Spider-Man Poster #133 vs Kraven the Hunter and Vulture by Tony Daniel

Description

Kraven the Hunter is a supervillain who appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. He is an enemy of Spider-Man. Kraven’s name is Sergei Kravinoff. He is the half-brother of Dmitri Smerdyakov, better known as the Chameleon. The character first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #15 (August 1964), and was created by writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko.

Kraven the Hunter first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #15 (August 1964). Though he would occasionally appear in other characters’ titles, he was most frequently used as a Spider-Man foe. He is killed off in the acclaimed 1987 storyline by J. M. DeMatteis, Mike Zeck, and Bob McLeod, “Kraven’s Last Hunt”. Though generally considered to be the definitive Kraven the Hunter story, the story originally had a completely different character in Kraven’s role. Writer DeMatteis recounted: “As I was getting ready to work on the story, I was sitting in my office and looking through a Marvel Universe Handbook and came across the entry for Kraven the Hunter. To this day, I don’t know if this was something that was established in continuity, or if whoever was writing the Handbook entry made it up, but they mentioned that Kraven was Russian. For me, a total Dostoyevsky fanatic, the idea that Kraven was Russian and had the same tortured, Russian soul that the great Dostoyevsky characters had, unlocked this door in my head and suddenly I had a new understanding of this character. I thought about Kraven and the forces that had driven him to be who and what he was. This was a character I had never had any interest in whatsoever. I always thought he was one of the stupidest Spider-Man villains ever, but suddenly I had this whole new take on the character.”

Despite Kraven the Hunter being one of Spider-Man’s most long-standing archenemies, DeMatteis claims that none of Marvel’s editorial staff objected to the proposal to have him killed in the story.

By regularly ingesting the potion made from the various unnamed jungle herbs, Kraven grants himself a number of abilities including sufficient superhuman strength, speed, stamina, agility, and reflexes to make him a physical threat to Spider-Man, though these powers are not as developed as those possessed by Spider-Man. Kraven’s body is also more durable and more resistant to certain forms of injury than the body of a normal human. He can withstand great impact forces, such as falling from several stories or being repeatedly struck by a superhumanly strong opponent, that would severely injure or kill a normal human, with little to no injury to himself. The effects of the potion have dramatically altered Kraven’s aging process to the point that he has aged little, if at all, over several decades. Despite being over 70 years of age, he has the physical appearance of a 30-year-old man.

The potion enhances Kraven’s sight, hearing, and smell to superhuman levels, adding to his already impressive tracking skills. He can see farther, and with much greater clarity, than a normal human. His hearing is similarly enhanced, enabling him to detect sounds which an ordinary human cannot, or sounds that a normal human could detect, but at much greater distances. Kraven can use his sense of smell to track a target by scent, much as some animals do, even if the scent has been somewhat eroded by natural factors.

Even without his superhuman powers, Kraven is an Olympic-level athlete, a gifted tactician, hunter, and hand-to-hand combatant. He also has great knowledge of pressure points, both in the anatomy of humans and in many animals. He can strike at these nerve clusters with pinpoint accuracy, allowing him to incapacitate more-powerful opponents or animals. He is familiar with many exotic poisons and tranquilizers, which he often uses during his hunts.

The Vulture was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, and first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #2 (May 1963).

Adrian Toomes was born in Staten Island, New York. He is a former electronics engineer who was once the business partner of Gregory Bestman; Bestman handled the finances whilst Toomes handled the inventions. One day, after creating a flight harness, Toomes eagerly rushed into Bestman’s office to share the happy news. However, Bestman was not there, and Toomes discovered that Bestman had secretly been embezzling funds and that Toomes had no legal recourse, meaning he lost his job. Enraged, Toomes wrecked the business, discovering that the harness also granted him superhuman strength. He then decided to turn to crime professionally as the Vulture.

Utilizing his harness, the Vulture is able to fly as if by natural winged flight. He wears a costume of synthetic stretch fabric housing a tailored electromagnetic harness with bird-like wings attached beneath the arms. This consists of an electromagnetic anti-graviton generator worn on his body as a harness enabling him to fly silently with precise maneuverability. The harness also increases his resistance to injury to the point that he can survive blows from Spider-Man’s enhanced strength despite his age. Another by-product of his exposure to the harness is that despite his age and lack of exercise, his physical strength represents the upper limit of human development. When he removes the harness some of his enhanced abilities slowly fade, although the rate at which this transpires remains unclear (some writers have suggested that his strength is permanent). The Vulture is elderly and depends on his electromagnetic harness to augment his strength, vitality, and athletic prowess as well as absorbing life force to maintain his vitality. It has recently been revealed that, due to his prolonged use of the harness, the Vulture can levitate or float his body even without the harness, although he requires his wings to maneuver while airborne. The Vulture has a new version of his flight harness that has supposedly been augmented by the Green Goblin. Though Vulture claimed that it increased his strength by five-hundred percent it appeared to be a bluff to frighten the Black Cat, who proceeded to beat him half to death. The Vulture is intellectually brilliant in the fields of electronics and mechanical engineering, with a great talent for invention. He has earned a Master of Science degree in electrical engineering.

Antonio Salvador Daniel AKA Tony S. Daniel is an American comic book writer and artist, known for his work on various books for DC Comics, including Teen Titans, Flash: The Fastest Man Alive and Batman.

Daniel was announced as the writer and artist of the relaunched Detective Comics, which was dubbed DC’s flagship series. In addition, he was announced as the writer of DC’s The Savage Hawkman series, which he would stay on until the eighth issue. Daniel stayed on Detective Comics until the twelfth issue, by which time he released an annual for the series as well. Following this, Daniel was announced as the artist for a two issue stint on the second volume of Justice League. He was subsequently announced as the primary artist accompanying Andy Diggle on Action Comics, following Grant Morrison’s departure. However, after Diggle left the title with only one issue (#19) completed (Diggle was co-writer for #20 and co-plot issue #21), Daniel took on the scripting and art duties for the two following issues completing the 3-part story “Hybrid” after which he too announced he would depart the series to work on a massive project for DC. This project was then announced to be Superman/Wonder Woman, with Daniel on as the artist.

Near mint condition.