Kraven the Hunter is now playing in theaters and while the movie has received mostly negative reviews, there are still a surprising number of Easter Eggs for Spider-Man fans to sink their teeth into.
The Foreigner has a significant role in the story, as does Calypso and Sergei Kravinoff's brother, Dimitri (better known to comic book fans as The Chameleon). Then, there's Rhino and repeated mentions of Dr. Miles Warren, the scientist who cloned Spider-Man as The Jackal.
The latter, who is based in New York but never appears, has the ability to give people superpowers. In the case of Aleksei Sytsevich, he undergoes a procedure which cures past physical ailments and grants him the ability to transform into The Rhino.
In the comics, that villain either wears an artificial skin-like suit (his strength is later further enhanced by gamma radiation) or an exoskeleton that's somewhat similar to the one featured in 2014's The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
By making The Rhino a "mutant," Kraven the Hunter's interpretation is a little more comic-accurate than what we saw on screen a decade ago, but between the jeans, face, and tiny ears, you might agree that the end result is, well, unintentionally hilarious.
Throughout Kraven the Hunter, we see Dimitri entertain his brother, Kraven, by impersonating others. That skill has earned him the name, "Chameleon," but when he decides to take over his father's criminal empire, Dimitri pays a visit to Dr. Miles Warren.
With that, he acquires the ability to transform his face and looks just like his comic book counterpart between transformations. The difference is, in place of a mask, that's now just how he looks.
On the page, Chameleon either uses masks, makeup, or technology to transform so this is another major departure from the source material.
Does Sony Pictures deserve points for trying? This all verges on feeling like an insult to the comic books and a lazy way to rush these characters into "Sony's Spider-Man Universe" without figuring out proper origin stories for them.
Kraven the Hunter is the action-packed, R-rated, standalone story of how one of Marvel’s most iconic villains came to be.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson plays Kraven, a man whose complex relationship with his ruthless gangster father, Nikolai Kravinoff (Russell Crowe), starts him down a path of vengeance with brutal consequences, motivating him to become not only the greatest hunter in the world, but also one of its most feared.
The cast also includes Ariana DeBose, Fred Hechinger, Alessandro Nivola, Christopher Abbott, and Russell Crowe.
Kraven the Hunter arrives in theaters on December 13.