Kraven: Lion Blood, Magic Eyes, Wolf Whispering & Other Super Powers Sony Made Up

From the get-go, fans knew that Sony was taking some creative liberties with "Kraven the Hunter." For one thing, the movie follows the path of previous Spider-Man-adjacent movies like "Venom" and "Morbius" by featuring Kraven (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) in the lead role without his web slinging nemesis to contend with. For another, it recontextualizes the titular supervillain as a morally ambiguous anti-hero. However, even with these adjustments in mind, fans may have been shocked to learn how far the movie goes with overhauling the main character's origin and superpowers.

In the comics, Kraven traditionally gets his powers by way of Calypso's herbal potions, which equip him with super-strength, increased speed, more stamina, enhanced senses of smell, hearing, sight, and so on. As can witnessed from the first trailer, "Kraven the Hunter" goes in a vastly different direction by having the character gain his powers when a wild lion's blood accidentally enters his own bloodstream. This new origin grants Kraven pretty much all of his comic book counterpart's abilities, but it also appears that he gets a few new ones.

The first trailer alone shows Kraven with golden eyes that glow in the dark, the ability to run and jump off of walls onto prey, and what appears to be the power to look through the eyes of wild animals like birds for surveillance. The trailer also suggests that Kraven can use a mystical connection to control animals like wolves, though whether this is just a reflection of his expert taming skills remains to be seen. Suffice to say, the film's team has ostensibly committed to giving the character a far more animal-centric set of powers than usual.

While "Kraven the Hunter" is yet to see a full release, Sony's bold attempt at revising the character's origin and skillset isn't going over too well with fans. Many have particularly criticized the decision to grant the character his powers through lion's blood as a bizarre change that borders on outright nonsensical. "The way Kraven gets powers in that trailer is so laughably bad it felt like a parody," @bigmonkeong tweeted.

Others noted the similarity between Kraven's new origin and Spider-Man's traditional backstory as a regular human who receives his powers through a radioactive spider bite. "I understand the thought process that leads from 'Spider-Man got his powers from a spider bite and Morbius got his powers from a bat bite so Kraven got his powers from a lion bite' but that doesn't mean you should necessarily follow that train of thought," @azalben wrote.

Nonetheless, some viewers have defended the change, pointing out that certain previous adaptations of the character have leaned into this sort of alternative interpretation before. "People are acting like Kraven having animal powers is some crazy idea," @Sorazure15 tweeted along with four attached photos of the villain's appearance from the animated series "The Spectacular Spider-Man." In that show, the character eventually transforms from his usual self into an animal-human hybrid, thanks to injections of a feline-based formula.

Kraven may be getting some new powers and abilities for his big feature film, but it's also far from the first time that a comic book adaptation has altered the known attributes of a popular character. As one example, the "X-Men" films notably expanded Kitty Pryde's power set, granting her the ability to send a person's consciousness back in time. Meanwhile, 1980's "Superman 2" also invented a new ability for its lead hero, giving him the power to induce memory-wiping amnesia with a single kiss. Even Spider-Man himself has received new abilities in cinema. Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man" trilogy famously did away with the wallcrawler's signature web-shooter devices, instead giving him the ability to directly shoot webs from his own wrists.

Kraven's origin and abilities are undeniably quite different for his big-screen entrance in "Kraven the Hunter," but that's the case with many other comic book characters as well. Fans will have to reserve their final judgment on whether these changes were for better or for worse until the movie gets its full release in October. Who knows? Maybe this fresh take on Kraven could end influencing the comic book version of the character going forward. Stranger things have happened when it comes to comic book movies.