Spider-Man (1981) Episode Fourteen: The Hunter and the Hunted

The Hunter and the Hunted

First Aired: December 12th, 1981

Synopsis: In spite of the objections of Betty Brant and Robbie Robertson (Peter Parker's best friend),  J. Jonah Jameson has hired Kraven the Hunter to capture Zabu, Ka-Zar's sabretooth tiger, so that he can be a mascot for the Daily Bugle. Kraven is successful in doing so and leaves the Savage Land with Zabu, delivering Zabu to J. Jonah Jameson once he's back in New York. Unbeknownst to him, Ka-Zar saw him leaving the Savage Land, and manages to make his way to New York using a combination of flying a pterodactyl and stowing aboard a plane. Once he's in the streets, he runs around causing chaos in his search for Zabu. He's paranoid enough that when Spider-Man shows up to talk to him, Ka-Zar assumes that Spider-Man is there to stop him, and attacks Spider-Man.


Ka-Zar is soon convinced that Spider-Man is on his side and goes to the Daily Bugle to confront J. Jonah Jameson. As he's in the middle of doing so, Kraven calls Jonah, as he wants to hunt Ka-Zar, and gets the publisher to take Ka-Zar to an artificial jungle full of traps of his. Although Kraven is able to entangle Ka-Zar in a trap, Spider-Man soon shows up, and after having to deal with some of Kraven's traps, is able to free Ka-Zar and Zabu, who end up confronting Kraven and trapping him in the cage he had Zabu in. Afterwards, they return to the Savage Land.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• In spite of the fact that Kraven is Russian, there's absolutely zero effort to give him an accent - he speaks with a strong American accent throughout the episode.
• There's a few unfortunate edits in the scene where Kraven manages to capture Ka-Zar. We get a shot of Kraven standing triumphantly upon a rock, before cutting to a shot of his hand at a control panel, then back to him on the rock, with no control panel to be seen. It's far from the most egregious animation error I've seen, but it was still jarring enough for me to notice it.

Review: I've got a bit of a love/hate relationship with Kraven - I like him when the focus is on his jungle herbs and rituals, since it gives him a bit of a stronger gimmick, I hate him when he's reduced to a strongman who runs around shouting about "the thrill of the hunt!" (I think Kraven's Last Hunt isn't bad, but it's far from my favourite Spider-Man story, if you're wondering). Unfortunately, this episode features more of the latter type of Kraven than the former, but in spite of that, it manages to be fairly decent.

I wasn't expecting Ka-Zar to show up in this show - or really, any Spider-Man shows - but he's a good fit for someone to oppose Kraven. While Jonah's motivation for wanting Zabu captured is utter nonsense and out of character, it does get all of the major players involved, and I did like that Kraven was involved in something a bit shady but not flat out villainous. There's a bit of a downside in that Ka-Zar spends most of his screentime running around like a madman, not thinking about a more sensible way to find out where Zabu is, but I'd still rather that than some of the more outrageous plots we've seen in the past.

There are some other flaws I could easily talk about - several plot points going nowhere, Kraven folding instantly the second Spider-Man gets near him - but honestly, this feels like an episode where the writers decided to use Kraven the Hunter as a villain and then from there worked out how to write a story which took advantage of the Marvel Universe as a setting. Overall, it worked for me, and I'd love to see more of the wider Marvel Universe in future in the show - as this episode shows, it can help to salvage some of an episode.