As many sinister villains as Spider-Man has faced over the years, one of his most consistent headaches has come in the form of the spurious reporting done by J. Jonah Jameson – a problem that, surprisingly, one niche Superman story showed the perfect way to handle. Jonah made Peter Parker’s life harder for years by slandering Spidey, but as it turns out, one simple move would have negated his influence.

Superman: True Brit – written by Kim Johnson and John Cleese, with art by John Byrne – puts a reimagined British version of the Man of Steel in conflict with a news purveyor that has more in common with the Daily Bugle’s J. Jonah Jameson than the editor at the familiar American version of the Daily Planet, Perry White.

Superman’s solution to his problem in the story makes it clear that Spider-Man could have circumvented his own problem with the press with one simple, straightforward move.

Superman Reveals His Identity To Remove Whyte-Badgers Power

Superman: True Brit – By Kim Johnson, John Cleese, John Byrne, Mark Farmer, Bill Oakley, Jack Morelli, & Alex Bleyaert

In Superman: True Brit, Superman is reimagined as a British man. This results in him getting a job at the local newspaper, one which does absolutely nothing but print slander and falsehoods about people to make a quick buck. Eventually, the owner of the establishment, Whyte-Badger, turns his attention to Superman, and even learns Superman’s secret identity. Superman was at his lowest point in this story, as everything he tried to do to make Britain better has backfired, and Whyte-Badger threatened to expose Superman’s identity.

However, instead of simply rolling over and letting that happen, Superman instead publicly revealed his identity first, which completely removed Whyte-Badgers power over him, and even caused the average citizen to turn on the publisher. In a way, this showed the perfect way that Spider-Man could have dealt with J. Jonah Jameson. For years, the public of New York and even some of Marvel’s superhero community were distrustful of Spider-Man, primarily due to the slander that the Daily Bugle endlessly prints about the Webslinger.

Revealing His Identity Actually Solved Spider-Man’s Issues With Jonah

Jonah Became Spidey’s Biggest Supporter

Spider-Man never felt like he had a direct way to fight back against Jonah, considering he didn’t feel like he could expose his secret identity to someone who’s made it their entire career to end Spider-Man’s vigilante activities, but as Superman shows, that’s actually exactly what he should’ve done. When Superman revealed his secret identity, he was able to immediately get the public on his side. Considering there is a vast difference even between Jonah’s malice, and that of the antagonistic publisher in True Brit, Spider-Man wouldn’t even have needed to go so far as to disclose his identity to the public at large.

There have been a few times in Spider-Man’s history that Peter has revealed his identity to Jonah, and it has gone surprisingly well most of the time. In some instances, Jonah has even helps Peter continue being a hero. The main reason that Jonah hates Spider-Man is the anonymity of the hero’s identity. Jonah has stated a few times that he believes true heroes show their faces. As it turns out, when Jonah knows who is under Spider-Man’s mask, he’s usually supportive of him, which is why Spider-Man should’ve taken a cue from Superman a long time ago.