Tobey vs Andrew vs Tom: who wins the Spider-Man fight?

We've seen all three live action Spider-Men share the big screen, but if Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield and Tom Holland's versions of Peter Parker actually fought each other, who would be left standing? I've gone through strength, speed, durability, spider-sense, experience and tech. After the events of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, my answer is clear: Tom's Spider-Man wins, and I don't think it's even up for debate anymore.

It's the same origin, the same power set and the same city, with three very different guys. Here is how each one stacks up before they go head to head.

Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man has 20 tons of raw strength and organic webs

Tobey's Peter Parker was a nerdy kid from Queens. He was a science genius, bad at being liked, and almost invisible to everyone around him. That changed when a radioactive spider bit him on a school trip, and suddenly he could lift cars and stick to walls. He decided to use those powers to protect the city he grew up in, because with great power comes great responsibility, and this Spider-Man knows that better than anyone.

His strength is fantastic. He officially lifts 20 tons, and what he does on screen backs that up. He might be even stronger than that. He held a tram car full of kids with one arm while hanging on with the other. He held up an entire warehouse roof. He lifted huge chunks of debris to protect Mary Jane after being beaten almost to death, and he tore the Venom symbiote off his body with his bare hands. The bond between a symbiote and its host is one of the hardest things to break, so that is an impressive feat of strength.

Then there's the train scene in Spider-Man 2. Six subway cars carrying a total of 300,000 pounds of passengers were moving at 80 miles per hour, completely out of control. Spider-Man fired his webs, planted his feet at the front of the train and held on until everything stopped. That's 137 tons at 80 miles per hour brought to a full stop. It took everything he had, but he did it.

He's also far tougher than he looks. He took repeated hits from a fully armored Green Goblin, including pumpkin bombs and glider strikes, and kept going. He took nonstop punishment from Doctor Octopus across several brutal fights, and he was beaten by Sandman, yet he kept getting back up. His organic webs come straight from his body, unlike most versions of the character, so they never run out or jam, and there are no mechanical shooters to break. His spider-sense is fully on and always working too. He dodged Green Goblin's blades in midair and survived a vicious fight with Doctor Octopus on the side of a moving train. What this Peter lacks compared to the others is super speed and tech: no suit upgrades, no AI and no specialized webs. Instead he has 20 tons of raw strength, webs that never run out and stamina that refuses to quit.

Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man is built on speed

Andrew's Peter Parker lost his parents when he was a small child. They left him one night with Aunt May and Uncle Ben and never came back, and it later turned out they had died in a plane crash. He grew up in Queens, skateboarding and trying to figure out who he was. When he found his father's old briefcase and learned his dad had worked with a scientist named Dr. Curt Connors at Oscorp, Peter snuck into the company posing as an intern to look for answers. That's where the spider found him, and everything changed from there.

As Spider-Man he has the proportional strength of a spider. He caught a car with one hand while hanging from a web with the other, and it didn't seem hard for him at all. He stopped a bus with ease and caught a falling police car in midair. He ripped the Lizard's whole tail off, stopped a subway train and pulled together Oscorp's entire power conduit system to help defeat Electro. Against the Lizard, one of Spider-Man's strongest villains, he held his own across several fights.

His durability is the same story. He took Electro's full lightning straight to the face and chest several times, the same lightning that was breaking apart metal. He cracked a few jokes about how much it hurt, but he kept fighting regardless.

For this Spider-Man, though, speed is the key element, and it's the core this Peter is built on. He made everyone around him look like frozen statues. He dodged heavy gunfire at very close range as if it were nothing. He repeatedly dodged Electro's lightning, which moves at the speed of light, while only one of his web shooters was working properly during parts of that fight. He was reading the attack, reacting to it and moving out of its path in real time. Across his two films, it's clear he's one of the fastest Spider-Men there is.

Tom Holland's MCU Spider-Man pairs strength with Stark tech

Tom's Peter Parker was an ordinary kid from Queens until a spider bite changed everything. He was being a neighborhood Spider-Man on his own for a while until Iron Man showed up in his apartment and recruited him to fight alongside the Avengers. Everything changed from that moment, but he held on to one rule: great power demands great responsibility.

I'd say this Spider-Man is secretly one of the most physically powerful heroes in the MCU, especially when he lets loose. He's far beyond a regular super soldier. He handled Cull Obsidian, a member of Thanos's Black Order who thought he could beat the Hulk. He knocked Giant-Man down during the airport battle and managed to slow down Thanos himself on Titan. When he really lets go, as in No Way Home when he beat down the Green Goblin, it becomes obvious this kid is operating at a level well beyond what most people expect from a friendly neighborhood hero.

He stopped a 3,000 pound car moving at 40 miles per hour with ease. He lifted thousands of pounds of building rubble off himself after being buried underneath it. He held a piece of a tower weighing more than 1,000 tons in Far From Home. Then there's the ferry. The Staten Island Ferry split clean in two, and Peter held the halves together using his webs and pure physical strength. The ferry weighs more than 3,000 tons, and he held on until Iron Man came to save the day.

He's surprisingly tough too, tough enough to take grenades to the face. He was beaten up by all five villains, hit by a train in Far From Home, hit with missiles and explosions, punched by Giant-Man, and grabbed and thrown around by Thanos, yet he gets back up every time. Where he truly shines is speed and agility. He's easily the best acrobat in the whole MCU, reacting to bullets, missiles and lightning as if he has all the time in the world. By Far From Home he can fight blindfolded, and in No Way Home his spider-sense is precise enough to sense the Green Goblin's personality shifts in real time. Without sight, using only his spider-sense, he took out Mysterio's entire drone army. His web shooters give him taser webs, web grenades and ricochet webs, and he has the Iron Spider armor Tony Stark built, made of nanoparticles that assemble and disassemble at will, fully bulletproof and with four extra mechanical arms coming out of his back. He's also one of the smartest characters around: he made his own suit as a teenager, made his own web fluid, worked out how to beat Mysterio and helped develop a strategy to cure all five villains.

Strength: Tobey Maguire and Tom Holland are neck and neck

Tobey is probably the strongest of the three, officially at 20 tons, and the train scene is the best proof. Six fully loaded train cars weighing around 300,000 pounds, moving at 80 miles per hour out of control, and he planted his feet and held on until it stopped. That's probably the most impressive strength feat of all.

Of course, Tom's ferry feat might match it. The Staten Island Ferry weighs more than 3,000 tons, and he tied the two halves together with his webs while hanging underneath with nothing below his feet. That's a much heavier weight, but the webs were doing a lot of the work, and Iron Man showed up to finish the job. It's hard to say which is technically more impressive. You could argue Tom has been tested against stronger opponents, facing Thanos and Proxima Midnight and even crushing the Green Goblin in a way the other two couldn't. But Tobey comes in and stops Tom from landing the knockout blow. These two are very close.

What I can say is that Andrew is the weakest of the three. He carried a car with one hand, stopped a bus and caught a falling police car, but he never faced pressure at the level the other two did. Two films weren't enough to establish the upper limit of his strength.

Speed: Andrew Garfield is the fastest of the three

When it comes to speed and agility, Andrew is the best, and nobody comes close. He made everyone around him look still, dodged fast bullets at close range and repeatedly dodged Electro's light speed lightning in real time during a fight. That's probably the best pure speed feat across all of these films.

Tobey is the slowest of the three. He still has superhuman reflexes, dodging the Green Goblin's blades in midair, but he isn't as impressive as the other two.

Durability and spider-sense favor Tom Holland

Tobey doesn't go down easily. He takes repeated hits from a fully armored Green Goblin, plus attacks from Doctor Octopus, Sandman, Venom and the new Goblin, and he absorbs all of it and keeps fighting. Andrew's durability, especially against something like Electro's lightning, is impressive, but when it comes to heavy hits he wasn't tested the way the other two were.

In the end I have to give the edge to Tom. He took hits from the same villains as the others, the Green Goblin, Sandman and the Lizard, but he also faced Thanos, Cull Obsidian and the Black Order. The other two Spider-Men can't say they took hits from Thanos.

On spider-sense, I think Tom's is the most precise of the three, and I think it's the strongest. He picked up on the Green Goblin's personality shifts before Norman fully turned, and he destroyed an entire drone army with his eyes completely closed, every drone brought down by pure anticipation with no sight. Those are the most impressive spider-sense moments in any of these films. Tobey and Andrew both have spider-sense, and it shows up and helps them, but I don't think it comes close to what Tom did.

Experience and tech favor Tom Holland

Tom has faced the most varied opponents, and probably the highest level ones, of the three. It started in Civil War against trained fighters like the Winter Soldier and Captain America, then moved into Infinity War and Endgame against Thanos, the Black Order and alien threats Tobey and Andrew never saw. Tobey certainly has his own experience against the Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, Venom and Sandman. He's had plenty of fights and years and years of experience. I think Andrew probably comes last here, not for lack of ability but for lack of time. He's skilled and he's dangerous, but he didn't get the same chance to develop.

On tech and web shooters, Tom is the one who had Stark tech for most of his career, and he may still have the Iron Spider armor. Tobey's organic webs are an advantage because they never run out, but they aren't a real tech upgrade. Andrew has basic web shooters. Tom has far more flexibility to draw on.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day settles it for Tom Holland

You could argue that after No Way Home it came down to Tobey and Tom, with Tobey holding a slight edge in some physical areas. After the events of Brand New Day, though, it became clear to me that Tom wins easily, for two reasons.

First, it was roughly a 50/50 fight between him and Tobey, and then Tom has to go and fight the Hulk. That means he's strong enough to at least stagger the Hulk. Second, he's tough enough to take the Hulk's hits. Maybe not many, but the Hulk grabbed him and was throwing him side to side just as he did with Thor and Loki. We never saw Tobey or Andrew go through anything like that. Based on his feats alone, Tom is clearly stronger and tougher.

More important, Tom finally accepted his upgraded biology. He doesn't only have organic webs now; he became much stronger, faster and tougher than he was before, by a very wide margin. The fight between him and Tobey was already close, and with these upgrades it's completely clear that Tom is the strongest Spider-Man of them all. It's not even up for debate anymore. I love all three, but now it's easy for me to say which Spider-Man wins, and it's Tom.