Hailee Steinfeld has achieved a rare feat in cinema by playing two high-profile Marvel characters at the same time. In the MCU she’s Hawkeye’s protegee Kate Bishop, who made her arrow-slinging debut in his Disney Plus show and will likely end up as part of a future Avengers team. Over in the Spider-Verse, she voices Gwen Stacy aka Spider-Woman, and we’re on the cusp of her return in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
So, if the two heroes were squaring off against one another, who’d come out on top? Steinfeld was asked this burning question in an interview with Collider, saying:
“I’ve thought about it. Who do I think actually wins? Wow. You know, so it seems as much as I thought about it, I don’t know that I have the answer. I think they’re both highly, highly capable, and skilled. I feel like between now and when it happens, Kate will be more experienced, right? They’re both very quick…”
Miles Morales’s voice actor Shameik Moore chimed in to agree with the interviewer that Gwen would easily come out on top and we have to agree. Kate Bishop is a crack shot with a bow, has demonstrated her hand-to-hand skills and has well-honed acrobatic abilities. But Gwen Stacy has spider-powers, knows how to use them and it’s difficult to imagine Kate even getting an arrow close to her, let alone actually coming out on top.
We’ll probably never find out for sure, but at least Across the Spider-Verse is rumored to feature at least some kind of cross-over with the MCU. There are reports that Tom Holland has a small role in the movie, and the line in the trailer from Oscar Isaac’s Miguel O’Hara about “the little nerd back on Earth-199999” definitely indicates the MCU and the Spider-Verse aren’t too far away from one other.
We’ll find out very soon, as Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse swings into theaters on June 2.