Spider-Man is probably Marvel’s best character, but the franchise has been under-represented in collections. For example, of the 85 Marvel Premiere Classics volumes done so far, only six feature Spider-Man, compared to 15 for the X-Men (not including the four X-Force volumes and four solo Wolverine volumes) and 12 for the Avengers (not including the various Iron Man, Captain America and Thor volumes.)
Kraven’s Last Hunt was the first of the Marvel Premiere Classics hardcovers, and there’s enough material for a companion volume, collecting related stories by writer JM Dematteis.
The centerpiece would be the 48 page sequel Soul of the Hunter, which reunited Dematteis with Kraven’s Last Hunt artist Mike Zeck. I’d use it for the title of the collection, as it’s a catchier name than “Kraven’s Last Hunt Companion.”
Another story to include would be Marvel Team-Up #128, which included Spider-Man’s first encounter with the cannibal monster Vermin. It was referenced a few times during Kraven’s Last Hunt, in which Vermin was a significant character. Marvel Team Up #127 was a self-contained story with the Watcher, which introduced the stoolie Joe, whose funeral Spider-Man interrupted in Kraven’s Last Hunt.
The last would be Kraven’s First Hunt from the Sensational Spider-Man 1996 annual, in which JM Dematteis and Shawn McManus retold the story of Spider-Man’s first encounter with the Hunter. It serves as an excellent prequel to Kraven’s Last Hunt, exploring Kraven’s psyche and how Spider-Man’s freaked out by a villain who just wants to hunt him for sport.
