In Kraven the Hunter, Sergei Kravinoff (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) is the world’s greatest and most feared hunter. Unlike his counterpart in the Marvel comic books — a Russian big game hunter who preyed on beasts of the jungle before hunting Spider-Man and other superheroes in the concrete jungle that is New York City — the Kraven of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe is a predator of man. “Once you’re on his list, there’s only one way off,” it’s said of the mythical Hunter, who uses his animal-like abilities to hunt poachers, traffickers, gangsters, and crime lords like his father, Nikolai Kravinoff (Russell Crowe).
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Kraven’s list includes Aleksei Sytsevich (Alessandro Nivola), a Russian mercenary known as “the Rhino” because of a condition that has hardened his skin and made it so that he’s able to mutate into a horned human/rhinoceros hybrid; the Foreigner (Christopher Abbott), an assassin with hypnotic abilities, which he uses to hunt Kraven out of revenge for “the Hunter” killing his brother; and, by film’s end, Dmitri Kravinoff (Fred Hechinger), Kraven’s half-brother who has the uncanny ability to mimic and impersonate anyone as a master of disguise after he’s enhanced by a scientist in New York to become a true Chameleon.
[RELATED: Sony’s Kraven the Hunter Movie Bombs With One of the Worst Marvel Box Office Openings Ever]
Another Spider-Man villain, Calypso (Ariana DeBose), appears as a London-based lawyer who assists the vigilante Kraven by providing him with intel on his underworld targets — her way of getting justice for victims like a friend murdered by Russian crime lord Seymon Chorney (Yuri Kolokolnikov).
The unseen mutagenic scientist who alters Aleksei and Dmitri is name-dropped to be yet another Spider-Man villain: Dr. Miles Warren, a biochemist and expert in cloning (a process Kraven knows something about in the comics).
Sergei Kravinoff: Kraven the Hunter
The son of the dvoryanin Nikolai Kravinoff, a Russian noble, Sergei Kravinoff lived a life of wealth and privilege in Volgograd and Saint Petersburg, Russia. Arrogant and entitled, the young Sergei abused his half-brother, Dmitri Smerdyakov, the product of Nikolai’s affair with a servant girl. The Kravinoffs escaped Russia during the Bolshevik Revolution and later immigrated to the United States, where an alcoholic Nikolai succumbed to drink and died in poverty. Sergei’s mother was declared insane and committed to a spider-infested asylum, where she died by suicide.
While traveling the world with his anglicized name “Kraven,” he met an exiled Wakandan mystic: Aja Orisha the Hunter. A healer who was spiritually connected to the animals of her homeland, Aja taught Kraven to hunt beasts as symbols of his inner torment. While living in the African veld, Kraven ingested sacred herbs and potions that drove him mad during the Yānsān-Ān Ritual that was supposed to heal his tortured soul.
He used his heightened abilities — strength, speed, and agility — to hunt game as the savage Kraven the Hunter. But Kraven failed to find peace in slaying beasts, and when Dmitri became the costumed Chameleon (in Amazing Spider-Man #1), Kraven became obsessed with hunting the ultimate prey: Spider-Man. Kraven’s potions-induced madness manifested as “the Spider,” the supernatural embodiment of everything wrong with his life.
Kraven projected this onto his archnemesis Spider-Man, and joined forces with the original Sinister Six in his attempts to slay Spider-Man — and slay his demons. Years of defeats at Spider-Man’s hands followed, and Kraven finally bested his greatest enemy during the six-part Kraven’s Last Hunt. An insane Kraven tranquilized and buried the black-suited Spider-Man alive, took his place, and, considering his honor restored, took his own life with a rifle. Although he was eventually resurrected by the Kravinoffs — his wife Sasha, their daughter Ana, and Kraven’s son Alyosha — Kraven had become cursed and unable to die unless he was killed by Spider-Man.
After the curse was broken and Sergei died at peace once more, one of his many clones — the last son of Kraven — replaced his father as the new Kraven the Hunter.
Dmitri Smerdyakov: The Chameleon
A Soviet spy, Dmitri’s use of costumes and special effects make-up made him a master of disguise. The Chameleon impersonated Spider-Man after disguising himself as a scientist to steal missile defense plans, but when this plot was foiled, Dmitri was deported back to Russia. Because Spider-Man was too dangerous, the vengeful Chameleon hired his half-brother — Kraven the Hunter — to eliminate Spider-Man on his behalf (in Amazing Spider-Man #15, Kraven’s first appearance).
As the Chameleon, Dmitri would battle the likes of Iron Man, Captain America, Giant-Man, and the Hulk, while working with the likes of the Leader and the terrorists Hydra. While he initially used technology to alter his appearance, the Chameleon revealed in 1988’s The Amazing Spider-Man #307 that he financed the development of a face-changing serum that made his flesh featureless and malleable like clay, allowing him to mold it into the likeness of his victims — and instantly “shapeshift.”
Calypso Ezili: The Witch Calypso
1980’s Amazing Spider-Man #209 introduced Calypso, who sought to restore a defeated Kraven’s honor by having him finally triumph over Spider-Man. Calypso freed caged zoo animals and blamed it on Spider-Man to manipulate a fight that ended with Kraven once more being beaten by his worst enemy. A voodoo priestess known as the Hunter of Souls, the Haiti-born Calypso studied the arcane arts in the Caribbean before becoming Kraven’s lover and reigniting his obsession with hunting Spider-Man.
When the duo returned in 1982’s Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #65, Calypso joined Kraven on the hunt for Spider-Man, using the hypnotic drumbeats of her Bira Bells and Yoruba Spirit Drum to cloud Spider-Man’s spider-sense as Kraven attacked. When she pressed Kraven to go in for the kill, he called off the dishonorable hunt after learning Calypso struck Spider-Man with a Kwele crossbow laced with drugs — making the fight unfair and unworthy of Kraven the Hunter.
The most famous storyline featuring Calypso is “Torment,” spanning the first five issues of Todd McFarlane’s adjectiveless Spider-Man in 1990. After siccing the blood-thirsty Lizard on Spider-Man and tormenting the wall-crawler with hallucinations of the undead Kraven, Calypso poisoned Spider-Man to torture the Spider and avenge Kraven. Years later, she used her hypnotic powers to pit Spider-Man against Alyosha, the new Kraven, in a brutal fight to the death that ended in a truce. Alyosha brought Calypso to Kravinov Manor where his father took his own life — and then killed Calypso.
The Foreigner
The man known only as Foreigner was seen only in shadow when he debuted in the pages of 1986’s Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #115. A skilled mercenary and master assassin, the Foreigner is also an expert martial artist and strategist with limited hypnotic abilities.
At first working behind the scenes — he made a wager that the high-tech Chance couldn’t assassinate Spider-Man in 1986’s Web of Spider-Man #15, then hired the arsonist Blaze to kill Spider-Man and his then-partner Black Cat in The Spectacular Spider-Man #123 — the Foreigner fought Spider-Man for the first time in Spectacular Spider-Man #129.
The Foreigner surprised Spider-Man with his ability to disappear in the blink of an eye (or in this case, between panels), moving so swiftly that Spider-Man’s spider-sense barely registered the attack. Spider-Man suspected the Foreigner to be a mutant teleporter like the X-Man Nightcrawler, then noticed his mind went “blank” every time they made eye contact. Spider-Man realized that the Foreigner used hypnosis to make his victims black out for seconds at a time, making it appear as if he was teleporting in the blink of an eye, so Spider-Man closed his eyes and trusted his spider-sense to defeat the Foreigner. He’s been linked to the Symkarian mercenary Silvija Sablinova, better known as Spider-Man’s sometimes enemy and sometimes ally Silver Sable.
Aleksei Sytsevich: The Rhino
The rampaging Rhino charged into 1966’s Amazing Spider-Man #41 on a mission to capture Colonel John Jameson, astronaut son of The Daily Bugle‘s J. Jonah Jameson. Spider-Man proved to be no match for the Rhino’s brute strength, but the wall-crawler’s speed and quick thinking made it so that he was able to tire out his bigger and stronger opponent.
A member of the Russian Mafia, Aleksei’s muscular physique and low intelligence made him the perfect test subject to create a superhuman assassin. Aleksei underwent months of chemical and radiation treatments that bound him to a molecular-adhesive suit made to be as strong as a rhinoceros hide, then turned on his masters due to his newfound super-strength.
As the Rhino, Aleksei was defeated by Spider-Man a second time when he used an acid-based version of his web fluid to dissolve Aleksei’s rhino hide. When a depowered Aleksei was released from prison, the Soviets once again hired him to don a gamma-bombarded hide and attack the Hulk (in 1968’s Incredible Hulk #104). Over the years, the Rhino would use his enhanced strength and durability as a recurring foe of Spider-Man and the Hulk, at times aligning himself with the Sinister Six, the Sinister Syndicate, and the Leader.
Although Aleksei attempted to reform and live in peace with his wife Oksana, a new, tech-based Rhino challenged Aleksei to take his “skin” with honor. Aleksei refused to don the Rhino hide and fight, so the second Rhino murdered Oksana to revert Aleksei to his primal ways. The old Rhino killed the new Rhino and charged head first back into a life of crime. It was revealed that the benefactor of the new Rhino was Sasha Kravinoff — Kraven’s wife — who wanted the Rhino for the Kravinoff family’s Grim Hunt to resurrect Sergei Kravinoff.
Sony’s Kraven the Hunter is now playing in theaters.
