing his costume for the cause. He might be waterlogged, but Peter Parker is still a fairly clever teen and will do anything to protect his friends and family from supervillains and shady government agencies.
Speaking of friends, Mary Jane Watson gets her most extended panel time since the excellent “Confessions” standalone issue in Ultimate Spider-Man #18-19. The scenes where Mary Jane helps patch up Peter while trying to avoid adults definitely inspired some of Gwen Stacy and Peter Parker’s scenes in Amazing Spider-Man as played with excellent chemistry by Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield. The banter between them is nice with Mary Jane suggesting a self-defense class to help him in supervillain battles and asking to wear the Spider-Man costume for their social studies superhero assignment. She very much plays a support role in this storyline taking care of Spider-Man’s bruises and costume issues even though Bendis and Bagley don’t skimp on the jokes or romance.
Then, in Ultimate Spider-Man #19, they decide to introduce the Peter/Gwen/Mary Jane love triangle in a kind of forced, yet relatable way. At school, Gwen asks about Peter’s bruises and if they were caused by a bully, but he and Mary Jane do the whole partners-in-crime and play off his reputation as a klutz and tell her that he simply fell down the stairs. However, this little encounter kind of blows up in Peter’s face when he describes Gwen as “interesting” when Mary Jane asks if he likes her. The wording of her question betrays Mary Jane’s insecurity in their relationship and leads to her constantly saying, “No” to Peter’s questions as she leaves immediately after fixing up the costume. Bagley nails her emotional by giving her closed off body language and showing her in side profile instead of being closer to Peter. This is yet another issue he has to deal with to go with multiple supervillains, the cops, SHIELD, and the fourth estate. But I like that Bendis shows the sheer awkwardness of transitioning from friends to being in a romantic relationship and takes a more natural, slow burn approach to things.
Kraven the Hunter continues to be the odd man out in this story arc. I definitely read him, and Bendis seems to write him as a spoof of reality TV extreme outdoorsman with a deadly twist. The Ultimate Universe tried for a kind of “realism” in its takes on classic Marvel villains, but perhaps, he would have better been served as a colorful mercenary character than Bear Grylls in a loincloth. Some of the characters, like Gwen, react to him in this way and make snarky quips while he’s “stalking” his prey at Midtown High. He’s also depicted as a lady’s man and gets caught having sexy time with reporter Betty Brant in his trailer before he supposed to film. This is the one time he breaks his serene, intense hunter character. Maybe, Kraven is the Daniel Day-Lewis of reality TV stars. For now, he’s yet another obstacle in Spider-Man’s way as he scurries down the New Jersey Turnpike atop Justin Hammer’s limo for a grudge match with Dr. Octopus.
In Ultimate Spider-Man #18, Mark Bagley shows that he can draw the hell out of a Spider-Man fight scene using old tricks from the Silver Age, like the classic Spider-sense and targeting Dr. Octopus’ eyes, to legitimate martial arts moves like Spidey leading with a blow to the temples. Brian Michael Bendis is right beside with quips about Dr. Octopus getting his powers from a radioactive toilet snake, his bowl cut, and fashion sense. But, then the arms burst through the page and Spidey’s webbing, and it turns into a fight for survival. Ock’s arms are frightening, not silly, and Spider-Man’s narrative captions corroborate this feeling. Bagley makes them bust through the page and shows that he is totally outclassed. But, because Dr. Octopus’ attacks on Hammer’s facilities, could lead to a total nuclear meltdown, Spider-Man has the responsibility to take him out in some shape or form.
The meta-theme of Spider-Man being the optimistic, everyman hero in the face of corporate and political corruption continues in Ultimate Spider-Man #18-19. It simmers under the surface while he gets the stuffing beaten out of him by Dr. Octopus and comes to the forefront when Hammer offers him money to take out the not so good doctor. In his experience, and even extending to the Ultimates, who are on the government payroll, superhumans are freakish mercenaries. Hammer thinks Spider-Man is just the same although he is a classic, self-sacrificing hero, who protects the city and people he loves even if he ends up battered, bruised, and drawned and quartered by morning talk shows. Mark Bagley shows this visually when he flip kicks out of a scrum of arguing SHIELD and police officers. This symbolizes his idealism cutting through the bullshit of cover ups, harnessing superpowers to win the War on Terror or run a criminal empire. It also places Brian Michael Bendis and Ultimate Spider-Man in a conversation with Mark Millar’s Ultimate X-Men and Ultimates without forced crossovers and detracting from Spider-Man’s coming of age tale.
Mary Jane is relegated to a support/jealous girlfriend role and Kraven continues to be an iffy supervillain, but Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley craft a suspenseful pair of issues in Ultimate Spider-Man #18-19 as Spider-Man struggles in his first matchup against Dr. Octopus and also has to deal with other things, like cops, the media, SHIELD, and keeping his secret identity. Putting Spidey through the wringer and giving him moral dilemmas usually leads to storytelling gold. These comics definitely prove this with the webslinger barely flying by the seat of his pants except when it comes to Justin Hammer, who has more money than any kind of marketable villain or business skills.
