Monday, June 17, 2019

Kraven's Last Hunt

"Kraven's Last Hunt" (also known as "Fearful Symmetry") was a comic book storyline by J.M. DeMatteis and Mike Zeck published in 1987, featuring the final battle between Marvel Comics characters Kraven the Hunter and Spider-Man. Considered one of the greatest Spider-Man stories of all time, it was originally published across all three then current Spider-Man titles: Web of Spider-Man #31-32, The Amazing Spider-Man #293-294, and The Spectacular Spider-Man #131-132.
[L-R] DeMatteis, Moderator, McLeod, Parker, Zeck

The entire creative team reunited over the weekend to reminisce about their seminal work at this years Heroes Convention in Charlotte, NC. Joining writer DeMatteis and artist Zeck for the chat fest were inker Bob McLeod and letterer Rick Parker. Given the 30+ years that have elapsed since the story was released it proved to be worth taking in the panel for their keen insights about what made this story work and how it's impact still resonates with fans today. The collected version has remained in print all these years too.

Of the creative team itself all but DeMatteis claimed to have known instantly that they were working on something special, J. Marc stated that he wasn't thinking in those terms at the time and was only focused upon telling the best story that he could. However he also credited editor Jim Salicrup for the novel idea of separating the parts across the various series rather than shoehorn it all into a single title; at the time a novel approach that has come to be the norm these days.

2 comments:

  1. It wasn't entirely novel; DC had already spent a few years telling the same storyline by between Batman and Detective Comics, essentially treating those two titles as a twice-monthly comic. I see that as the forerunner to what DC later did with the Superman books (and their "triangle numbering").

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