“ | There are no good men... only good prey. | „ |
~ Kraven the Hunter to Mary Jane before transforming Curt Connors back into the Lizard. |
“ | Beautiful. (...) But you still hold back! Kill, or be killed! | „ |
~ Kraven trying to kill Peter Parker/Spider-Man. |
Sergei Kravinoff, better known as Kraven the Hunter, is one of the two main antagonists (alongside Venom) of the 2023 action-adventure superhero video game Marvel's Spider-Man 2, the third installment in Insomniac's Marvel's Spider-Man series.
He is a Russian hunter known for taking down any prey no matter how big. By 2020, Kraven learns about the supervillains and heroes that are settled in New York City, so he opts to go to New York in hopes of hunting all of them down to prove himself before he passes away from his cancer in what he deems as a challenge. He is the arch-nemesis of Harry Osborn, Venom and one the arch-rivals of Peter Parker (alongside Kingpin and Hammerhead).
He was voiced by Jim Pirri, who also voiced Akeel Min Riah in Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Close to Being Pure Evil?[]
- Despite being raised alongside the Chameleon, his half-brother, it's mentioned that he hated him for unspecified reasons to the point where he refused to share his name with him and would eventually start attempting to kill him.
- As a hunter, he killed many animals and people over the years.
- Killed a random hunter by snapping his neck for not being a worthy challenge for him to hunt.
- His motive is horribly selfish. Despite being fully aware that he is dying from cancer, he cannot accept the idea of him dying from a mundane illness, since he sees himself as an apex predator that must rule over the weak.
- As a result, he directly looks for something that can kill him before his cancer leaves him incapable of fighting anymore. Hundreds if not thousands of people die because Kraven cannot accept that he is dying from an illness that is making him weaker.
- A conservation between his thugs reveals Kraven once hunted a man who’d left his organization, capturing him and keeping him alive for weeks, cutting a part of him off every day, until there was nothing left.
- Set off Sandman in the opening of the game by threatening him and his daughter, despite him having gone straight for several years at that point.
- Offscreen, he killed Vulture, Electro (even though they both actually deserved it) and Shocker in cold blood and collected all of their equipment as trophies.
- He also, goes into detail about how he stabbed Shocker to death at Herman's sternum with his knife. MJ even explicitly states that Shocker never deserved such a fate.
- Attacks Scorpion and Martin Li's prison transport to Ravencroft, whom Kraven quickly captures for his hunt.
- This also endangered both many prison guards and innocent people near the area at the time.
- Experimented with Mister Negative's blood, in hopes of turning his hunters into superhumans.
- He also experimented with Scorpion’s armour, and poison to both improve his hunter’s armour and weapons respectively.
- Killed Scorpion during their fight by stabbing him in the stomach with his own tail.
- While Scorpion more than deserved to die, Kraven only did so out of disappointment and disgust for how weak he was when going against him and not for his crimes.
- Attacked Coney Island, endangering many people at the theme park just to capture Tombstone.
- Had his hunters try to hunt down Black Cat only for her to escape to France.
- Had drones track down targets that he wanted to kill, such as engineers, so they would lead him back to his brother.
- In easily his most vile act, he manipulated his own family into killing each other just for fun. His wife and youngest son, Nedrocci even begged him to stop and ask that he simply spends his remaining time with them; he refuses and merely lets his daughter, Ana murder them both, and eventually his older son, Vladimir.
- It's also heavily implied that he set up a hit on her, as a gunshot is heard at the end of the call between them. Both Spider-Men and Ganke, who are normally maintained even in grim situations, express audible horror and disgust towards this unique and overall terrifyingly cruel action and conclude that Kraven is an irredeemable monster who doesn't even love his own family.
- While Kraven claims to love her and the rest of their family in his phone call with his wife, Sasha, his "love" for them is disproven by how he refuses to spend his last moments with them and had them all killed for the sake of a sadistic hunt.
- Attempted to have Tombstone kept prisoner in a factory until he arrived to kill the former criminal himself.
- Kidnapped Dr. Connors and, for the sake of a good hunt, injected him with a serum that would not only turn him back into the Lizard, but also cause him to grow continuously bigger and more dangerous over time, all while being fully aware that Connors hated being such a monster.
- He also withheld a piece of the cure which was luckily stolen from him by Spider-Man, who cured Lizard before Kraven could kill him. Though, this still led to a lot of destruction that Connors would cause while transformed.
- Almost killed Spider-Man by stabbing him in the abdomen with his knife.
- The only reason Peter survived was because of the symbiote attaching itself to him, which would not only cause problems for the hero down the line, but also allow Harry Osborn's illness to resurface.
- After he stabbed Peter, he attempted to kill Harry and encouraged the latter to kill him.
- After seeing Peter in action with the black suit, he makes it his goal to personally hunt him down through any sick means necessary.
- Placed a tracker on the part of the serum Spider-Man needed to cure Dr. Connors, allowing his hunters to follow him back to the Emily-May foundation in an attempt to capture him, destroying the facility in the process.
- Had his hunters follow Spider-Man to his home and lead an assault on the whole neighborhood, ordering that any bystanders be killed if they get in the way.
- This led to Peter further falling victim to the Symbiote's corruption, nearly killing MJ in the process, and gives Jameson a good reason to make the city hate and fear Spider-Man. During all of this, Kraven specifically demanded that MJ be captured and brought to him due to her interference back at the abandoned zoo.
- Had one of his Hunters drug and kidnap Miles so he could bait Peter in.
- Forced Miles and Li to fight each other, hoping one would kill the other.
- He severely beaten Miles into submission for helping Li escape and presents him to Peter, who, already having flown off the deep end due to the symbiote's influence, flies into an animalistic rage upon seeing this.
- He tried to kill Spider-Man again and uses the bell from the church to weaken the Symbiote. It eventually culminates in Kraven attempting to crush his skull that causes Peter to start choking him to death, something that the hunter encourages him to go through with.
- Had it not been for Miles, Kraven would have succeeded in making him break his no-kill rule.
- He attempted to kill Harry again, who had transformed into Venom, leading to the latter biting off his head, which visibly traumatized him.
- On that note, while his death was very gruesome, it was justified considering everything he did. Not to mention he wanted it to happen, since all of his actions stemmed from wanting someone who could kill him in combat so he wouldn't die from his cancer first.
- He doesn’t care about his large army of hunters despite their blind loyalty to him, seeing as some of them are wounded during his hunt and he doesn't look the least bit affected by it. While he did have a select few celebrate his belief of Spider-Man being his predator, he doesn't actually bother to stay for the event itself.
- Although he does appear to respect Spider-Man, this was only when he was wearing the symbiote since it brought out the worst in him.
- This was demonstrated when after stabbing him, he insults the superhero before apathetically tossing him aside to fight the now incensed Harry. He outright expresses disappointment towards him during his fight with Venom, commenting that he was unable to "satisfy [him]", proving that this respect was pragmatic and was never genuine.
- While he does have cancer, it isn't played sympathetically nor is it excusable for his actions at any point in the story and Peter himself indirectly said that this is no excuse for everything he did.
- Although Venom was far worse than him, Kraven still manages to stand out given the carnage he caused and how close he came to killing Peter. Furthermore, for as toxic as it may have been, Venom still showcases a deeper empathic ability and willingness to reason than Kraven, being rejected because of its incompatible nature and destructive plans than any refusal to compromise.
- It's also worth noting that while he did hold back his high resources, his personal cruelty towards the protagonists can be considered the worst of all the villains in the series, like forcing Sandman to go on a rampage by threatening to kill his daughter, turning Dr. Connor into the Lizard, and torturing Miles. In General, he is so cruel and sadistic that even the Venom symbiote, who is no saint, hates him.
What Prevents Him from Being Pure Evil?[]
- In spite of his atrocities, he has an unbreakable code of honor as he admits to genuinely respecting Shocker, and how he was truly a one of his most worthy enemies. Moments before his death by the hands of Venom, he's genuinely grateful for having met his true predator and even thanks him for it. He also, per his family tradition, prays before every hunt/kill he embarks upon, showing that despite everything he did, Kraven is an honorable man.
- He appears to genuinely love or respect his mother, as he does willingly follow her tradition of praying before hunting. However, it’s not elaborated on at all apart from one letter and it's also implied that he only does so to prove he’s better than everyone else in his family, so this is a minor prevention.
- He holds back on his resources way too much too pass the Heinous Standards of the Insomniac games. Kraven has superhuman strength and durability, thanks to some potions, and is a very intelligent and skilled hunter as well, he is also capable of killing supervillains on his own such as Electro, and even holding his own against Venom, with both of them having higher resources. And yet, all he really does with his resources is manipulating his family into killing each other, attempting to kill the Spider-Men, trying to take down reformed villains like Black Cat, Tombstone & Connors by turning him back into Lizard. attacking a prison transfer boat, which endangered many guards and civilians and lastly killing 4 (or just 3) deserving victims, Scorpion, Electro, Vulture & Shocker. and his end goal is to try and find an equal or superior to kill him, when he has the ability to do way more. However, his personal cruelty to the Spider-Men, their families & other Spider-Man Rogues is more than enough to pass the baseline.
Trivia[]
- He’s the only version of Kraven the Hunter to be Near Pure Evil.
- Coincidentally, his voice actor Jim Pirri voiced the Near Pure Good Alador Blight from The Owl House.
External Links[]
- Kraven the Hunter on the Magnificent Baddie Wiki.
- Kraven the Hunter on the Villains Wiki
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