Kraven's Last Hunt

And it's not revealed to be Venom for years and years.

And then that leads into... one of the most revered comic books, which is Kraven's Last Hunt, which is sort of...

Yeah, that's

because he has cancer, and he keeps him alive, being the Venom suit.

And the more really gritty and really bizarre stories.

You get J.M. DeMatteis' work with Kraven's Last Hunt and Fearful Symmetry.

And all of a sudden, there's all of these different... stories.

There's all these different types of Spider-Man stories, and somehow they all coexist, and they all make sense with that same character at the core.

So I didn't get every issue of every title.

Amazing was pretty consistent, but everything else filtered in there.

And like you say, Kraven's Last Hunt is my favorite Spidey story.

I like the things that came just before it with the wedding and just after it with Spider-Man going a little bit crazy.

What we want to do is kind of identify the non-existent, what is the average player like for Marvel Crisis Protocol, and how do we give them the best experience? Because if you can hit that median, then obviously the experience will be really good for everyone else.

It might not be great, right? If you only care about high-end, super competitive play, We're going to do things like create Kraven's Last Hunt cards, right? That just are useless to you.

And you're like, why did you waste the time to make this card that is so pointless? But if you're a narrative player, you're going to look at that card and you're like, this is amazing.

Like, this is so cool that I get to try to live out this iconic moment in the comics.

I think it also really depends on the character and why we're including the leadership.

There's definitely a lot of times where I think Dracula, Emma Frost, who else has a leadership card? Probably some others that I'm forgetting right now because there's been a few of them.

We're including the leadership similar to why we make cards like Kraven's Last Hunt.

we're doing it because thematically and narratively we know it will be important or exciting to somebody because it brings the Marvel universe to life or it brings a niche of the Marvel universe that can be very popular among a smaller segment of fans or audience that were there at that time that they can now do it.

I think other classic ones for that that are that are set.

In the mainstream Marvel Universe, Kraven's Last Hunt is a classic.

If you can pick up that as a graphic novel or digital comic.

And then Spider-Man Blue, which is also...

So if you look at him the right way, he can be a very, very interesting character.

I don't know if he's my favorite, but the truth is I wasn't interested in Kraven before I wrote Kraven's Last Hunt.

I thought he was a ridiculous character.

So for me, it's less about who's your favorite villain or something like that than what can I do with this character.

I will also try and limit the number to 10 issues slash stories per decade.

What this will mean when it comes to Kraven's Last Hunt, the death of Gene DeWolf, Spider-Man Blue or Spider-Man Life Stories is a bridge I will be thrown off when I get to it.

Okay, let's get this show on the road, gang.

First up, Amazing Fantasy 15.

I recently scored this Spider-Man issue.

It's part four of Kraven's Last Hunt, which is like the best Spider-Man story of all time.

I found this at that Denver place I mentioned where I found those toys.

So yeah, you know, that's another great way to pass time is reading, whether it be books or comic books and whatnot.

It's so funny.

There's this story, then there's the marriage a- and the honeymoon and the, uh, annuals, and then you go right into Kraven's Last Hunt.

Yeah, you just can't be happy.

[laughs]

Nobody's allowed to be happy for too long.

[laughs]

Well, when we were talking to J.M. DeMatteis, I said, uh, I'm like, I'm like, "Do you have any of your notes or anything or any, uh, for, for Kraven's Last Hunt?" I'm like, 'cause they always reprint that thing, but I'm like, "Especially next year, they're probably gonna be looking to do something special 'cause next year's like the 40th anniversary of that thing or something."

Shh, Phil.

Um, yeah.

So, Reading this first issue of Squirrel Girl made me want to go read Kraven's Last Hunt for some reason.

Like, I was like...

I'm like, I miss Kraven.

I feel like we haven't seen Kraven in a comic in a long time.

And I, like, went and read the first couple issues of Kraven's Last Hunt.

Good

comic.