Kraven the Hunter IS Marvel’s Dexter Morgan, apparently
So, in the comics, Kraven the Hunter is just a big game hunter. That’s his whole deal. He sees Spider-Man as the “most dangerous game” and he hunts him for sport. It’s made even better by his hatred of spiders. That’s not what Kraven the Hunter is about though.
A film that really suffers from Sony’s unwillingness to let these Spider-Man villains ever meet Spider-Man, Kraven asks a question: What if Kraven was a super powered Dexter Morgan? For context, Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) on the hit show Dexter was a serial killer who would target other serial killers. Particularly those who got away with it.
Which is basically what they have Kraven (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) doing in Kraven the Hunter. Instead of being a game hunter who wants to just kill things, he is a man who murders criminals. Once you get on his list, you never come off. Granted, Kraven isn’t killing other serial killers but I guess that probably does happen because these criminals have killed and they’ll do it again.
The idea that a villain like Kraven got the Dexter treatment is certainly a choice. And sure, you can probably think of some other comparison but I think it is funny to compare a hunter to the Bay Harbor Butcher. And just in time for the Dexter prequel show to drop! Look, if this is the only way that I can enjoy the changes made to Kraven as a character in this movie, let me have it.
There has been questions over whether or not Dexter is a hero. He is still a serial killer and murders as his side job. But he’s at least murdering bad people! Isn’t that kind of what a vigilante does? With this new take on Kraven, it’s the same idea.
If you’re going to try to make Kraven a morally grey hero…
Kraven is a villain in the comics. No ifs ands or buts about it. That’s decidedly not what this movie says. So I will be comparing him to Dexter for the foreseeable future. Maybe this is a sign for what 2025 is going to be like for fans of serial killers. We’re just going to see a bunch of Dexter Morgan impersonations popping up in media. And honestly, I wouldn’t be mad about it!
I just hate that it happened to Kraven. We have somehow forgotten that villains can be just villains. They don’t have to have some moral reason for their actions that make their villain ways complicated. My guy can just simply like killing things. Instead, we now have “I will hunt evil men and kill them” Kraven and he’s kind of boring.
So I guess what I’m trying to say is: This doesn’t work for a character like Kraven. This is more of a Loki motivation and he’d make a joke about it. Or like one of the widows from the Red Room. Making Kraven the Hunter the Dexter Morgan of Marvel comics just feels wrong and yet here we are.
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