Spider-Man Has 1 Defense Against Being Unmasked & I'd Kill To See It Become MCU Canon

Summary In his long history as a Marvel superhero, Peter Parker has learned the hard way to protect the secret that he is the man behind Spider-Man's mask; in some cases, this has led him to go to extreme, and at times hilarious, lengths to protect his identity from being exposed.

In Joe Fixit #4, Peter Parker paints his face like his mask in order to preserve his identity during a risky plot, which involves him being unmasked by Kingpin's enforcer Electro.

Unmasking in Marvel's Civil War crossover event had devastating consequences for Spider-Man; subsequently, with his secret restored, this has resulted in him taking drastic measures to preserve his secret.

There are few things more important to Spider-Man than his secret identity, something the Webslinger has learned the hard way to protect more than once. This has resulted in Peter taking some pretty extreme – and in one particular case, hilarious – methods to protect his secret identity from being discovered, even in the event that his mask is removed.

In Joe Fixit #4 – written by Peter David, with art Yildiray Cinar – readers are shown one of Spider-Man's most unusual defense against having his identity outed. Attempting to thwart Kingpin's latest scheme, Spidey and the eponymous Hulk personality come up with a novel plan, which involves Peter risking being unmasked.

This leads to an unusual solution, as Peter Parker paints his face exactly like his mask, obscuring his identity and allowing him to gain the advantage on Wilson Fisk's enforcer, Electro.

Related Ultimate Spider-Man Makes Perfect Choice for the First Person to Learn His Identity Ultimate Spider-Man #2 picks up weeks into Peter Parker's superhero career, and he's already revealed his secret identity to the perfect person.

Peter [Parker] has become willing to take extreme – and if necessary, extremely silly – measures to make sure that his identity is never revealed...including painting his face underneath his mask.

Peter Parker Uses Spider-Man Face Paint To Preserve His Secret Identity

Joe Fixit #4 – By Peter David, Yildiray Cinar, Dee Cunniffe, & Ariana Maher

Close

In Joe Fixit #4, Kingpin manages to use a chemical to grant him control over Joe Fixit, one of Hulk's personalities. After Spider-Man cures the Hulk, they come up with an idea to ambush Kingpin. The pair decide to fake Spider-Man being captured by Joe Fixit. With this, Joe brings Spider-Man before Kingpin to be unmasked, which Electro happily does on Kingpin's orders. But instead of finding out Spider-Man's secret identity, all Electro and Kingpin see is Peter's face under heavy paint that simply recreates his mask, making it impossible to tell who he is.

One of the worst things that can happen to a superhero is having their identity exposed, and this has happened to Spider-Man several times. Most famously, in Marvel's Civil War, Spider-Man unmasked in front of the press at Tony Starks' urging, a decision ended up being a major mistake, as it completely ruined Peter's life for that moment forward. It seems that ever since that massive error in judgment, Peter has become willing to take extreme – and if necessary, extremely silly – measures to make sure that his identity is never revealed again, including painting his face underneath his mask.

His various preventative measures against unmasking showcase Peter's incredible quick-thinking nature, along with Spider-Man's iconic sense of humor – and in all instances, they highlight the continued importance of preserving his secret identity.

Spider-Man Goes To Absurd Lengths To Protect His Identity

Unmasking Nearly Destroyed Peter Parker

While using face paint to create a second mask is a hilarious solution, it's not the wildest method that Peter had used. Another notable example is the Bombastic Bag-Man, where Spider-Man used a paper bag with his mask doodled on it to protect his identity on short notice. Shortly before being arrested by Fisk's police, Peter uses his webbing to seal his mask to his body, making it impossible to remove it as well. All of these demonstrate quick thinking on the Wallcrawler's part, though his face-painted mask is by far the funniest.

Spider-Man's secret identity leaking in Civil War completely destroyed his life. Aunt May was shot, and things eventually escalated to where Peter lost his marriage to Mary Jane. After going through all of that, it makes sense that Peter would begin doing absolutely everything he could to make sure no one ever learned who he was again. His various preventative measures against unmasking showcase Peter's incredible quick-thinking nature, along with Spider-Man's iconic sense of humor – and in all instances, they highlight the continued importance of preserving his secret identity.

Joe Fixit #4 is available now from Marvel Comics!