and stay dead. Kraven was lived, conquered and offed himself before I was even born. Yet he is still one of Spider-man's most infamous villains. The reason for this is that he left behind a legacy. He did what he needed to do, then died. That's it. He didn't keep coming back and ruining his story (except in Ultimate Spider-man). He left on a high note. I give mad props to the writers for A, making this character, and B, keeping him dead.

I agree. I've got the series where he killed himself and it was totally shocking. He succeeded in his plan, there was nothing else to achieve so he ended it himself rather than cheapen it. I also think that the supervillains who are unstable enough and totally obsessed with their heroes you'd think more of them would off themselves if their opponent wasn't around any more for any reason.

People say they want permanent deaths in comics, but they lie or they would be reading Savage Dragon. :p

Comics are fiction and characters can already do many things you don't see in the real world.
So, I can't see why people even care about characters coming back from the dead.

Agreed. That said I'm not sure I enjoy his CHILDREN being part of said-legacy, but I suppose it was bound to happen.

I wish Mysterio's suicide stuck as well, from Smith & Quesada's "Daredevil" run. Perfect way to end a crazy, crazy story. But of course, I mean, killing-off an original Spider-Man villain is really hard to do. Kraven's stuck, I guess, because his death was probably the best possible story there could ever be written about the character.

Oh, and there's also Obidiah Stane's suicide, which has naturally led into his own son's villainous debut fairly recently.

Killing a villain and not ruining them by bring them back from the dead is great.
but killing them off by making them kill themselves is LAME!
I was every disappointed with Kravens Last Hunt because by the title, you know they where going to kill Kraven, but i was waiting for a fight to the death with Spider-man.
If Kraven or mysterio are in spider-man 4 or 5, the movie won't be called a masterpiece because the villain had 1 or 2 fights with the spider and then killed himself.

Is Kraven's Last Hunt a book I can just pick up and read with no prior knowledge in what led up to it?

"Is Kraven's Last Hunt a book I can just pick up and read with no prior knowledge in what led up to it? "

^^^ Ok, well I'll order it then