'Spider-Man: The Lost Hunt' Chapter three 'FRENZY' Retrospective

by Dave Scrimgeour and Kevin McCluskey

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​Writer- J.M. DeMatteis
Artists- Eder Messias & Belardino Brabo
             Kyle Hotz
Colourists- Neeraj Menon & Cris Peter
Letterer- VC's Joe Caramagna

Cover artist- Ryan Brown

Designer- Carlos Lao
Editor- Danny Khazem

Published by Marvel Comics (18/01/2023)

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Synopsis

Aja Orisha saves Peter from having his head blown off by Takhar, before engaging Sergei's protege in a conflict that results in Peter having to prevent her from killing her son.  She repays Parker by guiding him deep into his psyche, where he defeats Kravinov's mythic "Spider."  However, her estranged son is not so easily bested, and has poisoned the potions she has used on Peter, resulting in his sanity being stripped away, and him fleeing, on pure animal instinct alone, to his wife's side.

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Dave
Onto part 3 now.  What do you make of the cover to this issue?


Kev
I think this cover is okay.  Certainly not as striking an image as the one for chapter two.  It’s functional though.  It does exactly what it sets out, and what it needs to do, in that it shows Peter struggling with the rogues gallery that are his inner demons.  What about yourself?  What do you make of it?


Dave
Agreed, it's not as striking as the last cover, but it sets up the theme for this issue; a tale of anguish and suffering.


Kev
Nice mirroring of Gregor and Sergei in panels 4 and 6 on the first page though.

"Lord of the jungle, the hero who stalks. The beasts call him "bother," the ghost who walks." Wrong franchise.

Dave
It shows how desperately Gregor wants to be like Sergei, and what Peter sees as well.  Good splash page on page 2.  That is a striking image.  And, of course, the full Tracy MaKeba reveal.


Kev
Yeh, I’ve got to say, I do appreciate the repetition of the last page from the previous issue.  It feels very much like the sort of device a weekly television show would employ.


Dave
Good point there, I suppose it allows the build up to a splash page as well.


Kev
Yeh, that splash page is really good.  Makeba is badass, alright.  A proper mother-not-to-be-messed-with.


Dave
Plus, they clearly have their own unresolved issues with each other.


Kev
Indeed.


Dave
This has given Pete the escape he needed, but still in a wounded and confused state.


Kev
Totally.  Peter's in no shape to be getting physically involved in this.


Dave
It's quite a battle with Gregor and Makeba as well.


Kev
She's certainly not pulling any punches on account of Gregor being her son, that's for sure.  I feel that this line from Tracy Makeba neatly sums up one of the main themes of this story.  “Why do you still cling to the delusion that Kravinoff was a great man?  That he cared for you…cared for anything - -  - - beyond his own immense and fragile ego?”  Misplaced hero worship, toxic masculinity, and fragile male egos.  An awful cocktail, really.  Keep that in mind lads if you find yourself falling down the Andrew Tate rabbit hole.


Dave
Haha.  It does raise a question of perspectives, how one person can idolise someone and how another can not, or even resent them.


Kev
It sure does.  I think it’s safe to say, as she tries to strangle her son to death with her bare hands, that Tracy Makeba isn’t playing with a full deck either, so to speak.


Dave
That's a good panel at the bottom of page 5, of Makeba and Gregor squaring off.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We've all got our mummy issues, Takhar.

​Kev
Yeh.  I'm loving the stylised detail in the hair.  It's brilliant.


Dave
It's interesting how Gregor put a knife to his mum's throat in rage then, after realising what he did, he backed off, and Makeba’s rage,  trying to strangle her son, stopped.  There is still the mother/son relationship hidden behind the lunacy of those two.


Kev
That's true.  I'm not sure if either of them is truly capable of killing the other.


Dave
I think that was the point that DeMatteis was making, finding the humanity in these people, despite their obvious lunacy.


Kev
Well, certainly not with Peter there to spoil the party.


Dave
DeMatteis's writing, so far, has dealt with the complexities of human relationships, and this is another example of it.


Kev
Yeh, DeMatteis is excellent at that sort of thing.  It's often his bread and butter in these comics.


Dave
Imagine being neighbours with that household.


Kev
With Kraven as stepdad as well?  No thanks.  That is a stunning, last panel of Aja Orisha on page 9.


Dave
Makeba seems to be showing remorse after nearly killing her son.  Is it disappointment, not in him, per say, but at him looking up to Sergei which has angered her?


Kev
I think so, yeh.  I also reckon there's a fair amount of self-loathing in there as well, as she seems to feel like she failed as a mother, in being able to steer her son away from Sergei and his madness.


Dave
It's certainly a broken relationship there.  That is a great panel on page 9.


Kev
It really is a tragic family tale.  One that we get a lot more insight into next issue.


Dave
This is where we go into the deep, psychological head-trip that is going on inside Peter Parker's mind.


Kev
Ha, ha!  Yep, because it’s a J.M. DeMateis story, we are back inside Peter’s mind, where an older-looking Peter is confronting Spider-Man.  Is being Spider-Man a burden to Peter, or does it indeed give him a purpose, whilst being fun?  “The Spider,” on the other hand, is just nightmarish.


Dave
Page 10 does give a good insight about Peter though.  I did mention previously how he still had a bit of that child-like quality trapped inside of him, which M.J. acutely has noticed, and where his dependency has leaned on her.  It's very insightful writing by DeMatteis.  It's about as in-depth into Spidey’s psyche as you can go really, and it's is being fully explored here.  Pete is still haunted by all his losses.


Kev
As a real person would be.  You'd never truly get over any of them.  Much less all of them.  Yeh, DeMatteis is one of the best Spidey writers, in terms of really getting under the skin of the character, and exploring what makes him tick. J.M.S. is  theother great one that springs to mind.  I know that some people criticise it as leaning too heavily on the "psychobabble" (and I wonder if that's why he had Spidey use that exact term there), but I'm all about it.  I think it bears visiting.  And revisiting.  And revisiting again.


Dave
It's the battle of personas here; Pete talking to the Spidey persona that he developed wearing the costume and getting into the super-hero role.  That well-known side of Spidey, joking during battles, versus the internal conflict of Peter.


Kev
Totally.  This is an insight into development of the wise-cracking, gung-ho persona, as a coping mechanism, to mask the trauma of having lost so many of the people that he loved.


Dave
And also the cycle of going from incompetent, to competent, to good, and then followed by arrogance.  How power can affect the human psyche.  Pete was given these powers at a very young age, and was such a fragile person.  He has tried to do his best with them, but there must have been some underlying anger at the bullying he took when he was just a normal kid.

Kafka, Gregor, turning into a creepy crawly. Welcome to 'The Metamorphosis.'

​Kev
Absolutely.  And at losing his Uncle the way he did.  Combine that with the guilt he's always felt about being responsible for Ben's death, and you've got a pretty sweet payday for a therapist at some point down the line.


Dave
That's some panel of "The Spider" at the bottom of page 11.


Kev
Yeh.  We're really leaning into the psychological horror elements of the story visually.


Dave
Those faces under the monster look like gargoyles on a building.  And I like how the caption box at the bottom switches to M.J. now.


Kev
They really do.  A rogues gallery of gargoyles.


Dave
Even though it is going for the horror element, it certainly is not as gory as the original ‘Kravens Last Hunt.’


Kev
No.  If anything, this is even more psychological.


Kev
Yeh, I’m a huge fan of the way DeMatteis and Messias are using a line of dialogue to bridge the gap between, and link two pages, as a scene transition.  It’s a very slick device.


Dave
And it ties the internal mind of Peter back to the external world so well.


Kev
Yeh, it's exceptionally well done.  Peter’s, and in particular M.J.’s, sense of the isolation they are experiencing in Portland is strong here.  “If only we had friends here in Portland.”


Dave
I like how she talks so highly of Aunt May as well.


Kev
Me too. I loved seeing just how much M.J. respected, admired and misses May Parker.  “Should I just wait around, like some dumb, dutiful - - - - anxious wreck of a wife?  Or do I hold on to faith and trust - - - - the way Aunt May always did?  Y’know, there were people who saw her as a fragile old worry-wart - - - but they were wrong.  May Parker was the strongest woman I ever knew.  She faced her share of tragedies…and she didn’t just survive them - - - - she triumphed over them - - - - again and again.  And she did it by holding on to her faith - - and believing in the essential goodness of people - - - - no matter how much the world tried to convince her otherwise.” Heartstring-tugging stuff, right there.


Dave
It's excellently written, but, again, I will give credit to how consistently good the artwork has been in all of these issues issues, and the splash pages are a prime example of this.  And in true Kraven storytelling, there has to be rain the background.  A trademark of this saga, I think.  Then it cuts back from her thought caption to Pete's mind.  Which is a nice switch back as well.


Kev
Yeh, the scene transitions have been spot-on throughout.  It wouldn't be a DeMatteis, Kraven Hunt story without torrential rain and "Kra-Koom!" thunderclaps.  The art team have been fantastic, to the point that I've gotten over the hump of it not being Zeck and McLeod.  Which, in all honesty, I didn't think I'd be able to do.


Dave
I was surprised that Orisha/Tracy was a figure of healing.  I thought she would have been an enemy (saying that it's only 3 issues in, it can go anywhere from here), but it makes sense, otherwise Spidey would be dead after two issues, and we wouldn't have much of a story after that.


Kev
Yeh, she's a really interesting character.  But more on that next issue.


Dave
DeMatteis is tackling the subject of identity between Pete rand Spider-Man here.  Is there really a difference between Pete and "Spider-Man," or has it just another side of him that has emerged, given the situation he was put into?  I like how his writing can offer an insight, but also makes us, the reader, ask questions of our own, and have our own opinions on this subject as well.


Kev
It's a good question.  One that I'm not convinced that I have a solid answer to, personally, if I'm being honest.  Yeh, this story is just one big therapy session for Peter.  So far, anyway.  “I cannot save you, Peter.  All I can do is open the door to healing.  You have to walk through - - - - on your own.  Words for us all to live by, I reckon.


Dave
Pete always talks about trying to do his best and help people, but even this quality existed as Peter Parker, way before he was wearing the uniform to fight crime.  Is Peter too much of a people pleaser?


Kev
I think you've hit the nail right on the head there, man. I reckon he is, yeh.  He's forever putting people's well-being before his own, and unfortunately for him, it would appear that no good deed goes unpunished.


Dave
It's almost like DeMatteis has given you the material to read and managed to leave it as an open forum for discussion afterwards.


Kev
Absolutely, and that speaks, not only to the quality of his writing, but also the depth of his insight into the character.


Dave
So Pete finally manages to make the creature vanish just by acknowledgement alone that it's not real.  I do like the third panel on page 15 of Pete clutching the Spidey outfit.  Did he borrow Bruce Wayne's Batman eye makeup for that pose?  Or Robin’s mask?

"It's not who we are underneath, but what we do that defines us." Wrong franchise again.

​Kev
Yeh, they're all sharing the same make-up bag, these bloody superheroes.  Incestuous little clique that they are.  I'd say Pete’s even got a bit of an Eric Draven from ‘The Crow’ comics look about him here.  That rock star, spiky hair do, the tight, black, muscle top that’s showing off the guns.  It's a good look on him.  “Have I failed?  Yes.  Sometimes more than I’ve succeeded.  But it’s the trying, I think, that defines us.  That makes us human.”  DeMatteis is excellent at getting to the very core of the character that is Peter Parker.


Dave
The bottom panel of 16, where Pete transforms, so reminds me of Vermin.  Good point about ‘The Crow.’  There is very much an Eric Draven look going on here.  Would Bill Skarsgaard be a good choice for Peter, if they made a film version of the Kraven saga?

You might want to get that right eye of yours looked at, Pete. Looks a bit infected.

Kev
Ha, ha!  Maybe.


Dave
To be fair, Skarsgaard can pull of the emotionally troubled, internally conflicted, part very well.


Kev
That's a good point about Vermin as well.   DeMatteis loves himself some Vermin.


Dave
He's even running like Vermin on page 17.


Kev
That's another good point. He really is.


Dave
One thing I have noticed throughout reading these three issues, and this is not a critique of the artwork but, Pete's facial features are constantly different, he is not drawn in the same way.


Kev
There are a lot of different cooks in the kitchen when it comes to the art duties on this, and I suspect that has a lot to do with the art styles being somewhat inconsistent.  Plus, the internal and external representations of Peter's reality.


Dave
A bit of a dramatic exit at the bottom of that page though.  He could have just looked for a door to exit.


Kev
Ha, ha!  True.  That panel is incredible though.  The detail in the shattering of the glass is tremendous.


Dave
It is a great panel, indeed.

Peter doing his best Father Jack Hackett impersonation.

​Kev
And, as I mentioned earlier; I’m loving the return of the “Kra-Kooom!” thunderclaps to go along with the lightning strikes.  That is a lovely callback to ‘Fearful Symmetry.'


Dave
Yep, we've got to have the sound effects as well.  And the old reveal, Gregor pushing the story into the next chapter.


Kev
Yeh, Gregor/Takhar has been one step ahead of his mother on this occasion, no doubt about that.


Dave
He knows her all to well, and was probably right about her being too overconfident with regards to him.  She was too focused on his obsession with Sergei, and trying to change that in him, that she didn't realise just how deep his obsession ran.  Even that panel of Minchkin attacking Orisha is great.  Again, minimal on the gore here.  I think the bright colours are deflecting the gore from standing out.  Just great visuals.

This is cat-astrophic for Aja.

​Kev
 That's a good point about the use of colour to deflect from some of the gorier aspects of the story.  That's a good call, Sir.  Yeh, Orisha’s body disappears quickly after she gets sliced-up by Takhar’s kitten.  She’s down, but clearly not out.  Actually, she didn’t even stay down that long, come to think of it.


Dave
"Takhar's kitten" is definitely a new way of phrasing it.  I like it.  Whiskas should use this animal on their next advert.


Kev
Ha, ha!


Dave
Gregor/Takhar does have that malevolent grin.  Those two panels of him standing there with a blank expression to a devilish grin is kind-of comical.  A bit OTT, one might say. 

Kev
Yeh. It shows the juxtaposition between his love for his mother, and how it is superseded by his misplaced admiration, and loyalty, to Sergei though.


​Dave
Yep, I don't think mum will be too pleased when she sees him again.


​Kev
Nah, he's grounded.

Takhar

Gregor

​Dave
And on the last page, M.J. is armed with a baseball bat.  She ain't taking no chances here.

​
Kev
Nope.  M.J.'s swinging for the fences here.  She's going for nothing but home runs.


Dave
And the final panel of Pete is superb.  The attention to detail alone is great.

That infection looks like it's spread to your left eye as well now, Pete. Looks like conjunctivitis.

​Kev
Yeh, that’s not a bad cliffhanger to leave this issue on.  Not a bad cliffhanger at all.  Maybe could have been doing with being a full splash page, but that's me just picking nits, I think.


Dave
I did think it could have easily been a splash page, but we have had plenty of them so far, and no doubt there’s more to come.


Kev
That's true.  There's only so much storytelling real estate on a comic book page, and in a comic itself ultimately, I suppose.


Dave
But storywise, there has been plenty to explore, and the writing and the artwork are on great form, and it's consistent.


Kev
They really are. I've been pleasantly surprised by just how much I've been enjoying this.  Especially considering the original is such a tough act to follow.  One that I didn't think the sequel quite lived up to.


Dave
This is better than the sequel.


Kev
I agree.  I think so too.  Surprisingly so.


Dave
What did you make of this issue itself?


Kev
​I think it was a really enjoyable read.  It seemed to fly by more than the first two chapters, which I suspect was due to it being a bit more plot heavy than the previous two, but there was still enough meat on the bones for you to sink your teeth into, in terms of the psychological exploration of Peter as a character, and the sheer amount of trauma he has endured over the years.  What about yourself?  How did you find it?


Dave
It does cover a lot of ground.  I knew that, at some point, it was going to dig right into the head of Peter, and that this was going to be explored, and I'm glad it didn't drag it out, and that he found some resolution, internally.  At least to some degree.  That's good writing, being able to move the story onwards and still keep the psychological/character drama going.  It was a good issue, and this series has been really good so far (unless the last two issues are utter bollocks, which I cannot see) and will no doubt continue like this.

(D) & (K)

​Next: Wakanda forever!