Deadpool: Back In Black #4 Review

Kraven’s Penultimate Hunt

Written by: Cullen Bunn
Art by: Salva Espin, Ruth Redmond and Joe Sabino
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: November 30, 2016

I really didn’t expect to like this as much as I have thus far. Sure, I like Deadpool and Venom enough, but I didn’t see them being this fun of a team. From pulling in random characters like White Rabbit to bringing in Kraven the Hunter, I never really know where Cullen Bunn is going next. Let’s see what our duo can get into this time around.

Page 1 starts off with Deadpool trying to escape Krave, who still thinks he’s chasing Spider-Man. Wade and the symbiote fight back, but eventually they get hit with some of Kraven’s darts and Wade starts hallucinating. The symbiote takes over enough to get a shot in on Kraven and get out of there, while Deadpool dreams things that might not be his own thoughts.

They wake up in the middle of a lion cage, but Kraven finds them pretty soon and the fight is back on. They get interrupted when Wade and the symbiote start arguing about Spider-Man. This is the first time we’ve seen the two different personalities interact in this series. When the symbiote takes over, we see it morph into a huge, Venom-esque monster and overpower Kraven. Before, the suit had looked pretty much like Deadpool’s suit, except black, with the occasional change of the face when the symbiote got mad. But here, it’s closer the Venom look we all know and love.

The symbiote tells Kraven to stop messing around and kill Spider-Man with a gun instead of trying to use all of these primitive weapons. Speaking of Spider-Man, Killer Thrill and her gang decide that they’re going to lure the symbiote out by torturing Spider-Man. We’ll have to wait for next issue to see how that goes.

For being entirely based on a retcon of Venom’s origin, this series is a whole lot of fun. Not only did this issue tie in to one of the most iconic Spider-Man stories of all time, but it shows the beginning of Venom’s hatred for Peter Parker. I can’t stress enough how much I’m enjoying reading this comic every time it comes out.

Bits and Pieces:

Kraven the Hunter vs. Deadpool + Venom sounds like a good time to me. I think I might even shell out the ridiculous amount of money they charge for Pay-Per-View to watch this fight. That plus some character development for Venom? I’m in.

8.5/10