10 Ways Marvel Shafted Spider-Man; and How He Can Be Restored

8. Civil War - Spidey Unmasked To The World

Peter Parker In the pages of 2006's "Civil War #2", Spider-Man did the unthinkable. At the encouragement of his friend/mentor/employer Tony Stark, Peter Parker removed his mask and revealed his identity to the entire world at a televised news conference. Peter did this to comply with the Superhero Registration Act; of which Iron Man was the leader. I was genuinely shocked by Peter's decision. The problem wasn't that Marvel Comics made the move to have Peter unmask himself publicly; the problem was that this game-changing moment wasn't seized upon. In retrospect, I honestly think that Spidey's coming clean was permitted precisely because it was always going to be undone shortly thereafter. And that, my friends, is lazy storytelling. I loved the growing friendship between Spider-Man and Iron Man at the time. Many awesome stories could easily have been gleamed from this historical moment, but Marvel chose to undo this milestone mere months thereafter. Talk about missed opportunities. This is all the more frustrating when you stop to consider that years later, Spider-Man revealed his secret identity all over again to the New Avengers and to the Fantastic Four. Going from unmasked to remasked to once again unmasked makes our guy look more than just a little unstable.
Contributor
Contributor

Arthur L. Jones III hasn't written a bio just yet, but if they had... it would appear here.