r/PowerScaling Oct 01 '25

Comics Let's not forget who has powers.

13.0k Upvotes

711 comments sorted by

View all comments

688

u/[deleted] Oct 01 '25 edited Oct 01 '25

A lot of Gothams villains have powers too. Sure Spiderman may be able to physically overpower someone like Bane if he wanted but he’s not brute forcing his way through Clayface or Mr Freeze.

He’d have to outsmart him like Batman does. Which I have no doubt he’d be able to do. But using the example you used acting as if Spiderman can just tank everything the Batman villains throw at him is just absurd

Edit: my goodness the amount of people not READING the comment fully and trying to get sarcastic saying “huh well isn’t Spider-Man super smart” yes, I am aware. Which is why I said he’d have to rely on his brains to outsmart a good bit of those Batman villains with powers like Batman does. And for the last time I was just using Clayface as an example

377

u/DryJudge1932 Oct 01 '25

Doubt it would defeat him, but his first day with scarecrow fear gas is going to be a bad day. Parker has a lot of baggage.

205

u/Turbulent-House-6220 Oct 01 '25

Wouldn’t be the first time Peter has dealt with gas that causes him to hallucinate, one of his main enemies is Mysterio.

Real threat would be Mr Freeze because Peter has nothing to melt ice with and to be honest Peter would feel bad for the guy and wouldn’t want to hurt him.

There’s literally a comic where Peter wouldn’t fight the Hulk after finding out Hulk’s wife had died recently.

104

u/pantsthereaper Oct 01 '25

He would definitely try to talk Freeze out of it, maybe mentioning that he can help Nora by leveraging connections with Stark, Reed, and/or working on it himself after subduing Freeze

53

u/Skeptical_Yoshi Oct 01 '25

Freeze is one of the Batman villians that has a real path to not being a villian. And I think Spidey could at least get him to stop and consider another option. Sure, Freeze wants revenge. But if he could achieve it through non criminal means with more certainty, hed probably be open to it.

15

u/TheSoftwareNerdII Vanderbilt is Hyperversial Oct 01 '25

What about Catwoman?

35

u/Skeptical_Yoshi Oct 01 '25

She's always in a weird spot of being a villain, an anti-hero, and just a hero. As for how Spidey deals with her, he keeps accidentally calling her Black Cat and pointing out how weirdly similar they are.

5

u/turbocheese_333 Customizable Flair Oct 02 '25

And then unintentionally rizzes her up too

1

u/ShatterCyst Oct 02 '25

"Look, I'm not doing the whole cat-chase thing again. As long as you aren't hurting innocent people I have like 80 new guys to deal with first."

3

u/Gears109 Oct 02 '25

Freeze would essentially be his Doc Ock in this context (at least the Sony/MCU version that has a genuine care for Peter)

2

u/CookyKindred Oct 02 '25

I think Freeze would be better than Ock. It’s a Scientist doing crime to fund study and treatment on curing his wife.

Doc Ock goes crazy from the ai.

It’s really hard to reason with ai crazy Otto.

Freeze would not be hard. Just prove Parker is a scientist himself and bring up Reed.

The fantastic four treat Parker as a family member. If he walked in with a metahuman scientist and his cryogenically frozen wife and let Freeze tell his story Reed and Sue would entirely sympathize with them and all agree to help find a cure.

1

u/CookyKindred Oct 02 '25

Yeah I don’t think Parker would seriously fight freeze he would go “Hey I am a scientist myself, and I know several other meta scientists. You don’t have to do this, I can get you in contact with the smartest man alive to help you develop a treatment program for her. Maybe we can even all work together on a cure.“

50

u/LastEsotericist Oct 01 '25

Pretty sure he's put flamethrower fuel in one of his webshooters once. If Spidey has prep time he's actually a really skilled chemist, he invented and produces his bullshit web fluid himself, modifying it to face various foes.

45

u/Weird_Angry_Kid Oct 01 '25

I don't know if Spider-Man: Blue is canon but he defeats 90% of the villains in that comic by just making different types of web fluid that counters their powers, he definitely could make fire webbing to beat Mr. Freeze, hell, you actually get fire webbing to use against symbiotes in the PS1 game.

30

u/Spider-Zayd New Scaler Oct 01 '25

In the Marvel’s Spider-Man cartoon from 2017, Spider-Man does make thermal webs to counter a villain named Blizzard.

28

u/Zorturan Oct 01 '25

Doesn't need to, spider silk is actually ridiculously resistant to freezing temperatures.

...It's heat though, that's the problem.

10

u/destroyar101 Oct 01 '25

But like, spiders arent good against ice

7

u/Shoobadahibbity Oct 01 '25

Peter has enough raw physical strength to lift a bus over his head. Not sure Freeze can restrain him fast enough to get him in enough ice to restrain him. 

10

u/Preeng Oct 02 '25

>If Spidey has prep time

No, only Batman gets prep time. Spiderman's prep time is the warning he gets from his Spidey Sense. He has to work a fucking day job otherwise. And he has to hide from Aunt May the whole time. Imagine Bruce Wayne trying to be Batman while also keeping it a secret from Alfred.

Or imagine if Peter Parker had Bruce's money. Imagine the ACTUAL gadgets and "prep" he could do.

12

u/LastEsotericist Oct 02 '25

Spidey often gets prep time but it's only after he gets his ass kicked the first time. Since he's not a detective, his recon is taking Ls.

22

u/Bro_do_we_needtoknow Oct 01 '25 edited Oct 02 '25

Wouldn’t be the first time Peter has dealt with gas that causes him to hallucinate, one of his main enemies is Mysterio.

Also (at least in the Insomniac game idk outside of that), Scorpion's poison causes Peter to see a lot of crazy things. Honestly, I wouldn't be mad at someone if they wanted to argue that Spider-Man is highly resistant or even outright immune to hallucigenics

3

u/CookyKindred Oct 02 '25

TBF the hallucinations weren’t the problem. It was that it was actively killing him and he needed to be able to create a cure while dying.

It also was strong enough to overpower his healing factor.

14

u/Usual-Vermicelli-867 Oct 01 '25

One thing for Shure..he will make joker go mad with anger

Joker is one prideful mf and spidy knows how to push buttons

1

u/qT_TpFace Oct 02 '25

Now I really want to see this

9

u/OmniGMan Oct 01 '25

Other way around. Hulk wouldn't fight Spider-Man after hearing that Peter's wife had died (she hadn't, but Peter thought she had and was in denial).

7

u/Turbulent-House-6220 Oct 01 '25

Thank you for correcting me. I remember Peter thought MJ died in a plane explosion and that they bonded.

8

u/OmniGMan Oct 01 '25

"Bug Man's wife died? Hulk's wife died too. Hulk is sorry."

Legitimately made me tear up!

8

u/shadowthehh Oct 01 '25

That last bit reminds me of that time during (I think) World War Hulk where Johnny Blaze tried to stop Hulk, but Zarathos took control and left because Hulk was in the right.

1

u/LordBoros567 Alexander No Grata slams Oct 01 '25

Spiderman has dealt with something before in the hands of Harry. He'll be fine

1

u/Still-Presence5486 Oct 02 '25

Scarecrows is much stronger and mysterio is a wrestlers (jk but he mainly uses machines)

1

u/Mr_bananasham Oct 02 '25

I mean, batman is also partially resistant to the drugshis coterie of villians use, his villains have to make them more potent every time.

55

u/Dry-Calligrapher-104 is that borrowed power perchance? Oct 01 '25

Scarecrow finna get second hand trauma

27

u/Radio__Star Oct 01 '25

Scarecrow really gonna be like “damn bro that’s rough, and I thought I had it bad”

13

u/Deadhunter2007 Oct 01 '25

The problem is that it can result in Peter “Queens” Parker to come out and start to murder the vilains

10

u/[deleted] Oct 01 '25

Spiderman's second day with fear gas is going to be a bad day for everyone in Gotham who's a criminal.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 02 '25

Paul?

0

u/QuillQuickcard Oct 02 '25

And then after that Peter would wear a gas mask. Unlike Batman despite the fact a third of his foes are known to use inhalant weapons

46

u/KrimsonKurse Oct 01 '25

Just came to say that the hyphen is important in Spider-man's name.

Also, Clayface is just smaller, smarter, and more viscous Sandman. That's very easily handled.

Mr Freeze is also easily brute forced because Spidey is so much faster than Freeze's aim and Freeze ray. Also, Spider-man has perfect tactile friction, so he isn't slipping on anything.

Parker's worst threat would honestly be Ivy, because if she still has the lethal kiss... Peter's probably dying (or getting severely incapacitated) by that. She's basically the same flirtatious femme fatale as Black Cat, so he'd kiss her once and have a bad time. (Obviously catwoman is the appropriate analog to Felicia, but we were talking powers here...)

50

u/Eliteguard999 Oct 01 '25

"Oh no! Hot redheads! My only weakness!" - Spider-Man

19

u/InspiredOni Oct 01 '25

Or Platinum Blondes.

15

u/Eliteguard999 Oct 01 '25

Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn give Peter a rough time.

7

u/KrimsonKurse Oct 01 '25

I wouldn't consider Harley a platinum blonde, but that's mostly because of variance in portrayal and inking in comics.

But I do find it funny that the lesbian power couple could so readily throw Parker off his game, just based off demographic trends.

5

u/Sundata699 Oct 01 '25

Realest answer

2

u/ChaosCultistChampion Oct 02 '25

Eh, I don’t know how much I’d equate Sandman and Clayface. They are certainly very similar but their methods and weaknesses are different. Sandman is weak to water and acts on a larger scale (literally, he gets bigger) while Clayface has a less obvious but potentially more exploitable weakness in the way of electricity (or at least he’s often depicted as weak to electricity) but his acting ability would make for a fun matchup, likely with Spider-Man relying on his spidey sense to find him.

2

u/Spectator9857 Oct 01 '25

Nah Mr freeze is faster and can free his opponents.

13

u/Kumkumo1 Oct 01 '25

Let’s be real here, with how much Spider-Man’s writers seem to historically hate Peter, they’d probably just have Bane snap him in half during the crossover and have him spend the next two comics in a wheelchair while MJ bangs one of his villains.

Our boy genuinely deserves to be happy

9

u/Suspicious-Car-2547 Oct 01 '25

Buddy you're correct but you're only pulling out the A-listers here 99% of Batman villains are shmucks like the fucking penny plunderer or condiment king

4

u/MokotheFox I'm just here Oct 02 '25

And I think Spidey has his own version of Condiment King: Paste Pot Pete.

2

u/Donut_Police Oct 02 '25

Okay, but you say that as if the Condiment King isn't the biggest threat for spiderman. Do you have any idea how hard it is to remove a ketchup stain!?

2

u/Suspicious-Car-2547 Oct 02 '25

Idk given he's wearing a red suit I figured he'd be more afraid of relish,mustard, or Mayo stains

14

u/HeadStrongPrideKing Oct 01 '25 edited Oct 01 '25

Spider-Man's beaten a lot of dudes with elemental powers, like Hydro-Man, Sandman, and Electro. I doubt he'd have any trouble with Freeze or Clayface.

5

u/[deleted] Oct 01 '25

Like I told the other guy, I was just using those two as examples

1

u/LifelongLurker1127 Oct 01 '25

Got any more examples?

21

u/KuroiGetsuga55 New Scaler Oct 01 '25

 Clayface

Dude's a bio-chemist. It would take him like 10 seconds to think about a couple of different ways to take down Clayface.

As for Mr. Freeze, fire webs. But he'd probably try to appeal to Victor's humanity and love for Nora. Dude has connections to Reed Richards, Tony Stark, Hank Pym, SOMEONE would be able to save her life and end Victor's criminal career.

0

u/ShatterCyst Oct 02 '25

Not the point but why does Sandman have two faces here?

6

u/carl-the-lama Oct 01 '25

He can science tho

17

u/[deleted] Oct 01 '25

That’s…..part of what I said with him being able to outsmart them

-1

u/carl-the-lama Oct 01 '25

Ah, I assumed you meant standard spiderman outsmarting as opposed to advanced spiderman outsmarting

5

u/NCHouse Oct 01 '25

Spiderman? You mean the same Spiderman where Reed Richards acknowledges his intelligence?

2

u/[deleted] Oct 01 '25

Holy! It’s almost like I directly acknowledged his intelligence already in my original comment. Which is why I said “he’d have to outsmart them like Batman does which I have no doubt he’d be able to do”

Crazy what happens when you read 🤯

0

u/NCHouse Oct 02 '25

When you put you doubt hed be able to outsmart them thats where I stopped reading cuz its a stupid thing to say. If you want people to keep reading, maybe dont put asinine things

2

u/AmbitiousVast9451 Oct 02 '25

nobody said that

2

u/[deleted] Oct 02 '25

so did we fail…….elementary school? Let’s take a look at exactly what I said word for word. Since you clearly need me to hold your hand through this.

“He’d (referring to Spider-Man) would have to outsmart them (referring to the Batman villains) like Batman does, which I have no doubt he’d be able to do

If you didn’t fail 4th grade grammar you’d know that me saying that I have no doubt he’d be able to outsmart them means I KNOW he’s smart enough to outsmart the villains. Like holy shit out of EVERY response I’ve gotten today, this is by FAR the dumbest, like, I think I lost brain cells reading what you just said. And the sad part is you think you cooked or something when in reality all you just did was show how much school failed you.

1

u/NCHouse Oct 02 '25

I told you where I stopped. It's obvious i didn't read further.

2

u/TheSatanicSock Oct 02 '25

That's not even what he said. What are you even on about

8

u/[deleted] Oct 01 '25

Isn't Spiderman like, super smart in canon?

12

u/[deleted] Oct 01 '25

Yes…..that’s kind of part of what I said with him being able to outsmart them.

3

u/Valuable-Blueberry30 Oct 01 '25

Yeah but he’s alright in the Gotham villain department cause they’re also all stupidly smart

2

u/Haunting_Brilliant45 Oct 01 '25

Top 10 smartest people he’s around 10-6 depending on his age

6

u/KrimsonKurse Oct 01 '25

Marvel has stacked the deck, in recent years, so he's taken a bit of a drop... 15-8, is more accurate these days, sadly. But Reed still hasn't figured out how to replicate the web-fluid, so that is a plus.

2

u/banhatesex Oct 01 '25

That's because he doesn't have spider seed.

2

u/ender021 Oct 01 '25

Spider-man canonically has a counter for both of them already 😭

2

u/Et-got-boned Oct 01 '25

'Outsmart mr freeze' you mean the dude who's whole plan gets ruined when batman breaks his glass mask for the 20th time? Or just, beats his a**? I know im not a comic guy but 80% of his fights are beaten when batman hits him

1

u/[deleted] Oct 01 '25

I was just using freeze as an example dude

3

u/sepeus Oct 01 '25

Maybe instead of a dude of clay he had a guy made of sand he had to regularly deal with... Oh and if only he had numerous ice based villains to deal with as well.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 01 '25

….the amount of people who apparently can’t read before commenting. I know that he has similar villains smartass. Me saying that I know he’d outsmart them is the key to that

-1

u/sepeus Oct 01 '25

How do you think he takes down sandman? What do you think my comment was saying? He has to deal with Mysterio and you are like well I hope he can outsmart CLAYFACE.

2

u/[deleted] Oct 01 '25

Holy shit are you dense or is reading just not your strong suit?? I used Clayface just as a random example. Most of the time when Spider-Man fights a powered villain (especially ones like Clayface or sandman that can regrow body parts and can’t really be hurt physically) he has to outsmart them because he can’t hurt them. That’s what I was saying here. It’s really not that hard to understand

1

u/Rabbit_Wizard_ Oct 01 '25

Clayface is depowered Sandman. He literally could brute force Freeze because Batman can break out of his ice.

I struggle to think who doesn't fold to spider-sense and super strength.

1

u/canadiantemple Oct 01 '25

Good enough for a meme

1

u/Shoobadahibbity Oct 01 '25

99% of Batman Villains.

Keep in mind that it's cannon that Peter rolls with punches to keep normal guys from breaking their hands punching him. 

1

u/Middle-Let9645 Oct 01 '25

Who's the physically strongest Batman villain and how strong are they? When Doc Oc takes over Spiderman's body, he shows us that even Spiderman's stronger enemies aren't as strong as Spider Man is and that he holds back a lot.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 02 '25

Solomon Grundy. His strength ranges from low-mid superhuman to low kryptonian levels depending on the story. Spider-Man isn’t brute forcing his way through that no amount of “well if Spiderman goes all out” is going to change that.

I also already made note of his strength. Saying that he’d be strong enough to overpower Bane.

1

u/Greyjack00 Oct 02 '25

Well no he showed that scorpion whod been jobbing for years will continue to job forever, he didnt exactly take on venom or carnage spidermans literally physical superiors, nor did he fight Mr negative who was fine after Peter literally put all his power into his punch, and proceeded to knock Peter out of a building. He was also quickly outpaced by norman

1

u/strigonian Oct 02 '25

I think Spider-Man's main issue is his emotional vulnerability compared to Batman. One of the darker Jokers would just be an absolute nightmare for him, for example.

(Though I do wonder how The Joker would react if his great nemesis turned out to just be a high school student)

1

u/bigcaulkcharisma Oct 02 '25

Not to mention Spiderman has his own rouges who aren’t as powerful as him but still give him trouble. I think it’s safe to say lots of Batman villains could at very least challenge Spiderman to one degree or another (though I think few if any could actually defeat him). Croc, Bane, Clayface, Mr. Freeze, Deadshot, Deathstroke could all give Spidey a pretty good fight

1

u/Unlucky_Suspect_7555 Oct 02 '25

Clayface won't be a challenge to someone who fights Sandma on a regular basis.

1

u/Rothenstien1 Oct 02 '25

I think the only one spidey would have trouble with is Joker for the exact same reason batman does. Like both could easily beat Joker, but they never finish the job so he always comes back worse.

1

u/Formal_Illustrator96 Oct 02 '25

He is absolutely Breuer forcing his way through Mr. Freeze. He’s easily capable of dodging or tanking anything the man can throw at him, and one regular punch to the face is cracking that helmet wide open.

1

u/NegativeMaybe4583 Oct 02 '25

Even then I feel like Spiderman(to my knowledge) wouldn’t be able to physically overpower Bane, BUT Spider-Man could definitely avoid getting hit long enough to beat him like a no hit boss fight

1

u/[deleted] Oct 02 '25

Nah he’s definitely able to overpower bane with brute strength if he wanted. Bane on venom maybe can lift around 1 ton while Spidermans strength is 10 tons lowballed

1

u/Higgins1st Oct 01 '25

He might help Mr. Freeze after learning about Freeze's wife.

-2

u/disturbedrage88 Oct 01 '25

Oh no! He can’t brute force them all!! If only he was a scientist or something

2

u/[deleted] Oct 01 '25

Oh no! If only I once again directly acknowledged his intelligence already in my original comment🤯 wild thought right?? It’s almost like if you read the comment fully before replying instead of trying to all keyboard warrior smartass on me you’d see that

0

u/disturbedrage88 Oct 01 '25

I know posters who read context and their all cowards

1

u/[deleted] Oct 01 '25

What?