He is the star of what many consider the greatest Spider-man story ever. Introduce in Amazing Spider-Man #15 (1964) by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, Sergei Kravenoff was part of a Russian aristocrat during the Russian revolution. After the fall of aristocracy in Russian, Kraven went around the world hunting down many animals, earning the name Kraven The Hunter. He would met Calypso and drink a potion that enhanced his strength and slowed down his aging. He would later be recruited into Nick Fury’s Avengers of 1950s. Much later he was contacted by his half-brother, the Chameleon, who suggested he hunt down Spider-man. He would fail and was defeated by Spider-man, which cause Kraven to become obsessed with capturing and hunting down the webhead. He would later be recruited by Doc Ock into becoming one of the founding Sinister Six.

He would fight Spider-man a number of times as well as other animal based heroes like Tigra and Black Panther. However, the constant defeat drove Kraven mad, leading to my favourite storyline Kraven’s Last Hunt. In it, he shot Spider-man with a poison that simulated death. He buried Spider-man in a marked grave and donned a copy of Spider-man’s black costume. He then tried to prove himself better then Spider-Man by taking up the mantle. He defeated and capture Vermin, which once took the combined might of Spidey and Captain America. Spider-man eventually revive and, after insuring MJ that he was alive, went to confront Kraven. However, Kraven was expecting him. He let Spider-man know that he had released Vermin into the city. He gave Spider-man a choice, capture himself or stop Vermin from hurting other people. When Spider-Man left to capture Vermin, Kraven realised that Spider-man was the better man and took a shotgun in the mouth, killing himself.

He would remain dead for many years, with a both his sons taking up the mantle of the Hunter. He would later be brought back to life after his wife Sasha, revived him using Kaine’s body, who had switch places with Spider-man. However, this made Kraven believe that he was brought back wrong as it should have been Spider-man’s body. After battling the Spider family, he took his family to the savaged land, killing his wife and 2 sons and training with his daughter. There he would battle not only Ka-Zar, but also Agent Venom and Wolverine. He would later capture Kaine and tried to make the clone kill him but Kaine refused. He would fight more heroes like Squirrel Girl and even had clones made of him. He would eventually return to New York where he was hire by the Kingpin, then mayor of New York, to hunt down humanoid Dinosaurs living in the Sewer but was defeated by Venom. He would eventually team up with Arcade and began capturing animal themed heroes and villains and began hunting them down in Central Park. He would die after Spider-man forced him to realize what he was doing was wrong and was killed by one of his clone sons.

As one of Spider-man’s greatest (and extremely underrated) villains, he has gotten a few figures over the years. He would receive a figure in Toybiz’s Spider-man Classic line series 6, which would see a re-release in the Marvel Legends Spider-man Vs. The Sinister Six box set. Hasbro would eventually release a new version in the Spider-man Rhino wave. He would receive another version in in a Target Exclusive 2-pack with a Black Suit Spider-man with a Kraven’s Last Hunt theme (though the Kraven figure was based more on his classic look.)

(Note: Before anyone says it, giving his much larger build, you cannot use the Black Suited Spider-man or the Ben Reilly’s Scarlet Spider for the times Kraven posed as team.)