Description
Spider-Man #50 Standard Direct Non-Hologram Edition (1990 McFarlane Series)
SON OF THE HUNTER
After undergoing the process to give himself the powers of his father, Vladimir Kravinoff has come to the United States. Here he is training to complete the one task his father failed to accomplish before he died, destroying Spider-Man. At the mansion where Spider-Man and Kraven had their last battle, Vladimir tests his abilities by fighting a number of armed men with nothing but a knife. After defeating these men, Vladimir vows to avenge his father, then leaps out of the window into the backyard. This is observed by Vladimir’s servant, Gregori, who begins to question what he has done. Meanwhile, Spider-Man is at home eating food when his phone begins to ring. The wall-crawler lets it go to voicemail. It’s a call from his wife Mary Jane, who is calling for him. She urges him to come and visit his Aunt May who is in the hospital after suffering a stroke because he needs to be there for her. However, Spider-Man ignores this call, as he has abandoned his civilian identity of Peter Parker so he can fully embrace the spider. Unwilling to listen to anymore, Spider-Man leaves his home and goes web-swinging in the pouring rain. After scouring the city, he finds a gun-toting lunatic who the Daily Bugle has dubbed the Pale Rider. He attacks the killer without a single word, easily dodging the bullets fired from his guns. Growing frustrated, the Pale Rider tries to flee the scene to kill people elsewhere but is snared by Spider-Man and left for the authorities. While back at the Kravenoff estate, Vladimir pays his respects at his father’s grave. There he is joined by Gregori who gives him his hunting garb and spear. Dressed for the hunt, Vladimir is ready to begin. While at the home of Aunt May in Queens, a strange is looking through the home. He pauses to look at a photo of a young Peter Parker with his Uncle Ben and Aunt May, and thinks about how happy their family was. Suddenly, he hears someone coming, and rushes to find somewhere to hide. It turns out to be Spider-Man, who spots the intruder and assumes that it is a burglar, and becomes angry. Spider-Man rushes out to the backyard but has lost all trace of the intruder. Going back inside, the wall-crawler finds the same picture of himself with his aunt and uncle and reminds himself that he became Spider-Man all for them. Elsewhere in the city, Gregori pilots a helicopter into Manhattan and lets out Vladimir in order to begin his hunt for Spider-Man. Searching the rooftops, Vladimir finds a scrap of Spider-Man’s costume, allowing him to get the wall-crawler’s scent. Satisfied that he can track Spider-Man down wherever he is hiding, he orders Gregori to follow after him, prompting the servant to once more wonder what he has done. Back in Queens, the wall-crawler goes looking around the house to see if something was stolen. Up in the attic, he goes looking through an old trunk and comes across Miles Warren’s old journal. This makes him think about the time that Miles Warren tried to destroy him with a clone of himself, and how he failed. This leads to thoughts about how Kraven the Hunter also tried to kill him and failed. These memories anger him, prompting Spider-Man to leap out the window, vowing that nobody can take away the fact that he is Spider-Man. As Vladimir Kravinoff follows Spider-Man’s scent across the 59th Street Bridge, the wall-crawler comes upon an elderly man being mugged by some young men at a cemetary. When Spider-Man tries to apprehend them, the youths make a run for it. However, they are snared in bolos. Looking up onto a nearby rooftop, Spider-Man spots Vladimir and mistakes him for his father, Kraven. Leaping up and grabbing this new opponent, Spider-Man realizes that this is not Kraven. Vladimir jolts Spider-Man with electicity, and then hits him with a dart that will fill the wall-crawler with fear. Introducing himself as the Grim Hunter, Vladimir tells Spider-Man that he intends
