Despite a lot of my favorite pieces of media being overtly dark and cynical and my favorite genre of entertainment being grown men kicking one another in the face until one of them can no longer stand, I myself am not a cynical person. Darkness, I reason, only exists to contrast and frame the light. The great artists always understand this, either intellectually or instinctively as a matter of observable fact - Homer, Rembrandt, Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Akira Kurosawa, The Ramones, et cetra. As such I'm not really a fan of the "Dark Age" of comic books - that period from the late '80s through the early aughts in which American superhero comics (most notably D.C. and Marvel) overindulged in the occasionally grim overtones of the preceding Bronze Age and thereby lost the context as to how and why those darker moments worked. They were exceedingly rare and always had long-term character consequence. Heroes are supposed to win. If not physically, then always morally. Any piece of fiction in which the villain manages to eek out a W against the protagonist in both columns is to be regarded as nothing more than an occasionally interesting curiosity bereft of any true artistic merit. All "high" art is morally informative and makes a clear statement. All "low" art either lacks a moral foundation, subverts a preexisting one, or is "up for interpretation" as to its meaning.
 |
| It's an Excedrin(TM) evening. |
The story of Kraven's Last Hunt is a simple one, though perhaps not as simple as the back of the trade paperback declaring it "THE ULTIMATE TALE OF REVENGE!" A newlywed Spider-Man reflects upon the dangerous nature of his vigilante work and the multiple friends, allies, and enemies he's lost along the way. He's ambushed by perennial B-lister Kraven the Hunter - who's totally off his tits on jungle herbs - and subsequently blasted with a rifle and buried alive. This is only the third or fourth worst thing to happen to Peter Parker that afternoon. Kraven then dons a copy of Spidey's black suit (this takes place after the original Symbiote storyline - fans just loved the look so much that Peter for some reason keeps wearing a spandex replica of the alien parasite that almost killed him) and proceeds to beat the sauce outta street thugs so badly he puts them in traction. In his quest to prove himself superior to his foe, Kraven hunts down and single-handedly subdues the cannibalistic serial killer Vermin, whom Spider had previously only beaten with help from Captain America. Spider-Man awakes after TWO FULL WEEKS have passed and PULLS HIMSELF OUT OF THE GRAVE in an iconic moment. Spidey reunites with Mary Jane and then confronts Kraven, who is so mentally gone by this point he refuses to fight and instead siccs a captured Vermin on him. Kraven witnesses a weakened Spidey get his ass kicked by Vermin and only intervenes when it's obvious even to his depressed, drug-addled mind that Spidey is not so much fighting for sake of vengeance or self-defense as he's fighting to keep everyone else in NYC safe from Vermin possibly escaping. In one last morally uneven move, an utterly deflated Kraven unleashes Vermin back into the streets of NYC before leaving a confession for the police to find and blowing his brains out with a hunting rifle. A heavily roughed up Spider-Man is left to track down and capture Vermin on his lonesome. Which he of course does. Then he goes back home to his wife. Kraven is subsequently buried right next to the grave he dug for Spider-Man.
 |
| He's home. |
The synopsis does this tale an injustice. The plot itself is good. It's the execution that makes this one of the all-time great comic storylines. There isn't a single panel wasted across all six issues and all of them are gorgeously rendered by Mike Zeck, Bob McLeod, and letterer Rick Parker. The persistence of rain, sludge, and lightning in this storyline is perfectly utilized as are the small little rat and spider motifs. Every character servers a purpose both narratively and - in a rare move for a superhero comic - symbolically as well. Spider-Man, Kraven, and Vermin compliment one another in poetic ways.
Kraven is the man who believes himself to be a beast; a man not unlike the Conan the Cimmerians of latter fiction who feels constrained and defeated by the modern world and its trappings, wishing to exercise control both over it and himself by flaunting the savage part of himself. He is a man who wishes to be a beast and wishes to see others as such. He fails in this endeavor and is broken by it as that is simply not the way the world works and his fellow men are not how he wishes them to be. Defeated, unable to accept that he has been wrong about the world and unwilling to change his mindframe to match, he takes himself out like a coward, falsely believing there to be dignity in it.
Vermin is a beast that was once a man. A monster not unlike a Gollum who's more pitiable than fearsome. He also probably eats babies not unlike a Gollum or a sasquatch. Much like Kraven he's ill-equipped to fit into society. However, whereas Kraven merely believes himself to be incapable of fitting in with the modern day and longs to be more of an animal, Vermin is that wish come back upon itself. He was a man. He became a beast. The world terrifies and confuses him - as it does Kraven - but the tiniest bit of his humanity still wishes to connect with his fellow man. But he cannot. He is a monster. A beast. Something whose very nature is functionally antithetical to the civilized world. He is the inverse and extreme of the Hunter. Still, though he is captured and constrained, it never once enters his mind to kill himself. He's an animal. An animal only wishes to live, by any means necessary.
Spider-Man is our protagonist and, as is fitting, possesses what the antagonists do not. He is not a beast. He does not perceive himself as being a beast. He is a man, through and through. In the most poignant moment of the entire storyline, as Peter is dragging himself out of the grave with nothing but the love of Mary Jane to carry him through the fear, he mocks the very idea that he's some mythical spider being - he's just a man who is doing what he thinks is best the best way he knows how. There is no spider; there is only Peter Parker, human being. Kraven's failure to understand this - how any man would wish to simply be a man with a wife and normal responsibilities - is what defeats the antagonist in the end. Peter's ability to not be cowed by fear and to think two steps ahead is what allows him to capture Vermin in the end. And his reward for all this? To go home to his wife. To be Peter Parker, human being, loving husband, for one more day. And that's honestly the best any of us can hope for in this life.
Just a shame that nobody in Marvel Comics has apparently read this storyline and we've been dealing with interdimensional spider totem crap and multiverse theory for the last twenty-odd years.
I could go on and sing the praises of this book for hours and not properly relay just how amazing this storyline is. This is not so much a superhero saga as it is a poem in the form of one. Every line, panel, page break, and box format is constructed in such a way as to nail home the overarching themes of confinement, fear, and, ultimately, the triumphant love between a normal man and his wife. Absolutely essential reading both for Spidey fans and people who are looking for a happy medium between dark subject matter and nuanced execution.
Why yes, there are several collected graphic novel reprints.
QUOTES
"There is no Spider-Man. He's a mask. A myth. A lie. Oh, sure, it'd be great if putting on a costume could miraculously change the man underneath. But it can't. I'm not Spider-Man. I'm just... Peter Parker." - Spider-Man, giving us the real shit
"yum. yum. yum." - Vermin, after eating some poor chick
"He's beautiful. He's vile. He's mine." - Kraven, stalking Vermin
"All these years you've misunderstood me. You thought I was larger than life. You thought I was magic. You thought I was madness. Some creature that crawled and spun and hid in shadows. That mocked and tormented and reveled in darkness. Idiot! There is no spider! There's just me! Just a normal guy - who got tapped on the shoulder by fate. Just Peter Parker: That's my weakness. That's my strength." - Peter Parker, reiterating for those who didn't get it
"I am not afraid. I am not afraid. I am not afraid. Yes, I am. But there's nothing wrong with that. Nothing wrong - as long as I don't turn back. As long as I do what's right." - Spider-Man, defining heroism
- - -
No comments:
Post a Comment