Marvel took the hard road to fixing all of this. Erik Larsen, at comicbookresources.com, had a column where he noted that they could simply have had Peter and MJ divorce because she could no longer cope with him putting his life on the line daily. This would have been understandable and erased much of the "stigma" of having Spidey divorced. (Not that I believe there is all that much stigma to divorce -- but Marvel seems to think it would hurt the character to be so described.) Larsen felt that after a few months of typical Spidey angst over the situation, writers could have started to refer to MJ simply as Peter's "ex," not necessarily his ex-wife, and the divorce could be quietly forgotten, a part of Spidey's history that still existed, but was seldom referenced. Heck, she could even come back into his life tentatively as a love interest, because she still has strong feelings for him.

Larsen even had a plan, I think, for some doppelganger hi jinks that could have explained away Spider-Man's public unmasking during Civil War. It was a little convoluted, but no more than any half a dozen other stories involving various characters whose identity has been revealed and who take steps to cover their tracks.

All in all, it made a lot more sense than this latest fiasco, although the title probably wouldn't have gotten the bump in sales it did with the Quesada fix.