The Coffin

In his room, Kraven the Hunter prepares for a battle of pride and honor. Training in the nude against his various trophy animals, he then storms out of his room. Outside, his assistants are digging a grave in the pouring rain. He grimly thinks about how the world has no room for Russian aristocrats of old. Putting on a robe and pouring himself a drink, Kraven comes to terms with the fact that he will die soon. Entering the main hall of his mansion, Kraven has set up a mock funeral, complete with a coffin at the end of the hall. Approaching it, he is determined to complete one last hunt before the end finally comes to claim him. From within the coffin, Kraven pulls out a Spider-Man costume and begins to cry.

Elsewhere in the city, a number of criminals are holding a funeral in a dive bar for Joe Face, a known street-snitch. They are taking collections since Joe didn't have much or any family to look after his affairs Hearing about it, Spider-Man comes to pay his respect. However, his arrival frightens the assembly of crooks. Spider-Man webs the door shut, telling them that he didn't come for trouble, but to say goodbye. One of the crooks still decides to take the opportunity to try and shoot the wall-crawler. However, Spider-Man warns him to not even try. The masked hero then pulls out a wad of money and places it in the donation plate, telling them that it is for a decent coffin and a plot to bury him in. Heading home, Spider-Man wonders what could have drawn him to the funeral. He suspects that it is a fear of his own mortality, especially after so many of those near and dear to him have already died. Exhausted, Spider-Man comes into his apartment from the pouring rain, strips off his soaking wet costume and goes to bed. Accepting the fact that, he too, will one day die he watches as a spider descends from the ceiling. He briefly considers plucking it off its web but lets it climb back up to and turns off the life.

Meanwhile, Kraven the Hunter is continuing to prepare for his final battle. Sitting nude in a room that begins filling with thousands of spiders, the villain allows himself to be buried in the arachnids. Suddenly, he begins frantically killing and eating the spiders, he decides that tonight will be the night he goes on his hunt. As Kraven continues to consume the spiders, Peter wakes up from a nightmare where he was alone in the darkness with things crawling all over him. Seeing a spider on his hand, Peter instinctively crushing it against the wall. Unable to sleep and with a pounding headache, Peter goes out into the night to web-sling. At that same time, Kraven the Hunter is on the prowl, searching for his longtime enemy. Meanwhile, Spider-Man can't shake the feeling that someone is following him. However, he tries to pass this off as the upset that he has been feeling since Ned Leeds died. Still, he can't shake the feeling, and his worries prove right when he narrowly avoids a drugged dart shot at him by Kraven. He's not so lucky with the second one. When the drugs in the dart begin to incapacitate him, the wall-crawler begins to hallucinate the ghost of Joe Face. At first, Spider-Man thinks it is this angry spirit that has hurt him, but he manages to regain his lucidity and confirms that it is Kraven the Hunter.

Spider-Man leaps toward his enemy and tries to fight off the effects of the drugs in his system. However, they are too potent and Kraven manages to disorientate him and catch the wall-crawler in a net. With his prey incapacitated, Kraven unslings a rifle that he has slung over his shoulder. Kraven tells Spider-Man that his honor needs to be restored and takes aim. Seeing this, the masked hero tries to talk sense into Kraven, reminding him that they have always battled hand-to-hand. Kraven pulls the trigger and Spider-Man's last thought is the realization that his old foe has completely lost his mind. Soon, Spider-Man is placed in the coffin at the Kraven estate. There is a moment of silence before Kraven's aids lower the coffin into the hole dug in the ground. Kraven takes a shovel and after tossing the first clump of dirt down into the hole he stops. First, he expresses sadness, then grins with insane delight before handing the shovel over to his aids to finish the job of burying Spider-Man's body.

This story is continued in Amazing Spider-Man #293...

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Kraven the Hunter, Joe Face

Continuity Notes

• Spider-Man often got information from Joe Face, as seen in Marvel Team-Up #127.

• Peter lists off those in his life who have died: His Uncle Ben (Amazing Fantasy #15), George Stacy (Amazing Spider-Man #90), his daughter Gwen (Amazing Spider-Man #121), and Ned Leeds (Spider-Man Versus Wolverine #1). In the case of Ned Leeds, he might have survived the attempt on his life. Years later, a man claiming to be Ned resurfaced claiming he survived thanks to exposure to the Goblin Formula. However, at the time of this writing (December, 2021) this has yet to be substantiated. See Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 5) #87-89.