Spider-Man: The Animated Series Episode Forty-Five: Partners in Danger, Chapter 4 - Return of Kraven

Return of Kraven

First Aired: February 22nd, 1997

Synopsis: Peter Parker is seeing Felicia Hardy about the Hardy Foundation's science budget for the next year, when a report comes in of someone breaking into a lab, and footage shows it to be Kraven the Hunter. Peter changes to Spider-Man and confronts him, but Kraven escapes. Spider-Man tries going after him, but is drugged and only survives because Black Cat appears and saves him. Returning to the lab, they discover that it contained the serum which initially turned him insane. The two heroes find and fight Kraven at a construction site, but he's able to escape when Spider-Man has to save Black Cat. Spider-Man's angry at her for putting herself in danger and tries to convince her to give up being a crime fighter, but she thinks to herself that she's doing it for her father's sake. Soon afterwards, reports spring up of an animalistic attacker hunting civilians, which Spider-Man assumes is Kraven.

 

Debbie Whitman and Flash Thompson investigate the attacks, with Debbie revealing that if she can solve the mystery she might get funding for a project. They find and are attacked by the creature, but Spider-Man shows up, only to end up fighting Kraven again, who leaves and claims that this whole affair is a tragedy. Spider-Man guesses where Kraven will be next, and while they fight, Kraven says that he created the creature and that it killed Mariah Crawford. Spider-Man is disgusted, but Black Cat then shows up and reveals that Debbie Whitman analysed some of the creature's hair, discovering that it is Crawford. Kraven explains that when Mariah was in Africa, she caught a virus, and the only way to save her was to give her some of the serum which originally turned him into Kraven the Hunter. It turned her into the creature she is now, but as it turns out Debbie Whitman talked to Doctor Connors about it, and he produced a serum which should return her to normal. The heroes administer it to her, and while Spider-Man's wary that things won't work out for her and Kraven when it fails to fully transform her back, Black Cat tells him to be more trusting.

Subplots:

• Flash Thompson guesses that the project Debbie wants funding for is related to Michael Morbius
• Spider-Man sees Harry Osborn at one point, and thinks to himself that he should talk to him. At the end of the episode, he asks Harry whether he can move in with him, figuring that they could both use a bit of emotional support

Miscellaneous Notes:

• When Black Cat and Spider-Man confront Kraven at the construction site, the reason he's able to get away is because he pins Spider-Man to a construction girder using... a forklift. Without hurting Spidey. I mean, I guess it's probably possible, but seriously?

Review: So let's get the good out of the way first: this episode does a good job of exploring the relationship between Spider-Man and Black Cat further. Surprisingly, it's Black Cat who's the idealist while Spider-Man's the cynic, in a bit of a reversal of what you'd expect. It's believable given their situations - Black Cat's recently been (briefly) reunited with her father and is now eager to use the power he helped give her, Spider-Man's still hurting over Mary Jane's death. Peter going to see Harry at the end was a good touch to show that Black Cat is influencing Peter and because it's the healthy thing for him to do.

Less interesting or enjoyable, however, is...most of the episode. Kraven's an idiot who runs around doing whatever he wants without explanation, then has the gall to be angry at Spider-Man for not staying out of his way. Spider-Man, for his part, punches first and asks questions later. I'd be a bit more forgiving if Kraven had mentioned earlier in the episode that he was responsible for Mariah's death, since that would excuse some of Spidey's impatience, but it doesn't happen, so the contrived fighting feels really contrived.

So, the fights are pretty pointless. Other stuff? The mystery attacker is obvious (and you'd be forgiven for forgetting that people are supposedly being attacked), Flash Thompson and Debbie Whitman are suddenly detectives for flimsy reasons, Black Cat conveniently has the serum on her at the end...yeah, this is all pretty inane. The character stuff isn't bad, but beyond that, this episode is easily skippable.