Comics

The 10 Most Powerful Members of the Spider-Verse, Ranked

Marvel Comics officially introduced the Spider-Verse in 2014 during Dan Slott and Olivier Coipel’s “Edge of Spider-Verse” event, although the idea of a Spider-Verse had been around for much longer than that. Long before Slott came up with the idea of naming it the Spider-Verse and having all the spider-characters connected via a spider totem, there were variants, including one existing in 2099, one who was a pig, and even a zombie version from Robert Kirkman and Sean Phillips’ Earth-2149. Add in all the What If…? variants, and the most famous being the Spider-Men who operated on Earth-1610, and there are a lot of characters swinging around the Marvel Universe hailing from the Spider-Verse.

Videos by ComicBook.com

With the Sony animatedย Spider-Verseย movies ending in 2027, and the possibility of variants coming to the MCU in the future, here is a look at the most powerful Spider-Verse members, ranked.

10) Peni Parker (SP//dr)

Peni Parker in Marvel Comics
Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics

Peni Parker debuted in Edge of Spider-Verse #5 (2014) by Gerard Way (Umbrella Academy) and Jake Wyatt. Peni lives on Earth-14512, and she is a Japanese-American teenager. Peni inherited the SP//dr mech from her late father, the suit’s original pilot, becoming a second-generation spider-hero in the Spider-Verse. This is what makes her stand out from other Spider-Man heroes, as she wasn’t bitten by a spider, but instead has power linked to her mech.

Peni has a psychic neural link to a radioactive spider bonded to the SP//dr suit’s CPU. She co-pilots the mech with the spider, directing a machine of superhuman strength, durability, web-shooters, and air filters. Her mech was designed by Oscorp, using psychogenetics, which bonds humans to exo-armors via irradiated animals. One of her most powerful feats was breaking a Mysterio illusion using her psychic link to the suit to overpower it. However, as the only Spider-Verse character to need a giant mech, she falls below the more powerful superhuman variants.

9) Spider-Punk (Hobie Brown)

Spider-Punk in Marvel Comics
Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics

Hobie Brown debuted in The Amazing Spider-Man #10 (January 2015), created by Dan Slott and Olivier Coipel during the original “Spider-Verse” event. He hails from Earth-138. His Earth is a dystopian landscape where Norman Osborn rules as a fascist United States President, and Spider-Punk leads an anti-authoritarian rock-and-roll resistance. Unlike many other Spider-Verse heroes, he is an anarchist and rebel rather than a straight hero.

When it comes to his power set, it is normal for most Spider-Man heroes, as he has wall-crawling, agility, super strength, and spider-sense. However, he also uses a weapon with his electric guitar, serving as a melee weapon and a sonic cannon. He has shown impressive power levels, with his biggest coming while fighting Osborn’s soldiers wearing symbiote suits (VENOM), and he hit them with amps set to 15,000 watts of “punk rock.” He then decapitated Osborn with his guitar, stepping over a line Peter Parker never would.

8) Spider-Gwen / Ghost-Spider (Gwen Stacy)

Spider-Gwen in Marvel Comics
Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics

On Earth-65, it was Gwen Stacy who was bitten by the radioactive spider, and it was Peter Parker who tragically died (after becoming the Lizard in her world). Just like on Earth-616, Gwen’s dad was a cop, but on her world, he was hunting down Spider-Gwen, not realizing it was his daughter. She has the same basic power set as Spider-Man, with proportionate strength, speed, agility, wall-crawling, and spider-sense.

However, she ended up getting a massive power surge when she was joined by the Venom symbiote, which on her Earth was engineered from Radioactive Spider Isotopes by Dr. Elsa Brock. This gave Spider-Gwen amplified strength, fangs, claws, and tentacles. Like the Venom symbiote on Earth-616, this Venom needs to be fed, although the suit emits deadly radiation, which is one difference. Her symbiote also has a unique trait of being immune to Knull since it was artificially created in a universe where the symbiote god had no power.

7) Spider-Man 2099 (Miguel O’Hara)

Spider-Man 2099 in Marvel Comics
Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics

Miguel O’Hara is one of the longest-running Spider-Verse characters, dating back to his creation in The Amazing Spider-Man #365 (1992) by Peter David and Rick Leonardi. He was part of Marvel Comics plans to create a new universe in the future to show how the heroes changed after more than a decade (all on Earth-928). He ended up being so popular that he got his own solo series and became the face of Marvel 2099 for years.

Miguel is an Irish-Mexican geneticist in Nueva York in the year 2099 who tried to replicate the original Spider-Man’s powers and ended up rewriting half his DNA and becoming something very different. Spider-Man 2099 has retractable talons on his fingers and toes (which are how he wall-crawls), venomous fangs, enhanced vision, and organic web-shooters that fire from his wrists naturally, with no web-fluid required. He is also one of the best leaders in the Spider-Verse, although he is also one of the most violent.

6) Miles Morales

Miles Morales in Marvel Comics
Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics

Miles Morales first appeared in Ultimate Fallout #4 (2011) by Brian Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli. He lived on Earth-1610, which is the Ultimate Universe, and he replaced Peter Parker as Spider-Man after he died in battle with the Ultimate Green Goblin. While things didn’t start off well, with Miles barely beating the Kangaroo, he also faced scrutiny from the public, who felt it was in poor taste for him to dress up as Spider-Man. However, it didn’t take long for his popularity to skyrocket.

Miles gained his powers from a genetically engineered spider, and he has the same basic powers as Spider-Man, but with two major differences. He has his bioelectric Venom Blast that overloads targets, and near-total camouflage that lets him turn invisible. His Venom Blast is so powerful that it overloaded Carnage’s arc reactor and destroyed an entire building, and he has taken down powerful villains like Omega Red. While Peter Parker is stronger, Miles is younger, and there is a good chance he could one day finally surpass the veteran Spider-Man.

5) Superior Spider-Man (Otto Octavius)

Superior Spider-Man in Marvel Comics
Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics

Superior Spider-Man is Doctor Octopus, taking over the body of Peter Parker before his own body died after a long battle with cancer. Now in complete control of Spider-Man’s body, he became the Superior Spider-Man because he didn’t hold back as Peter did for so many years. Doctor Octopus is actually smarter than Peter Parker, so he used his genius to create gadgets and devices that aided him in fighting crime, and he took the always poor and downtrodden Peter Parker and turned him into a financial success.

To prove his power levels, Superior Spider-Man single-handedly defeated the Sinister Six, then took the Living Brain as a trophy and reprogrammed it to serve him, something Peter never managed solo. Doc Ock brutalized villains that Peter handled with restraint. He blinded the Vulture, punched Scorpion’s jaw off, and publicly executed the killer Massacre to stop further murders. While Otto showed he was more powerful physically and scientifically, Peter ended up winning the war for his body in the end.

4) Spider-Man 616 (Peter Parker)

Spider-Man in Marvel Comics
Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics

Peter Parker is the original Spider-Man on Earth-616, and he debuted in Amazing Fantasy #15 (1962) by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. He is not only the center of the entire Spider-Verse and the most famous Spider-Man variant, but Marvel Comics has said that he is the most powerful of any version of Spider-Man on any other Earth. He is the Spider-Totem that the Inheritors hunt as the great web’s central thread, making him the most narratively important spider of them all.

In his debut appearance, he crushed a steel pipe as though it were paper and overpowered most of the villains he faced easily. He realized quickly how strong he was and understood that he had to hold back when fighting anyone because he could overpower most people, heroes and villains alike. Throughout his appearances in Marvel Comics, he fought gods and cosmic beings, and he has proven that, when he doesn’t hold back, he can even stand up to someone like Hulk and Thor in a fight.

3) The Other

Other in Marvel Comics
Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics

The top three most powerful Spider-Verse variants were all Peter Parker in one way or another. The Other is the totemic spider-entity unleashed in the 2005 crossover “Spider-Man: The Other – Evolve or Die,” which ran across multiple titles and manifests inside Peter himself. The Other appeared after Morlun mortally wounded Spider-Man and even ripped out and ate his eye. Spider-Man ended up dying in the hospital, and then The Other resurrected him and brought him back with more powers.

This is the creature that helped show that Spider-Man’s powers came from the spider-totem and not from a random radioactive spider. Peter gained a slate of new abilities far beyond his baseline, including night vision, organic web-shooters, the power to communicate with spiders, and greater clinging ability. He also gained two venomous, razor-sharp retractable stingers in his forearms, a lethal offensive weapon that the normal Spider-Man never carries. When the storyline ended, most of these new powers disappeared, but for a while, this was Peter Parker at his strongest and most animalistic.

2) Zombie Spider-Man (Power Cosmic)

Zombie Spider-Man in Marvel Comics
Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics

Zombie Spider-Man is the undead Peter Parker from Earth-2149. This was the Marvel Zombies universe that Robert Kirkman and Sean Phillips created, where the heroes were turned into zombies and consumed their own world, while somehow keeping some of their memories and personalities. This Peter ended up as a hunger-driven Spider-Man with no restraint, no morality, and an undead body that doesn’t tire or fear pain. He even killed Mary Jane and Aunt May.

However, that wasn’t when he was the most powerful. This Spider-Man ranks as one of the most powerful Spider-Verse characters in history when he and his fellow heroes killed the Silver Surfer and then fed on Galactus, gaining the Power Cosmic. This allowed Zombie Spider-Man and his companions to develop cosmic energy firepower that made them planet-threatening characters. He then helped the Galacti travel the universe, devouring other planets and wiping out countless civilizations. No Spider-Verse variant was ever this deadly.

1) Cosmic Spider-Man (Captain Universe)

Cosmic Spider-Man
Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics

The most powerful Spider-Man ever to exist in the Spider-Verse is from Earth-616, and it is the original Peter Parker version, but with powers unlike any other variant in the multiverse. Peter Parker was temporarily empowered by the Enigma Force as Captain Universe during the 1989-1990 “Acts of Vengeance” crossover. This was a Marvel-wide event where Loki tricked villains into swapping their usual heroic foes. Spider-Man’s change started in The Spectacular Spider-Man #158 when the Enigma Force channeled into Peter.

To understand this event, the Enigma Force is a cosmic force that flows into the most necessary hero when the Earth needs them the most. It helped Eddie Brock stop Knull in “King in Black,” and it helped Spider-Man save Earth in this storyline. On top of his regular powers, Spider-Man gained flight and the power to manipulate energy and matter on a cosmic scale. In The Amazing Spider-Man #328, he punched the Hulk so hard he sent him out of Earth’s atmosphere and into orbit, then flew up after him to make sure he was okay. To save the world, he shattered the Tri-Sentinel, a giant robot built from Loki’s magic and Sebastian Shaw’s tech, with a single overwhelming blast of cosmic energy.

What do you think? Leave a comment belowย and join the conversation now in theย ComicBook Forum!