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Spider-Man from Marvel comics reveals his secret identity in public during the events of Civil War. He is not the only one who did it; other examples are Iron Man, Wonder Man and Captain Marvel (Miss Marvel at the time), but I believe they didn't refute it.

Now Spider-Man definitely undid this somehow, seeing as he isn't known to the public to be Peter Parker at least from the "Superior Spider-Man" series onward. But how?

To clarify: I'm speaking about the comics, not the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

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  • This question seems way too broad/opinion based at the moment, could you edit it to be more focused? i.e. about a particular event or at least a particular universe.
    – TheLethalCarrot
    May 8, 2018 at 16:02
  • @TheLethalCarrot I thought so too, but then thought general methods would be more interesting for others stumbling over this question. Give me a minute.
    – SK19
    May 8, 2018 at 16:13
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    Superman has mind erasing lips. May 8, 2018 at 16:14
  • 1
    Woops sorry misread the tag...
    – TheLethalCarrot
    May 8, 2018 at 16:18
  • As far as I know ZERO heroes had their identities revealed to the public during Civil War.
    – Paulie_D
    May 8, 2018 at 17:27

2 Answers 2

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It was erased due to his deal with Mephisto in One More Day:

The woman in red transforms into the demon Mephisto, who tells Peter he can save Aunt May. As payment, Mephisto wants not Peter's soul, but his marriage to Mary Jane. Peter and Mary Jane are given until midnight the following night to decide their answer and, after several hours agonizing over the choice, they agree to the deal, as long as knowledge of Peter's secret identity is erased from the world.

One More Day, Mary Jane makes a deal with Mephisto

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    Peter Parker made a deal with the devil to save Aunt May, so typical! I was wondering why she was alive anyway after I read somewhere that Kinpin had her killed or something.
    – SK19
    May 9, 2018 at 10:01
  • @SK19 Added the relevant panel to the answer, there's a bit more information in the surrounding pages but not much that really clarifies things to be honest.
    – TheLethalCarrot
    May 9, 2018 at 10:14
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The currently accepted answer is correct. However, the specific mechanism by which Peter's identity was erased from the world's memory (and from recorded history, since he revealed his identity on camera) was revealed in the "One Moment in Time" storyline, in Amazing Spider-Man #638-641.

That mechanism was through a variation of what Dr. Strange and Reed Richards had done to (temporarily, as it turned out) remove the Sentry from the world's memory (including the memory of the Sentry himself). They added Tony Stark to the mix, because Extremis would allow him to better control the process, reducing the risk involved:

Stephen, Reed and Tony discuss restoring Peter's identity (from *Amazing Spider-Man* 641) Stephen, Reed and Tony further discuss restoring Peter's identity (from *Amazing Spider-Man* 641)

Since Reed, Stephen and Tony agreed that only Peter should remember the truth, not even they know the full details. And, it doesn't appear that Stephen went over the details with Peter, so he doesn't necessarily know, either:

Stephen "explains" the process to Peter (from *Amazing Spider-Man* 641)

Because he can't imagine life without MJ, or keeping this from her, he pulls her into the "glob of remembrance" as well.

We know from previous stories that anyone he chose to remind of his identity would remember everything they'd forgotten. We also know he revealed his ID to the FF and the Avengers (at a minimum) after this.

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