- "It's just a standard spell of forgetting. It won't turn back time, but at least people will forget that you were ever Spider-Man."
- ―Doctor Strange[src]
The Runes of Kof-Kol is a mystical spell that is utilized by members of the Masters of the Mystic Arts to erase the memories of other individuals. According to Wong, it travels the dark borders between known and unknown reality.
History[]
Spider-Man: No Way Home[]
Peter Parker approached Stephen Strange for a magical solution to the revelation of his identity by Quentin Beck. Although Strange couldn't turn back time, he hit upon the idea of using the Runes of Kof-Kol to erase the knowledge that Peter was Spider-Man from everyone's minds. Although Wong objected, Strange commented that they'd used it for a lot less and used Wong's lack of memory of the full moon party at Kamar-Taj as an example. Wong finally agreed to allow the spell's usage as long as he was left out of it.
In the Undercroft, Strange began performing the spell and revealed that the entire world was about to forget that Peter was Spider-Man, Strange himself included. Despite Strange warning that it was very difficult and dangerous to change the spell mid-casting, As Peter agonized over MJ forgetting that he was Spider-Man, Strange altered the spell so that she could remember his secret identity. Much to Strange's annoyance, Peter had him change it so that his best friend Ned Leeds could remember as well. Despite Strange's warnings not to continue tampering with the spell as he cast it, Peter added on Aunt May and Happy Hogan causing the runes to begin shuddering around them and exploded outwards, lifting the two into the air and cracked the ground open. Peter yelled out that "basically everyone that knew I was Spider-Man before should still know!", causing the spell to open up a rift in the multiverse, in which glowing figures appeared. Strange managed to contain the spell, causing the rift to disappear, and angrily snapped at Peter for changing his spell six times. The spell had grown so completely out of control that if Strange hadn't managed to shut it down, there could've been catastrophic consequences.
Shortly thereafter, it was discovered that the spell had started pulling in everyone who knew that Peter Parker was Spider-Man into their universe. Before Strange managed to contain it, villains from two alternate universes who knew Spider-Man's true identity were pulled into their universe from, in most cases, moments before they had died fighting their respective Spider-Men. While Peter rounded up the multiversal villains with the help of Ned and MJ, Strange retrieved the Macchina di Kadavus and trapped the corrupted spell inside to use the relic to reverse the spell and send everyone back to their proper universes. However, wanting to spare the villains their fates, Peter fought Strange over the relic, eventually trapping him in the Mirror Dimension and stealing the relic.
Peter then sought to cure the villains in the hopes of changing their fates once the spell was reversed, leaving the relic in the hands of Ned and MJ to reverse the spell if something bad happened. However, things went wrong after the Green Goblin persona regained control over Norman Osborn's body and convinced the remaining uncured villains – Max Dillon, Flint Marko, and Curt Connors – to turn against Peter. After his Aunt May was murdered by the Green Goblin, Peter contemplated reversing the spell and sending everyone back to die, but was convinced to continue with his plan of curing everyone first. Aided by two alternate versions of himself, Ned, MJ, and Otto Octavius, who he gave a new inhibitor chip to earlier, Peter succeeded in luring out the villains using the spell and cured most of them, transforming Connors back into his human form using an antidote created by Peter-Three for the Lizard Serum while Otto drained Max of his powers of electricity manipulation using an Electricity Siphon created by Peter-One and Peter-Two transformed Flint back into his human form using a Particle Accelerator created by Peter-One, before Strange returned from the Mirror Dimension.
However, the Green Goblin appeared and destroyed the relic containing the spell with a pumpkin bomb, releasing the corrupted spell and cracking open the multiverse. After restoring Norman back to his normal self using an anti-serum created by Peter-Two for the Goblin Formula that transformed Norman into the Green Goblin and thrown to Peter-One by Peter-Three, Peter learned from Strange that everyone across the multiverse who knew Spider-Man's true identity was now coming to their world and that he couldn't stop it. Peter realized that the only way to stop everyone from coming through was for Strange to cast the spell again, but this time to make everyone forget the existence of Peter Parker as their knowledge of Peter's existence was why everyone was coming to their world. Even though Strange warned that this would mean that everyone who knew and loved Peter would be left with no memory of him and it would be as though he'd never existed, Peter had him do it anyway as it was the only way, leading Strange to reluctantly comply. After Peter said goodbye to his friends and the other two Peters, Strange cast the Runes of Kof-Kol again, erasing all memory of Peter Parker's existence from the world. All of the villains and their own Peters were sent back to their own universes while the rift in the multiverse closed.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness[]
To be added
Capabilities[]
- Mnemokinesis: The Runes of Kof-Kol allow the user to erase the memories from people's minds throughout an entire planet or universe. According to Stephen Strange, the spell is non-selective, making it extremely difficult to erase the memories from specific individuals or select those who won't be affected by the spell.
Appearances[]
- Marvel Cinematic Universe (2 films)
- Spider-Man: No Way Home (First appearance)
- Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (Mentioned only)
Trivia[]
To be added
Gallery[]
Spider-Man: No Way Home[]
To be added