Saturday, April 25, 2009

The Amazing SpiderMan- Kraven's First Hunt by Slott, Guggenheim, Gale, Jimenez and Siqiera

It's after the events of Brand New Day, and Peter Parker is back to his old, bad-luck self. To save on money, because he doesn't have a job, he's taken an apartment with a cop named Vin Gonzales, and Peter's bad luck is infecting his new roommate.

When Peter (as Spidey) and Daredevil take down a villainess named Fracture, someone is watching him, a young girl with white hair. She sees Peter/Spidey return to his apartment building and makes a note to find out who lives in that apartment. But when Spidey goes after a villain named "Overdrive" whose power is to trick out any vehicle he drives, Vin gets caught in the crossfire, and ends up getting hurt, missing the game with his father, and yelled at by his superiors.

But Peter isn't having any better luck for himself, His mask gets stuck to his head with web-fluid right before he has to help Harry Osborne meet some investors in his coffee house, and he gets mad and loses his temper at the investors when they say that Harry is just as Crazy as his Dad is, which sort of ends the party. Peter apologizes, but tells Harry why he got angry.

Meanwhile, the girl breaks into Peter and Vin's apartment and finds Peter's Spidey suit. But she assumes that Vin is Spiderman, and kidnaps him to hunt him down in the sewers. With his suit gone, Peter has to beg a spare Daredevil suit from Matt Murdock and go to help out his roommate before the young woman... the new Kraven, hunts him down and kills him. And to get there, he's going to need the assistance of Vermin, who is angry at Kraven taking over one of his old haunts. But can he save Vin and defeat Ana Kraven without revealing his identity or making things worse for either of them?

I have to say, I never liked the whole "Peter Parker as Bad Luck Magnet" thing, so the whole return to that just annoys me. I don't find it funny, and it was old before they got rid of it and ancient now. Aside from that, I enjoyed the introduction of a new Kraven, this one female and quite pretty, if with bad, goth-party-club-girl instincts in eye makeup. She also has help in the form of her mother, though the comic book leaves the question of why the mother is doing this (not to mention how two black-haired people have a daughter with white hair- although it might be bleached, since her eyebrows are black. She's certainly not an albino.

The fight scenes are competently done, and the story ramps up the tension throughout as Peter has to wonder if Vin is going to find out who he really is, and if he'll survive being hunted by Ana Kraven. Vin may be well-trained, and fairly in shape, but he's still just a human, and Ana is strong enough to burst through Spidey's webs while being short and fairly slender.

In short, the story was good, but the underlying annoyances of the new Spider-man stories caused me to feel somewhat impatient with the whole thing. If you really enjoy the new Spiderman, you'll find this a wonderful collection of issues. If you're like me, it's good. Of course, as always, YMMV.

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