ofcourse you can, but then it will treat as a single layer and you will not be able to send something back or in the front. For that you have to break the overlaps.

If you want to trace”super”..here is the trick…start tracing it from back.here is a rough trace of the same.

You have to divide the paths where the strokes are overlapping, in order to make the effect of something on top, or below.

Then zoooom in very much so you see detailed info where the “overlaps” are and edit.

There can’t be one closed path, but 5-6 of them in order to make the illusion work properly.

Use Pathfinder tool to divide on the whole bunch - then lighten and darken sections to create effect of forward and behind.