To stop the Sin-Eater, Spider-Man will have to save the life of his worst enemy – Norman Osborn! This opens up a huge moral quandary for the web-crawler in Amazing Spider-Man #48 by Nick Spencer and Mark Bagley. And to make matters worse, most of his allies are siding against him on the matter.
In recap, Spider-Man’s old adversary Sin-Eater has returned, and this time his name is rather literal. The bloodthirsty vigilante kills supervillains right and left, all of whom mysterious resurrect devoid of any criminal inclination, thanks to Sin-Eater’s demonic benefactor, Kindred. Sin Eater is starting to create his own cult of green masked followers, and now he’s set his sights on Norman Osborn himself.
The issue mostly consists of Spider-Man speaking with a number of his allies, including Miles Morales, Spider-Gwen, and Madame Web. Miles and Web both implore Spider-Man to let Sin-Eater go through with his plan, with Web, an actual clairvoyant, telling Spider-Man on no uncertain terms that Norman Osborn will kill again if left to his own devices. While Spider-Man is clearly conflicted, he ultimately decides to save Norman Osborn. The issue ends with all of the other spider-themed heroes – including Silk and Spider-Woman – vowing to stop Spider-Man.
To be clear, Spider-Man certainly has cause to save Norman Osborn. After all, his entire journey as Spider-Man started because he apathetically chose to do nothing, resulting in the death of his Uncle Ben. His decision to save Norman Osborn will likely come with no upsides, especially when it has been revealed Norman will likely be returning to his Green Goblin personality very soon.
On the other hand, the reasoning of his Spider-Verse allies seems incredibly questionable, if not downright immoral. Superheroes typically aren’t in the habit of letting crimes happen just because it aligns with their interests. In addition, there are a number of practical reasons why Spider-Man should intervene that the group seems to otherwise ignore. Sin-Eater is only getting stronger, to the point where he can now share his abilities with his followers. Thus, if Sin-Eater succeeds in taking down Osborn, he’ll likely be more powerful than ever. It should also be noted that Sin-Eater, like Osborn, is guilty of killing someone close to Spider-Man, in this case Detective Jean DeWolff. He’s by no means the lesser of two evils. And with Norman Osborn, the public face of the Ravencroft Institute, Sin-Eater’s targeting of Osborn will almost certainly endanger innocent lives, especially with his now-enhanced follower’s rioting across the city.
Granted, some of the Spider-Verse allies have good reasons for wanting Spider-Man to sit this one out. Miles Morales in particular doesn’t want to see Peter die at the hands of the Green Goblin again, as he did in the Ultimate universe. Still, while it’s possible Madame Web has some future information she’s basing her judgments on, the Spider-Verse crew seems to be operating on a slippery slope.
It will be interesting to see what implications this battle will have with not only Spider-Man, but his greater network of allies. Will he be able to trust any of them again, especially Miles, who he had just deemed his replacement? And will there be any defections among the Spider-Verse group going forward? With Amazing Spider-Man heading towards the 50th issue very soon, it’s clear it will come with some major rumblings throughout the Spider-Verse.
