THE SPIDER’S WEB: An INSIDE LOOK at a story that’s as great now as it was then… — Welcome to The Spider’s Web — a recurring feature by novelist and Archie Comics Co-President Alex Segura that looks at Spider-Man’s development since his start in 1962’s Amazing Fantasy #15. (Alex has been re-reading from the beginning.) Each installment covers a specific period in Spidey’s history, with Alex giving you a kind of bouncing ball approach, as opposed to an issue-by-issue breakdown. Click here for the complete index of columns. — Dan — By ALEX SEGURA Let’s get the big picture stuff out of the way first: 1987’s Kraven’s Last Hunt is, hands down, one of the best Spider-Man stories ever told. The six-part story, crafted by the legendary creative team of writer J.M. DeMatteis and artist Mike Zeck, is to Spider-Man in many ways what The Dark Knight Returns is to Batman. Is that a stretch? Maybe. I certainly don’t think so. There’s little I can add to the chorus here that hasn’t been said already. The pairing of DeMatteis and Zeck on Spidey not only recalibrated the character for decades, but also salvaged and repositioned a B-list Spidey rogue in unexpected, eye-opening ways. Lazier writers tend to lump this story with the era of “grim and gritty” storytelling without marking it — alongside books like Watchmen, Dark Knight, Camelot 3000 and more — as an exception. The reason for the era, not so much a byproduct of it. In short, Kraven’s Last Hunt is a stone cold classic. If anyone says otherwise, they’re out of their minds. Originally serialized across all three Spider-Man books for three months*, Kraven’s Last Hunt came at an opportune time — Spidey had just gotten married and was reeling from a relatively fallow period in terms of stories. The great DeFalco/Frenz era had ended abruptly, leaving the books mired in a complicated and confusing Gang War storyline and a clumsy resolution to the long-running Hobgoblin saga. In short? Spidey needed a booster shot. It got that and lots more with Kraven’s Last Hunt — a pulse-pounding tale loaded with character, pathos, psychological horror, and lasting consequences. The kind of story you don’t see much in serialized comics — at least in terms of lasting change. For the most part, the after-effects of the story...