Sergei Kravinoff, better known as Kraven the Hunter, is a minor antagonist of the animated TV series The Spectacular Spider-Man.
He is a Russian gamekeeper who worked in Africa with his lover, Calypso, and his pet lion, Gulyadkin. After accepting an offer to hunt Spider-Man, he failed twice before joining the Sinister Six.
Sergei is shown to have a genuine love for animals as well as his lover, Calypso, and his pet lion, Gulyadkin, who he loves to tussle with. He then became interested in hunting Spider-Man because he believes him to be a challenge while normal animals are too easy. However, after being defeated the first time, he became obsessed with gaining his honor and threatened to have Miles Warren attacked by his pet lion if the scientist didn't do as he asked.
Biography
Sergei Kravinoff is a Russian game keeper who helped animals with his lover, Calypso and his pet lion, Gulyadkin. After taking a rhino down to have it looked after, Calypso shows him pictures of Spider-Man and an offer by an American benefactor (Doctor Octopus as the Master Planner) to hunt Spider-Man in which Sergei accepts as a worthy challenge. Sergei arrived in New York with Calypso and Gulyadkin (that was trained to track anything) and had confronted Spider-Man where, to his credit, he provides a reasonable challenge but is still subdued before too long. However, following his first defeat at the hands of Spider-Man, he becomes convinced that the only reason he lost was due to Spider-Man's genetically altered physiology. As such, Kravinoff enlists Warren's aid in securing powers of his own after believing that Spider-Man was created by the scientist. Using a serum concocted from Warren's own research (and based on Curt Connors's Lizard formula), Kravinoff is then mutated into a humanoid black-maned lion-like creature with elements of, lion, leopard and cheetah DNA. After the mutation, he then changes his name to "Kraven the Hunter" and goes after Spider-Man. With his new form, he easily outruns and overpowers Spider-Man several times throughout their fight (actually forcing Spider-Man to use up all his web fluid against him) and only being narrowly subdued after being tied up with most of Spider-Man's webs. After his second defeat, Kraven is rescued by Calypso on behalf of the Master Planner who asks him if he would like to hunt in a pack.
Kraven was sent to spring Doctor Octopus and Electro from Ravencroft. He only got away with Electro as Doctor Octopus "did not want to leave". Thus, Master Planner managed to form the second version of the Sinister Six with him, Mysterio, Vulture, Electro, Sandman and Rhino. After Vulture, Electro, Sandman and Rhino were defeated, Kraven and Mysterio attacked Spider-Man where their fight led to a mall. He was knocked out by an exploding Mysterio robot. Though Mysterio was arrested, Kraven alongside the other four villains were extracted at the last minute by Master Planner.
Later during the gang war, during his fight with Silvermane and Tombstone, Doctor Octopus tries to call Kraven for backup, but Doctor Octopus's phone becomes jammed by the Green Goblin.
When Kraven is in human form, he resembles his classic comics counterpart but when he transforms into his lion-mutant form, it becomes similar to his Ultimate comics counterpart.
