The fix isn't an alternate universe. It's just that everybody forgot who Peter is. And that Harry is back. I suppose all documents about the true identity of Spider-Man have been destroyed too. Same spell.

Magic.

Don't think.

<<The fix isn't an alternate universe. It's just that everybody forgot who Peter is. And that Harry is back. I suppose all documents about the true identity of Spider-Man have been destroyed too. Same spell.>>

So then everyone has been touched(dare I say CORRUPTED) by the Marvel Universe version of Satan?

<<Magic.>>

BLACK magic?

Howard

I suppose it is so, but the key word(s) is(are) "Don't think".

A fix like this, with Spider-Man, has to touch almost every mind on Earth. Back when Spider-Man was "small" and "street level" something like this could have been done on a similarly small scale. Heck, Dr. Strange could probably have handled it, so small a degree of reality bending was needed. But now Spider-Man is deeply enmeshed in the fabric of the whole Marvel Universe, and the change Mephisto has wrought would indeed have to create a whole "alternate reality". It's like a game of Six Degrees of Peter Parker. Who knows what, who knows who, and how far does it go? Courtesy of Parker unmasking on television it goes a long, long way.

Well in the same spirit as my admittedly half joking Gwen Stacy Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. idea* the powers that be could let it slip that Aunt May may have fought the Nazis in the early forties under the name of the original golden age LadyPhoenix. We all know that Phoenixes come right back.

*( Oh Peter! I didn't die! I was in deep cover. That was just a broken life model decoy. I wanted to tell you but doing so might have allowed Baron Struker to defeat western civilization! According to the black box Mr. Fury recovered  Norman Osborne had his way with it. Ick! )

If this major change were examined in a truly "realistic", anal-retentive fashion, there would be major reprecussions.

Of course, the extent of the changes depend on exactly when history was retroactively altered, but the result would still be akin to the "butterfly effect". A great many stories resulted from the marriage, or the marriage played a role in them. With the marriage gone, the dominos would tip in completely different directions, leading to all sorts of potential consequences, not only for Spider-Man, but for the Marvel Universe at large.

Personally, although I greatly dislike the circumstances in the story, I do feel that, for the first time in a long time, there is now a fighting chance to get Spider-Man back to where he needs--and deserves--to be.

At this point, I'm not sure I'll ever be a regular Spider-Man reader again. I think that ship has probably sailed, and that I'm too old to stay invested in whatever is being done to the character at this point (in large part because recent years--decades, even--have not been kind to the character, and it's been painful to observe that mistreatment, even from afar).

I'm certainly still a HUGE Spider-Man fan, and I have the vast majority of the books that were published over 30 years or so (before things really went downhill), but I don't see the character ever fully recovering, given the state of the industry and what's been done to Spidey in recent years.

So, what it really comes down to is that I love the character, and I can dwell in the richness of back issues whenever I want, but at the same time, I want to take comfort in knowing that even though I'm not reading the current stuff, Spider-Man is still doing okay. That he's in good hands, and that I don't have to worry about his mythos being mangled and twisted into something ugly.

And, on a more altruistic level, I want the present-day Spider-Man to be in good shape for the sake of all those young readers who deserve a chance to enjoy his adventures, just as I did as a kid, and just as many kids did before me. Not the adventures of the fraud who's been passed off as Spider-Man for a while now.

Well, Steve Wacker's stance on the unmasking issue, from a new interview at Newsarama:

QUOTE: It was around that time that I made the call that the decision had to be a simple one: From this point forward, no one knows Peter’s secret ID. Whatever came before still happened, but as of now no one remembers and any evidence has been modified or erased somehow. To me that was the most direct solution.

And, from later in the interview:

QUOTE: NRAMA: Fair enough, given that her identity is most likely an upcoming plot point…but still…let's do a little lightning round of recent events in Spider-Man's life that readers will remember vividly, but Peter may or may not... a) Super-Hero Registration. Which side did Peter come down on? SW: Unregistered. NRAMA: The public unmasking at the end of Civil War #2 - did it still happen? SW: People seem to remember something, but there are no records.

For better or for worse, a friend/co-worker who's just gotten into comics in about the past year has heard another co-worker & I talking about the current shake-ups to Spider-Man, and is strongly considering picking up the new issue when he hits the store today.

I'm still not sold.

I guess the problem I have with what I've heard about the current story is that it comes down to a a HERO making a DEAL WITH THE DEVIL. THAT seems markedly UNHEROIC. Also, I still don't get what Mephisto gets out of it. My reading of the character is that he always wants IT ALL, and his "deals" are structured to guarantee this. 

Howard