Issue(s): Amazing Spider-Man #15
Published Date: Aug 64
Title: "Kraven the Hunter!"
Credits:
Stan Lee - Writer
Steve Ditko - Penciler
Steve Ditko - Inker

Review/plot: Spider-Man foils the planning of a bank robbery, but one of the robbers escapes. It is the Chameleon in disguise. He had been arrested as a spy and deported, but he came back and has been engaged in petty crime. Having been foiled by Spider-Man again, he decides he needs to be taken care of, and calls in his buddy, the popular hunter, Kraven.

Peter has been summoned by JJ to take pictures of Kraven when he arrives at the docks. Flash and Liz also show up to see Kraven, and when Liz starts mooning over Peter, Betty gets jealous. People think of Peter as a loser with the ladies, and say that it was unrealistic for him to marry Mary Jane, but the truth is that the girls are all over Peter in these early issues once his glasses are gone.

Kraven fights some escaped gorillas and then announces that he'll be hunting Spider-Man. JJ tells him that it's against the law to hunt human beings. In all the excitement, Peter has forgotten to take pictures. The Chameleon arranges a burglary so that Kraven can watch Spidey in action. He is duly impressed. Then Spidey and Kraven fight, and Spidey almost wins until Kraven hits him with a potion that gives him the shakes.

Spidey runs off.

Despite his shakes, Spidey hunts down Kraven the next day, and winds up fighting both him and the Chamelon, who is acting as a Kraven duplicate. Eventually Spidey wins.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 7 - first Kraven the Hunter

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References: N/A

Cross-over: N/A

Continuity Implant? N

Reprinted In: Marvel Tales #153

The way Kraven is introduced as a celebrity, once could expect a contemporary portrayal would have him be a star in his own reality TV series.

I think Kraven is a very interesting villain in his Ditko issues, but he rapidly becomes a boring B-lister after Ditko leaves.

Those colored word balloons are actually a pretty neat effect, I wonder why they stopped using those?