Crawling Back: Amazing Spider-Man #15 Review (The Sinister Six, Part 6)
Peter Parker's personal life is a slight sore spot, but this issue's vicious villain more than makes up for any imperfections
—by Nathan on September 2, 2025—
I'm pretty sure, at some point during high school, I read "The Most Dangerous Game," a 1924 short story by Richard Connell about a big-game hunter who washes up on a Caribbean Island and becomes the captive sport of a Russian aristocrat. Growing up hunting for fun, the aristocrat has become bored with picking off animals and has decided to hunt the most dangerous prey of all: man.
I don't remember much of the plot, other than the hunter turning the tables on his Russian enemy. The seemingly weaker protagonist eventually gets the upper hand on the big bad guy and decides, "Naw, I'm gonna hunt you now." Pop culture has explored the idea of men being hunted by a superior adversary elsewhere–the first Predator movie comes to mind–but Stan Lee and Steve Ditko seemed to have been inspired by the short story when creating Kraven the Hunter. Though this would be revealed later by J.M. DeMatteis in the villain's most (in)famous story, Kraven, too, is a Russian aristocrat, driven from his homeland. Kraven, too, grew up hunting all manner of sport. And Kraven, too, has become bored.
It's no coincidence that Kraven refers to man as the "most dangerous game of all" when he first arrives in New York, nor should we be terribly surprised when he further explains that "the most dangerous man of all" is a certain Web-Head we've all come to know and love.
Kraven's coming for you, Spider-Man, and though Manhattan might be a bigger island than a mad Russian's Caribbean estate, you're gonna find you won't be able to run and hide for long.
"Kraven the Hunter"
Writer: Stan Lee
Penciler: Steve Ditko
Inker: Steve Ditko
Colorist: Stan Goldberg
Letterer: Artie Simek
Issue: Amazing Spider-Man #15
Issue Publication Date: August 1964
I think it could be argued we're in a bit of a sweet spot in the Lee/Ditko era here. The issue after this one features a bang-up team-up of sorts between Spidey and fellow masked adventurer Daredevil, their first-ever time crossing paths! And in ASM #14, Spidey met the Green Goblin, who'd go on to ever greater heights and deplorable lows of supervillainy. And shortly after this issue was published, Kraven would return to menace Spidey again, this time with five other rogues teamed as the Sinister Six.
As I've periodically reviewed the first appearances of each Sinister Six member, I've commented how some stories have been entertaining, while others have been ho-hum. The last issue I reviewed, featuring Mysterio, was a bit of a jumbled mess. This narrative, fortunately, is much more entertaining. Contacted by Spidey's first-ever foe the Chameleon (who refers to Kraven as a friend, their shared parentage not even considered at this stage), Kraven comes to a Big Apple he plans to turn into a Big Jungle.
It could be that this issue's entertainment value comes from Lee and Ditko riffing off an acclaimed short story, utilizing a similar structure to tell this tale. The idea of a lone man stalking Spidey through a concrete jungle–years before Venom pulled a similar trick–creates decent tension, especially when the pair develop in Kraven an adequate opponent for our Wall-Crawler. He possesses a level of stealth and cunning necessary to keep Spidey on edge, enhanced strength which enables him to fight the hero toe-to-toe, and a bag of tricks to disorient our hero, natural skills and tools combined to provide a few good fights. A scene set early in the issue where Kraven single-handedly prevents released animals from escaping a dock showcases his speed, and a later scene where he methodically tracks Spidey indicates we're dealing with a villain far trickier than the average thug.
Kraven's motivations, lifted from that literary Russian aristocrat, make him a different breed of supervillain and actually add a level of seriousness to his entire mission. He's bored, he tells Spidey during their first tussle. He's hunted all other prey, he needs a goal to keep himself motivated. There's an arrogance to his words, a poison which should infect the reader and fill them with distaste. Reading through a modern lens, you almost want to overlay him with a psychological perspective–a man who's reached the pinnacle of his existence, whose life feels empty if he's not working towards the next, new, great goal, seeking to achieve a triumph superior to all others. DeMatteis and Mike Zeck would explore this notion more deeply with "Kraven's Last Hunt," associating mental illness with Kraven's family and noting it as a reason for why Kraven commits suicide. You have to wonder if they looked at this story for inspiration, asking what would happen if Kraven finally fulfilled that last, great achievement.
There's a dark tinge to Kraken's intentions which Lee and Ditko have to be coy about and write about in a manner which is acceptable for the times yet hints at a deeper seriousness they just can't express explicitly. Jameson, upon meeting Kraven, notes the hunter's goal isn't exactly legal. "You can't just track down a human being in this country," he tells Kraven, a surprisingly rational argument from the often emotive, abrasive publisher. Lee tosses in the word "defeat" at intervals, lessening the impact of Kraven's proposed hunt while hinting that the hunter is here to murder our Web-Head, maybe mount his head on a wall or turn him into a spider-suit-rug. If Kraven does defeat me–what will become of Aunt May?? Peter wonders. How will she manage without me? Such thoughts suggest to me that Peter is certain the hunter doesn't want to leave him bruised and beaten in an alleyway, licking his wounds. Kraven wishes to bury him, preferably dead.
I guess eventually getting one outta two isn't terrible.
Such stakes add even more tension to the narrative, specifically in a way I haven't quite seen in other comics by the pair during this era. Other villains have mentioned beating Spider-Man forever or made other hint-hint, nudge-nudge references to murdering him, but Peter himself questions his mortality in this issue. He isn't risking being humiliated by Mysterio or unmasked by Doctor Octopus; he's facing a hunter, a killer, and if he fails to defeat the guy (and I do mean "defeat" in the traditional sense), his life is forfeit. Again, the constraints prevent the truth from being stated directly–you can almost picture Jameson telling Lee and Kirby, "You can't just say Kraven's trying to kill a human being in this comic"–but anyone over a certain age reading this can understand Kraven's deadly agenda.
Peter's patent pending "Parker Luck" runs rampant in this issue, whether he's in costume or out. Lee and Ditko nicely make his fights with Kraven as rough as they can, whether they numb his arm, give him a case of the shakes, or have Kraven slap magnetic manacles on him. Such odds only elevate Spidey's eventual victory when he reaches that "turn the tables on Kraven" moment, using his wits against the hunter's jungle senses to start stalking the stalker. It's a great scene at the end, Spidey getting one up on this arrogant moron who thinks he's so tough and spectacular because he hunts so dang well and wears a cool vest. Spiders may not wear vests, but they hunt, too, Kraven. They hunt too. It's also just enjoyable seeing Spidey get a definitive victory. This isn't one of those issues where the villain slips away because of a distraction or is presumed dead by the end. Kraven is whooped, soundly, left to swear revenge on that meddling Wall-Crawler.
For Peter, Lee and Ditko provide less than stellar circumstances, drawing the young man into tense frustrations involving–what else?–the women in his life, both young and old. We get some good drama developing during the scene where Kraven first appears, Betty Brant and Liz Allen meeting for the first time and immediately disliking one another. This comic marks the first time, from what I recall, I encountered "drippy" word balloons, Betty reacting in disgust whenever Liz is around, Liz herself a tad too flighty to notice as she harangues that "muscle-bound goop" Flash Thompson. The dialogue can feel canned, and Lee's perspective on women can be none too refined, but there is humor found in the exchange. Peter wants us to believe he's a victim in all this–spurned by Betty and then by Liz later–but I think we witness him hoisted on his own petard a little bit, playing the field a bit too much for his own good.
Aunt May gets a few licks in when she tries to set Peter up on a blind date with her neighbor's niece. I mentioned similar circumstances in the issue where Spidey teamed with DD, but this issue marks the first-ever reference to Anna Watson's niece. The future Mary Jane Parker (retcons be hanged!) is not named in this issue, but it's noted she would love to meet Peter. Aunt May engages in some of her old-timey "wisdom" by suggesting Peter needs to begin thinking about his future and that someone like MJ would (and I'm quoting this) "make a good housewife." We're talking the 60s, and though a modern audience may cringe at such a line, I recognize how prevailing notions of the day infiltrated Lee's writing.
What strikes me as a bit more strange is that, prior to this issue, May never seemed to express so strongly her concern over Peter's future. Oh, sure, she's always wanted him to be well-fed and warm, and she doted over his supposed frailties, but there's a big jump between "Take a coat so you don't get cold" and "You ought to start considering marriage." I'll refer to the joke I made in my last "Crawling Back" post about May daydreaming over Peter's future with a girl he's never even met. Both moments are strange–actually, I feel I keep running into really awkward Peter/May interactions in these early issues–and here, it's a little difficult to tell whether we're supposed to side with May about Peter growing up or with Peter asserting his own independence by pursuing two other young women. Maybe this issue's really "The Most Dangerous Dating Game"!
So our final Sinister Six member is introduced in a fairly engaging issue, if we're willing to overlook some of the awkwardness surrounding Peter's romantic entanglements. Should he be dating Betty? But what about Liz? And why does May keep bringing up their neighbor's niece? Do I care? Not at all! I'm here for the Spider-Man action, and we get some pretty good showdowns between him and the issue's titular villain. Kraven would show more significant development in later years, but here, he's absolutely a formidable opponent to try and sniff out our Spidey so he can snuff out our Spidey. He's a bored, rich guy with a violent hobby and delusions of grandeur…what could be more dangerous than that?