Kraven the Man-Hunter seated, weary and troubled, on a throne of antlers and animal pelts. The heads of Spider-Man, the Vulture, Black Cat and others mounted like trophies on the wall behind him.

The title looms above: “The Amazing Spider-Man: Hunted.”

It is the cover selected to best illustrate the contents of this particular Spider-Man story arc, collecting issues No. 16-23 in one edition.

The cover led me to reach back to the start of writer Nick Spencer’s run on “Amazing Spider-Man.” Those first three collections are fun, with an emphasis on funny – Peter Parker taken to a Spider-Man trivia night at a bad guy bar; Spider-Man and J. Jonah Jameson forced to work together, etc.

But “Hunted” takes the storyline into more solemn and dramatic territory that is no less fun. Kraven, the long-time Spider-Man bad guy, is back. He’s raised a pack of children who are his clones. He’s culled them down to the pure Darwinism of survival of the fittest. 

And he’s launched a plan to create similar hunters through technology while preying on the desires of the rich to hunt and kill. Here, hunting and killing super-powered beings with animal names and skills: Rhino, the Vulture, the Lizard, Spider-Man, etc.

A lot happens in “Hunted.” Given it inspired reading more than a year’s worth of issues before reaching “Hunted,” it does not disappoint.

Readers can jump straight into “Hunted” but it is suggested getting the full Spencer Spider-Man treatment of the previous 15 issues. They are worth hunting down.