Tarzan, Disney’s defender of the jungle.

Kraven the Hunter, Marvel’s premier predator of all things primal.

For as long as mankind has possessed a functional cerebral cortex, we have looked to the stars and asked ourselves a single, burning question: who would win, one hundred men or a gorilla? And the correct answer, obviously, is the gorilla. But today’s combatants turn the question on its head, for they possess the strength to take on a hundred gorillas themselves. Will Tarzan defend his jungle from its most dangerous predator yet? Or will Kraven the Hunter have his prey? It’s time to learn which of these wild men would win a DEATH BATTLE!

In Case You Were Wondering…

Tarzan is a public domain character with numerous different iterations, dating all the way back to the 1912 novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan of the Apes. For this blog in particular, we will specifically be focusing on the Disney incarnation of the character, that is to say everything in continuity with the 1999 film. This includes said movie and its two sequels, the 39-episode Legend of Tarzan cartoon, and five video games. With that in mind, don’t expect us to cover the numerous Tarzan comics, the Lord of the Jungle cartoon, various novels, the 2016 live action movie, and so on and so forth. Additionally, while it is of course Disney Tarzan, we will not be including Kingdom Hearts in this blog for reasons that I imagine are obvious. Tarzan will be judged on his own merits.

Kraven is, comparatively, much more straightforward. We’ll be primarily looking at the 616 comics here, with a focus on Kraven’s most consistent status quo. In other words, no immortality/undying shenanigans here, just good ‘ol fashioned Kraven in his prime. 

Background

Tarzan

“You came back.”
“I came home.”

• Birth Name: Unknown
• Age: Late 20’s to Early 30’s
• Orphaned son of English aristocrats
• Chief of his gorilla tribe
• Lives in uncharted equatorial Africa
• Likes: His family, peanuts, Jane
• Based on 1912 novel Tarzan of the Apes
• Never actually said “me Tarzan, you Jane”

Around the end of the 19^th century, in the open ocean off the coast of equatorial Africa, a ship was lost in the rain and winds of a raging storm. Of the passengers on board, there were only three survivors: a pair of wealthy English aristocrats and their infant son. Washing up on the nearby coast, they made camp in the jungle and built a treehouse to shelter in. However, their hopes for rescue were dashed by the bloodthirsty leopard Sabor, who slaughtered the two and left their child orphaned. It was only the intervention of the gorilla Kala that saved the baby’s life, and drove off the predator. Adopting the baby as her own, Kala would raise him as the newest member of the local gorilla tribe. From then on, this boy’s name was Tarzan.

Throughout his childhood, Tarzan lagged behind his gorilla brothers and sisters, never quite fitting in with his new family, but loving them all the same. More than anything, he desired the approval of the gorilla chief Kerchak, whom he had come to view as a father figure, but who had always been opposed to Tarzan’s adoption. As he got older, however, in spite of some rough beginnings, Tarzan came into his own, his strength rising to match that of a real gorilla, and eventually he managed to slay Sabor, earning Kerchak’s begrudging respect.

However, he soon lost that respect with the arrival of English researchers: Archimedes Porter and his daughter, Jane, along with a hunter they brought along for security named Clayton. Tarzan quickly befriended these fellow humans, the first of his kind he had ever met, and even began to fall in love with Jane, who was equally fascinated by him. All of a sudden, Tarzan found himself split between two worlds, the one he had grown up in, and the one he came from. To make matters worse, it soon turned out that Clayton was a naughty boi who wanted to hunt the gorillas for money because capitalism and such. And Tarzan had led him right to the gorillas’ camp. Oopsie!

Though this act of unintentional betrayal drove a wedge between Tarzan and his family for a time, and even led to the death of Kerchak, Tarzan stood against Clayton alongside everyone he held dear, regaining the respect he had lost. And with Clayton’s death, Tarzan became the new chief of the gorillas and even married Jane, who chose to stay behind and live in the jungle with her newfound love. His two families now united as one, Tarzan continued to challenge any threat to the jungle, from poachers to wild animals to evil sorcerers like the ruthless Queen La. He might have a foot in both worlds, but Tarzan will always stand ten toes (and knuckles!) down for his home and family.

Kraven the Hunter

“I have found dignity, not in the cities, but in the jungle. I have found honor, not in the civilized, but in the primal. I have found morality, I have found meaning — in the hunt.”

• Full name: Sergei Nikolaevich Kravinoff
• Eats spiders
• Dyes his hair (he’s really old)
• Trains dinosaurs for fun
• Founding member of the Sinister Six
• Likes: Hunting, referring to himself in the third person, Lenin & Stalin, vans, poetry, Squirrel Girl
• Dislikes: Spiders. Like way more than you think, this shit runs deep

Sergei Kravinoff was born to an elite Russian family some time before the fall of the Soviet Union. As a member of high society, Sergei enjoyed every luxury money could buy, but nothing could quell the pain his father would physically afflict upon him. Forced to endure abuse, Sergei lashed out in any way he could, even treating his brother Dmitri as a slave. Things didn’t get better with time, as Sergei’s mother became institutionalized after suffering frequent public mental breakdowns. One day, Sergei visited her in the ward… only to see her body covered in hordes of spiders.

They said his mother was insane. For as much as he wanted to believe otherwise, the spiders proved a harsh truth. From that day onward, Sergei internalized the sight of his mother – of the spiders – as his mortal enemy, a primal opposition he would have to work his entire life to overcome. Sergei had taken up hunting to distract himself from the void in his soul, the place where his father, mother, and brother’s love should have been. Hunting was merely noise, but in the dying roars of his prey, Kraven eventually found respite from his demons… he found a reason to live.

Still, the sins of the past would catch up to him. The Kravinoff name was ruined, and Sergei was exiled from his homeland. Left to fend for himself in America, Kraven emerged as the world’s greatest hunter. Unbeknownst to Kraven, however, even this was a cruel twist of fate. It wasn’t mere chance that led him to America, but the scheming of his brother Dmitri – the Chameleon – who had orchestrated Sergei’s encounter with Spider-Man. Not just a man, but a living representation of his mortal fear and repressed trauma; Dmitri knew subconsciously that this would ultimately be Sergei’s downfall, a vehicle of revenge wrapped in an irresistible hunt.

Every man has his own spider. It took Kraven years of chasing Spider-Man to realize it, but eventually, the illusion of the game wore off; he knew how to finally stamp out the spider in his nightmares once and for all. Sergei proved himself superior to Spider-Man, superior to the regret and fear that festered in his soul – or whatever remained of it. After letting go of Spider-Man, of his spider, Kraven was left with… nothing. All those years, he had never known happiness for a single second, and now, at the end of it all, there was nothing but silence. The absence of fear gave way to the crippling, insurmountable depression and self-loathing buried beneath the man. Sergei had nothing left to live for; he had completed his final hunt, and took his own life.

…except this is comics, so he was eventually resurrected by his family for dumb reasons. He killed half of them, disowned another, then made like a hundred clones of himself to then all be murdered by one ‘son’ who would then take up the mantle of Kraven the Hunter. Sergei was cursed with being unkillable for a while, and wanted nothing more than to return to the peace of death once more. He eventually realized the only way he could move on would be to become the spider, as he tricked his clone ‘son’ into murdering him in cold blood by cosplaying as Spider-Man. Now, for real this time, Kraven was dead. At least until the next time.

But what if there was a different path for Sergei? Was Kraven the Hunter truly an irredeemable monster? Most would believe so, but not Squirrel Girl. Believe it or not, she of all people saw the potential for good in Kraven, and reached out to him with an open hand. It was her genuine acceptance of him and her desire to see him overcome his shortcomings that actually did break through to Kraven, eventually. He gained a new perspective on his love for hunting and vowed to never again hunt animals, to instead protect their habitats and hunt the poachers that killed for nothing more than cheap clout. Even if this redemption was short-lived, it did happen. Who knows how his life may have gone if the two had met sooner, under different circumstances. 

No matter how he met his ultimate demise, Sergei Kravinoff was a complex, troubled soul with a natural-born propensity for good. Whether he’s an Avenger or supervillain, dead or alive, protector of wildlife or predator of men, one thing will never change: Kraven is the greatest Hunter the world has ever seen.

Experience & Skill

Tarzan

Tarzan has been surviving in the jungle since childhood, with one of his acquaintances, Zutho, mentioning having known him for 20 years since he was a young boy, implying that Tarzan is in his mid to late 20’s. Throughout that time, he’s fought many varieties of animals including but not limited to: gorillas, leopards, elephants, crocodiles, hippos, giant snakes, baboons, rhinos, jackals, hyenas, t-rexes, and raptors. Against humans, he’s dealt with swords and guns, and has even fought some more magical enemies such as Queen La and her Leopard Men.

He is remarkably intelligent and crafty, and some specific skills like stealth and trap-setting will have their own dedicated sections. In general, his intelligence is depicted as the trait in which he was most gifted as a child, allowing him to keep up with his animal friends in spite of his lesser physical abilities. As an adult, his physique matches that of his family, so his intelligent mind makes him even more well-rounded and dangerous. At one point, against an enemy named Rokoff, the two of them had an extended battle of wits in which both anticipated the other’s actions several “moves” in advance (it was a chess analogy), ultimately culminating in Tarzan’s victory. In another instance, Tarzan was able to figure out that an adversary named Dumont was driving the animals crazy with his radio tower, proving Dumont’s assumption that Tarzan was unintelligent to be incorrect.

With all this said, Tarzan has some lapses. Though he quickly picked up human language from Jane and has since learned about other customs from her, his “book smarts” are still in many ways lacking, as a result of his upbringing. Bro can’t do math, essentially. Furthermore, while he is clever he isn’t unbeatable, as he has been taken down and captured by things like sedatives or net traps on a few occasions apiece.

Kraven the Hunter

Kraven has been said to be the greatest hunter of all time, with an extremely impressive history of successful hunts; he has slain thousands of animals, from lions and gorillas, to actual dinosaurs, to super-beasts like Giganto and gamma wolves. His globetrotting adventures have spanned across Europe, Asia, America, Africa, and even the mystical land of K’un L’un. It is unclear when exactly Kraven took up hunting, but we know he was already skilled by the time he reached adulthood. He has spent at least 10 years in Africa alone, wherein he learned (and stole) a witch doctor’s concoction of vitality. Naturally, he’s been able to travel so often thanks to this elongated lifespan, affording him years of experience beyond a normal man of his times. More specifically, we know that – at minimum – his family left Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution, in 1917. The details around his first hunts are inconsistent, but taking that year as the earliest he could have undergone an expedition, that would already give him 47 years of experience as of his first ever published issue (Amazing Spider-Man Vol 1 #15, 1964).

In a typical hunt, Kraven has demonstrated impeccable tracking abilities, specifically honing in on scents. He is an expert at studying his prey beforehand, understanding their habits, and adapting traps accordingly. Laying nets, luring targets, it’s all stuff Kraven does regularly. However, battling a human opponent obviously requires an entirely different mindset from hunting a wild animal. Kraven is adept at taking down stronger opponents, knowing exactly when to resort to trickery and underhanded tactics to come out on top. He will typically target the strongest threat in a group first, quickly dispatching of them before they become a problem. Additionally, he’s long since incorporated drugged weapons into his arsenal to compensate for losses against more skilled martial artists, and isn’t above feigning death or surrender to get a sneaky edge in. He’ll gladly bring in tamed animals to gain a numbers advantage, and if victory seems unattainable, he’s completely willing to flee a fight temporarily to recoup.

Kraven’s martial arts skills are not greatly elaborated on, but he did train his son, and little Kraven Jr. was able to take out several world-class assassins all at once, even while butt naked. Still, he specializes mainly in targeting specific parts of the body to attack the nerves, as opposed to mastering a ton of fighting styles. His trademark nerve strikes are potent against not just large animals, but human beings, too; a technique he uses pretty liberally in battle. His accuracy is extremely dangerous, capable of hitting targets from 50 feet away three times in a row. He can even wall jump!

Abilities

Tarzan

Superhuman Physique

Having been raised by gorillas in the jungle all his life, Tarzan has developed incredible physical aptitude to match that of his surrogate family, despite being unable to keep up when he was a young child. He’s strong enough to push around massive boulders and wrestle with animals of all varieties, ranging from gorillas to elephants to leopards to crocodiles to giant serpents and mutated beetle monsters. His speed is great enough to outpace biplanes and dodge bullets, and he’s resilient enough to withstand blasts from Queen La’s incredibly powerful magic staff.

Superhuman Senses

Like a gorilla, Tarzan’s sense of smell and taste are more acute than those of an ordinary person, allowing him to track people and objects through scent alone. His awareness of his surroundings is similarly exceptional, with Queen La describing his senses as being so honed that he was completely cognizant of everything around him (she was possessing his body at the time). This allowed him/her to catch an incoming arrow without even looking.

Climbing

Tarzan be gripping things good, which is to say that he can scale surfaces with seemingly no need for leverage or handholds. This ranges from stone to wood, and he can hang on to any surface he wants to climb with both his hands and feet effortlessly.

Vine Swinging

Since he were a lad, Tarzan has had the ability to swing between vines at high speed, allowing him to cross large portions of the jungle in moments. His skill at this is great enough that he can do it one-handed while carrying Jane, plus a large number of additional monkey passengers.

Tree Surfing

If vine swinging isn’t cutting it, Tarzan also famously gets around by sliding along tree branches in a manner similar to a skater grinding along a rail (-1:11:35). This isn’t limited to just tree branches either, as he’s done it on rocky surfaces as well. This grants him exceptional mobility relative to other jungle-goers, and ensures he can travel large distances rapidly.

Prehensile Feet

Tarzan has adapted his overall stance and the positioning of his limbs to mimic that of a gorilla, walking on all fours (even though this would be very difficult if not impossible in reality, due to how the human body is proportioned). To go along with this, similar to his gorilla fam he’s learned to use his feet as essentially two extra hands, allowing him to do things like pick up objects (-1:11:04) or hold on to vines with just his toes (Legend of Tarzan episode 13, 5:02). His grippers are so strong, that at one point he was able to use each limb to grab the snout of a different crocodile, holding four jaws together with one appendage each (-46:00).

Planning & Trap Setting

Tarzan is a pretty clever guy, in spite of how he might appear, and frequently plans around his opponents, luring them into traps or tricking them into an unfavorable situation. For example, he has:

• Tricked a snake into tying itself around some trees, immobilizing it (-1:12:15)
• Tricked Clayton into tangling himself up in some vines to restrain him (-20:51)
• Built a slingshot that fires coconuts as a trap for some gorillas (-17:48)
• Lured a bunch of baboons up a vine, and then cut the vine to drop them
• Tricked a snake into tying its own body into a knot
• Covered himself, Jane, and Moyo with mud to hide their body heat and evade a giant snake’s vision, then removed the mud from only himself to lure the snake into a tar pit
• Anticipated Rokoff betraying him and gave him a fake treasure chest
• Set a weighted net trap that would be activated via tripwire
• Anticipated Rokoff escaping his trap, and prepared a group of leopards to ambush him as a contingency

Pinpoint Accuracy

Tarzan is exceptionally accurate with his throwing weapons. Examples of such include:

• Throwing a spear with enough accuracy to bullseye four fruits in a row (-1:13:02)
• Throws a spear attached to a vine to grapple onto a biplane (-15:50)
• Throwing a knife with enough accuracy to sever a rope
• Bullseyes a target with a spear
• Throwing a machete with enough force and accuracy to cut down a tree branch

Stealth

While not exactly what Tarzan is known for, he has a fair number of decent stealth showings, in which he has snuck around various adversaries. Examples include:

• Hiding in the shadows behind some plants, avoiding Clayton’s sight (Tarzan movie)
• Infiltrating a hostile mining facility undetected (Legend of Tarzan episode 8)
• Sneaking around some enemy workers without being seen

Ground Pound

In Tarzan’s PS1 game, he has the ability to slam the ground with enough force to create minor shockwaves, breaking things in his vicinity. Most impressively, he has shown the strength to shatter large portions of wood beneath his feet, creating a hole to fall through.

Power Jump

In Tarzan’s PS1 game, he has the ability to use springy plants and large animals as a springboard to jump to much greater heights than he would normally be capable of. This allows him to reach things that he otherwise might not be able to.

Resistances

Cold

At one point in the cartoon, Tarzan was able to walk through the snow and later a full-on blizzard wearing just his loincloth, and was cold but otherwise fine.

Poisons (Limited)

Tarzan has been afflicted by poisons on a couple occasions, and while they always work on him, he has shown the ability to power through temporarily. For example, when he was bitten by a poisonous spider deadly enough to kill an elephant, he initially felt fine and was able to continue as normal for a time while searching for an antidote. However, after some time it did affect his vision and motor control, before eventually rendering him paralyzed and causing hallucinations. Similarly, when afflicted by Lady Waltham’s poison, he was able to move quickly and efficiently for most of the episode even while poisoned, to the point that Waltham commented that she had never seen anything like him. However, by the end of the episode he did eventually succumb, and would have died had Waltham not given him the antidote.

Sedatives (Limited)

Similar to poisons, Tarzan is consistently affected by sedatives (Legend of Tarzan episode 4, 16:35) but has shown some minor resistance, more so than an average person. Queen La’s magic sedative gas, for instance, was able to instantly knock out Professor Porter, Terk, and Tantor, but took several additional seconds to knock out Tarzan, allowing him to take minor actions before falling unconscious.

Possibly Hypnosis (Limited)

Another character, Philander, was able to break out of Mangani’s hypnosis due to his lackeys snapping him out of it  (Legend of Tarzan episode 19, 11:50), so it is feasible that Tarzan might be able to replicate this resistance. Though it’s worth noting that Mangani only uses his hypnosis in this singular instance, so it’s possible the hypnosis is just very weak.

Kraven the Hunter

Superhuman Physique

Thanks to his regular consumption of herbal potions (more on those in a bit), Kraven possesses an irregularly enhanced physique and vitality for his age. He can sprint at speeds reaching 60 miles per hour, bench press 2 whole tons, jump 20 feet in the air, and exert his full strength for half an hour before fatigue sets in. Kraven can even pursue prey as dangerous as Anti-Venom for entire days on end without pause. As long as he regularly consumes his specific herbal potion mixes, he can maintain all of these boons with seemingly no adverse side-effects; however, it is confirmed Kraven could not prolong his life forever. 

Equipment

Tarzan

Spear

Fashioned by Tarzan himself (-1:13:02) out of a jagged rock, a long branch, and some vine to tie it all together, Tarzan’s spear is his go-to weapon, and he can throw it with perfect accuracy and exceptional piercing force. He can even tie it to a longer vine, to use it like a grappling harpoon; when used in this manner, it’s strong enough to temporarily support the weight of an entire biplane (-12:46). 

Knife

Tarzan has utilized knives (-23:40) fairly consistently, including jagged ones carved from stone and also more traditional metal variants. He can throw these with just as much accuracy as his spear, use them to cut himself out of rope bindings, and even carve clean through metal chains with them.

Boomerang

In the Tarzan: Return to the Jungle game, kid Tarzan makes use of a boomerang, which he can throw to damage enemies and will always return to his hand. As an adult, he swaps the boomerang out for his spear, presumably because he had gotten strong enough to use a larger and more deadly weapon by that point. But the boomerang is still a decent projectile tool.

Vines

A bit more unorthodox, but Tarzan has shown to mix vines into his fighting style, most frequently using them to create lassos with which he can muzzle a variety of animals (-1:12:48), or tie them up entirely. As mentioned previously, he can also tie them to his spear to turn it into a grappling weapon.

Coconut Slingshot

In Tarzan II, Tarzan at one point creates a large slingshot that could fire numerous coconuts to bombard a target (-17:48).

Net Traps

Utilized in the cartoon, Tarzan has been shown to set tripwire traps for people, to drop a net on their head that is weighted with heavy rocks.

Colored Fruit

In the PS1 Tarzan game, Tarzan can utilize multi-colored fruit as a projectile weapon, throwing them at targets to inflict damage in varying ways. Yellow Fruit is the standard variant, of which Tarzan has an infinite supply. Purple Fruit is a more powerful version which hits twice as hard as Yellow Fruit. Red Fruit splits after being thrown, allowing it to hit multiple enemies. And finally, Blue Fruit is the most powerful, blasting all enemies in the vicinity.

Tiki Masks

In the Tarzan: Return to the Jungle game, Tarzan can acquire magical Tiki Masks which grant him temporary invincibility for 10 seconds at a time. While these can protect him from a variety of enemies, it’s worth noting that certain traps and hazards can still hurt him while using these masks, so it isn’t complete invulnerability – frankly, there’s no such thing.

Kraven the Hunter

Spears

Probably the weapon most associated with Kraven’s image, he has used spears as a primary weapon from time to time, though likely a lot less than you’d assume. Still, he knows how to make a good pointy stick; his brand of spears can pierce through Agent Venom like a knife through butter. 

Knives

Kraven of course comes equipped to every battle with a tactical knife or two, typically as his preferred primary weapon of choice. Don’t underestimate them, though; even the most mundane of Kraven’s blades are coated in mixtures of drugs that induce auditory and visual hallucinations, and they’re sharp enough to pierce Venom with ease. He even has an adamantium knife, of all things. 

Misc. Weapons

One of the first weapons Kraven used was a seemingly mundane animal tusk, though it is tipped in a potent tranquilizer that can down gorillas with a single scratch. His belt contains a number of additional tusk variants coated in black mamba poison, herbs, and “reptile potions”, whatever that means. He also carries bolas, balls & chains, axes, and a flare gun. 

Rifle

Probably seems obvious for the world’s greatest hunter, but it might surprise you to learn he’s actually not used a rifle very frequently at all. He has frequently opted to use sedative darts in lieu of traditional bullets, though he obviously can use normal ammo, if he so desires. The ammo used by his rifles are “big”, so much so that they can even penetrate bullet proof beings like Venom.

Practically speaking, however, getting shot by a dart here is about as devastating as an ordinary ammo round, since the drugs coating his darts are so potent, they were even able to put Spider-Man in a near-death state for two entire weeks straight. 

Lion Vest

Weirdly enough, Kraven’s getup isn’t just a slightly tasteless fashion statement. This vest contains double-barrel nozzles that can emit a variety of beams and substances at-will. Kraven can fire rays that magnetize muscular electrolytes, essentially paralyzing the nervous system. However, this effect is quite brief, and stronger prey have been able to practically ignore its effects with enough effort. When that fails, Kraven can resort to simple electro-shock stun blasts, or shoot tranquilizing gas. He can even launch ultrasonic soundwaves, perfect for the high-sensory prey he often hunts. These all stem from the same mechanisms in the vest, but he has not shown the capability to mix and match settings, and obviously any serious damage to the vest’s mechanisms neutralizes their use permanently.

Nets

These contraptions are extremely tough, able to keep the likes of Spider-Man ensnared for a while. Typically pre-set and spring-loaded in an environment to trap his prey (though he does carry throwable bola-nets and net-guns), simply trying to break through his metal fiber nets is less effective than targeting specific weak-links in the structure. This is easier said than done, as the net itself is coated in a sedative poison. This is a reoccurring thing, get used to it.

Blowguns/Darts

Now you might be wondering why Kraven would bother having a blowgun when he can just shoot neuro-toxin or hallucinogen-inducing darts from a rifle or pistol, or just chuck them by hand anyway. The answer, dear reader, is because Kraven naturally possesses not just a blowgun, but THE deadliest blowgun on earth. Not only can it shoot sedative darts (specially mixed to take Spider-Man down), it can also shoot explosive pellets. Wow!

Herb Potions

One of Kraven’s most important tools are the herbal root potions he concocts. While little to nothing specifically is known about these substances, we do know that he regularly intakes doses of potions, and these dosages amplify his general vitality. Indeed, Kraven’s unusually long life is afforded to his consumption of these herbal potions, as are his enhanced strength and speed. He has even bathed in large quantities of his own brewed potions, allowing him to heal nearly-fatal wounds at a miraculous speed.

In battle, he can use a variety of potions to sedate foes, or administer a pain-killing medicinal variant for certain infections. 

Gauntlets & Rings

Some of the sneakier tools in Kraven’s tools involve his seemingly innocuous wrist gauntlets and accessories. Each gauntlet has the ability to launch neural poison darts with no known antidote, and his ring is tipped with a small spike coated in a similar sedative. Even a tiny scratch from Kraven’s ring is enough to completely render a Super-Soldier like Captain America unconscious in mere seconds. 

Garrote Wire

At least he saved the rubles on the garrote wire.

Claw Mitts

A rare piece of Kraven’s wardrobe. These claws are presumably made from the same leopard his outfit is fashioned from, and just like the beast they come from, they are quite deadly; able to rip chunks of bark clean out of a tree in a single swipe. 

Horns

Any good hunter worth his salt carries an ivory horn with which to menacingly toot at his opponents. It also drives animals like elephants into a rampage, which is no laughing matter for any person. Or elephant.

Cages

Kraven’s adamantium arsenal extends to his cages, which are properly prepped even for the likes of Wolverine. 

Bullwhip

Indiana Jones-ass motherfucker

Gas Canisters

Because he didn’t have enough sedatives in his arsenal already. If he somehow hasn’t tagged his prey with his vest, or his weapons, or his darts, then this is sure to work. Maybe.

Mind Control Collar

One of the freakier parts of Kraven’s kit includes a Mnemonic scrambler he once fashioned for use against Tigra. Using electromagnetic fields, the collar scrambles the victim’s brain functions, effectively allowing Kraven to influence and control their actions remotely.

Remote Bio-Scanner

This nifty device allows Kraven to, apparently, track his prey’s heart rate and blood flow remotely. Pretty useful, right?

Manacles

These magnetized bracelets, when applied to a target, pull together with increasing strength over time, simultaneously draining the victim’s stamina while restricting their range of movement. They even have cute little bells installed for easy tracking! A perfect tool for a perfect hunter. 

They were used one time and never again.

Electrifiers

Kraven has occasionally carried batons or, weirdly, some kind of electrified band, just in case he needs to zap someone.

Sound Mufflers

Kraven once used industrial strength ear protection to protect from Shriek’s… shrieks. Hey, remember when Black Canary VS Sindel happened? That sure was an episode.

Fish Hooks

Originally used for fishing megalodon, Kraven carries adamantium fish hooks. Juuust in case any pesky jade giants come stomping by. You never know when you’ll need a convenient, believably Hulk-level trap to spring on a moment’s notice.

Sonic Soundwave Gun

Just in case the ultrasonic blasters from his vest aren’t enough, Kraven has a handheld gun that more or less achieves the same thing.

Bear-Trap Bazooka

I have no clue the logistics of how this works, but Kraven seems to fancy loading his bazookas with bear traps instead of anything else. It let him distract the Hulk for long enough to ensnare him, so, I guess he knows what he’s doing.

Animals

Kraven has routinely utilized his own tamed wildlife to do battle against his prey. From leopards, to tigers, to lions, to Zmbuku snakes – the most poisonous snakes in the world – Kraven almost has a small army at his disposal. 

Savage Land Whistle

During his time roaming the Savage Lands as a protector of nature, Kraven acquired a special whistle that, when used, can summon a horde of actual goddamn dinosaurs (including a T-Rex) to his aid. Turns out he’s not just a hunter, but a trainer too. Subsequent whistles command the dinosaurs to focus in on attacking a single target, and these dinos are no joke; they can rip apart giant steel robots when they work together.

Kravenmobile

Kraven really likes this van, so much so that he has multiple exact copies of it. You know, rich people things.

Feats

Tarzan

Overall

• Current leader of his gorilla tribe
• Defeated Sabor and gained Kerchak’s respect
• Stopped Clayton’s attempt at poaching gorillas
• Outsmarted Count Nikolas Rockoff
• Has fought gorillas, elephants, crocodiles, rhinos, hippos, baboons, snakes, leopards, hyenas, jackals, t-rexes, raptors, and more
• Defeated Lieutenant Colonel Staquait, Renard Dumont, Samuel T. Philander, Thaddeus Hunt, Johannes Niels, Merkus, Tublat, Ian McTeague, Robert Canler
• Defeated Queen La and her Leopard Men multiple times

Power

• Climbs up against the current of a waterfall (-1:12:08)
• Lifts and throws Sabor repeatedly during their fight (-1:09:41, -1:08:58, -1:08:02)
• Carries Jane along with approximately 17 monkeys at once (-1:01:00)
• Puts Kerchak in a headlock, restraining him (-34:54)
• Breaks Clayton’s shotgun (-21:10), as well as others (-51:54) on various occasions
• Tips over a large boulder (-56:27), weighing around 9 tons
• Regularly shoves (-46:13) the 2.5-ton Tantor (Legend of Tarzan episode 18, 2:29) around, most impressively launching him a large distance through the air with a kick while poisoned
• Holds together four crocodiles’ jaws simultaneously (-46:00)
• Flips over a large log and then the tail of a biplane (-17:24)
• Supports the weight of an entire biplane temporarily (-12:46)
• Casually slides a desk across a room with one hand, while Jane previously couldn’t budge it with all her strength (Legend of Tarzan episode 4, 2:47)
• Fights with the strength of ten lions, according to Queen La (Legend of Tarzan episode 4, 8:45)
• Knocks over Mabaya, a giant elephant
• Holds back the strength of a giant mutated beetle (Legend of Tarzan episode 13, 18:40), which could smash buildings earlier in the episode and were stated to be capable of combating up to 100 times their weight
• Lifts a large chunk of stone with one hand
• Wrestling with two alligators at once
• Consistently fights off hordes of Queen La’s Leopard Men (Legend of Tarzan episode 4, 6:38)
• Pulls down a huge boulder along with Tantor (Legend of Tarzan episode 18, 5:40)
• Pushes a boulder with help (Legend of Tarzan episode 23, 20:50)
• Accidentally one-punches the heavyweight boxing world champion, One Punch Mulligan (Legend of Tarzan episode 28, 5:20)
• Shatters a large section of wood by ground-pounding
• Breaks a metal cage apart with a strike
• Holds open the jaw of a giant crocodile
• Breaks out of bindings made of spider silk, which has a tensile strength stronger than steel

Speed

• Dodges alligators trying to bite him (-1:13:07)
• Outspeeds a snake and tricks it into tying itself around some trees (-1:12:15)
• Dodges Sabor’s pounce (-1:10:12)
• Outruns monkeys while carrying Jane and leaping between trees at high speed (-1:01:00)
• Technically moves in tandem with Clayton’s shotgun shot, though not substantially and is moreso flinching in response to being grazed (-22:25)
• Evading Clayton’s gunfire (-22:05)
• Somehow outpaces a biplane on foot, then throws a spear attached to a vine to grapple onto it (-15:50)
• Minor bullet timing
• Evading gunfire from multiple rifle shooters at once
• Evading some more gunfire
• Outrunning tyrannosaurus rexes
• Bullet timing with clear in-tandem movement
• More bullet timing with more clear in-tandem movement
• Outswimming a shark
• Casually disarms a dude of his pistol by grabbing it out of his hand
• Catches an arrow without looking while possessed by La’s spirit
• More bullet timing
• Leaping off of walls back and forth to scale a cave
• Can move in tandem with bullets in Tarzan: Untamed
• Moving in tandem with bullets from a rifle in Tarzan: Return to the Jungle

Durability

• Takes a slash to the chest from Sabor’s claws (-1:08:58)
• Survives falling into a group of at least four wooden crates hard enough to smash them all (-28:28)
• Surviving a long fall from high in the trees (-20:34)
• Survives being rammed by two rhinos at once, though is stunned
  • The same rhinos push around huge rock formations with their heads
• Tanks getting rammed by Mabaya, whose stampede caused a minor earthquake earlier in the episode
• Survives a house collapsing on top of him
• Survives being swept up in an avalanche
• Survives the force of an explosion that launches a t-rex skull high upward while he is standing on it
• Crushed under several large boulders, though is badly injured by it and needs healing
• Gets pushed into a boulder hard enough to knock it over
• Survives bungee jumping off a massive cliff into water
• Can tank blasts from Queen La’s staff in Tarzan: Return to the Jungle

Kraven the Hunter

Overall

• Said to be the greatest hunter of all time
• Proved himself to be the original Superior Spider-Man
• Made the High Evolutionary his bitch
• Joined Nick Fury’s 1959 Avengers 
• Captured a living cosmic cube, Kobik
• Has slain and captured thousands of animals including but not limited to: gorillas, rhinos, elephants, crocodiles, lions, tigers, boars, panthers, bears, T-Rexes, sasquatches, winged tigers of K’un Lun, gamma wolves, and Giganto
• Defeated Ka-Zar, Man-Wolf, Rocket Raccoon, Spider-Man, Scarlet Spider, the Hulk, Venom, Deadpool, Daredevil, Black Widow, Tigra, Jean Grey, Iceman, Angel, Wolverine

Power

• Can lift and out-wrestle gorillas (though by his own admission, he’s somehow not a match for a gorilla’s raw strength)
• Can kill charging elephants and rhinos
• Yeets fully grown lions & tigers for fun
• Smashed through a door & bent metal railing with his bare hands
• Busted a hole through a wall
• Lifted a large rock
• Carved a chunk out of a tree with a single swipe
• Snapped his wife’s neck with one hand
• Tossed Squirrel Girl super high into the air
• Bent steel bars
• Stated to be capable of lifting 2 tons

Speed

• Claimed to be faster than a cobra
• Compared to a cheetah’s speed multiple times
• Dodged bullets off-page
• Moved across a room in “less than the blink of an eye”
• Can shoot birds mid-flight
• Avoided Storm’s lightning
• Stated to move faster than the eye can track
• Has “split second reflexes”
• Stated to be able to sprint at 60 miles per hour

Durability

• Withstands the force of his own rhino/elephant-killing punches
• Survived a long fall down a cliff
• Withstood being stabbed and impaled
• Was thrown into a tree hard enough to bend it
• Endured having a shattered sternum
• Shrugged off being rammed by a garbage truck
• Survived having his dick blown off

Scaling

Tarzan

Gorillas

While Tarzan was not able to keep up with gorillas as a young child (-1:13:22), by adulthood he was strong enough to defeat his friend Terk (-1:10:48), and contend evenly with the gorilla chief Kerchak, putting him in a headlock and restraining him (-34:54). Tarzan was also able to defeat the leopard Sabor (-1:08:58, -1:08:02), who was shown to be on par with Kerchak (-1:10:05), solidifying Tarzan as comparable to the strongest gorilla. In the cartoon, Tarzan was also able to defeat another Kerchak-level gorilla, Tublat, and it was even stated that Tublat would not be able to defeat Tarzan alone (Legend of Tarzan episode 9, 19:04). As the current chief of the gorilla tribe, Tarzan is their strongest member, as losing a challenge to any of his subordinates would mean losing his role as chief.

• Terk survives falling off a tall cliff into water (-26:58)
• Terk survives Tantor sitting on her (-54:33); Tantor states in another instance that he weighs 2.5 tons (Legend of Tarzan episode 18, 2:29)
• Tublat lifts a boulder (Legend of Tarzan episode 9, 19:04)
• Moyo lifts a boulder
• Tublat survives Niels and Merkus’ dynamite blast, which produced a crater (1.37 tons of TNT)
• Tublat lifts a boulder over his head and throws it

Elephants

(Art)

While Tantor is described as Tarzan’s strongest friend, Tarzan in the cartoon is able to fight the elephant Mabaya, a rogue and extremely violent elephant whom Tantor is terrified of. Tarzan even withstands being directly rammed head-on by a rampaging Mabaya, suggesting he should be able to withstand the strength that elephants have shown.

• Stampeding elephants shatter large rock formations and plow down trees (-1:18:00)
• Tantor’s weight tips an entire ship to the side (-25:45)
• Tantor smashes through a metal grate (-25:28)
• Mabaya’s stampede causes a minor earthquake that can be felt slightly from Tarzan’s treehouse
• Tantor pushes a large boulder with Terk’s help
• Tantor technically moves slightly in tandem with a lightning bolt, though only barely (outlier and realistically not really a feat in the first place)
• Tantor shoves giant boulders around

Humans

Having grown up with gorillas, Tarzan possesses superhuman strength well beyond that of any other human in the series. This is to the extent that he was even able to oneshot the heavyweight boxing champion of the world, One Punch Mulligan, by complete accident (Legend of Tarzan episode 28, 5:20). He scales above any feat that any other human has performed.

• Niels busts down a wall (-41:00)
• Merkus survives Tantor falling on him (-42:38); Tantor weighs 2.5 tons
• Jane pushes over a bunch of boulders
• Professor Porter technically flinches in reaction to the reflection of a sunlight beam (Legend of Tarzan episode 4, 7:43) (outlier and realistically not really a feat in the first place)
• Basuli bullet times, clearly dodging out of the way of the bullets after they’re fired and moving in-tandem with them
• Several Waziri Tribe members push a giant boulder
• Professor Porter pushes over a huge ice chunk which explicitly weighs more than Tantor
• Jane destroys Queen La’s magic staff
• Staquait cuts through metal chains/handcuffs
• Muviro pushes Tarzan into a boulder hard enough to knock it over

Queen La

While Tarzan does not fight Queen La directly in the cartoon, she does consistently comment positively on his strength, viewing him as a potential lover and equal. More importantly, in the Tarzan: Return to the Jungle game, Tarzan does fight La directly, tanking blasts from her magic staff and even breaking the magical shields that the staff creates. With this in mind, Tarzan should reasonably scale to the staff’s demonstrations of power.

• Vaporizes her Leopard Men with energy blasts (Legend of Tarzan episode 4, 4:58)
• Uses her staff to conjure a storm that covered the city of Opar (Legend of Tarzan episode 4, 21:00) (190.2 tons of TNT)
• The destruction of the staff caused all of Opar to crumble, and La later restores Opar completely after the staff is restored (2.6 kilotons of TNT)

Kraven the Hunter

Spider-Man (oh boy)

Alright, let’s do this one last time. Despite being an iconic Spider-Man villain who has legitimately defeated multiple Spider-Men, this is not necessarily indicative of Kraven’s actual raw strength. Nearly every single encounter Kraven has had with the Spiders ultimately results in his defeat, and he almost always relies on poisons and sedatives to inhibit his prey’s abilities before a fight even begins. Despite always having an advantage for those reasons, Kraven has regularly lost most bouts with extremely weakened, barely conscious Spider-Men. 

To his credit, the fact that his poisons and sedatives can level the playing field at all against someone as powerful as Spider-Man is impressive. He’s legitimately defeated Vermin on his own, an enemy Peter Parker couldn’t take down alone. He also has a few notable instances of outspeeding or keeping pace with Spider-Men, even if this is somewhat inconsistent. Still, there are far more instances of Kraven failing to compare to Spider-Man’s full strength, and his victories shouldn’t be taken at face value without considering their full context. In lieu of a more comprehensive breakdown here of every single fight Kraven has had, an addendum specifically pertaining to his Spider-fights can be found here.

• Spider-Man was stated to be faster than microwave ‘blasts’
• Spider-Man managed to avoid and eventually dodge Lightmaster’s solid light beams, albeit inconsistently
  • Superior Spider-Man could similarly avoid Lightmaster’s beams, albeit he was eventually tagged
• Spider-Man claimed that Nightcrawler could not match his speed and agility, which Kurt seems to substantiate
• Spider-Man narrowly kept up with Dazzler, who can move at the speed of light (notably, a speed Spider-Man himself is stated to be incapable of reaching)
• An inexperienced Venom once claimed that Spider-Man moved in slow motion to him
• Shortly after her introduction, Spider-Man directly admitted Silk was faster than him
• Silk dodged Electro’s electricity thanks to “hyper spider-speed”
  • Electro stated that Silk was too fast for him, and confirmed that she is faster than lightning

Street Tiers

Much like the Spider-Men, Kraven typically debilitates his average “street tier” opponents before engaging them in battle. Even so, he has lost a majority of these fights, but his bouts are at least on more even footing in comparison to the Spiders. You can observe Kraven’s battles with miscellaneous street-tier characters here.

• Moon Knight avoided lasers from the Master of Illumination, & reacted fast enough to deflect one of them (44.2% Speed of Light)
• Hawkeye & Black Panther react to a falling girder within a supposed microsecond
• Without the Super Soldier Serum, Steve Rogers survived the blast impact of an explosion from afar
• Wolverine endured blasts from the Black Shadow, a mutant superpower that can annihilate entire city blocks (140.74 – 465.6 tons of TNT)
• Wolverine avoided, dodged & intercepted Cyclop’s beams, which move at the speed of light (1.49x FTL)
• Wolverine knocked down Domina, who claimed to be strong enough to move mountains (1.6 kilotons of TNT)
• Deadpool withstood being punched so hard, the impact caused an island-sized explosion (182.1 – 849.6 tons of TNT)
• The Punisher withstood being blasted by Shocker, whose gauntlets can create 10-mile long earthquakes (924.007 tons of TNT)
• Johnny Blaze (the normal guy, not Ghost Rider) dodged a beam of light 

Weaknesses

Tarzan

In addition to obvious stuff like his book smarts being limited, Tarzan is still a mortal man with mostly mortal weaknesses and limitations, even if he is more resilient than a normal guy. He can still be stabbed, he can still get tired, he can still be poisoned. He doesn’t wear any armor, and his weaponry is very basic and antiquated. He can be easily coerced or manipulated if his friends or family are threatened.

Most devastating, however, is the weakness that strikes fear into the heart of any Disney character: litigation! While it is an unsubstantiated myth that Disney lost the rights to their version of Tarzan, it is true that the character is entangled in complex legal issues related to copyright and such, which led to, among other things, his exclusion from Kingdom Hearts games after the first one.

This has absolutely fucking nothing to do with his capabilities in a fight, but we’re here to be educational, dammit!

Kraven the Hunter

Much like Tarzan, Kraven – despite his herbal potions – is still a mortal man with all the same limits as his opponent. He is not immune to his own sedatives and poisons, and as demonstrated in his Last Hunt, isn’t walking off a well-placed bullet, either. Kraven has your usual cliche villain shortcomings like an extremely abusable and fragile pride, which others have exploited to throw him off his game. Additionally, he is prone to distractions; he is laser-focused on his target such that unexpected factors and outside interference have consistently thrown him entirely out of order. 

Furthermore, Kraven’s poisons have deceptively mundane workarounds. Spider-Man discovered a ‘cure’ for Kraven’s potion in the form of… strenuous exercise, because he was running away a lot. You know, the thing prey usually do? Kind of beats the point of using poisons in the first place, Kraven, but I’m not the master hunter here. Ka-Zar also simply held his breath against Kraven’s sedative gas, which you’d think would be a more common counter tactic. Lastly, skilled enough opponents can easily remove his utility belt or disarm his weapons, which would drastically reduce Kraven’s potency in a fight. 

Verdict

Stats

As far as raw physical stats are concerned, both Tarzan and Kraven are fairly grounded street level guys with relatively down-to-earth showings and limitations, so it’s largely easy to compare the two in terms of their showings. Starting with strength, both characters have consistently fought animals beyond the scope of a normal human, like gorillas, giant cats, and even dinosaurs, and both can bend and break steel without too much trouble. However, Tarzan’s direct showings of strength exceed Kraven’s; for instance, while Kraven is stated to be able to lift 2 tons, Tarzan can launch Tantor huge distances even while poisoned, with Tantor having been described to weigh 2.5 tons. On top of this, Tarzan has pushed boulders weighing upwards of 9 tons, and scales well above other humans like Jane who have pushed numerous boulders at once.

Of course, there’s also the small matter of the characters they scale to, but even in this regard Tarzan seems to maintain a small but clear advantage. Kraven may not be on Spider-Man’s level physically, but he has tangled with peak humans like Daredevil, Black Widow, and Deadpool, and of course is superhuman in-universe, solidifying him as being above them. This would put him in a similar league as folks like the Punisher, who withstood a blast from Shocker’s earthquake gauntlets worth 900 tons of TNT, and Wolverine, who could box Maxima just pages after she claimed to be capable of “literally” moving mountains, a feat worth around 1.6 kilotons.

Coupled with Deadpool’s ubiquitous 800-ton Krakoa explosion feat, Kraven should be in the general ballpark of MCB to small town level. In comparison, Tarzan is able to contend with the power of Queen La and her magic staff, which both wrecked and repaired an entire jungle city – a feat worth 2.6 kilotons of TNT, about 50% higher than the best Kraven compares to. This would also carry over to the durability comparison, since Tarzan can withstand direct hits from La’s staff blasts.

However, strength isn’t everything. Kraven doesn’t scale to Spidey’s raw might, but it’s still impressive that he manages to consistently contend with him regardless, employing tactics like sedatives, nets, poisons and so on to make up for his lesser physicality. And his weapons, like his blades and such, can consistently pose a threat to Spider-Man physically, even if Kraven himself can’t. Peter has lifted skyscrapers way heavier than Tarzan’s 9-ton boulder, and is comparable to fellow spiders like Miles Morales, who absorbed an explosion that was going to destroy a much bigger city area than what Queen La could affect. Considering his history of regularly going up against way stronger foes, it’s unlikely that Tarzan’s 1.5 times strength advantage would trip Kraven up too badly, if at all.

And Kraven definitely takes the edge in speed. Tarzan dodges bullets like nobody’s business, and if you squint hard enough there are a couple very stretch-y and obvious outlier showings where characters “technically” move in-tandem with lightning bolts and sunlight beams. However, even being extremely, excessively generous with these showings and taking them 100% seriously and literally, they would at best put Tarzan at a small fraction of that speed, given that those characters are only barely moving in response to the lightning and sunlight. Realistically, Tarzan is more likely a bullet timer in the low supersonic range, which is still certainly nothing to scoff at.

In comparison, however, Kraven scales to a much greater quantity of relativistic to FTL speed feats, from the likes of Moon Knight, Wolverine, and even Johnny Blaze, a completely normal human. All of these feats are much more impressive than any of the outlier showings in Tarzan’s media, all of them are much more clear reaction feats, and they are much more consistent with each other than Tarzan’s isolated showings. In that sense, Kraven’s speed far outstrips Tarzan’s, giving him plenty of time to strategize around the much smaller strength gap and employ countermeasures as he pleases.

Arsenal & Abilities

While Tarzan technically doesn’t really have ‘abilities’ so much as he has a certain skill set, this fight essentially boils down to Tarzan’s jungle-born skills and abilities VS Kraven’s overwhelming arsenal. Tarzan’s senses are extremely acute, more than Kraven’s, even. The Hunter might be able to apply certain scents to track his prey, but Tarzan can just do that inherently. Both can climb and traverse similar terrain, but Tarzan has been shown to do so more frequently and with more precision, at least in comparison. Skills like the ground pound, vine surfing, and power jump make Tarzan incredibly kinetic in battle; he’s certainly not a sitting duck by any means. To top it all off, he can even make use of knives, boomerangs, slingshots, and spears, on top of an arsenal of throwable fruits and deployable net traps.

Right off the bat, it should be apparent Kraven’s weaponry comically outclasses Tarzan’s by a huge degree. Tarzan’s knives and spears are useful, but they simply cannot compete with the blades Kraven uses to pierce bulletproof aliens; and you can just about forget about Tarzan competing with an adamantium blade in a knife fight. A single scratch from one of Kraven’s knives would be game over, as they are dipped in poisons potent enough to down superhumans like Spider-Man, far stronger than Tarzan. Kraven’s own nets are also superior to Tarzan’s, being made of metal fibers, being laced in sedatives, and coming in multiple deployable forms via a gun, throwable bolas, or being spring-set by hand. 

In a ranged fight, Tarzan’s boomerangs, slingshots and fruits don’t stack up to Kraven’s options, either. For starters, he does just have a gun. Tarzan has dodged those before, but the ability to evade doesn’t actually translate to an advantage for Tarzan, as he will still be on the backfoot, forced into a defensive position at minimal risk or effort on Kraven’s end. A single bullet – one strong enough to pierce and hurt Venom – would be game over for Tarzan. Similarly, a single dart, whether thrown or shot, would down Tarzan in seconds. Tarzan can power through poisons and sedatives somewhat, but so can Captain America, and he was downed in literal seconds by Kraven’s concoctions. 

If that weren’t enough already, Kraven’s vest is practically a game-ending weapon by itself. The ability to fire off neural paralyzers, stun blasts, ultrasonic soundwaves, and knockout gas without needing to raise a finger is frankly ridiculous in a fight like this. Tarzan would struggle to resist just one of these effects, and nothing is stopping Kraven from cycling through them one by one. Tarzan’s only option would be to flee, and while he is fairly mobile, he’s not faster than Kraven, as established above. Even then, Kraven isn’t exactly immobile himself. He did take up the Spider-Man suit for a brief time, and was able to vault around New York just like Peter Parker using nothing but his natural athleticism.

We could go on – Tarzan also has no answer or resistance to electrocution, being ensnared in adamantium hooks, and is not winning against a horde of steel-chomping dinosaurs summoned on a whim – but by now, the point should clearly be made. Tarzan’s resistances are not adequate enough to withstand the overwhelming amount of sedatives Kraven has in his arsenal, and no matter the distance of the fight, Kraven’s weapons are better than Tarzan’s. Tarzan’s tactics and ‘abilities’ mean he is a bit more mobile and has slightly better tracking skills, but that really doesn’t matter in the face of Kraven’s overwhelming options in his arsenal. 

Tertiary Factors

Technically, because of Marvel’s vague sliding timescale and Tarzan’s more concrete timeline, it is easier to say with confidence exactly how long Disney’s defender of the jungle has been active in combat. As he’s approaching his 30’s and has survived in the jungle since childhood, Tarzan certainly has plenty of relevant experience against wild beasts, man-made traps, and even more conventional weapons like swords and guns. However, even being generous, 30 years of active jungle survival isn’t really beating out Kraven’s resume. 

Kraven hasn’t fought since childhood, but he did have a much longer life than Tarzan, with far more varied experiences. Assuming the earliest he could have begun hunting sometime around 1917, he would already have accumulated nearly 50 years of experience by the time of his first appearance in the comics. During that time, Kraven’s travels took him from Russia, to Europe, to Africa, to America, and Asia; Tarzan’s equatorial forest simply can’t compare to globe-trotting vistas packed with far more unique creatures and adversaries. 

To his credit, Tarzan isn’t devoid of more mystical encounters. His bouts with Queen La prove that he isn’t totally out of his element against threats beyond his usual scope. Unfortunately, the same is very much true for Kraven, on a far more exponential scale. Kraven’s obviously fought the likes of Spider-Man, an actual biologically-altered superhuman, in addition to extremely skilled assassins (Black Widow), acrobat martial-artists with super-senses (Daredevil), warrior-Kings (Black Panther), giant green radioactive monsters (Hulk), and actual straight up aliens (Venom, multiple times). Kraven has seen more, seen weirder, and while he doesn’t always come out on top, he does always live to see another day. By comparison, nearly every single thing Tarzan has faced – gorillas, leopards, elephants, crocodiles, snakes, rhinos, even T-rexes – are all things Kraven has killed, most of which with his bare hands. On the flip side, Kraven’s resume extends well beyond Tarzan’s, including bears, giant sea whales, sasquatches, winged tigers, and gamma wolves. When it comes to experience, Kraven clearly takes the edge by a long shot.

Tarzan fares a bit better when it comes to general craftyness and tactics. Unlike Kraven, he is more prone to utilizing stealth, and his ability to set traps with natural resources is technically not something Kraven has shown. However, being able to make his own hasn’t stopped him from falling prone to man-made net traps… pretty much the barebones basics of Kraven’s usual hunting tricks. He might be able to deduce certain mechanisms in Kraven’s weaponry, like when Tarzan figured out Dumont’s radio tower was responsible for driving animals mad. Unfortunately, Kraven isn’t nearly so linear in his arsenal as to be indisposed after one single counter. 

Additionally, Kraven is incredibly thorough in his hunting skills. He will always study his prey thoroughly before initiating a hunt, but even when not afforded prep-time (such as here), he retains his edge in other ways. Against a human opponent like Tarzan, Kraven will not hesitate to use trickery and deception to his advantage; practically every innocuous item on his person can be used to incapacitate if given the slightest of chances. If not afforded such a chance, he is entirely willing to feign surrender, death, or just run away entirely to regroup and strategize before continuing a battle. It is self-evident in his battles against geniuses like Peter Parker and T’Challa that even opponents far smarter than Tarzan struggle to keep up with his usual array of tactics. 

Furthermore, Kraven is far more skilled in actual combat. Tarzan can rock with wild animals, but as we established, so can Kraven, perhaps even better. In addition to more experience grappling with animals and doing so for longer, Kraven also has some degree of proper martial arts skill. His own son was able to take out several world-class assassins alone, and Kraven is directly responsible for all that training. Even without more clearly defined formal training, the fact that Kraven is skilled enough to specialize in nerve-strikes against animals and humans alike is far more adept martial prowess than Tarzan has ever shown. 

Kraven even has Tarzan beat when it comes to factors like precise accuracy. The latter can hit a bullseye target with a spear, which is definitely impressive, but Kraven can do the same thing from 50 feet away… three times in a row on the same target. Oh yeah, and Kraven has also basically fought Tarzan already, in the form of Marvel’s Ka-Zar. He’s a bit of a deep cut, but he’s essentially another super-strong jungle man with an affinity for animals. Tarzan is nothing Kraven hasn’t seen before, while Tarzan has certainly never fought anyone quite like Kraven. 

Conclusion

“No matter where I go, you will always be my mother.”

Advantages:

• Physically stronger in both lifting and striking
• More durable
• Has experience against some of Kraven’s weapons
• Has some minor resistance to poisons and sedatives
• Tiki Masks can grant temporary invincibility to a limited extent

Disadvantages:

• Much slower
• Much more limited arsenal
• Altogether less skilled
• Not durable enough to withstand Kraven’s weapons
• Still vulnerable to poisons and sedatives
• Cannot break out of Adamantium nets
• Lacks resistance to the nipple lasers

“After all these years, you surely know that I’m a man of my word — and I give you my word: from this night forward, Kraven the Hunter — will never hunt again.”

Advantages:

• Significantly faster
• Has experience fighting people exactly like Tarzan (Ka-Zar)
• Has a ton of sedatives that could end the fight with as little as a single scratch
• Hand-free range advantage with vest’s ultrasonic soundwaves, gasses, and nervous system blasts 
• Could possibly mend wounds with herbal potions
• Far superior in combat skill and hunting prowess
• Much more ruthless & cunning
• Drastic numbers advantage with tamed lions, tigers, and dinosaurs of all things

Disadvantages:

• Slightly weaker
• Slightly less durable
• Doesn’t demonstrate the same degree of mobility & environmental agility as often as Tarzan
• Can’t kill Tarzan during invincibility 

Taken altogether, this fight is pretty clear-cut. Tarzan’s strength advantage, nice as it is, is nothing that Kraven isn’t accustomed to dealing with, and looking at the fight from nearly every other angle paints a clear picture in Kraven’s favor. He’s much faster than Tarzan. He’s much more experienced than Tarzan, in both the amount of time spent fighting and the quality of foes he’s gone up against. His arsenal completely dwarfs Tarzan’s, and is more than capable of eclipsing Tarzan’s durability and minimal resistances. He has a long history of fighting foes very similar to Tarzan and better than him, and all-in-all he has many, many more ways to put Tarzan down quickly and easily than vice versa.

The defender of the jungle will put up a strong fight to the best of his ability, but even if he’s kraven victory, it’ll certainly be his Last Hunt. The winner is Kraven the Hunter.