Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever a spider can – and, it turns out, a little bit more.
The wall-crawler has undergone numerous transformations since he first appeared in comic strips in 1962. He’s been featured in print, on campy Saturday morning cartoons, on the big screen, alongside the Avengers, and is even saving cats from trees in a preschool show on the Disney Channel.
Almost all of the Spider-Men have the same basic powers: web-slinging, wall-climbing, and that signature spidey sense that keeps them on their toes. Most of them are also geeky teenagers, so they’re battling hormones and trying to fit into their various social scenes as well. But out of all these versions, which one is the strongest of all? Who uses his spider-given powers the best, and who brings the most emotional strength to his character? Let’s dive in and find out.
Warning: This article contains spoilers for Spider-Man: No Way Home.
10. Peter Parker, as played by Andrew Garfield in The Amazing Spider-Man 1 & 2
In the 2012 reboot The Amazing Spider-Man, Peter Parker is left with his aunt and uncle when his parents mysteriously disappear and eventually die in a plane crash. While searching for clues about them in his father’s laboratory at Oscorp, he is bitten by a radioactive spider. In the sequel, his love interest Gwen Stacy is killed during a battle with Electro and Harry Osborn, which forever alters the course of his life.
What lands him on the list: This version of Spider-Man is resourceful, making his own suit out of spandex and web shooters out of old watches. He also overcomes a significant bout of teenage attitude and angst before choosing to do the right thing. Once he has his spider powers, Peter intentionally humiliates a classmate and forgets to pick up his aunt from work. This leads to a fight with his uncle that causes Peter to stomp out the door, breaking it on his way out. He doesn’t stop to help a store clerk during a robbery, and the robber then shoots his uncle as he escapes, giving Peter the first major loss that will come to define his young life.
His biggest undoing seems to be his inability to stay away from Gwen Stacy despite it being her father’s dying wish. In The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Gwen is ultimately killed because of Peter’s inability to keep her out of danger. After he can’t save Gwen, Peter ends his career as a superhero. It’s only after a criminal he put behind bars earlier in the film breaks out of prison and begins terrorizing the city that Peter puts the suit back on, overcoming his own emotions and working for the greater good. This is a big and selfless leap for a previously selfish Spider-Man.
9. Spider-Man, 1967 animated series
This was the first time Spider-Man graced television sets, battling classic villains we’ve come to know and love to hate, including the Green Goblin, Magneto, Electro, and Mysterio.
What lands him on the list: In addition to fighting the familiar comic book villains, Spider-Man also faces villains that comic book readers had never previously seen. Mostly magical creatures, these villains were actually from footage from other cartoons and were used for budgetary reasons, but for our purposes, they gave Spider-Man new and interesting villains to fight. In the third and final season, Spider-Man gets to face one of his first inter-dimensional villains, who is out to destroy entire planets. Spider-Man defeats her by using his smarts and focus. The storyline was so harrowing that it wasn’t allowed on television at the time. This Spidey doesn’t quit, and it’s his ability to keep going in the face of seemingly endless villainy that makes him a strong addition to the lineup.
8. Spider-Man Noir from Into the Spider-Verse
Spider-Man Noir, always portrayed in black and white, hails from the 1930s and spends his days working as a private eye.
What lands him on the list: Spider-Man Noir has excellent investigative talents in addition to his Spider-Man abilities. He’s a mix of Spider-Man and Sherlock Holmes, bringing a unique twist to the character. He uses his spider-powers to fight the seedy underbelly of New York’s organized crime during the Great Depression and later Nazi Germany. His costuming is unique, as he doesn’t wear the typical Spider-Man suit, but rather era-appropriate clothing in dark colors, which includes pieces made of kevlar. He’s also one of the only Spider-Men to use a gun, although he prefers to use it only to slow his foes down. His originality and refreshing skill set give him a different kind of strength than the more straightforward Spider-Men, but it’s a useful one nonetheless.
7. Spider-Man from Marvel’s Spider-Man video game, released in 2019
Here we find Peter Parker eight years into his career as Spider-Man and still struggling with his superhero work-life balance. He and Mary Jane often team up together to solve problems and Miles Morales is also introduced in this storyline.
What lands him on the list: After a mass prison breakout frees some of his most notorious enemies and Otto Octavious convinces the world that Spider-Man is the cause of a leaked bioweapon infecting many people, Peter Parker builds himself an armored suit and ultimately saves the day. He retrieves the antidote to the bioweapon and chooses to use the dose to create more doses instead of saving one critically ill loved-one. This game also offers a plethora of Spider-Man costumes from different iterations of the superhero, with suits offering different powers. Spidey’s ability to transform into whoever and whatever the player needs him to be makes him mighty powerful indeed.
6. Spider-Gwen from Into the Spider-Verse
Gwen Stacy is one of the few female Spider-Men, going by the name Ghost-Spider. When her best friend turns evil and she must defeat him, she decides to isolate herself emotionally to better do her job.
What lands her on the list:
In her own universe, Gwen has chosen to distance herself emotionally from others so she can continue to be the best superhero possible. When she’s pulled into a portal to another universe, she uses her spidey sense to find Miles, who is newly bitten and overwhelmed. She begins helping him even before he really knows what is going on. Despite preferring to work alone, she helps Miles understand what’s happening to him. Together, they work with the other Spider-Men as a team to defeat Kingpin and return everyone to their own universes. Spider-Gwen’s sense of teamwork, especially in the face of her own pride, makes her an invaluable resource and ally to the rest of the spider-team.
5. Miles Morales from Into the Spider-Verse
Miles is the second Spider-Man in his universe. He attends an elite private school as a scholarship student even though he’d rather be at home in Brooklyn with his parents and friends. Once he’s bitten, he finds himself drawn to Kingpin’s lair, where he witnesses the death of Spider-Man.
What lands him on the list: Miles has to master his abilities quickly. He takes a literal leap of faith off a building before having full control of his abilities, finding the power within himself to become Spider-Man. He has help from the collection of Spider-Men who are brought to his universe by a portal from a super particle collider created by Kingpin. As a team, they have to defeat Kingpin, but it’s Miles who has to be strong enough to destroy the villain and his collider, allowing the group of Spider-Men to return to their homes.
Miles also opens the door for viewers to harness the emotional strength of Spider-Man, declaring at the end of the movie, “Anyone can wear the mask.” This concept of shared strength makes Miles an uncommon yet powerful Spider-Man, one who is willing to help others before he helps himself.
4. Peter Parker as Spider-Man, as played by Tobey Maguire in the Spider-Man trilogy
Maguire was as endearing and basic as Spider-Man gets. During his tenure as Spider-Man, he suffers from teen angst and personal drama on a literally personality-changing level.
What lands him on the list: This Peter Parker has an incredible emotional strength as he navigates his on-again, off-again relationship with Mary Jane and his best friend’s hatred of his alter-ego. Out of all the versions of friendships between Harry and Peter, this one packs one of the biggest emotional punches ⏤ and fallouts. While the romance between Peter and Mary Jane is a large part of the story, the relationship between friends really takes center stage and forces Peter to make some hard decisions.
This Spider-Man also has to fight to regain control of his personality when Venom takes over his body in Spider-Man 3. He has to be strong enough to identify that the symbiote is affecting him, bringing out unattractive and very un-Spider-Man-like qualities, and then figure out how to remove it from his body. The physical and emotional strength he exudes throughout the films makes him the wisest Spider-Man of the bunch and an especially important figure in a certain 2021 mega blockbuster.
3. Ultimate Spider-Man, 2012 animated series
This series opens with a teenage Spider-Man who already has his powers but hasn’t mastered them quite yet. S.H.I.E.L.D offers training so that he can become the “ultimate” version of himself, and he joins S.H.I.E.L.D Academy, a training program with other young superheroes looking to become the best versions of their superhero selves.
What lands him on the list: Halfway through the series, Spidey becomes an official cartoon Avenger and fights the likes of HYDRA and other Avengers-level bad guys. S.H.I.E.L.D involvement means that he has more support, but it also means that what he’s facing is bigger and more terrible than what he finds fighting crime on the streets of New York. This Spider-Man is doing something right, because when Nick Fury has to go into hiding, Spider-Man is put in charge of S.H.I.E.L.D Academy. When the time calls for it, he’s a leader through and through, hence his moniker of Ultimate Spider-Man.
2. Peni Parker from Into the Spider-Verse
Peni, one of the female versions of the superhero, controls a physically powered Mech and chooses to be bitten by the sentient spider that resides within it.
What lands her on the list: Peni chooses to become a superhero, which is not a choice many Spider-Men get to make. It’s one thing to get accidentally bitten by a spider and another thing entirely to choose to be bitten by one (and ultimately share a mind with one). She doesn’t wear a traditional Spider-Man suit, but instead has a giant mind-reading, butt-kicking robot to help her out. Perhaps she draws her strength from the familial ties of the suit, which was designed and originally worn by her father. Either way, this tiny lady packs a lot of punch and isn’t afraid to step up to the plate when the time calls for it.
1. Spider-Man, as played by Tom Holland in the Marvel Cinematic Universe
He’s your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, but with backup. He’s got Ned, his best friend and “Guy in the Chair” from the very beginning, but soon he’s got the full force of the Avengers behind him. As he navigates trying to have a typical teenage life with becoming a superhero, this Spider-Man faces everything from New York City bank robbers to a Titan who wipes out half of the universe’s population with a snap.
What lands him on the list: The reason this Spider-Man takes the top spot is twofold. First, his emotional strength is at its peak, as he always puts his friends and family’s safety first. He tries to save villains who have destroyed the lives of Spider-Men from other universes even after he’s lost his Aunt May. He makes the decision to come back from the edge of losing his humanity, making him the strongest Spider-Man emotionally.
Secondly, he’s got the best gadgets. In addition to his spider powers, his nano-technology suit and E.D.I.T.H glasses (thanks, Stark Technologies) make this the Spider-Man with the best web-spinning tech. The fusion of his mental and emotional strength combined with his highly advanced suits and gadgetry make this Spider-Man nearly unstoppable. There’s a reason why Tony Stark inducted Peter into the Avengers in Infinity War and left him the E.D.I.T.H. technology in the first place. Before his passing in Endgame, Stark knew that Peter would rise to the challenge of becoming the hero he’s meant to be, no matter the cost. Holland’s Peter proves again and again – especially in No Way Home – that come hell or high water, he can power through any hardship he faces.
In the end, it’s the challenges that each of the Spider-Men face that give them the strength to rise to the occasion and prove that in their own ways, they are each heroes wielding great power and carrying even greater responsibility.
Published: Jun 2, 2022 11:40 am