Captain America vs Spider-Gwen: Why Steve Rogers' Skill and Experience Beat Gwen Stacy's Raw Power

Captain America wins this fight. Spider-Gwen is physically superior to Steve Rogers in basically every area, but the way I see it, this matchup comes down to "essentially power versus skill and experience," and on skill and experience Steve takes a solid advantage.

Before getting to the reasoning, it is worth laying out exactly what each of them brings.

The Super Soldier Serum made Steve Rogers the pinnacle of human potential

During World War Two, Steve Rogers volunteered to receive the experimental Super Soldier Serum. Enhanced to the pinnacle of human physical potential and armed with an unbreakable shield, he became Captain America. After a failed mission left him encased in ice for decades, he was found and revived by The Avengers, later becoming the team's leader. Steve is as strong, fast, durable and agile as a human could ever be, and he has been referred to as the next step in human evolution.

Cap's strength is impressive. He can bench press a ton as a warm up, break steel chains, threw his shield through a tank and pulled a helicopter out of the air. He is incredibly durable too, able to take punches from Namor and tank a point blank explosion from Gambit, and one time he even survived a 200 foot fall from an airplane and suffered no discomfort.

He is fast enough to run 60 miles per hour, and his reflexes are so great that he can easily dodge bullets. Plenty of characters can dodge bullets, so what makes Steve different is that he can actually see the bullets coming his way and move in time, where other bullet dodgers rely on years of training and reflexes. Another major enhancement from the serum is that Cap has no fatigue toxin build up, which means he effectively never tires and can perform at his maximum ability for an incredible period of time.

Captain America is one of the best fighters in the Marvel Universe, and his shield is virtually unbreakable

Steve is a master of a large number of different fighting styles. He has even developed his own fighting style, which melds jujitsu, boxing, judo, karate, pressure point striking, acrobatics and the use of his shield.

Speaking of the shield, Captain America's shield is made of a vibranium alloy and is virtually unbreakable. It absorbs the kinetic force of anything that strikes it, which enables Cap to ricochet the shield off objects and have it come back to him.

Spider-Gwen can reportedly lift around ten tons and has a spider sense of her own

Gwen Stacy was the first love of Peter Parker, and she is best known for her tragic death after being thrown off the Brooklyn Bridge by the Green Goblin. The Earth 65 version, however, is the heroic Spider Woman, otherwise known as Spider-Gwen. She was originally depicted as having similar powers to Spider-Man, since both of their powers came from being bitten by a radioactive spider.

She is superhumanly strong, and according to the Marvel guidebook she can lift approximately ten tons. With her attacks she has punched Rhino straight through a brick wall, and with help from her Earth's version of Captain America she pulled down the roof of a sewer. She is also superhumanly durable. She has withstood explosions and blasts from someone like Electro, and was even blasted through a brick wall and still got back up ready to fight.

Gwen is incredibly fast and agile, able to easily weave around and dodge bullets or energy weapons. She also has a spider sense, which functions as a sixth sense of sorts. It warns her about danger before it happens, letting her avoid sneak attacks, predict when an enemy will strike and move beforehand. She can also stick her hands and feet to virtually any surface.

Gwen's web shooters never need refilling, but her fight training is limited

Spider-Gwen owns web shooters that were created and given to her by former hero and current billionaire mogul Janet Van Dyne. These web shooters filter moisture out of the air to create an adhesive web fluid, and she uses them to swing from building to building and create web nets, ropes and other web constructs. They also do not require refilling as long as there is moisture in the air.

Spider-Gwen is not necessarily a trained fighter, but she is able to use her incredible powers to win many fights, and she has picked up some fighting skills from watching kung fu movies.

Physically, Captain America can hang with Spider-Gwen

I do not think anyone is going to argue that Steve is not the much more skilled and experienced fighter. Gwen really does not have any notable fight training to speak of, while Cap is easily one of the best fighters in the Marvel Universe. So the first question is whether Captain America can even hang with Spider-Gwen physically. Daredevil might be the better fighter than She-Hulk, but because she is so much stronger and more durable than him, Matt has absolutely no shot at winning. That is an extreme example, and Steve and Gwen are much closer in physicality, but it makes the point.

The problem is that, with Gwen being such a new character, we do not have a ton of feats to work with to see clearly how much damage she could do to Captain America. So I flipped the question: is Steve durable enough to take punches from someone who lifts ten tons, and fast enough to react to someone who can easily dodge bullets?

Can Cap take hits from Spider Woman? Absolutely. He has been smashed through multiple walls and had a building dropped on him without breaking any bones in the process, and that is one of his lower end feats. He has taken attacks from Namor, War Machine and Iron Man, who are all much stronger than Spider-Gwen, so I am betting he will take Spider Woman's attacks as well. Her attacks will do some damage, since she has similar powers to Spider-Man, but Cap can take punches, get back up and keep on coming. That is before even mentioning his shield, which will be able to easily block Gwen's attacks.

Gwen is faster, but not by enough to leave Steve behind

The next question is whether Cap is fast enough to dodge or block Spider-Gwen's attacks, as she is faster and more agile than him, though not by much. Steve has dodged countless bullets, even at point blank range or after they were fired, and has blocked multiple bullets at the same time as they were fired at his head and feet.

Cap has even dodged and blocked attacks from Spider-Man himself. Peter was probably holding back due to his immense respect for Steve, but I think that is balanced out by the fact that he was in the Iron Spider suit at the time, and Peter has proven himself to be much faster and more skilled a fighter than Gwen.

Still, it likely will be difficult for Captain America to land hits on Spider-Gwen, mostly because of her superior speed and agility and also because of her spider sense. She knows when and how someone is going to attack her, and she is fast enough to dodge bullets, which are faster than anything Cap can throw with a punch or his shield. That is not to say Steve will not be able to hit her. He has hit many people who can dodge bullets, and he has fought against Superior Spider-Man, who has a spider sense as well.

So even though Spider-Gwen is physically superior to Captain America, "Steve can definitely hang in there," and he has fought more powerful opponents before. With that said, Gwen will be able to injure Cap with her punches more than he can injure her, she can dodge more of his attacks, and she will be able to land more attacks as well.

Steve Rogers' 80 years of experience is where he takes over

Physicality is just one aspect of this fight. When it comes to fighting skill and experience, they are nowhere near the same level. Gwen learned how to fight from watching kung fu movies, while Captain America has had 80 years of fighting experience and is easily one of the best fighters in the world. Steve has even mastered a form of combat better than masters with decades of experience after practicing it just once.

Cap also has good experience fighting spiders, having battled Spider-Man, Agent Venom and Superior Spider-Man. It has also been said that he knows an enemy's weaknesses after fighting them once. Although he has never gone up against Spider-Gwen herself, most spiders tend to have a similar fighting style, relying on their speed, agility, webs and spider sense more than their strength or durability. Gwen tends to be a bit more ruthless than Peter, but they share a similar base style, and Cap should be able to pick up on that.

The shield is a near perfect answer to Spider-Gwen's webbing

Steve's shield is also kind of a perfect defense against Gwen's webbing, as it will block a lot of her shots, and he can even use the shield to cut her webbing in half. Even if Spider Woman manages to web it out of his hand, as Spider-Man once did, I do not see that working out for her.

Captain America is just as dangerous without his shield, and he is surprisingly dangerous with it even when it is not in his hands. One time Steve was tied up while holding his shield, yet Cap was able to free himself and take out his enemies just by kicking the shield the right way.

The verdict: Captain America wins

So at the end of the day, can Spider-Gwen win? Yes, she definitely can use her greater strength and speed to come out on top, and she will claim a few victories. But I have to back Captain America in this fight. He can physically hang with her, he is the much better fighter, and he has experience fighting spiders in the past.

Spider-Gwen is a relatively new character, and she just has not performed enough impressive feats to justify consistently beating someone with Steve's skill and experience. "Captain America wins."

Do you think Spider-Gwen's strength, speed and spider sense are enough to overcome Steve Rogers' decades of experience, or does Cap take this one?