SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man #6 by Chip Zdarksy, Michael Walsh and Ian Herring, on sale now.


This week, Spider-Man's world was shaken to its core when he revealed his secret identity to J. Jonah Jameson after a sit-down interview between JJJ and Spidey. How this will affect Spider-Man in the months and years to come remains to be seen, but such a notable case of unmasking reminded us that Spider-Man has actually had a remarkably diverse history of revealing his identity to people over the years.

Here, we'll take a look at a few of the most prominent examples of Spider-Man unmasking himself (as opposed to somebody else doing the unmasking for him, like when Doctor Octopus pulled his mask off in Amazing Spider-Man #12)

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The very first time that Spider-Man intentionally revealed his identity came in one of the oddest Spider-Man stories of all-time. In Amazing Spider-Man #87 (by Stan Lee, John Romita and Jim Mooney), Spider-Man came down with the flu. He, however, did not know that it was the flu but instead just thought that his powers were going away. While in a sick daze, he even decided to rob a jewelry store to get a present for Gwen Stacy's birthday!! Figuring his career as Spider-Man was over, he walked to the party in a daze and revealed his identity to everyone...

Luckily, his being sick helped convince people he was just messing around (it helped that he had previously "dressed up as Spider-Man" in the aforementioned Doctor Octopus unmasking). He then enlisted the Prowler to pretend to be Spider-Man to trick his friends into thinking that Peter wasn't really Spider-Man, but instead had a highly unethical relationship with Spider-Man where Peter took photographs of Spidey and cut Spider-Man in for a cut of the profits (by the way, Spider-Man managed to enlist Prowler's help without actually revealing his secret identity to him).

In Amazing Spider-Man #200 (by Marv Wolfman, Keith Pollard and Jim Mooney), Spider-Man discovered the truth of why the burglar traveled from Manhattan to Forest Hills to rob the Parker home way back when - there was gold hidden there! An irate Spider-Man hunted down the burglar, who was now out of prison and trying to find the gold. He confronted the burglar and revealed that the man that the burglar killed was Spider-Man's uncle Ben!

The shock ended up ultimately giving the burglar a fatal heart attack, neatly protecting Spider-Man's secret identity (it is reminiscent of the old school Batman stories where villains would keep finding out Batman's secret identity right before being killed).

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In an odd little story in Spectacular Spider-Man #74 (by Bill Mantlo, Bob Hall and Jim Mooney), Peter Parker's sometimes girlfriend, Debra Whitman (who he worked with when he was a teaching assistant), believed that Peter was Spider-Man and it was giving her serious mental issues. Eventually, Peter felt that he had caused her too much pain so he decided to unmask himself and her reaction was surprising...

A little over a year later, Spider-Man had started a romantic relationship with the costume vigilante (and former criminal) Black Cat. In Spectacular Spider-Man #87 (by Bill Mantlo, Al Milgrom and Jim Mooney - don't worry, Jim Mooney isn't involved in every single one of these), Spider-Man revealed his identity to Black Cat with this amazing Al Milgrom cover that really evoked John Byrne's work of this era...

Amusingly enough, Black Cat did not like this news at ALL. She was so disappointed to see that Spider-Man was just some guy. It really knocked him down in her estimation and it ultimately led to their break-up.

The most touching unmasking on this list was clearly the famous "The Boy Who Collects Spider-Man" from Amazing Spider-Man #248 (by Roger Stern, Ron Frenz and Terry Austin). Spider-Man visits a young boy who had an article written about them. They chat and really open about Spider-Man's life. Ultimately, the boy asks for Spider-Man to tell him his true identity and Spider-Man obliges...

Of course, the twist is that the little boy was near death from a fatal illness and he would actually pass away soon after Spider-Man's visit, presumably taking Spider-Man's identity to his grave with him.

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Soon after, Mary Jane Watson revealed that she knew Spider-Man's secret identity. She found out on her own, though. The same went for Daredevil a year or so later. Those were the last two major characters to find out Spider-Man's identity until 2001, when Aunt May walked in on Peter while he was wearing his costume after passing out following a particularly brutal battle (Aunt May had ostensibly revealed that she knew Spider-Man's identity back in 1994, but that turned out to be an impostor, because Norman Osborn has some twisted plans).

The next major instance of Spider-Man revealing his identity came in the final issue of the Spider-Man/Human Torch miniseries by Dan Slott and Ty Templeton, where Peter had to reveal his identity to the Human Torch in a pinch...

Very funny stuff. The issue ends with the Spider-Man family (Peter, MJ and Aunt May) getting to know the Fantastic Four family.

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The most famous instance of Spider-Man revealing his identity happened in 2006 when Spider-Man unmasked in Civil War #2 (by Mark Millar, Steve McNiven and Dexter Vines) to show his support for the Superhuman Registration Act...

That, naturally, backfired almost instantly (darn Parker luck), especially when Spider-Man changed sides in the Superhuman Registration Act debate. He went on the run with Mary Jane and Aunt May and the Kingpin, trying to get revenge on his old foe, tried to have Peter assassinated. Peter avoided the bullet due to his Spider-Sense, but the bullet then fatally wounded Aunt May instead. Peter ended up cutting a deal with the demon Mephisto to save Aunt May's life in exchange for Peter giving up his marriage to Mary Jane. Around the same time, Doctor Strange, Mister Fantastic and Iron Man felt so guilty over what happened to Peter due to his identity reveal that they did a part magic/part science complete wipe of his identity from everyone in the world (except for Mary Jane, who Peter pulled into the spell against her wishes - she would have preferred to have just forgotten along with everyone else).

Soon after, Spider-Man, now on the run with the rest of the heroes who opposed the Registration Act (and then, once Iron Man, the prime mover of the Act, was replaced by Norman Obsorn as the head of SHIELD, then they were on the run from Osborn), was pressured by his Avengers teammates to reveal his identity to them if they were all going to be on the run together (this is especially notable after the Skrull invasion of around the same time - it was hard for people to trust each other). So Spider-Man revealed his identity to his teamamtes, including some people (Mockingbird) who he wasn't even all that close to at the time....

Soon after, we saw the specifics of Doctor Strange's spell when Peter was unmasked in front of the Fantastic Four in Amazing Spider-Man #590 and they could still not see his face. As it turned out, he had to actively choose to reveal his identity to people for them to perceive his true identity (and then, if they knew it already, they would regain their memories of it). So, in Amazing Spider-Man #591, he did just that...

However, during the "Spider-Island" crossover, when all the citizens of Manhattan gained Spider-powers, Peter exhorted everyone into action by giving a big speech in Amazing Spider-Man #668...

The trick, though, was that now that he had technically revealed his identity, he lost the magical protections that Doctor Strange had put into place, so people could once again figure out Spider-Man's identity.

Most recently, while having a sit down interview with J. Jonah Jameson, Spider-Man revealed his identity....

What will happen next is anyone's guess, but we imagine that Spider-Man will probably reveal his identity to some more people in the coming years.