Kravenly the Hunter – Kraven the Hunter and General Zaroff from “The Most Dangerous Game”
https://www.wizard101central.com/wiki/Creature:Kravenly_the_Hunter
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kraven_the_Hunter
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Most_Dangerous_Game
Originally from Zafaria, Kravenly rose to become a Warlord in Morganthe’s Shadow Army, overseeing operations in Tyrian Gorge from the top of Banyan Tower.
Kravenly the Hunter: “A Wizard…! The Shadow Queen warned me that a pet from Wizard City might come sniffing around my lair.”
Morganthe’s Eye: “Do my eyes deceive me? Or is that a familiar ratty face I see skulking about the Banyan Tower? Kravenly, gut and skin the Wizard. Then bring me the pelt!”
Kravenly the Hunter: “When I first arrived, I said I wanted an ideal animal to hunt. It must have courage, cunning, and above all, it must be able to reason. But the Burrowers are no match for me. Nor the Umbra Legion. The Shadow Queen promised me the greatest of challenges. The Spiral makes some people poets. Some kings. Some beggars. Me, the Spiral made a hunter. You, a Wizard. Let’s see how you fare! RAWR!”
Kraven the Hunter (Sergei Dimitri Symostivych Kravinoff; Russian: Сергей Кравинов) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Debuting in The Amazing Spider-Man issue #15 (August 1964) as an adversary to the superhero Spider-Man, he has since endured as one of the web-slinger’s most formidable foes, and is part of the collective of adversaries that make up Spider-Man’s rogues’ gallery. Kraven has also come into conflict with other heroes, such as Black Panther and Tigra. He is the half-brother of the Chameleon and one of the founding members of the Sinister Six.
In Kraven’s first appearance, he refers to Spider-Man as “the most dangerous game”, a direct reference to the 1924 short story of the same name, in which General Zaroff, a Russian big game hunter (and a primary inspiration for the character), hunts people as sport.
Kraven is typically portrayed as a renowned big-game hunter whose goal in life is to beat Spider-Man to prove himself as the world’s greatest hunter. Though he is often overconfident in his own abilities, which he likes to boast about, he possesses a great sense of honor, and treats his adversaries as equals until proven otherwise.
“The Most Dangerous Game”, also published as “The Hounds of Zaroff”, is a short story by Richard Connell, first published in Collier’s on January 19, 1924, with illustrations by Wilmot Emerton Heitland. The story features Sanger Rainsford, a big-game hunter from New York City who falls from a yacht and swims to what seems to be an abandoned and isolated island in the Caribbean, where he is hunted by General Zaroff, a Russian aristocrat. The story is inspired by the big-game hunting safaris in Africa and South America that were particularly fashionable among wealthy Americans in the 1920s.
published in Collier’s, January 19, 1924 issue.
The story has been adapted numerous times, most notably as the 1932 RKO Pictures film The Most Dangerous Game, starring Joel McCrea, Leslie Banks as General Zaroff and Fay Wray, and for a 1943 episode of the CBS Radio series Suspense, starring Orson Welles. It has been called the “most popular short story ever written in English.” Upon its publication, it won the O. Henry Award.
The current list of all the (known) Khrysalis references can be found here.
Although I am well versed in Pop Culture references but I do not claim to have caught them all. Let me know your favorites in the comments and if I’ve missed one you caught, let me know so I can add it to the list.
Text for this article is excerpted from the linked wiki pages
Kravenly the Hunter image is from Wizard101, and is copyright of KingsIsle Entertainment.
Kraven the Hunter and The Amazing Spider-Man #15 cover are copyright Marvel Comics
The front cover of Collier’s Weekly Magazine is borrowed from Wikipedia. It is in the public Domain.
Leslie Banks in The Most Dangerous Game was found in a Google search. It is copyright RKO Pictures.
The Most Dangerous Game movie poster is borrowed from The Imp Awards it is copyright RKO Pictures
Blackout album cover art is copyright Mercury Records.
Image usage qualifies as fair use under US copyright law.
Vulcan Stev's Database 