Warning: The following contains spoilers for Amazing Spider-Man #52 by Nick Spencer, Patrick Gleason and Edgar Delgado, and Amazing Spider-Man #52.LR by Nick Spencer, Matthew Rosenberg, Federico Vicentini, and Marcio Menyz, both on sale now.
Amazing Spider-Man has finally delivered the long-delivered showdown between Spider-Man and Kindred. Kindred, who was recently revealed to be Harry Osborn, has been haunting Spidey since the very beginning of the current volume's run. But just as quickly as the two enemies collided, their battle came to a swift conclusion, seeing as though Kindred might have just killed Spider-Man.
While Kindred almost certainly didn't kill Spidey for good, the final page of Amazing Spider-Man #52 is wonderfully graphic, with a centipede coiling around Peter's head and violently snapping his neck.
The build-up to this climactic moment is perfectly gruesome. As seen since from the start of the "Last Remains" arc, Kindred has been doing some graverobbing, stealing the remnants of those who have died on Spider-Man's watch. Spidey briefly traversed the Astral Plane to find Kindred, and what he ultimately found wasn't at all to his liking. The two have a brief scuffle, with Kindred tossing Pete through a mirror and either dropping him in the city or, more likely, granting him a vision of the chaos the other sin-infected Spider-People are causing.
All the while, Kindred continues to taunt Peter, mocking him for his mistakes and harping on how the web-slinger has continually failed to right his wrongs. It's all appropriately cryptic and harsh, and it brings even more confusion into the matter of what exactly Kindred wants. Seeing Gwen almost kill Miles sends Peter over the edge, though, and he straight up begs Kindred to kill him and spare the others. Kindred agrees, releasing the Order of the Web from whatever possession they were under and apparently murdering Peter immediately afterward. What comes next is anyone's guess right now. It appropriately stands to reason, though, that the action of Kindred snapping Peter's neck was really Kindred snapping Peter out of whatever trance he was in or waking him up from some sort of dream (despite all the chaos involving the other Spiders being very real). It could be that both Spidey and Kindred are actually in the Astral Plane, which would have some interesting implications for the remainder of this arc, given that's where the Order of the Web wound up at the end of Amazing Spider-Man #52.LR.
Since part of Kindred's deal is wanting Peter to face his mistakes, there's probably one in particular that the villain really wants Spidey to grapple with. And as it just so happens, the shadow of that mistake is now hunting the Order of the Web. At the end of Amazing Spider-Man #52.LR, the Order arrives in the Astral Plane, looking for some sort of answer to the problem that is Kindred. What they don't know is that a shadowy version of someone who appears to be Mary Jane is now stalking them. This might be a long shot, but this could actually be a version of MJ created in the aftermath of "One More Day."
If that's the case, then it makes sense for Kindred to want to lead Spidey into the Astral Plane to face what is perhaps his greatest sin. Not only did Peter's decision during "One More Day" erase his marriage to Mary Jane, but it was also the moment that essentially brought Harry Osborn back from the dead. Of course, it's never been explicitly stated that Peter's deal with Mephisto was what brought Harry Osborn back to life. But what if it was? By all accounts, it sure seems like that's what the implication is.
The answers will undoubtedly become clear in time. For now, despite some serious head trauma, Spider-Man is probably alive and somewhat well, but whether or not he stays that way for much longer remains to be seen.