WARNING: The following contains spoilers for The Amazing Spider-Man #48 by Nick Spencer, Marcelo Ferreira, Roberto Poggi, David Curiel, & VC's Joe Caramagna, on sale now

Spider-Man had a tough decision to make in The Amazing Spider-Man #48. He has been attempting to stop Sin-Eater, who amassed a legion of followers who he has entrusted to purge the world of sinners, based on his ideas of what's right and wrong. While this seems like a good idea to his followers, Spider-Man knows the shoe will drop sooner or later, and what Sin-Eater is doing will lead to something terrible. This fear is especially poignant since Sin-Eater is collecting stolen powers from the supervillains that he's "cleansed."

But now, the wall-crawler's closest allies want him to wait a little bit before he steps in to stop Sin-Eater. The next target of Sin-Eater's cult Norman Osborn. If Spider-Man waits, Sin-Eater could neuter Osborn and leave him harmless, potentially saving countless lives in the future. The members of the Spider-Family wants Spider-Man to let Sin-Eater have Norman before taking the fight back to the villain.

While Spider-Man's friends are ready to team up to stop him, they don't know what Peter Parker knows about this decision. For one thing, Osborn is dangerous, but Sin-Eater will end up adding the Green Goblin's powers to those he has already collected. Miles Morales watched Osborn kill Peter Parker in his world, Spider-Gwen knows all about Osborn killing her Marvel Universe counterpart, and Madame Web knows how dangerous Osborn is while he lives. Still, Peter Parker has no choice but to try to save his enemy at all costs.

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Spider-Man and Norman Osborn

Peter has seen what happens when he doesn't follow through with his promise to accept the great responsibility that comes with his powers. He watched an alternate version of himself in action — the Spider-Man from the Last Stand universe. In a 2002 story from J. Michael Straczynski and John Romita, Jr.'s Amazing Spider-Man #58, Spider-Man ended up in a parallel world where he saw his alternate self at the grave of Aunt May, reminiscing about his failures. Peter watched his alternate self stand face to face with law enforcement. When asked to surrender and face manslaughter charges, he refused and compelled a police officer to kill him in a "last stand."

In Straczynski and Romita's Amazing Spider-Man #500 a few months later,  Spider-Man faced all his disappointments and failures as a hero. He even got a message from his alternate self, who promised him a better future if he acted morally.

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However, Spider-Man made it back by doing the right thing and never giving up. In the end, Doctor Strange gave him a present. He received a short opportunity to talk to Uncle Ben again, the man he always looked to as his moral compass. Ben said Peter never needed to ask for forgiveness as long as he never walked away from what he believed, which was the dedication of saving lives at all costs.

Now, as the Sin-Eater promises to rid the world of one of its cruelest villains and the entire Spider-Family wants him gone, Peter knows that he has to do the right thing because he has seen what the future looks like when he makes the wrong moral decision. He made a promise to the people he loved, and Spider-Man knows when a life is on the line, he has no choice but to try and save it.

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