Kraven the Hunter gets a comic book origin story just in time for his movie

Spider-Man: The Lost Hunt #1 cover excerpt

(Image credit: Marvel Comics)

JM DeMatteis, writer of the legendary story Spider-Man: Kraven's Last Hunt, will return to the rivalry between Spidey and Kraven for a new limited series that explores not Kraven's death, but his origin story as a supervillain.

Kraven's origin will be told in the five-issue limited series Spider-Man: The Lost Hunt, written by DeMatteis with art from Eder Messias, as announced during Marvel's retailer panel at Comic-Con International: San Diego.

Spider-Man: The Lost Hunt is set at a specific time in Peter Parker's life, in the era after the story Spider-Man: The Final Adventure. In that story, he and his wife Mary Jane Watson moved to Portland while MJ was pregnant and Peter himself was temporarily powerless and pursuing a career in science.

Spider-Man: The Lost Hunt #1 cover — (Image credit: Marvel Comics)

According to the solicitation text, Spider-Man: The Lost Hunt will reveal "secrets and answering mysteries Spidey fans have been waiting for," and "explore the depths of what made Kraven the Hunter the powerhouse villain he was!".

Spider-Man: The Lost Hunt continues Marvel's current trend of fan-favorite writers returning to characters they're well known for with limited series set during the time contemporary to their original runs (much like the coinciding announcement of Chris Claremont and Salvador Larroca's return to their classic X-Treme X-Men title in the era of their heyday).

DeMatteis himself previously wrote the limited series Ben Reilly: Spider-Man which flashed back to the era of Spider-Man: The Clone Saga for a tale of the eponymous Spider-clone Ben Reilly during his first time filling in for Peter Parker as Spider-Man.

Spider-Man: The Lost Hunt #1 goes on sale in November with a cover from Ryan Brown - just ahead of the January 2023 release of Sony's Kraven the Hunter movie.

Kraven's Last Hunt is one of the best Spider-Man stories ever.

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I've been Newsarama's resident Marvel Comics expert and general comic book historian since 2011. I've also been the on-site reporter at most major comic conventions such as Comic-Con International: San Diego, New York Comic Con, and C2E2. Outside of comic journalism, I am the artist of many weird pictures, and the guitarist of many heavy riffs. (They/Them)