Spider-Man: The Animated Series Episode Reviews

Kraven the Hunter
Review by Stu, Media by Kolbar

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Episode #10 - Kraven the Hunter
Original Airdate: April 1st, 1995

Spider-Man finds himself caught between Mariah Crawford, a doctor from Africa, and Kraven, a man who has stalked her all the way to America. An accomplished hunter, Kraven gained animal-like abilities when he ingested a cure to save his life, but the side effects are causing his behavior to be erratic and violent. Spider-Man works with Mariah Crawford to find a cure and save an innocent man and the people around him.

Credits:
Story By: John Semper and Jan Strand
Written By: Mark Hoffmeier
Music Composed By: Shuki Levy and Kussa Mahchi
Animation Services By: Toyko Movie Shinsha (TMS)
Guest Starring: Christopher Daniel Barnes as Spider-Man/ Peter Parker, Ed Asner as J. Jonah Jameson and Greg Berger as Kraven

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Review: Arguably the weakest episode the first season had to offer. It seemed very flat to me, for whatever reason. The villain wasn't particularly interesting and the supporting character, Dr. Crawford wasn't up too much either.

Kraven is a villain who can appear threatening if handled carefully, but can come off as very corny. His origin flashback was executed well, which is more or less where the dangerous part of the character came from. He came across as somewhat threatening but corny at the same time, somewhere in the middle. I always felt that he was too much of a wimp in this episode. The fights scenes were lacking that certain ommpphh that the rest of the premiere season lacked, and the episode really suffered for it.

The shining point was the animation. Kraven was very fluent in both his movements and the model itself, with his fur flowing nicely as he jumped about. The Robbie Robertson sub-plot wasn't all that bad either; he didn't do too much, just served as a hostage and nothing else.

Overall it was an average episode, nothing especially stands out, it never seemed to move out of second gear. Ironically enough, Kraven works far better as a hero in this show than he did as a hero. His later appearances all outshined this episode.

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