What If...? Spider-Man #1 is a bit of an anomaly in this year’s crop of What If...? issues in that the writer of it is the writer of the story it’s jumping off from. JM DeMatteis wrote the famous “Kraven’s Last Hunt” story and, here, returns to present an alternate version where, instead of rising from the grave and defeating Kraven to reclaim his life, Peter Parker rises but is dramatically (and understandably) affected by the experience of being buried alive, suffering a mental break, which allows Kraven to continue on as the new Spider-Man. Unlike a lot of What If...? stories, though, because DeMatteis is the original writer, even when breaking from the established continuity, what ensues here feels like it genuinely could have been the rest of the story of “Kraven’s Last Hunt.” If this was released as the ‘true’ conclusion that DeMatteis had pitched and Marvel rejected, you’d almost believe it except for how compressed it plays out to fit in a single issue (and Kraven actually killing Spider-Man villains). Suffice it to say, this is the best 2026 What If...? comic by quite a distance.
One of my favourite approaches to What If...? stories is when the writer takes the original story and applies a bit of realism to how things played out. Granted, sometimes, this can be a little frustrating, like in the What If...? Civil War issue where Captain America and Iron Man talk things out like mature adults with a long friendship; for the most part, it’s an easy way to both lean into ‘darker’ ideas and make the What If...? story seem like a plausible alternative. We all know that superhero comicbooks are far from realistic and, far too often, the demands of the larger idea of these characters as immortal franchises outweighs any concept of realism, so getting to see stories play out in a manner more in line with how people would act/react is refreshing. Peter climbing out of his grave and defeating Kraven is a fantastic climax to “Kraven’s Last Hunt,” one that never comes off as too far-fetched within the context of the story; however, an alternate where he’s left broken and requiring psychiatric help to return to normal feels equally valid. (The amount of experiences that should have left Peter Parker with a mental breakdown that requires months or years to repair... I’m looking at you, House of M!)
That logical storytelling applies to everything that follows. With Peter’s mental state, that leaves Kraven confronting the truth that he was never fighting against ‘the Spider,’ some sort of mythical god-like being whose power he could claim as his own, it’s just a man. When he tries to repeat the same process with Vermin and kills the seeming monster, the reversion to its human form after death has Kraven similarly empty. It’s not until he confronts Dr. Octopus and kills him that he gains a purpose: being the new Spider-Man and ridding the world of his various recurring enemies – hunting the villains. Meanwhile, Peter’s stay at Doctor Kafka’s Center is yielding slow progress that’s interfered with by the return of the Symbiote. If there’s one part of this story to nitpick, it’s how the Symbiote returns when, in regular continuity, it immediately sought out Eddie Brock after Peter finally expelled it completely. That’s where this feels much more like an alternate ending conceived at the time of the story before the retcon creation of Eddie Brock/Venom occurred than a true looking back What If...?
From there, the story plays out pretty much how you’d expect given the original story and what’s been shown here: Peter, bonded with the Symbiote again thanks to his weakened mental state, breaks out and goes after Kraven. In the ensuing fight, Kraven offers himself up to the Symbiote as a more suitable host and, then, stuns with the Symbiote with his traumatic memories, and then poisons them both to give his life to kill the Symbiote. More than the original story, this one is aimed at a redemptive arc for Kraven as he confronts the truth about Spider-Man, Peter Parker, and himself.
Yildiray Çinar replaces Mike Zeck from “Kraven’s Last Hunt,” and delivers a visually stunning performance. While his style is a bit rougher in the line work, that adds to the unsettling feeling of the story. In numerous places, the use of repetitive panels to show a gradual chance is brought back, showing Çinar’s panel-to-panel storytelling is up to the task of delivering this alternate take on a classic story. Given the nature of the story, there isn’t much ‘new’ that Çinar needs to come up with or redesign. The closest we get is the new version of the Peter/Symbiote bond, which is more Venom-looking than the previous pairing. That choice for visual (along with replacing the white parts of the costume with red) shows how much more control the Symbiote has in this bonding. The page where we see the new pairing is stunning with a big panel of them swinging through the New York rooftops and, then, entering Kraven’s mansion with a fantastic four-panel sequence of them slowly lowering from the ceiling upside down with each successive panel revealing more and more of the Symbiote-dominate side of the character. Where Çinar really excels is in the frantic action of the final confrontation with Kraven as Peter re-asserts himself, refusing to kill the man who buried him alive and left his mind shattered.
In the end, Peter’s return to Spider-Man isn’t confirmed but heavily implied (Alex Sinclair colouring his vest/shirt/jeans outfit at Kraven’s grave in a way to visually allude to the original Spider-Man costume is nice, subtle touch) as is Kraven’s return from the dead. All in all, as I’ve said, what makes this issue work so well is how much it feels like it could have been the published issue (or issues if expanded) for the original story. Given how beloved “Kraven’s Last Hunt” is with fans, DeMatteis returning to it like this could have been a massive disappointment; instead, it’s the best What If...? issue not only of this year, but for a long while.
