What did you think of the Hunted storyline?

[oldschool]

So.....now that Spencer's first big multi-part arc is over (complete with last week's Epilogue), what do you think? Let's vote!!

[oldschool]

By the way, I voted "A" which---to me---does not mean it's quite on the same level as stories like the Master Planner saga or The Night Gwen Stacy Died. Those are A+ Spidey stories whereas "Hunted" to me is a solid "A"--it checks off all the boxes I look for with a big arc like this (great action, compelling antagonist(s), tension, drama, some humor, great cast, Spidey shows his humanity and all the primary cast members are left in a different place with great lead ins for future stories).

[Inversed]

I would consider it a "very very good" story, though I would lean in closer to calling it an A-.

It's a very nice wrap up of the now "Kraven trilogy", with a good use of structure and exploring interesting ideas regarding both Spider-Man and Kraven. I also think it does a good job of balancing its size (with it being a 12 issue story), with its fairly smaller scope in comparison, it doesn't feel like it needs to be bigger than it already is just because its a "big" story, instead uses its time to tell all it wants to say.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

A for me too. I think it's a solid event issue. The overall story is good and the standalones - the ".HU" are all great.

We got some classic beats like Black Ant and Taskmaster as essentially "The Walrus and the Carpenter" of villains in that you aren't sure which of them is more awful and terrible than the other, and the bigger hypocrite. We got defining character moments for Felicia with Billy. And we got a Curt Connors and Lizard with actual poignant internal conflict and parental guilt, shame, and loathing that's truly dark stuff.

[Snoop Dogg]

I hate grades! It's an A, though. The first 6 months of the Supreme Commander's run had me more hungry for things to go off than invested in current things, but this was the good West Coast burger with all the pickles. Best arc since Norman realized what the superior Mountain Dew flavor is.

[Celgress]

B- (minus) a solid story, which seemed to drag towards the end, but nothing to write home about, IMO.

Edit - I don't like the concept of Kraven's "clone son" basically replacing him as it feels like a cheap have your cake and eat it too move, but that's just me.

[oldschool]

A for me too. I think it's a solid event issue. The overall story is good and the standalones - the ".HU" are all great.

We got some classic beats like Black Ant and Taskmaster as essentially "The Walrus and the Carpenter" of villains in that you aren't sure which of them is more awful and terrible than the other, and the bigger hypocrite. We got defining character moments for Felicia with Billy. And we got a Curt Connors and Lizard with actual poignant internal conflict and parental guilt, shame, and loathing that's truly dark stuff.

Nice analysis; I totally agree----I think the ".HU" issues were quite possibly the best tie-ins for a Spider event that I can recall.

[wleakr]

Just the artwork alone knocks the story a letter grade down for me. I actually did like Arcade and Black Cat in this story. Not sure why the need to put Spidey in his black suit, other than paying homage to KLH. It was ok, but the entire premise just didn't excite me.

[Von]

By the way, I voted "A" which---to me---does not mean it's quite on the same level as stories like the Master Planner saga or The Night Gwen Stacy Died. Those are A+ Spidey stories whereas "Hunted" to me is a solid "A"--it checks off all the boxes I look for with a big arc like this (great action, compelling antagonist(s), tension, drama, some humor, great cast, Spidey shows his humanity and all the primary cast members are left in a different place with great lead ins for future stories).

I agree, solid A for those reasons.

Also really cool working in of both surprising Spidey B list characters and semi-obscure canon, recovering from some of Slott's unforced errors with characterizations (*cough* FELICIA *cough), and plenty of the patented Spencer humor that make his stories genuinely funny where they should be imo.

[Hybrid]

Hunted was the story arc that Nick Spencer's run had been building up to since he started writing Spider-Man. With it being over and some time passing since, I thought I'd ask what you guys thought of it?

For me, I liked how it balanced out the large cast, in particular how so many characters played a role of some sort such as Black Cat breaking out Billy Connors, Lizard blackmailing Taskmaster to getting him in, the Vulture leading the other villains to getting out (while looking out for himself and using the others as cannon fodder of course) after a meeting with Arcade, and the entire Gibbon issue which was pretty sad. In fact, it did a good job at humanizing many of the rogues in the story, while still keeping them core to their characters.

Typical Parker Luck happens when Spidey is about undermine Vulture's lies. Of course, you have Tasky betraying Black Ant... and then coming back to save him in the end. Some good action and artwork, and a good clash between Spidey and Kraven at the end. Hell, even Arcade was somewhat enjoyable here as a Riddler-esque character who comes up with overly-complicated plots for fun, and I usually think he's lame (that's not even getting into the Avengers Arena arc...).

There was a good contrast between Kraven the Hunter and Arcade, both of them are somewhat comparable (both are wealthy types want to prove their superiority to their prey), but are completely different in every other way. Having them work together in a loose alliance was actually a sound idea. I also thought it was cool how the targets were animal-themed characters, as it ties well into the overall "hunting" theme as opposed to just any random assortment of people. It also shows one major thing: You can never trust a villain, even if you're a villain yourself. This is proven multiple times.

The one downside to shifting the focus between all these different characters, of course, is that Spider-Man himself came across as being a side character in his own storyline. Really, it was more of a spotlight for all the other characters, while Spider-Man has rather minimal impact overall. He has maybe 30% of the story's presence and the rest is divided between the others. That's my only real gripe with it, that being Spidey's lack of a presence in the story that takes place in his own book.

Overall I enjoyed it.

What do you guys think of it?

[ngroove]

I'd give it a C-.

Really, the premise was hunters against prey. Yet, I felt there were really not all that many true casualties. Only, a few obscure or forgotten losers who was just there on a panel or a few pages for the purpose of being snuffed, and apparently, only one hunter, rather than a mass bloodbath on both sides, that "anything can happen, anyone can die" feeling.

And, the costumed animal "prey". Neat to see many of them - Walrus, White Rabbit, Puma, Squid, Man-Bull, Toad, Beetle, Yellowjacket, Fly, may have brought back Lady Octopus and Scorpia into relevance, while the story killed Impala, Mad Dog, Iguana, Gibbon, allegedly dead Mandrill - but they were only bit cameos. Only the big profile multiple-times-a-year seen animal-themed guys - Vulture, Rhino, Scorpion, Lizard - were given major page attention. There is quite a few of the obscure villains I just have not majorly seen in Spidey's, some Marvel altogether, in years. This story, many only seen in just a few panels of cameos altogether, does not change that.

While I casually enjoy a light Spider-Man vs Kraven romp - such as the fun Stan Lee Kraven the Hunter yarns - the personal stakes Spider-Man vs Kraven "honor" angle always bored me, and personally found highly overrated.

[NexusTenebrare]

For me it was a C. Just OK.
It had some interesting stuff, but overall the story didn't grab me.
There was also a lot of silly nonsense going on.
Like how with the premise of capturing animal-themed supers the only ones that ended up getting nabbed were Spidey's B- and C-list villains. There's plenty more animal-themed supers beyond that. Or how of those villains almost all of them were so easilly fooled by Vulture, who isn't all that charismatic. And then Kraven's litter of clones and the one remaining one just replacing him in the end which felt like a cheap and uninspired ending.

[Wall-Crawler]

I want to know your opinion on this story arc from Nick Spencer's run.

I loved every single issue, even the build up to this storyline was great and engaging, the story arc itself was amazing, big in scope yet very centered on character development for both Peter and Kraven, all while delivering a satisfactory conclusion to this rivalry they've had for decades.

This serves as a goodbye to the Kraven we've known for years, giving a close to his "trilogy" that started on Kraven's Last Hunt, continued in Grim Hunt, and now ended on Hunted.