Warning: Contains SPOILERS for The Spectacular Spider-Men #4! Perhaps the most ever-present drama in Spider-Man’s life is the fear of being unmasked, as Peter Parker is convinced that showing his face to the world will mean that his civilian life will be over, and those he loves will be put in grave danger. While he has a point to a certain extent, Spider-Man’s latest adventure actually proves that being unmasked isn’t the ‘death sentence’ he thinks it is, which is his greatest protection against this constant anxiety.

In The Spectacular Spider-Men #4 by Greg Weisman and Humberto Ramos, Peter Parker and Miles Morales are both trapped in an illusion cast by the villains Arcade and Mentallo. They’re each living their ideal lives, with Peter married to his first true love, Gwen Stacy, and Miles in a relationship with his long-time crush, Kamala Khan. Miles and Peter are in a heaven of their own creation, and it’s driving the villains who trapped them there absolutely crazy.

The whole point of putting these two Spider-Men in this illusion was to figure out their secret identities, and then use that against them. The problem is, however, that both Peter and Miles are just two regular guys, with nothing that really stands out about them. Neither of them reveal their last names while in the illusion, so Arcade and Mentallo don’t even have that to go off of. All they know is what these two look like, and what their first names are, and that alone isn’t enough to expose their identities.

Spectacular Spider-Men Makes Peter Parker’s Most Hilarious Costume Totally Unnecessary

Amazing Spider-Man #258 by Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz

When Peter Parker had the black symbiote Spider-Man suit removed from his body by the Fantastic Four, he was left with nothing to wear except his underwear. That made it pretty tricky to get home, especially since he couldn’t just walk out the front door given that he arrived through the top of the building as Spider-Man. So, Johnny Storm loans him a Fantastic Four uniform and a paper bag to put over his head. And thus, the Bombastic Bag-Man was born. Except, this temporary alter-ego was totally unnecessary.

While he’d still need to borrow an FF uniform given that he was stripped down to his underwear, Spider-Man absolutely did not need to wear a paper bag over his head. This Spectacular Spider-Men story confirms that no one would have recognized Peter swinging around without his mask, as two super-villains dedicated to uncovering his identity can’t even do it while Peter is effectively sitting still. It’s hilarious to think that Peter was so anxious about keeping his identity a secret that he wore a paper bag over his head, only to later learn that doing so was laughably overkill.

Spectacular Spider-Men Names the 1 Exception to this Simplistic Identity Protection: Last Names

While Peter Parker certainly didn’t need to wear a bag over his head, having his identity revealed is a whole other story entirely. When Peter revealed his face and name during Civil War, he was immediately recognized, and that’s mostly because he gave out his last name. The two villains in this preview even comment on how they could have figured out who Peter and Miles were if they had their last names, but since all they had was their faces and first names, they basically had nothing, making that the one exception to this simplistic secret identity protection.

Having his full name and face revealed would be (and has been) the ‘death sentence’ Spider-Man is so afraid of. But if a villain rips off his mask during a fight, or he finds himself swinging around New York without his costume every now and again, then Spider-Man’s secret identity would more than likely be totally safe, which is protection against being unmasked that’s brilliantly simplistic.

The Spectacular Spider-Men #4 is available now from Marvel Comics.