Prior to his run on Amazing Horndog, Dan Slott did a Spider-Man and Human Torch miniseries which apparently (haven't read it myself) ended with Spider-Man unmasking to his friend.
Slott's latest arc on Amazing deals with the miniseries. But how, you say? Didn't Spider-Man make a pact with the unholy embodiment of evil that resulted in everyone forgetting who he was? Let's see...
Context: Prior to this, Spider-Man had teamed up with the Fantastic Four to rescue a princess in the Macroverse.
You know what this reminds me of? When Spider-Man 2 came out, Paul Jenkins did an arc where Doctor Octopus had kidnapped the Palestinian prime minister, and ordered Spider-Man to take his mask off in front of everyone or he'd be killed. The penultimate issue had Spider-Man pulling off his mask, and Doc Ock looking shocked and horrified in response. Everyone was abuzz as to what it meant, and when the next issue rolled along...what had happened? Spider-Man had kept a second mask underneath his first one. I'm willing to bet there's something similar afoot here, only Mephisto made it so whenever Spider-Man loses his mask he looks like Barack Obama.
Also has anyone read New Avengers #51? Why? No reason. Just it might be interesting to read this issue side-by-side with that one and see how they stack up. Just saying...