Behind the mask, he’s just Peter Parker

Forty-four years after first donning a mask, Spider-Man takes it off in public in a comic book that hits stores today.

In the book, the second issue of “Civil War,” Spider-Man, Captain America and other familiar heroes in Marvel Comics are struggling not with villains but with federal legislation requiring that they register and reveal their identities. That federal crackdown begins after hundreds children are killed at an elementary school when a battle between heroes and villains spills onto their campus.

In the issue now on sale, Spider-Man is the first major hero to acquiesce, pulling off his mask at a Washington news conference. Captain America, meanwhile, goes underground and leads a faction of heroes who believe the government has gone too far.

The government versus masked men theme has become a staple of superhero lore but with Spider-Man revealing to the world that his real name is Peter Parker, Marvel is sacrificing its most famous character’s mythology. “It can be very intimidating if you don’t know where the story is going or how it ends; we do, so we’re just excited about where it takes us and the story possibilities it offers,” Joe Quesada, Marvel’s editor-in-chief, said Wednesday.

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-- Geoff Boucher