For a time, he gave up hunting Spider-Man, but his manipulative lover, Calypso Ezili, tricked him into believing Spider-Man set his caged animals free. Goading Kraven into resuming his pursuit, both she and Kraven were arrested. Convinced he would never be worthy of Calypso's love until he humbled Spider-Man, Kraven once again hunted Spider-Man. This time, Calypso muted Spider-Man's spider-sense, while the two battled. When Kraven realized Calypso had drugged Spider-Man with a hallucinogenic dart, he stopped the fight out of honor. The police captured the two again.
After numerous battles in which Kraven was bested by the Wall Crawler, he finally defeated Spider-Man by shooting him and burying him for what would be his last hunt. He then donned Spider-Man's black costume and set out to prove that he was a greater Spider-Man than Spidey himself. He hunted down and defeated the creature known as Vermin who previously was only able to be defeated after Spider-Man enlisted the help of Captain America.
The still living Spider-Man, who had actually been shot with a tranquilizer dart, clawed his way out from the grave and attacked Kraven but the hunter did not retaliate. Believing that he had regained his honor, Kraven released Vermin onto the streets. Spider-Man pursued Vermin while the deranged Kraven took his own life.