Ultimate Spider-Man Episode Thirty: Kraven the Hunter

Kraven the Hunter

First Aired: February 3rd, 2013

Synopsis: The team are being attacked by White Tiger as part of a training session. As the session goes on she grows more violent and dangerous, until Spider-Man is able to snap her out of it. She claims that she was able to hear drums that made everything a white haze, and can't remember being feral. The next day she starts acting reckless again, and when Spider-Man confronts her, she claims that it's her true self and that she's sick of holding back. Spider-Man goes to Agent Coulson to talk about her, while the rest of the team keep an eye on her. It's not long before they're attacked and knocked out by Kraven the Hunter, though. Spider-Man discovers from Coulson that Ava's powers come from the White Tiger amulet, and that she works to keep herself disciplined like her father and grandfather, White Tigers before her. Spider-Man heads to Central Park since the team aren't replying to him but their trackers show that they're there, and alongside Ava finds them captured by Kraven. Spider-Man discovers that Kraven hunted and killed Ava's father, and Kraven claims that if Ava gives him her amulet, he'll let her live.

Spider-Man helps White Tiger get away for the moment, and she explains that Kraven collects artefacts from around the world, which is why she needs to keep the amulet from him. She's sick of holding back and wants to embrace the fury and rage of the white tiger. She goes after Kraven and he's able to steal the amulet from her, and turns into a tiger-human hybrid. White Tiger feels useless without the amulet, but Spider-Man points out that there's more to her than it - she's held its power in check for years, and always has a plan. Spider-Man ends up fighting Kraven until he's able to web him up, at which point Ava takes the amulet back. She wants to kill the defenceless Kraven as revenge for her father, but Spider-Man stops her, explaining that he was in a similar situation with his uncle's killer but decided to be the bigger man. He asks her whether she'd rather be more like her father or Kraven, and Ava spares Kraven, leaving him for SHIELD. Later, she thanks Spider-Man for his help and gives him a hug.

Sam Alexander is Actually the Worst:

• The very first line of the episode is Spider-Man telling his team, "Stay close! Don't get flanked!", to which Nova says "Hah! You almost sound like you know what you're doing!" I guess when he's in the episode as little as he is, he's got to get all of his dickishness in early.
• At the end of the episode, Nova shines a red light (with his powers, from the looks of it) at Ava, planning on recording her chasing after it. It's possible that he means it as a friendly joke, but even if that's the case it's still condescending at best.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• As mentioned, both Ava's father and grandfather before her also held the mantle of the White Tiger. In the comics, her predecessor was Angela del Toro, her niece, and before her, Hector Ayala, Ava's older brother.
• Kraven's design here gives him greying temples. I don't know whether anything similar's been done with him before, but it's an excellent look on him.

Review: What the actual shit is this? An Ultimate Spider-Man episode that's actually pretty decent? In spite of how hostile Ava can be, I've found myself liking her character - she calls the others out on their bullshit, and while her main character traits are that she's occupied with getting good grades and obeying authority, these are only really bad things because the show says they're bad things. This episode choosing to justify those traits is a really good idea, and I really like the inner turmoil she suffers. We've all got to hide who we feel we are at some point or another. Ava feeling that the side she constantly suppresses is her true self and she's sick of hiding it is a really cool idea, and it raises a good question - should you be who you really are, even if that person is dangerous and hostile?

Integrating Kraven into her backstory is a cool idea too - it's implied that he used her father for sport as much as anything else, which really helps add an extra layer of nastiness to Kraven. It distinguishes him from some of the other animated Kravens we've seen, and it's totally in-character for him. That being said, I wasn't a big fan of his ultimate goal apparently being to collect amulets and totems from around the world - feels like it would have been much simpler to say that he was after the tiger amulet so that he could use his full potential when hunting.

There's surprisingly few flaws here - the most egregious one being that when Spider-Man goes to see Coulson it's during the day (implicitly morning), then after he's done it's suddenly night time. I'm also not sure what the point of Kraven knocking out the rest of the team was - we've had plenty of episodes (as recently as the previous one) where the team were just excluded from the plot; a single line or two could have covered up their absence. The flaws don't really detract too much from the overall story, though, and this is a pretty good insight into White Tiger's character. Here's hoping that when we go into the origin of the others*, we get writing just as good.

* Except Nova; we all know nothing good can come from him