Spider-Man: Get Kraven #6

Background

The final part of a much talked about series starring Al Kraven, son of the late Kraven the Hunter. His father was a villain, Al went kinda the other way. But then his girlfriend Timber got raped (see last issue) by the Rothstein brothers, well, I'm not so sure what'll happen. Read on!

Story Details

The Rothstein brothers are enjoying themselves, stuffing their faces with food. They had a fun night, that girlfriend of Kraven was a banshee. Al Kraven then stands in front of them, carrying a big knife. The brothers say he's a bad loser. "One more word and I'll cut out your tongues" is Al's reply. Of course Harry Rothstein has to say something and a little later, two tongues are on the floor.

Meanwhile, Rothstein's goon squad has entered the room. The one called Stitch takes on Kraven. The Vulture joins the fight, to help Kraven. The fight is over and the cops are coming. They have to leave. As Kraven is leaving the room, the Vulture turns, holding a pocket knife. He says the brothers were lucky with Kraven, but he'll make sure they can't do to another girl what they did to Timber.

Over at the hospital, Timber is waiting for Al to return. When he gets there, he says he didn't kill them, but they got the message. The Vulture is smiling in the back. He then asks about that number he had to call. Obviously that friend didn't show up. Well, it's 3,000 miles away and he can't fly. But he sure can swing! Enter the Amazing Spider-Man!

Later that night, The Vulture, Al Kraven and Spider-Man are on their way. Spidey is surprised that the Vulture has become a super-hero. They start to argue when Al tells them to focus. The Rothsteins weren't the head of the snake. They need to go to Beverly Hills.

Cut to, the office of Connie Hunt. She's working late. Kraven, the Vulture and Spider-Man enter the room. Al starts to interrogate Connie. Saying she's not a woman but a creature. He then hits her. As a result, she turns into some kind of monster. In the fight that follows, Connie reveals that her boss is Ned Tannengarden. And that Al's not the only pup that his maniac daddy sired. Al leaves for Ned and Spidey and the Vulture take on Connie.

Over at National Studios, Nedrocci aka Ned Tannengarden is playing with Kraven. Well, actually, it's the uncle of Al, the Chameleon pretending to be the real Kraven. Al wonders whether he doesn't have one relative that's not totally insane. It turns out, Ned is playing a role playing game with the Chameleon because it's healthy, according to his shrink. The Chameleon snaps, he takes a spear and runs towards Al. Al steps aside and the Chameleon hits Ned. The Chameleon hits the floor, in shock. Al looks at the wound, making sure it's fatal. Spidey then enters the room, but his help is no longer needed.

Cut to the office of the Rothstein brothers. Inside, the sisters Harriet and Josephine are enjoying themselves, stuffing their faces with food. A certain Kevin wants to talk about a script. Timber enters the room, with her dog, Nickles. They're mad. The broth... eh... sisters wonder how many times they have to suffer for a little mistake. Exactly one more is the answer as Timber swings a baseball bat with a rather nasty looking nail driven through it.

Six months later, New York City. An old couple are being ambushed by some muggers. Al Kraven interrupts, if they want to take on old people, they should try his partner. The Vulture and Al then beat up the muggers. A little down the street, Timber and Nickles are watching. Spider-Man joins them. It seems Al and the Vulture have been at it for three months now, with success. And Timber's doing fine too, although it's a slow road back.

As Spidey says goodbye, Al and the Vulture have finished their business. Bickering like a married couple they return to Timber. The story ends with Nickles wondering that this was supposed to be a seven issue series. And that it's weird that he waited to the last page to talk!

General Comments

A very nice wrap-up to a very cool series! But let's not get ahead, take a look at the cover first. Compare that to the one of issue 1. Very nice touch, bonus point number one.

I really liked the jokes. When Kraven, the Vulture and Spider-Man enter the office of Connie Hunt, great dialog! And some great art too, I'd love to see this page turned into a poster. Please.....? Anyway, bonus point number two.

When Spider-Man explains why he's late to meet up with Al, he says he's been busy, but he was acutally there. He had been fighting with Doc Ock, well, actually two of them. Great reference to current continuity! That should silence the critics about Spidey suddenly turning up in LA.

At first I thought, oh boy, how is Ron going to handle the raping of Timber? Turns out he handled it with care. Not going for the bad guys are punished, end of story. Nope, in stead he choose to say that it actually takes a long way to recover. Which I thought was pretty decent of him. Considering the over the top violence the rest of the story had seen already, it's an unexpected surprise. Besides, how often do we actually get to see the ending of the story from the victims point of view?

Before going to the final verdict, is this a Spider-Man story or not? Hard to say it's not, considering Spider-Man plays a leading (well, almost) role in this story. Maybe not all issues, but he's essential to the story as a whole. The violence, is it a bit too much for a Spidey title? I'd say no, in my opinion it's only mildly more graphic than the other Spider-Man titles. And the jokes, well, that's all about taste, right?

Overall Rating

Yeah, the full 5 webs. I'll probably get hate mail from all over the universe, but I'm the one reviewing this issue and I liked it very much. You may not like Ron Zimmerman as a person (I saw him in action at Wizard World 2002 in Chicago, acting like he's the king.), but you should judge his work on its own merit. This was an extremely funny book. And with art by John McCrea, you just can not go wrong (be sure to pick Dicks 2 as well, issue 3 is out now!). Major bummer we'll never see issue 7 of this series. But hey, this is Hollywood, land of sequels!

Footnote

Jonathan, the site editor, has a different point of view of this comic. Here's what he has to say about it:

It's all over! And, it got cut by an issue. Given the timeframe for releasing a comic and getting feedback, I'd guess issue #4 or so was already on the editor's desk about when the fan response to the first couple of issues started coming in. Let's be frank, I can't believe the feedback was positive.

The final issue was the low-water mark of a terrible story. Talking dogs? Castration and tongue mutilation humour? The Vulture cruising the streets as a good guy? Robot-killer Hollywood agents? Yet another bloody Kraven? Two pages in to this comic and I was begging for release. This is an abomination of a book.

Check the fan bulletin boards for feedback. I haven't seen a single positive word about Get Kraven since the day it came out. I can't say for sure, but I would not be surprised if Get Kraven was bleeding red ink and bad feeling, and Zimmerman got the squeeze on his seventh issue. How could Joey Q have been so blind. Spidey fans don't want this crud, and we sure as hell didn't need six issues of it!

I see that Ron's moving to take on a re-work of "The Rawhide Kid" with a gay flavour. Well, whatever loads your pistol - maybe I can say it in language the Kid would understand: "If we see that Zimmerman guy back in Spider-Man Gulch, we'll have him tarred-and-feathered by sundown!".

I feel like I should trash this story more - but it's like beating up crippled people, there's just not much fun in it any more. We all know it's lame. We don't need to talk about it any more, let's just put this whole sordid business behind us, and move on, eh?

I give this comic zero webs. No... minus twenty webs. I tear out all the webs from my heart and leave them to bleed to death in silent sorrow for the evils that Ron has done.