While many of our favorite Spider-People have similar powers and abilities, each of them
use their abilities in different ways.
When we look at this, how exactly do they compare to not just civilians and villains,
but also each other?
I'm _____ with WickedBinge, and this is Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse characters: Weak to
Powerful.
Major spoilers ahead for both Spider-Verse films.
As always, we're going to be starting with our weakest characters before moving our way
up to the strongest.
Getting our Weakest Character rank by default is actually TWO characters - Miles’ parents,
Jefferson and Rio Morales.
Being ordinary humans, these two can’t exactly compare to the other characters in terms of
power level, being a regular cop and nurse respectively.
With Rio specifically, she is emotionally intelligent, and as we said in our ‘Good
to Evil’ video on this film, she and Jefferson are both good parents.
When it comes to being a cop, Jefferson seems fairly athletic and is decent at keeping up
with criminals and Spider-Man, and is able to take care of himself for the most part,
only occasionally needing a save.
But as we said, ordinary humans on the ground can’t exactly compete with super-powered
web slingers.
That being said, there are a couple humans who outrank them, such as Captain George Stacy.
If you notice, George starts out as a Police Captain while Jefferson may receive the title
but ultimately doesn’t get sworn in within this second movie, with that event being saved
as the ‘ticking clock’ for the third movie.
This means that in terms of status, George does outrank Jefferson, even if he does eventually
give up his position as Police Captain for the sake of his daughter.
As for everything else, he’s about on the same level as Jefferson, being fairly physically
fit and having a good amount of stamina for an ordinary human, being one of the few to
escape the Vulture’s attack without getting too banged up.
Now it’s time to move into our super-powered characters - and unfortunately, that means
starting off with one who’s seen as a bit of a joke - Ben Reilly AKA Scarlet Spider.
Yes, the infamous clone of Peter Parker makes an appearance as part of O’Hara’s Spider-Society,
being seen as the ‘incredibly angsty and dramatic one who’s always narrating what
he’s doing’.
Oh, and he’s voiced by Andy Samberg, which is kind of fun.
While it can be assumed that he has the same powers and abilities as nearly every other
Spider-Person - the fact that O’Hara specifically picks him alongside Jessica to come with him
to stop Miles further alludes to this - we don’t see Ben actually do any fighting or
anything cool really since he gets knocked out by Gwen Stacy in one shot after getting
distracted by his own narrating.
Apologies to all the Ben Reilly fans out there.
Another character who we only briefly see use their powers is Aaron Davis AKA The Prowler.
Specifically, the Prowler from Universe 42.
Although we don’t see him entirely in uniform, Aaron still gets to show off his strength,
his power and his Prowler glove.
He’s got one hell of a punch and, given his obvious experience as a vigilante in his
universe, we’re sure that he can also put up a good fight.
For now, though, some of this is speculation that we’ll only get pay-off for in the third
movie.
Moving back over to the Spider-People, let’s talk about the Spider-Society’s tech support
- Margo Kess AKA Spider-Byte, a virtual reality superhero.
Like with Ben Reilly, we unfortunately don’t get to see Margo actually fight or use many
of her powers.
However, we do see her use all her tech and virtual reality abilities to her advantage,
such as when she divides herself to try and work on different computers at the same time.
It’s also implied that she’s incredibly intelligent, just as intelligent as other
Spider-People if not more so.
Again, we’ll have to wait until the third movie to see how she does out in the field,
now that she’s officially part of Gwen’s rescue squad, and we certainly can’t wait!
But let’s talk about someone who’s gotten plenty of field experience - Peter B. Parker.
Even when we saw him at his lowest point in the first Spider-Verse film, Peter B. proved
to be strong, powerful and clever.
While he doesn’t get AS many cool moments in the sequel, Peter B.’s abilities haven’t
slowed down much since becoming a dad.
In fact, he’s one of the few Spider-People who’s able to keep up with Miles when he
goes on the run, and he’s able to recognize when Miles is planning something.
One thing we’ll say is that we can’t exactly blame Peter B. for staying out of the actual
fights, given that he has his baby daughter with him, but we do hope that Peter B. is
able to get in a few more punches next time, as it never seems like the guy CAN’T fight
anymore, it’s just a matter of circumstances and of not wanting to seriously hurt Miles.
For our next character though, let’s talk about someone a bit more bold - and a bit
more fiery - this being the Vulture.
While many already know the Vulture as a bird-themed supervillain, this particular one is from
a Renaissance-inspired universe.
This not only gives him a super rad and unique art and animation style, but also a variety
of brand new superpowers.
Using hammer-space, the Vulture is able to summon spikes, projectiles and chains.
He’s also able to reform and ‘rebuild’ his wings whenever they get damaged.
He even takes a page out of Green Goblin’s book with his mini-bombs.
As we’ve said before, all these powers and abilities turn him into a great mini-boss
for our heroes, but while he puts up an incredibly good fight, the Vulture is still your typical
villain of the week that is able to be overpowered and defeated once other Spider-people show
up.
Speaking of those other spider-people, one of those included Jessica Drew AKA Spider-Woman,
second-in-command to O’Hara’s spider-society.
You would think that, much like Peter and May Day, Jessica being pregnant would force
her to be more on the sidelines during fights.
Thankfully, Jessica takes an exact opposite approach.
She may not be on her actual feet much, but her motorcycle-riding allows her to still
keep up with everyone else, using the bike both as a speed boost and as something that
can give her an awesome ‘wheel-punch’.
She’s also got her own web-shooters and is shown being pretty strategic, able to look
more at the big picture and even being able to teach Gwen a few things, as Gwen states
when she’s catching up with Miles.
But while her spot in the Spider-Society gives her some additional authority, she still has
to follow O’Hara’s lead for the most part, stating repeatedly that she wouldn’t be
able to help Gwen if she got on O’Hara’s bad side.
We also see Miles defeat her fairly easily during the big chase scene, but considering
that he’s able to either defeat, disable or out-run pretty much ALL of the Spider-People
in that scene, we aren’t going to dock too many points from Jessica in this instance.
From one spider-woman to another, let’s move onto Gwen Stacy.
For the first act of this movie, we get to see Gwen in action, and she certainly hasn’t
lost any steps since the first film.
Strong, strategic and incredibly graceful, it isn’t often that Gwen truly gets herself
in a corner.
We do see the Vulture briefly capture her, leading to O’Hara and Jessica needing to
step in, but it’s more just a moment of weakness and being briefly overpowered than
Gwen actually lacking in any power.
One thing we will praise is Gwen’s ability to stay calm under pressure and handle multiple
threats and dangers at once, as we see when she has to stop a helicopter from landing
on a crowd of people.
Gwen is also shown being very stealthy, to the point of Miles briefly losing sight of
her, which then allows Gwen a moment to try and follow her Spider-Society assigned mission.
Add in the fact that, like Peter B., Gwen is able to keep up with Miles and O’Hara
during the big chase, and she easily shines as one of the most powerful Spider-Women.
But while Gwen’s dancing abilities have allowed her to be a great acrobat, it could
be argued that Pavitr Prabhakar AKA Spider-Man India may just be a greater acrobat.
It may just be due to his more lax and optimistic attitude, but even with his lack of experience,
Pavitr is incredibly talented as a superhero.
In addition to being acrobatic and well-balanced, he’s also speedy and just as strong as any
other spider person, being able to save an entire bus full of people from falling off
a bridge.
We may not see him win any fights, but when it comes to saving and rescuing people, Pavitr
manages to be a total success, and we really can’t wait to see more of his fighting skills.
Though, if you want a Spider-Man with a bit more brawn on his side, look no further than
Hobart "Hobie" Brown AKA Spider-Punk.
While Hobie’s most noticeable feature may be his specific magazine clipart-like art
style, the guy’s got some true power on his side.
Though it's debatable whether or not it was due to Miles weakening it, Hobie was still
able to completely break through an electric force field with just his guitar.
Like with other people, he’s great at web-slinging and rescuing others, and thanks to his backstory,
he’s got a ton of experience regarding not just fighting off bad guys but also fighting
off a totalitarian society as a whole.
But while much of Hobie’s appeal may be how bombastic and powerful he is, Hobie also
has his clever moments.
He’s able to keep a fairly lowkey cover within the Spider-Society, allowing him to
keep an eye on them until he decides to quit.
We also see Hobie subtly snatching up things from the Spider-Society’s lab, which he
uses to create a new dimension-traveling watch that he gives to Gwen.
Not bad for a punk, and seeing all this makes it all the more amazing that he’s able to
keep up with the film’s three main players.
Speaking of which-
The Bronze Medal of Power is going to Miles Morales.
Really, it shouldn’t be much of a surprise to see Miles this high up, thanks to his own
unique powers as well as his intelligence and strategic abilities.
In case you missed the first film, in addition to having all the typical spider-skills, abilities
and web-shooters, Miles has two extra powers - his electrical Spider Shock attack, which
is powerful enough to destroy the Spider-Society’s capture forcefield, and his ability to go
invisible, granting him extra stealth.
We also get to see just how clever and scrappy Miles is able to be during the big Spider-Society
chase sequence, where he’s able to either outrun or out-maneuver nearly everyone on
his tail.
Ultimately, he can’t overpower ALL of them, hence why he uses an impromptu plan to get
all the Spider-People away from the machine that’ll send him to his home dimension.
Really, if this is how powerful he is at only 15, Miles not only has a ton of power in his
own right, but he’s also got a ton of potential.
For our Silver Medal of Power, we’re giving it to Miguel O'Hara AKA Spider-Man 2099.
As described by Gwen, he’s a “ninja vampire” who’s incredibly strong, fierce and - when
it comes to capturing his target - absolutely relentless.
He runs like a beast, and seems to have the most strength and speed out of all the spider-people
we see.
Though we don’t see much of them in use, we also can’t forget his more vamperic abilities,
as well as his status as the leader of the Spider-Society.
This grants him access to additional tech that he can use to capture enemies and targets
alike.
The only time where anyone ever gets an advantage over him is when Miles briefly electrocutes
him with his Spider-Shock.
Outside of that, O’Hara is seen as the best of the best when it comes to power and ability,
so it tracks that only a villain that defies logic and reality would be able to outmatch
him.
Finally, the Gold Medal of Power is being awarded to Dr. Jonathan Ohnn AKA The Spot.
Now, looking at Spot at the beginning of the film, he really doesn’t seem like much.
He sometimes loses control of his portals, with his fighting style based more on confusion
and accidents than actual skill, and at one point he ends up kicking his own butt.
But once Spot discovers his portals’ true ability, he takes it upon himself to try and
gain more power - and he certainly does.
He becomes stronger and more precise with his portals, which pretty much become like
black holes after a certain point.
He’s able to outfight other spider-people, and his portals are seen bringing down entire
buildings and bridges.
And, mind you, this is only the beginning.
By the time he returns to his original dimension, Spot has a whole new form and a TON of power
at his disposal, making him and his quest to take away everything Miles loves all the
more intimidating.
Needless to say, we’re sure that we’ll get more instances of his impressive (and
terrifying) power in the third Spider-Verse film.