Death and the Spider
Kraven's insistence on symbolism (an insistence that will also affect Peter's own consciousness, thanks to psychotropic drugs, torture and trauma) is at the crux of a drama about mistaken identity. Though long the stuff of comedy (and, occasionally, tragedy), mistaken identity is a hoary superhero trope, with the heroes' masks and secrets lending themselves to endless speculation about their true name and face. Kraven has never seen Peter Parker's face, nor does he need to: for him, Peter Parker is irrelevant. This, in fact, is his mistake: until the very end, he does not realize that the Spider is just a man.
Mary Jane, on the other hand, should make no such mistake. Indeed, thanks to a 1980s retcon, her entire relationship with Peter Parker has been shaped by the fact that she knew he was Spider-Man before they were every introduced to each other. His mask and costume had been an intermittent obstacle for her; this was not the life that she had sought. But she had married Peter, and stayed with him even as he continued to wear the black costume that already frightened her. But when Kraven adopts the Spider-Man uniform after "killing" the Spider, she is confronted by the sudden realization that the man behind the mask is not the man she knows as her husband. Desperate, she pays an impromptu visit to Robbie Robertson, Editor of the Daily Bugle:
Why did I come here?
Because Joe Roberston is editor of the Daily Bugle? Because he's known Peter for years? Because he's a man of intelligence and integrity?
Or because...
There's someone out there. And either he's not Peter--or Peter's gone insane. Either way I---
--I can't tell him.
Her bond of trust with Peter had been strengthened by their (really, his) shared secret, but now it proves isolating. Here, too, we are faced with symmetry: the Kraven/Spider connection has become painfully, even lethally intense, and yet it is based on ignorance and misprision--Kraven neither knows not cares that Peter Parker is Spider-Man. Mary Jane know all about Peter in both his identities, but remains trapped in a now-perplexing dyad because she can't reveal the very secret that an indifferent Kraven has put in jeapordy.
Mary Jane is handling this just fine, thank you
Kraven has no idea what he is doing to Mary Jane by adopting Peter's costume, but his deception of Vermin is deliberate. By attacking the poor, tortured monster while wearing the Spider-Man costume, he has guaranteed that Vermin will not only be spurred to violence every time he sees the costume; he also gets Vermin to see the "Spider" as the same sort of horrific, superhuman totem that Kraven has created in his own mind. "Fearful Symmetry" now verges on "Folie a deux."
Next: Bringing Up the Bodies