The Birth: Born into an aristocracy that had died out, Sergei Kravinoff became a famous big game hunter to fulfill his sense of lost nobility. His speed rivals that of a cheetah and his savagery and strength are in a class by themselves. He soon hunted and defeated every known wild beast on the planet except for the one most dangerous beast, namely man. Drinking rare and exotic jungle elixirs stolen from a witch doctor of an African tribe, he gained fantstic powers.His speed rivals that of a cheetah and his savagery and strength are in a class by themselves. Thus we have Kraven the Hunter. He made his first appearance in Amazing Spider-Man #15, August 1964.

The Legend: To hunt his prey, Kraven has resorted to using various sleep-inducing gases, blow-guns, bolas, spears, hunting knives, spears, and other African weapons. He also used a doubled barreled ray to neutralize his enemies. He also maintained his strength by taking jungle herbs on a regular basis.
At one time Kraven was involved with a voodoo witch by the name of Calypso. She was so obsessed with the Hunter to the extent that she wore an animal suit and waltzed around like him, with dire consequenses; she was killed a couple of times. But being into voodoo she was able to ressurect herelf. She has even tried to brieng the late Kraven back from the dead but fortunately, she has failed. Kraven has infact broken off with her when he learned that she had poisoned Spidey and then goaded him to fight the injured wallcraler. He left her determined not to return to her until his honor had been satisfied.
.... Kraven has made many enemies like Ka-zar, Tigra and even Daredevil, whom he nearly sent to kingdom come, but one of his deadliest foes was always Spider-Man. Not that Spidey had any problem with him; it was Kraven who decided to make Spidey his prey. Apparently, he had hunted every living beast on the face of this earth and he was now ready for the most dangerous animal of them all - man - and he wanted to hunt to most dangerous man of all - Spider-Man.
His first run-in with the wall crawler took place when his half- brother; Chameleon called Kraven for a little archnid extermination. Spidey turned out triumphant keeping up with the true comic book spirit and Kraven was left sore at his defeat. He got another hit at the wallcrawler when the Green Goblin hired him. Humiliated again and again by the arachnid, his obsession to kill Spider-Man grew stronger. But when he realized his obsession was only costing him his honor he left the pesky spider alone. Later on, he was goaded by Calypso into a fight with Spidey and nearly defeated him. Kraven let Spider-Man go when he realized that his girl friend had weakened the web slinger by poisoning him.
.... Whether the jungle herbs made him go insane or whether it was an inherited trait (his family line was blotted with cases of craziness) is matter to be debated on. Kraven went right over the bend because he could never defeat Spidey, that he soon believed that Spider-Man was his own personal demon that has haunted him and his family for their entire lives. In order to exorcise that demon, Kraven believed he had to not only triumph over the Spider, but to successfully replace him. In Kraven's last hunt he finally defeated Spidey and buried him alive. He then wore Spidey's black costume and masqueraded as the wallcrawler. He even captured Vermin, a task Spider-man was not able to do without the aid of Captain America. Spider-Man eventually clawed his way out of his grave and pounced on the mad Kraven. Kraven did not retaliate because he Kraven believed he had beaten his own demon. He then turned his own rifle on himself and took his life.
Kraven's deathdrove the Chameleon to desperation. As for his sons, Grim Hunter lost his life chasing Spider-Man and his second son has proven to be far more unbalanced than anyone else in his family.

Amazing Spider-Man #15