Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Amazing Spider-Man: Kraven's First Hunt TPB

Marc Guggenheim does an ok job on this trade, but I seem to finding a pattern in the Spidey books. Basically, Dan Slott and Zeb Wells kick butt, Marc Guggenheim is ok, and Bob Gale's stories aren't exactly my speed. So this story by Guggenheim is only ok. Peter's new roommate Vin Gonzales doesn't interest me very much, and he's involved with the story quite a bit. Kraven's punk-rock daughter kidnaps Vin, thinking he is Spider-Man. Spidey borrows an extra DD suit and heads out to free his roommate. There is some excellent banter between the two heroes as the fight goes on, and the whole story is elevated by the presence of Vermin. I'm always amazed how big a threat Vermin is, but he really deserves his rep. He's messed up both Cap and Spidey in his day, and he holds his own against Kraven's daughter here. I did notice that Kraven's son was marked as deceased in the family tree. When did that happen? I thought he was alive in Beyond...

I did like how Vin's poor opinion of Spidey gets upheld by the excuse Peter is forced to give him. Peter lies to Vin and says he has set up a series of fake possible Spider-Men who fit certain criteria, and that Vin had the bad luck to be one of them. Since Vin hates Spidey already, this only reinforces his idea that Spidey is a heel. This was the coolest idea in the trade and I liked seeing Spidey take the hit by being a bad guy.

Phil Jiminez's art was ok, especially when drawing Vin in the Spidey suit. his build was different and you could tell it was the wrong guy. Spidey in the DD suit was amusing, and Vermin looked great. I really don't care for the crazy look of Kraven's daughter though. She's a weird mix of punk rock and classic Kraven, and I'm not sure it works.

Average

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