Sony Pictures Releasing
The following contains spoilers for "Kraven the Hunter."
J.C. Chandor's "Kraven the Hunter" (read /Film's review), which will seemingly be the final movie in Sony's Spider-Man villain universe, is a big ridiculous pile of whatsit. But also, y'know, kinda fun. Aaron Taylor-Johnson plays the titular character, a vicious assassin with lion-esque powers who hunts down the mobsters who hire poachers. He's the son of a Russian gangster (Russell Crowe) and he does everything he can to protect his younger brother Dmitri (Fred Hechinger) from their father's abuse. There is a complicated kidnapping plot besides, but that about covers it.
Kraven also has to deal with the distressing rise of a rival gangster named Aleksei (Alessandro Nivola), who calls himself the Rhino. The Rhino, we learn, has a shunt implanted in his abdomen that constantly feeds him specialized drugs through a tube. If he removes the tube, his skin begins to crust over and his muscle mass increases. Without the drugs, he will revert to his true form: a humanoid rhinoceros man. He mentions that his condition was brought about via the aid of an off-screen doctor named Miles Warren.
Later in the film, Dmitri also requires strange, semi-supernatural attention from a doctor, and the same Miles Warren apparently imbues him with mysterious abilities he didn't have before.
Deep-cut Spider-Man fans will recognize the name, but most casual observers will be left blinking in confusion. Worry not. /Film is here to offer clarity. Miles Warren is the real name of a longtime Spider-Man villain named the Jackal: a green-furred schemer and genetic engineer who looks like a cross between a werewolf and the Grinch. The Jackal has a long and storied history in the Marvel Comics universe, and the mention of his name may be one of the last times Spider-Fans have a chance to be tantalized (assuming "Kraven" does, in fact, mark the end of the line for Sony's Spider-Man villain spinoff films as expected).
Kraven the Hunter gives a shout-out to the Jackal
Marvel Comics
Dr. Miles Warren, in human form, first appeared in "The Amazing Spider-Man" #31, way back in December 1965. In the '60s, Miles Warren was essentially just a background character, rarely interacting with Spider-Man's central dramas. He was around in the book's Gwen Stacy years. It wasn't until 1974 — in "The Amazing Spider-Man" #129 — that Warren was re-introduced as the Jackal, a monstrous new villain for Spider-Man to fight. It seems that Dr. Warren, when he learned Gwen Stacy had died, was overcome with depression and created an alternate personality for himself that he called the Jackal. As the Jackal, he wore an elaborate villain costume and underwent martial arts training.
He was also keen on cloning, and tried to clone his students Gwen Stacy and Peter Parker. Dr. Warren's interest in cloning would drive one of the most notorious Spider-Man stories, the Clone Saga, which was published from 1994 to 1996. It seems the Jackal created several duplicates of Peter, including a mutant bruiser named Kaine, and a perfect clone with Peter's Spider-Man powers. He also, with genetic manipulation, finally turned himself into a green-furred jackal monster, no longer requiring a costume.
If one recalls the angsty Scarlet Spider character from "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse," that was Peter's perfect clone from the Clone Saga. The clone, calling himself Ben Reilly, became the Scarlet Spider so he could keep being a superhero, but the name "Spider-Man" was already taken. In a contested twist, it was revealed that Peter and Ben were transposed at some point. Readers had been following a clone for decades.
The Jackal also cloned himself dozens of times, but keeping track of all the clones would take spreadsheets and TED Talks, so let's just say that the Spider-World is lousy with Jackals.
The Jackal has appeared in Spider-Man TV shows before
Disney XD
The Jackal/Miles Warren was always seen as a lesser Spider-Man character, and, as such, didn't make his way onto the many Spider-Man TV shows that often. He did, however, appear on the 2008 animated series "Spectacular Spider-Man" (where he was voiced by actor Brian George). This version of Dr. Warren was also a twisted geneticist, and actually aided Kraven the Hunter in becoming a genetically enhanced lion monster.
Meanwhile, in both the 1994 animated "Spider-Man" series and the 2017 animated "Spider-Man" series, Dr. Warren engaged in a Clone Saga-like plot. In the former, he remained Dr. Warren (played by the inimitable Jonathan Harris) and impishly created clones of Mary-Jane and Peter Parker using DNA extracted from Hydro-Man. In the latter, the character was voiced by John DiMaggio, and made himself green and furry, all while cloning himself and leaving duplicates everywhere.
The Clone Saga was unpopular among fans, but it sold extraordinarily well. As such, Marvel Comics seems to have an ambivalent relationship with the Jackal. He played a major role in a bestselling story, but few Spider-Fans actually like him. He's a monstrous scientist whose cloning abilities just make Spider-Man stories more convoluted. The Jackal also offers writers an easy way out if they accidentally kill a character. Did Aunt May really die? No, she was just one of the Jackal's clones.
Because "Kraven the Hunter" is unlikely to be an overwhelming box office success (it hasn't been reviewed well), it's equally unlikely that fans will see the Jackal on the big screen anytime soon (at least in live-action). It seems that mentioning his name is all we'll ever get. Instead, we'll just have to speculate about who could play the character in a hypothetical movie. I'd cast Iggy Pop.
"Kraven the Hunter" is now playing in theaters.
English (US) ·