Let’s be clear up front: unless something extremely weird occurs, there will never be a Kraven the Hunter 2. But despite all that, like Morbius, Madame Web and even Venom 3 before it, Kraven the Hunter spends a good chunk of its running time setting up movies that will never happen. That includes a repeated name-drop that’s terrifying for Marvel Comics fans, and confusing for anyone else: Doctor Miles Warren.
So if you’re part of the latter group? Here’s what to know about Miles Warren, and why he’s incredibly important to Spider-Man continuity… And also yet another massive albatross to hang around the neck of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe (see: Knull).
Who Is Doctor Miles Warren In Kraven The Hunter?
Brief bit of recap here first if you fell asleep during the movie (not me, of course, I was crazy awake the whole time). In the film, we meet Aleksei Sytsevich (Alessandro Nivola), a gangster nicknamed The Rhino. As he reveals to a bunch of thugs early in the movie, he’s given that nickname because he has a condition that gives him invulnerable, rhino-like skin.
But wait, there’s more! After taking Dmitri Smerdyakov (Fred Hechinger) hostage, he explains further. He had a debilitating condition, but wanted to be stronger. So he went to visit a doctor in [Matt Berry on What We Do In The Shadows voice] New York City named Miles Warren, who was trying out some cutting edge techniques. And indeed, Warren made Aleksei impervious to harm, but when he lets the transformation go unchecked it becomes impossibly painful. Later, he turns into a full on Rhino-man, looking sort of like The Rhino in the comics, but not exactly. RINO (Rhino In Name Only) if you will.
Why does he tell this info to his hostage? So that Dmitri, who also feels like a weakling, can visit Miles Warren between scenes. There he is transformed into The Chameleon, a villain with a featureless face who can look like anyone he wants. Just the face, though, leading to a bizarre scene where he’s Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s Kraven, but much smaller. He tells Kraven he did this by visiting a doctor. Kraven asks, “wait, which doctor?” and not “witch doctor” because that would be a reference to who they keep hinting Calypso (Ariana DeBose) is in the movie, and we’re not talking about that right now.
Anyway, that’s it for Miles Warren in the movie. There’s no actor cast as Miles. And other than the two mentions of his name and the setup that Kraven is heading to NYC in the non-existent sequel to fight him, it’s just a vitally important character who never appears on screen.
Who Is Dr. Miles Warren In Marvel Comics? He’s Part Of The Second Most Controversial Spider-Man Storyline Of All Time
First introduced in 1963’s The Amazing Spider-Man #31 by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, Dr. Miles Warren was originally simply a professor at Empire State University… Marvel’s stand-in for NYC’s Columbia University. It wasn’t until The Amazing Spider-Man #129 that he was reintroduced as the villain known as The Jackal. Fun note: despite introducing the subject of this article, that issue is likely much better known for introducing another character… The Punisher.
Anyway, I’m going to distill this down as simply as possible, but Warren, a much older professor, was obsessed with teenager Gwen Stacy. When she died, he blamed Spider-Man and went insane, diving deep into cloning and genetic manipulation. And after killing his lab assistant in a fit of rage, he developed a split personality which wore a green suit and called itself The Jackal. Does this sound very similar to the Green Goblin? Don’t worry about it.
While The Jackal was often a run-of-the-mill baddie, his magnum opus was cloning Peter Parker. The dude loves cloning Peter Parker. Loves it! Think about something you love, then multiply that by 100. That’s how much Miles Warren enjoys cloning this one guy. And that led to the second most controversial Spider-Man story ever, “The Clone Saga,” which found Peter meeting his clone, Ben Reilly, who might be the real Peter Parker. There are also several other clones, don’t worry.
Don’t worry, The Jackal also liked cloning himself, so that every time he appeared to die — nope, it was just one of his clones. And you may not be surprised to learn he also cloned Gwen Stacy several times, and married one of the clones (reminder that she is a teenager, clone or not).
Miles Warren has since appeared in multiple animated series, including 1994’s Spider-Man, and 2008’s The Spectacular Spider-Man. He’s also since come back in the comics dozens of times, and a lot of writers have worked hard to redeem “The Clone Saga” from the absolute mess it became, which is why it’s knocked down to “number two most controversial storyline” status. Number one is Mephisto taking Mary Jane and Peter Parker’s marriage, by the way, people will not shut up about that.
Anyway, that’s Miles Warren. One would guess the goal was to introduce Miles Warren, turn him into some sort of furry, green man to fight Kraven in Kraven 2: Still Cravin’, and likely introduce some clones of Kraven and maybe even hint that he’d like to clone some sort of “spider man” some day. Alas, it is never meant to be, despite the movie really trying to make it happen.
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