Superhero Powers

[Cthulhudrew]

As for Cap, I guess the serum wasn't as potent as I thought then. I haven't read much of him, or of the Avengers, so I was going with a pretty limited sample of his shenannigans.

For a short period of time in the 70s, the Super-Soldier Serum did grant Cap superhuman strength, but it wore off. He's just "peak human" now, although what precisely that means has gone through some different interpretations over the years. Currently, writer Ed Brubaker (the current Cap scribe) has him doing some near superhuman feats in his own title, based around the premise that if Cap is "peak human" than he should be able to easily do more than athletes currently are capable of (and, as we all know, athletes are constantly surpassing one another's efforts as time goes by- although how much of that is natural and how much due to other reasons is anyone's guess. Then again, the Super Soldier Serum isn't exactly natural itself, so...)

In any event, as time goes by and humans prove capable of even greater feats of strength and endurance (even extreme cases), Cap's feats seem to grow as a result. (Of course, Cap doesn't focus all his efforts in one area, like, say a bodybuilder would, so should he just naturally be better at it than someone who specializes? I don't know.)

 

[Darth Shoju]

From my experience, Ultimate universe or not, Spidey has always been significantly stronger than Cap. If you put any stock in the Marvel trading cards that had various "ability score" ratings on the back, Spidey was in the range of being able to lift a bus. There's also precedent that when Spidey gets really mad ("over the edge" it has been called) he gets quite a bit stronger. For perspective, in his black costume (with its strength-augmenting powers) he was able to take down Firelord (a former herald of Galactus), much to the surprise of the Avengers (and Firelord himself).

Cap, on the other hand, is a *much* more experienced and trained combatant. I've got an old Hulk comic where Cap takes Hulk to the ground using nothing more than training and leverage (of course the Hulk was less than impressed and not harmed in the slightest...luckily this was "smart" Hulk and Cappy was able to talk to him instead of getting squished.)

 

[Umbran]

Okay, time to be even more geeky than most folks here...

The original Marvel Superheroes (FASERIP system) game was created taking the canon of the time into careful account - and this was long befo0re any of the Ultimates nonsense. It closely mirrors what's in the Handbook of the Marvel Universe. Despite the above issue with Cap's shield, the Handbook, and thus the game, are pretty good measures...

Captain America:
Strength - Excellent (can lift 800 lbs with difficulty)
Agility - Incredible (Able to walk tightropes, dodge single bullets)

Spider Man:
Strength - Incredible (can lift 10 tons with difficulty)
Agility - Amazing (Superb sense of balance, able to dodge multiple bullets)

To wit - Spidey can, at need, pick up and toss a car around. Captain America can't. Cap's ability in hand-to-hand combat, however, is far greater than Spidey's.

 

[Welverin]

Another thing to remember is that power level tends tovary by writer/editor.

As for Spidey, ten tons is what I've long remembered (probably from a handbook). I remember an old issue where he knocked over an empty train freight car by flicking it.

The perception of him not being particularly strong is probably due to his relative strong compared to characters such as the Hulk and Thing. Super strength is pretty common in the comic world.

 

[Dirigible]

Captain America:
Strength - Excellent (can lift 800 lbs with difficulty)
Agility - Incredible (Able to walk tightropes, dodge single bullets)

Spider Man:
Strength - Incredible (can lift 10 tons with difficulty)
Agility - Amazing (Superb sense of balance, able to dodge multiple bullets)

To wit - Spidey can, at need, pick up and toss a car around. Captain America can't. Cap's ability in hand-to-hand combat, however, is far greater than Spidey's.

That fits with my knowledge, too.

To the OP, I'd also recommend wikipedia as an extremely accessable (and disturbingly comprehensive) source of info for comics.

 

[Joshua Randall]

I'd also recommend wikipedia as an extremely accessable (and disturbingly comprehensive) source of info for everything.

FIFY.

 

[WayneLigon]

Ultimate Spidey may be significantly stronger than regular Spidey... Spidey was designed to top out at lifting a small Volkswagen.

Dunno about Ultimate Spidey. The normal Spider-Man recently got a whole series of power upgrades and changes as a result of The Other storyline (probably in order to bring him more in line with the movie version as he now has organic web shooters, etc). One of those changes upped his strength to the 15 tons range, maybe more.

 

[Blastin]

Spidy has been my hero/favorite character forever...followed the comics for about 10 years....
The quotes above about 10 tons are correct with two "buts"
The first is that, just like every other comic character, the writers sometimes have him do more. One episode where he lifted a freight train car, many of him tearing off bank vault doors, ect.
The other but is the big one. Spidy is afraid to USE his strength. Since he regularly fights non-super street thugs and doesn't want to kill them he always pulls his punches. When he fights the supers he just pulls them less. There are many times where he fights someone nasty and does the "can't pull my punches here. Got to hit him with everything." There was a very good arc with him and Wolverine where Logan gets Spidy so psyched out before a fight that Peter doesn't pull his punch against a normanl guy and kills him. There is another where he fights Juggernaut, hits him full strength, and Juggy just smirks at him
Sorry for the threadjack

 

[papastebu]

Going by what the comics have said about the characters Flash is faster than Quicksilver; Superman is stronger than anyone that is not a god and Batman is cooler and has more issues than most of the Marvel Universe COMBINED , Spidey included.

Sorry, just felt this minor addition was necessary.

-Steve.

 

[papastebu]

Hmm...odd. I seem to recall Peter complaining once that he had to strain to pick up (and throw) a small car (Volkswagon, I think). Admittedly, this perhaps wasn't his most unbiased of self-analyses, as he'd just acquired the Dark Costume at the time, and was impressed at his magnified strength.

And it may also be that Spiderman doesn't find as many chances/excuses to explore the upper end of his strength range.

As for Cap, I guess the serum wasn't as potent as I thought then. I haven't read much of him, or of the Avengers, so I was going with a pretty limited sample of his shenannigans. Ah well. I seem to recall Wolverine dominating Spiderman in fights for much the same reason too...superior experience (and ruthlessness)...coupled with the fact that nothing Peter did really HURT Wolverine for more than a few minutes.

The super-soldier serum allowed Cap to heal quickly--far from Wolverine-quickly, but a great deal faster than ordinary humans--a cut that would take a week to heal for someone else might take only a day or two for Captain America.

As for Spider-Man's strength, he has the proportional strength, speed, and agility/dexterity of a spider. I have seen a jumping spider pounce on, subdue, and then drag around a moth that would be like someone my size--5' 10"--dragging around a Sesna, or some such. It's interesting to think what he could do, now that he's the "Avatar of All Things Spidery" if he really set his mind to it.

Cool thread. Also, thanks, all of you, for validating 35 years of reading comics.