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All week long: Revisit the highlights and lowlights of 1987 with Popverse's Made in 87 week.

I want you all to try something. Open a new tab in your browser and search for ‘greatest Spider-Man stories’ (look at ours first, because we’re biased). After glancing at a few of these lists you’ll probably notice that Kraven’s Last Hunt is on nearly all of them. The 1987 J.M. DeMatteis and Mike Zeck Spider-man story redefined Kraven the Hunter in a way that creators have been chasing ever since.

If you’re not familiar with the story, Kraven the Hunter seemingly kills Spider-Man, and in his insanity he attempts to take the Wall-Crawler’s place. Kraven dons his own Spider-Man costume and begins terrorizing (and brutalizing) the criminals of New York. Spider-Man, who has been buried alive, digs his way out of his grave after two weeks and confronts Kraven. The villain commits suicide, and Peter is left to wrestle with the trauma he’s endured.

It’s gone down in history as one of Spider-Man’s greatest stories. However, if J.M. DeMatteis had gotten his way, Kraven’s Last Hunt would’ve been a Batman versus Joker story.

Joker’s Last Hunt

According to Kraven’s Last Hunt writer J.M. DeMatteis, the original version of the story would’ve featured another Marvel hero. “If it had been up to me—and thank goodness it wasn’t—the original idea would have seen print as, of all things, a Wonder Man mini-series,” DeMatteis writes on his blog.

“Simon Williams—defeated in battle by his brother, the Grim Reaper—awakens in a coffin, claws his way out and discovers that he’s been buried alive for months.  But the story knew better.  It knew that it needed time to brew in my unconscious and find the proper form.  Tom DeFalco—then Marvel’s Executive Editor—agreed.  When I pitched him my Wonder Man idea, he promptly rejected it.  But there was something in that ‘return from the grave’ concept that wouldn’t let go.”

DeMatteis then built on the pitch and reworked it into a more fully realized Batman versus Joker story. “My next stop, some months later, was DC Comics, where I pitched what I thought was an incredible idea to editor Len Wein (who was then overseeing the Batman line):  the Joker kills Batman—at least he believes he does—and, with the primary reason for his existence eliminated, the villain’s mind snaps.  Of course, the Joker is already insane, so when he snaps...he goes sane.  Batman, meanwhile, is buried and when, weeks later, he claws his way up from the grave—the Joker’s fragile new existence is tragically upended.”

In another world this version of the story would’ve been published, but DC was hesitant to go forward because it was too similar to another Joker story they were developing. “Len had another Batman-Joker story on his desk—something called The Killing Joke by a new British writer named Alan Moore (what ever happened to him, anyway?)—and thought that the Joker elements in my story overlapped certain elements in [Alan Moore’s story].”

However, DeMatteis still believe the story could work for Batman, so he swapped the Joker out for another villain. “I dumped the Joker and replaced him with Hugo Strange.  I recalled a classic Steve Englehart-Marshall Rogers story where Strange—for all of two pages, I think—was wearing Batman’s costume.  And I thought: Wouldn’t it be interesting if Hugo Strange is the one who apparently kills Batman and, in his arrogance and ego, decides to become Batman, putting on the costume, taking over the role, in order to prove his superiority?  I was convinced I now had a story no editor could turn down.”

“By this time, Len Wein had gone freelance, and Denny O’Neil had replaced him as Batman editor.  Guess what? Denny bounced it. So now I’ve had this idea rejected three times, by three of the best editors in the business.  Maybe, I thought, I’m delusional.  Maybe I should just give up and move on. But the story wouldn’t let me.”

The spider and the hunter

DeMatteis still wanted to tell his ‘hero returns from the grave’ story, and when he was offered a stint on Spider-Man, he saw an opportunity to…ahem…resurrect the pitch. I was visiting the Marvel office one day when Jim Owsley, editor of the Spider-Man line, and Tom DeFalco (what?  Him again?) invited me out to lunch,” DeMatteis says.

“They wanted me to pick up the writing duties on Spectacular Spider-Man but I was reluctant to commit to another monthly book.  Owsley and DeFalco were insistent.  I weakened.  They pushed harder.  I agreed. And, by the time I got home, I realized what a stroke of good fortune this was:  I now had another chance, probably my last chance, to take a crack at this ‘back from the grave’ idea.”

DeMatteis discovered that his story would be published shortly after Spider-Man’s wedding to Mary Jane Watson. Suddenly, the pitch took on a new light. Spider-Man’s newlywed status gave the story some emotional weight that wouldn’t have worked with Wonder Man or Batman.

“I discovered, as I worked away on the proposal, that Spider-Man—recently married to Mary Jane—was a far better choice than either Wonder Man or Batman.  Peter Parker is perhaps the most emotionally and psychologically authentic protagonist in any super-hero universe.  Underneath that mask, he’s as confused, as flawed, as touchingly human, as the people who read—and write—about him: the quintessential Everyman.  And that Everyman’s love for his new wife, for the new life they were building together, was the emotional fuel that ignited the story.  It was Mary Jane’s presence, her heart and soul, that reached down into the deeps of Peter’s heart and soul, forcing him up out of that coffin, out of the grave, into the light.”

Of course, since this was a Marvel Universe story, this meant that DeMatteis couldn’t use the Joker or Hugo Strange. “So, I can’t use Hugo Strange.  Why not create my own villain—a new villain—to play that role in the story?  And that’s what I did.  (Don’t ask me the name of this brilliant new creation...or anything else about him...because, honestly, I don’t recall a thing!)  Off the outline went to Owsley.  He loved it.  ‘Let’s do it,’ he said. I was ecstatic.”

This is when Kraven entered the picture.

“I was sitting in my office one afternoon, doing what all writers do best: avoiding work, wasting time.  This was before the internet—the single greatest time-wasting tool in the history of humanity—so I was browsing through some comics that had piled up on the floor.  I picked up a Marvel Universe Handbook.  Stopped, for no particular reason, at the entry for Kraven the Hunter. Please understand that I had no interest whatsoever in Kraven.  In fact, I always thought he was one of the most generic, uninteresting villains in the Spider-Man gallery.  Couldn’t hold a candle to Doc Ock or the Green Goblin.”

Once DeMatteis noticed Kraven’s Russian heritage, everything clicked. “Buried in this Marvel Universe entry was one intriguing fact:  Kraven—was Russian.  (To this day I don’t know if this was something that had been established in continuity or if the writer of that particular entry tossed it in on a whim.) Russian? Russian! Why should that excite me so?  One word: Dostoyevsky.  When I read Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamozov in high school, they seeped in through my brain, wormed their way down into my nervous system...and ripped me to shreds.” 

“No other novelist has ever explored the staggering duality of existence, illuminated the mystical heights and the despicable depths of the human heart, with the brilliance of Dostoyevsky.  The Russian soul, as exposed in his novels, was really the Universal Soul.  It was my soul. And Kraven was Russian. In an instant, I understood Sergei Kravinov.  In an instant, the entire story changed focus.  In an instant, I called Owsley, told him to forget The New Villain. This was a Kraven the Hunter story. Jim wasn’t thrilled with the idea.  He liked the new villain. But,God bless him, he let me have my way.”

And then it was off to the races.

In 1987, the iconic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon debuted - and all our lives were changed. Watch this reunion of the original voice actors:

The hunt is on

The original plan was to publish Kraven’s Last Hunt as a six-part story in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man. However, editor Jim Salicrup realized Peter being buried alive wouldn’t feel as dire if he was still having adventures in Amazing Spider-Man and Web of Spider-Man.

“What Jim Salicrup did, letting it run through all three of the Spider-Man books, was incredibly innovative,” DeMatteis says in a 2009 Back Issue interview. “He very wisely said that you can’t have Spider-Man buried alive in Spectacular Spider-Man and have him fighting Doctor Octopus over in Web of Spider-Man. Jim decided to let the story run through all the books, and it was a great idea that people are still copying.”

Due to newsstand and subscription services, it was rare to have a storyline run through multiple titles. After Kraven’s Last Hunt, the practice became more normalized and was used for other storylines such as Batman’s Knightfall saga, the Death and Return of Superman, and Spider-Man’s Clone Saga. In that sense, Kraven’s Last Hunt changed the way superhero comics tell stories.

“Jim came up with that, and he deserves all the credit in the world for it. That really heightened the story’s impact. Had Kraven’s Last Hunt been coming out in just Spectacular Spider-Man and not in the two other monthly Spider-Man books, I’m convinced the impact would have been diluted. Jim put a spotlight on it and said, ‘This story is special Come on in and join us for two months and immerse yourself in this story.’ That presentation made a huge difference in how the story was received.”

The story ended with Kraven committing suicide, a decision that was controversial for readers. Some accused DeMatteis of glorifying suicide, but the writer states that wasn’t the case.

“We seeded the story with references to Kraven's difficult family life, his mother having died in an institution," DeMatteis tells Games Radar. "The phrase 'They said my mother was insane' is the last thing Kraven thinks. It was clear — to me, at least — that this was nothing glorious. This was a tragedy. So, when we got that feedback (and it wasn't like we were inundated, it was just one letter from a suicide prevention group), I decided to explore and clarify the issue very directly in our sequel, 'Soul of the Hunter.'"

The secret ingredient for Kraven’s Last Hunt’s success was penciler Mike Zeck, who illustrated many memorable images, including the iconic splash page of Peter immerging from his grave.

“Owsley had cajoled Mike Zeck into drawing Spectacular Spider-Man,” DeMatteis writes on his blog. “Mike and I had worked together, for several years, on Captain America.  I can think of a handful of super-hero artists as good as Zeck, but I can’t think of a single one who’s better.  Mike’s drawing is fluid, energetic, deeply emotional...and he tells a story with such apparent effortlessness that scripting from his pages feels equally effortless.  Mike left the Cap series (to draw the original Secret Wars) just as we were hitting our collaborative stride—and I was thrilled by the chance to pick up where we’d left off.”

Another chance with the Dark Knight

Kraven’s Last Hunt (as it became known thanks to the trade paperback title) went on to become one of the most iconic Spider-Man stories ever told. However, DeMatteis never gave up on the idea of telling his Batman versus the Joker story.

“I always had this idea in the back of my head about the Joker snapping and going sane. So you know, flash-forward to the ‘90s, and DC had a great book called Legends of the Dark Knight, which was basically standalone stories where you could jump at any point into Batman’s history. I pitched them the basic idea for Going Sane along with asking Joe Staton if he would be interested in trying it, and we were off,” DeMatteis says during a 2019 interview on the Howe’s Things podcast.

“It remains in terms of stories that I’ve done for Marvel and DC, mainstream superhero stories, among my two or three favorite stories I’ve ever done.”

Going Sane was published as a four-part story in Legends of the Dark Knight #65-68. The storyline removed the ‘buried alive’ plot beat. The story also ends with Joker back in Arkham rather than committing suicide. Thematically, it had some similarities with Kraven’s Last Hunt, but there are numerous differences which helps Going Sane stand on its own. Plus, Batman and the Joker are huge personalities, so any story with them will automatically be different than a Spider-Man versus Kraven story.

In the end, DeMatteis is glad things went the way they did. If Alan Moore hadn’t written The Killing Joke, we may never have gotten Kraven’s Last Hunt. DeMatteis maintains that his earlier versions of the story weren’t right, and his numerous pitches and revisions allowed the arc to improve. The writer also says the struggles he went through in his personal life helped inspire him to make the story better.

“Had I created a version of Last Hunt a few years before, or a few years after (when my life had healed itself in miraculous ways), it wouldn’t have been the same.  My own personal struggles, mirrored in the struggles of our three main characters, were, I think, what gave the writing such urgency and emotional honesty.  I don’t know what inspired Zeck’s brilliant work, but I hope it wasn’t anything as harrowing,” DeMatteis writes on his blog.

Plus, if the earlier versions of the story had been published, then the pitch wouldn’t have been available for Spider-Man.

“As much as I love Batman/Bruce Wayne — and I do, Peter Parker may be the most psychologically authentic character in all of mainstream comics.  He's real, believable, layered, relatable: He's fully human. And that humanity made the story all the more resonant,” Dematteis tells Games Radar.

Simply put, Kraven’s Last Hunt was a story so nice, it had to be told twice.

Get your wide-shoulder blouses and your Members-Only jackets, and go back in time with Popverse's Made in 87. Highlights include:

• Marvel Comics killed the X-Men in 1987 to reset the franchise - but it didn’t stick
• The Full House cast addresses some of the series’ biggest continuity errors
• How Spider-Man’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon was saved by a fired Marvel boss — and Ronald McDonald
• How NBC panicked after Diane left Cheers — and why Kirstie Alley’s casting sparked a quiet battle inside the hit show
• How Bart Simpson was quietly toned down from being "so mean" before The Simpsons' first episode, as revealed by his long-time voice actor Nancy Cartwright
• The 1987 Justice League reboot that made superheroes weird, hilarious, and unexpectedly human
• How The Golden Girls became a staple at gay bars in the 80s