This post contains spoilers for Spider-Man: Brand New Day. If you want to avoid them for now you can instead check out our non-spoiler review.
Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we ask a sorcerer to deceive.
I think that’s the quote? Eh, close enough. Of course, Peter Parker wasn’t trying to deceive anyone in Spider-Man: No Way Home. When he asked Doctor Strange to make the whole world forget Peter Parker, Spider-Man was trying to save everyone in his universe. Only by having the wizard erase everyone’s memory of himself could Peter stop parallel worlds from invading. But was that spell permanent? Or is there a chance one of Spidey’s old friends would eventually remember him? After four long years of isolation, Spider-Man: Brand New Day gave him reason to hope.
In Spider-Man: Brand New Day, MJ had zero memories of Peter Parker even after she read the unshared letter he’d written her four years ago telling her the truth. She had absolutely no recollection of him and what they’d been through, even though she clearly remembered all the times and places that Spider-Man had saved her life. And yet, there’s still reason to think she eventually might. Two other people, buried deep somewhere inside them, still maintained a connection to Peter Parker.
Well, one person and one giant green rage monster.
When an out-of-control, Savage Hulk had Spider-Man by the throat, the webbed-slinger finally revealed his true identity to someone. He said, “It’s Peter.” Despite Bruce Banner having no recollection of his former superhero previously, something clicked in Hulk’s brain. He innately recognized Peter as a friend and let him go. It also helped calm Hulk down enough so he could revert back to Banner. While Bruce didn’t remember anything, it showed that Peter Parker still exists in the recesses of his shared mind.
Hulk remembering Peter Parker when Bruce Banner doesn’t raises some fascinating questions about Strange’s spell. Was Hulk immune to it because he didn’t exist when Strange cast it? Are rage monsters just immune to a specific type of magic in general? Or is this a one-off for reasons we don’t yet know? Whatever the truth might be, it’s one of two reasons for Peter to have hope someone else might also remember him eventually.
His old multi-step handshake with Ned is the other. At the end of Spider-Man: Brand New Day Peter decided to tell Ned his real name. MJ had suggested Peter also tell Ned about their shared past after she’d read his letter.
When Peter went over to his best friend—who’d he’d already hung out and built LEGO sets with while dressed as Spider-Man without stirring up any wiped memories—Ned instinctively remembered their old personalized greeting as though he’d never forgotten it. It came back to him naturally. It also surprised Ned. He couldn’t understand how he’d done the handshake. He then looked at his old friend and said, “Peter.”
Like Hulk, somewhere in Ned—even if it’s not accessible or even understandable just yet—is the memory of Peter Parker. And if Peter still exists in both of them, Peter might still exist in everyone else, too. Especially MJ.