Kraven the Hunter

Kraven the Hunter
Kraven the Hunter, as depicted by John Romita, Sr.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	The Amazing Spider-Man #15 (Aug. 1964)
Created by	Stan Lee (Writer) Steve Ditko (Artist)
In-story information
Alter ego	Sergei Nikolaevich Kravinoff
Team affiliations	Sinister Six Kravinoff Family "Avengers" (1959)
Notable aliases	Spider-Man
Abilities	Olympic-level athlete Gifted tactician, hunter and hand-to-hand combatant Superhuman strength, speed, agility, stamina, durability, senses and reflexes Longevity

Kraven the Hunter (Sergei Kravinoff) is a fictional supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He is one of Spider-Man's frequent enemies. He is the half-brother of Dmitri Smerdyakov, better known as the Chameleon. In 2009, Kraven was ranked as IGN's 53rd Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time.

The character first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #15 (August 1964), and was created by writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko. Though he would occasionally appear in other characters' titles, he was most frequently used as a Spider-Man foe. He is killed off in the acclaimed 1987 storyline by J. M. DeMatteis, Mike Zeck, and Bob McLeod, "Kraven's Last Hunt". Although generally considered to be the definitive Kraven the Hunter story, the story originally had a completely different character in Kraven's role. Writer DeMatteis recounted:

As I was getting ready to work on the story, I was sitting in my office and looking through a Marvel Universe Handbook and came across the entry for Kraven the Hunter. To this day, I don’t know if this was something that was established in continuity, or if whoever was writing the Handbook entry made it up, but they mentioned that Kraven was Russian. For me, a total Dostoyevsky fanatic, the idea that Kraven was Russian and had the same tortured, Russian soul that the great Dostoyevsky characters had, unlocked this door in my head and suddenly I had a new understanding of this character. I thought about Kraven and the forces that had driven him to be who and what he was. This was a character I had never had any interest in whatsoever. I always thought he was one of the stupidest Spider-Man villains ever, but suddenly I had this whole new take on the character.