Sergei "Kraven" Kravinoff, nicknamed Kraven the Hunter by Mary Jane Watson,[1] is the main antagonist, alongside Venom, of Marvel's Spider-Man 2. He was a seasoned big-game hunter and professional mercenary leader who is the half-brother of the Chameleon.
Afflicted with a cancer that sealed his fate, Kraven sought to perpetuate his ancestor's traditions by seeking a glorious death at the hands of a worthy opponent, leading him to his last Great Hunt in New York City. He ruthlessly hunted down and killed many infamous supervillains and famous heroes alike, until he finally met his match in the Venom Symbiote (Harry Osborn) itself. Kraven fought the feral alien in a brutal duel that ultimately led to his demise.
History[]
Sergei Kravinoff was born in 1951, older son of Nikolai and Anna Kravinoff and the half-brother of Dmitri Smerdyakov. In his youth, Kraven and Dmitri were hunting partners while also being half-brothers by blood. However, Kraven's treatment towards Dmitri becomes even more bitter and nearly attempt to assassinate each other.
Over the years, Kraven had become a great hunter with a passion for big game, capturing several hunting trophies, which he considers more of a religion or a philosophy than a sport. It is said that his first prey was a man-eating lion that had killed several workers in a mine in Rwanda, a fight that was not easy for him, being the first time he was close to death, since then, he uses the lion's mane as an ornament on his vest as a reminder of the smell of death. Kraven's popularity as a hunter grew and he soon recruited an army of international mercenaries whom he trained in the art of hunting, presumably operating as poachers. At some point, Kraven snuck into the African nation of Wakanda, where he hunted a war elephant without being seen, being the hunt of which he is most proud. At some point, Kraven domesticated a Siberian tiger that he named Dima.
After having a family with his wife and the births of a daughter Anna and two sons Vladmir and Nedrocci at Volgograd, Kraven part ways from Dmitri, who then becomes a criminal called the Chameleon and temporarily had normal lives during the first game. Apparently, he is very abusive towards his family, particularly Sasha and Nedrocci, but praises Ana for further following their family traditions.
At some point, Kraven was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Rather than let illness claim him, Sergei sought to die how he had lived: as a hunter. He began searching in fervor for an opponent capable of overpowering and killing him in battle, a death he believed was "worthy of him" before cancer left him unable to fight anymore.
Marvel's Spider-Man 2[]
A new hunting ground[]
Six months prior to the events of the game, Kraven was facing the Great Hunter in the twists and turns of the jungle, likely in South America. The two killers seemingly knew each other at least by reputation, as the Great Hunter eventually called Sergei by his name before stabbing in the back who he believed to be his prey. But after hours of hunting, Kraven proved to be smarter and caught the Great Hunter off guard, grabbing the latter by the throat. Sergei expressed his disillusionment and broke the Great Hunter's neck with his barehand before throwing his corpse away.
As the Hunters started emerging from the shadows, Kraven berated them for having failed to find him an opponent worthy of him. However, his followers came up with the idea of moving to a new hunting ground in New York City. One of his hunters revealed on his tablet that the city offered many supervillains and heroes for him to face. Kraven expressed belief that one among them would be able to stand up to him, and he announced the beginning of the Great Hunt.
Kraven studying New York's villains
Before making his next move, Sergei began studying the personalities and background of all his future preys, supervillains and heroes alike. True to his reputation, he gathered all the information he could possibly find onto a database and studied the best way to win against foes said to have super powers and, theoretically, the edge over Kraven. He selected the Sandman as his first target.
Before his departure, Ana killed her entire family and possibly was killed by Kraven.
The hunt begins[]
Kraven using a sniper rifle
Using his wealth and advanced equipment, Sergei secretly transferred his headquarters to an abandoned mansion east of New York City, as well as his Hunters and weaponry. However, by the time Sergei finally arrived in town, he learned that Sandman had eluded capture from his men, prompting him to turn his attention towards Mister Negative and Scorpion, who were about to be transferred out of The Raft for evaluation. Kraven did not plan to kill them immediately, as he wanted to learn more about Martin Li's power and the unique properties of Scorpion's poison. He ordered his hunters to capture them alive and bring them to the mansion for further study.
Scorpion attacking Kraven
Kraven studied Scorpion's deadly poison and learned that he had to find and use Tiare Apetahi flower to protect himself from the poison. To find it, he carried out an expedition to Raiatea in the French Polynesia to collect it. Using the flower's medicinal properties, he developed an immunity to Scorpion's poison.
Returning to New York, he entered his arena where the captured Scorpion was being kept to find that Gargan had broke out and killed one of his guards. Sensing the Scorpion burrowing in the sand beneath him, Kraven turned around in time to catch Gargan by the throat but now before he was hit with the Scorpion's stinger in his shoulder. However, the immunity worked, leaving Kraven with only a flesh wound. Disappointed, Kraven forced the stinger from his shoulder and broke it from Gargan's mechanical tail. Mocking how powerless the Scorpion now was, he stabbed Gargan with his own poisonous blade, killing him.
Dissatisfied, Kraven turned his attention to his next targets. Kraven successfully hunted and killed Vulture, while taking his wings as a trophy. He then found and killed Electro, who he believed was even more disappointing, though he found use for Electro's suit. Kraven next hunted the Shocker. Although he remarked that he fought better than his prior prey and he win his respect , he still beat and killed Herman and was left unfulfilled once again. He also tries to hunt Dmitri Smerdyakov, the Chameleon and his half brother, but fails to capture him.
Finding his worthy opponent[]
Growing impatient, Kraven ordered his hunters to search for Tombstone and the Lizard. The hunters fail to capture Tombstone, who is saved by the original Spider-Man, Peter, and his "Spider-Pal", Harry, using a black suit, although they do abduct the Lizard, currently in human form as Curt Connors.
That night, hoping Connors will be a challenge given he contains a "beast" within him, Kraven administers a high dose of Lizard serum into him. However, Peter and Harry arrive and attack Kraven and his hunters. Tempted by Peter, he moves to fight him, but easily blocks his punch and stabs him in the abdomen with his hunting knife. Once more disappointed, Kraven tosses Spider-Man aside and turns his attention to Harry, whose suit appears to grow sentient as he is enraged by Kraven's attack on Spider-Man.
Kraven fights Harry but is beaten back, knocked unconscious in their struggle. When he recovers, he sees the symbiote suit has left Harry and attached to Peter, healing him and empowering him even further. In awe at the suit's power, and suspecting it is sentient, Kraven remarks that his hunters can pursue the escaped Lizard but that the beast in the suit will be his true hunt now.
The following night, Kraven baits Peter to fight him in a church in exchange for the antidote to cure Connors from his Lizard serum. However, Spider-Man holds back in their brief struggle and instead only pushes Kraven away from him. Noticing the suit reacting to the bell ringing in the church, Kraven kicks it to increase the sound, wanting to provoke the symbiote in the suit to fight harder. However, Spider-Man uses the suit to destroy the bell and take the antidote, insisting he and Kraven can have a proper duel another time. Noting the suit's apparent weakness, Kraven has his hunters take the bell back to his hideout to restore it for later use.
However, the Hunters fail to capture the Lizard after Spider-Man uses the black suit to defeat him and cure Connors with the antidote. Kraven orders them to capture the second Spider-Man, Miles, instead, hoping to use him to draw Peter to fight him. They succeed and Kraven begins to have his captured hostages fight to the death in his arena, trying to determine if any of them are worthy of him to fight before facing the symbiote-enhanced Spider-Man.
He has Mister Negative fight first, who defeats and kills several challengers before eventually the captured Miles is all that is left to fight. However, to his annoyance, the two don't end up fighting to the death but instead, Spider-Man uses his electrical powers to help Mister Negative escape by blasting a hole in the roof and throwing him through it. Kraven then proceeds to attack Miles, beating him severely. He then imprisons him in a cage overlooking the arena, and resumes his plan to lure the symbiote-possessed Spider-Man to the hideout.
Final duels and death[]
Peter, embodying the symbiote, eventually arrives. Wanting to unleash the beast within the symbiote, Kraven contains him inside a prison box that is deemed unbreakable. He notes that, despite his imprisonment, Peter is still holding back. To motivate Spider-Man, he reveals the battered Miles to him. To his joy, this magnifies more of Peter's anger, causing the suit to explode with tentacles, shattering the cage. Kraven then brutally fights him, praising Peter as an opponent truly worthy for his final challenge. Wanting more though, he reveals the restored bell and uses it to further irritate the symbiote, making it fight even harder.
Peter eventually gives into the symbiote and uses it to overpower Kraven. Now content to die, Kraven goads Peter to kill him. However, the horrified Miles intervenes, using his powers to save Kraven's life, though the attack does knock him out. When he regains consciousness, Kraven learns that Miles helped free Peter from the symbiote's control and sealed it inside a small capsule.
Still longing for his death in combat, Kraven leaves the hideout and eventually reaches Times Square. He sees the beast of the suit now fully realized, having bonded to Harry again, now calling itself Venom. Kraven attacks him, but, after a hard-fought duel, Venom proves to be the greater combatant after he overwhelms and successfully defeats the Great Hunter. Satisfied, Kraven thanks Venom for the fight and allows the beast to consume his head, killing him, thereby avenging all those who had died at his hands.
Legacy[]
Although Kraven's family is now extinct, his family's legacy is survived by his half-brother, Chameleon, who plans to return to his criminal activities. Meanwhile, his pet tiger, Dima, has been taken to a zoo located in Queens.
Following Kraven's demise, the Hunters were left fractured and crippled, many of them being victims of the Symbiote Invasion which was indirectly caused by Kraven. After the invasion was thwarted by the Spider-Men, however, most symbiotes were eradicated save for a few, one of which is under Cletus' hand, Carnage.
Characteristics[]
Appearance[]
Kraven's full body image
Kraven is a behemoth of a man, towering over the average human and having a bulky, muscular build. He sports a black and grey beard, as well as black hair with a man bun in the back. Kraven does not wear a shirt, exposing his muscles, covered by a black and yellow tactical vest patterned to display the lion of his family crest. At the top of said vest, there is a huge collar made out of a brown lion's mane. Kraven also has multiple animal skulls he wears, such as one on his waist, right arm, and more. He also has multiple pieces of animal skin and fur stitched into his clothes. And finally, he has a necklace showing predator fangs.
Personality[]
There are no good men. Only good prey.
Kraven the Hunter, Good Men
Kraven is a ruthless, yet cunning hunter, typically trying to find the worthiest of prey. After discovering his cancer however, he wished not to die as a sick man, but as a man who wished to die at the hands of an equal. He cared very little about the people he hurt, even those who desired not to participate in his hunts, such as Martin Li or Curt Connors. He believed that among many of the villains and heroes of New York, he would find his equal and nearly did, when Spider-Man, under the influence of Venom, attempted to strangle him to death. He was, however, denied this, thanks to Miles Morales. Despite this, Kraven was not yet ready to surrender and would finally take joy in the fact that, following his encounter with Venom, he found the equal he sought for so long, dying happy.
Kraven takes great pride in holding the title of the world greatest hunter. This led him to push himself to peak of human physical limits and skills. After accomplishing number of challenges, he truly starves for a worthy challenge. He even displayed an incredible amount of patience, as noted when he spent hours waiting for an alleged worthy challenger to detect him. When facing Spider-Man, Kraven shows enough empathy to sense the raw aggression of the Symbiote and is even enthralled by the possibility of finally finding a worthy fighter to defeat him.
Kraven has also shown himself to be a deeply spiritual man, as he still prayed every time before a hunt, as his mother had taught him to do so. As his age starts to catch up with him and he begins struggling with a terminal illness, Kraven also begins to display deep insecurities. Because Kraven's own followers view him as some kind of quasi-deity, Kraven is desperate to not die on a sickbed. Kraven desperately wants to be slain in battle by an opponent whom Kraven deems worthy of killing him. He fears that this terminal illness will weaken him, and this will lead to an opponent, whom he deems inferior to him, being the one to slay him. Additionally, Kraven even thanks Venom for the fight the two had, showing a level of respect towards strong enemies that are capable to best him.
When facing Venom, Kraven became ecstatic at finally facing an opponent who could give him the glorious death he craved, saying it would be his final hunt, but also the creature's first. This obsessive pursuit of a glorious death showed Kraven's peerless vanity, being determined to gain this honor at any cost, paying no mind to the sheer amount of destruction left in his wake.
He has also shown himself to be a sadomasochist, enjoying causing physical and psychological pain to his prey, while also feeling a sick and psychotic pleasure in obtaining said pain, laughing whenever Spider-Man and Venom harm him.
Abilities[]
In addition to his already peak-human physical abilities, Kraven also takes unidentified potions which have greatly enhance his physical power. He is able to easily go toe-to-toe with battle hardened superhumans such as the Scorpion and overpower them through brute strength alone. For unexplained reasons, Kraven also displayed a complete resistance to Scorpion's toxin. Whether this was through the potions or him taking an antidote prior to his brief struggle with Scorpion was never specified. Kraven's enhanced physiology was so high that not even Spider-Man, if it weren't for Venom, was able to fight him hand-to-hand, as he subdued him by stabbing him with his knife very easily, leaving him on the verge of death.
Kraven is a master of combat, utilizing knives, spears, and the sword and shield, all used to deadly effect when facing opponents. His also a fearsome martial artist, outmatching all opponents in technique. With his enhanced abilities and decades honed combat skill, Kraven subdued Scorpion with little effort, consistently held his ground against Spider-Man and posed a formidable challenge to Venom.
Kraven has proven himself to be a capable organizer and leader, coordinating his hunters with deadly efficacy. Kraven is also a skilled tactician, formulating complex strategies and utilizing quick thinking in the heat of battle to adapt to his adversary. Kraven also extensively researches his "prey" before battling them to understand them better and provide himself with an advantage in battle. While he is a very dangerous and cunning opponent, Kraven was suffering from cancer prior to his death, as Peter found several chemotherapy drugs among his possessions.
Original appearance[]
References[]
- PlayStation [@PlayStation] (2023, May 24). Marvel's Spider-Man 2 - Gameplay Reveal | PS5 Games [Video]. YouTube.