diff --git a/packaging/specifiers.py b/packaging/specifiers.py
index 840e08789..37030db9e 100644
--- a/packaging/specifiers.py
+++ b/packaging/specifiers.py
@@ -381,9 +381,12 @@ def _compare_equal(self, prospective: Version, spec: str) -> bool:
         if spec.endswith(".*"):
             # In the case of prefix matching we want to ignore local segment.
             prospective = Version(prospective.public)
+            # Convert our spec string into a Version ignoring the trailing .*
+            # This allows to get the normalized version string
+            spec_version = Version(spec[:-2])
             # Split the spec out by dots, and pretend that there is an implicit
             # dot in between a release segment and a pre-release segment.
-            split_spec = _version_split(spec[:-2])  # Remove the trailing .*
+            split_spec = _version_split(str(spec_version))
 
             # Split the prospective version out by dots, and pretend that there
             # is an implicit dot in between a release segment and a pre-release
diff --git a/tests/test_specifiers.py b/tests/test_specifiers.py
index 92d04eb0e..cb1f4b610 100644
--- a/tests/test_specifiers.py
+++ b/tests/test_specifiers.py
@@ -302,10 +302,14 @@ def test_comparison_non_specifier(self):
                 ("2c1.post1.dev1", "==2.*"),
                 ("2rc1", "==2.*"),
                 ("2", "==2.*"),
+                ("2", "==0!2.*"),
+                ("0!2", "==2.*"),
                 ("2.0", "==2.*"),
                 ("2.0.0", "==2.*"),
                 ("2.0.post1", "==2.0.post1.*"),
                 ("2.0.post1.dev1", "==2.0.post1.*"),
+                ("2.0.rc1", "==2.0.c1.*"),
+                ("2.0.rc1.post1", "==2.0.c1.*"),
                 ("2.1+local.version", "==2.1.*"),
                 # Test the in-equality operation
                 ("2.1", "!=2"),