Spider-Man vs Wolverine: who wins this very close fight?

Spider-Man and Wolverine have fought many times in Marvel comics. That's a lot of fighting for two characters who are supposed to be friends. So who should be winning these fights, and should it even be that close? My answer is that this fight is very close, a lot closer than you'd think. But if I had to put my vote on someone, that someone is Wolverine.

To get there, I'll lay out what each of them brings to the fight, then break down how those powers stack up against each other.

Wolverine's strength and speed are greater than they look

James Logan Howlett is Wolverine, a mutant and one of the most important members of the X-Men. He was born in the 1800s with a remarkable healing factor, and Logan has lived a lot of life. He has been a soldier, a samurai, an outlaw and a living weapon. Now Wolverine is at his best as a hero, working with both the X-Men and the Avengers to protect humanity and mutantkind from all sorts of threats.

One of his mutant powers is superhuman ability, including strength and speed. In many ways he's comparable to Captain America, the original super soldier. Logan has overpowered and thrown around Spider-Man and Sabretooth, and he has even thrown Colossus. He can tear through metal and snap steel chains. He routinely picks up hundreds of pounds or even a few tons with relative ease, and he has no problem knocking superhumans around with his punches, up to and including the likes of Vision. Wolverine is surprisingly strong.

He's also surprisingly fast. Wolverine has no problem moving faster than his opponents can keep up with, and that includes Spider-Man, who is maybe the fastest and most agile street level character in Marvel. Spider-Man is routinely surprised and caught off guard by Wolverine's speed and reflexes. Logan can dodge or block bullets or laser blasts headed his way, even after the bullet has been fired or at point blank range.

To be fair, Wolverine doesn't always use that speed in fights. He can when he needs to, but he rarely needs to dodge, because he knows he can take the attack and heal from it. Sometimes he likes to take a few hits at the start of a fight to get the blood flowing and get amped up. Other times he simply presses the attack and goes all offense, with no need to worry about defense at all.

Wolverine's healing factor and adamantium skeleton make him nearly impossible to put down

That leads into Wolverine's greatest power: his healing factor and durability. His skeleton is covered entirely in adamantium, which means he cannot be cut or torn apart, and trust me, plenty of people have tried. The adamantium also greatly increases his durability. Wolverine has been kicked clean around the world and come out fine. He has taken punches and attacks from some of the strongest beings on Earth, from Hulk to Thor to plenty more, and he has been fine.

Bullets are no problem for him; they don't even faze him. He keeps fighting while stabbed up, and being turned into a pin cushion doesn't do much. He has kept fighting after having his heart destroyed on multiple occasions. He can heal and come back from disintegration, and he has survived nuclear bombs several times over. Logan might be injured, but he's always going to heal from it, and he's always going to come back no matter what.

Wolverine's claws, fighting skill and berserker rage

Wolverine isn't only a raging brute who relies on his healing factor, although he does act like one from time to time. He's one of the most skilled fighters and best warriors in the whole Marvel Universe. His adamantium claws can shred through anything in their path. They can pierce Hulk, Thor, Thanos and Gladiator, and less durable opponents can be sliced into little pieces in an instant.

He's said to be an extremely deadly fighter, renowned across the universe for his skill. He's skilled enough to casually defeat master martial artists and to hold his own against, or even beat, the likes of Captain America, Black Panther, Iron Fist and Shang-Chi. Those are some of the best fighters in Marvel.

He only gets more dangerous in his berserker rage. In that state he goes hyper violent and becomes even more powerful and deadly, instantly overwhelming almost any opponent in his path. It's like compressing days of nonstop fighting into a few minutes or seconds. In short, Wolverine is the best at what he does.

Peter Parker's Spider-Man is incredibly strong and incredibly tough

Now take everything I've said and throw it out the window, because we're talking about the original Spider-Man, Peter Parker. With his strength, Peter has easily thrown around cars and trucks and lifted subway cars clear over his head, even private jets. He has lifted one of those massive construction cranes and even helped support and lift up a building all by himself.

Spidey can use all that strength to throw one heck of a punch. He has fought some of his toughest villains, including Venom, Rhino and Electro, and punched them clean through buildings. That's a regular thing for him. On one hand, Peter can knock out a guy with one finger. On the other, he can injure the Hulk. No doubt about it, Spider-Man is stupid strong.

He's also incredibly tough. Spider-Man has taken punches from Juggernaut, Hulk, Apocalypse, Hercules and Gladiator and been fine. He can relax and let ordinary people punch him; that's how tough he is. He has taken lightning from Thor, over 100,000 volts of electricity. He has taken grenades at point blank range repeatedly, blasts from different Iron Man armors, and even survived a missile exploding right on top of him.

He has recovered almost immediately from nerve strikes from Iron Fist. Spider-Man is also close to immune to toxin or chemical attacks, because his body can instantly filter them out. His body has even held off enough toxin to wipe out an entire city.

Spider-Man's speed, spider sense and webbing

Spider-Man is one of the fastest and most agile characters in all of comics. He can move faster than the eye can see and appear as a blur, even to well trained fighters. He can move across miles in seconds. Forget dodging bullets; that's too easy for him at this point. He has dodged lightning and energy blasts, even energy blasts that are supposedly faster than light itself.

All that speed means Spider-Man can routinely speed blitz most opponents he goes up against. That includes Black Panther, Daredevil and other master martial artists. They might be more skilled than Pete, but Spider-Man is so much faster that he's going to land his hits anyway.

Then there's his spider sense, which makes him the perfect counter to almost anything that comes his way. Spider-Man will know every move his opponent is about to make because his spider sense tells him. It isn't only a warning system for when he's about to get hit; it's also essentially a radar that gives him complete awareness of his surroundings.

His web shooters have restrained the likes of Iron Man and even Hercules and other gods, and his webbing is close to fireproof, acid proof and nearly impossible to cut through. Peter isn't a bad fighter either. He worked with Shang-Chi, the top martial arts expert in Marvel, to develop his own fighting style, called the Way of the Spider, meant to enhance his spider powers and give him some measure of fighting skill.

Spider-Man is stronger, but Wolverine is far tougher

These two have always been well matched, and each has his own advantages over the other. Spider-Man is clearly stronger. Wolverine is definitely strong for a tiny little Canadian, and you could put him in the same superhuman tier as super soldiers like Captain America. But with everything Peter can lift and punch through, Spider-Man is significantly stronger than Wolverine.

On the other hand, Wolverine is way tougher than Spider-Man. That's not to say Spider-Man isn't tough. He can survive punches from the likes of Hulk and Juggernaut, and he knows how to take a hit. But Wolverine is much, much tougher.

For as hard as Spider-Man can throw a punch, he isn't hitting harder than Hulk, Juggernaut, Thor, Red Hulk or the strongest guys in Marvel, all of whom Wolverine has taken punches from before. Considering that the only thing Spider-Man can do to try to injure Wolverine is throw punches, that's not looking too good for Pete.

Spider-Man's speed and webs against Wolverine's claws

One thing you can say about Spider-Man is that he's fast, and he can speed blitz even master martial artists. The problem is that Wolverine has regularly shown he has the speed to tag Spider-Man when no one else can. Spider-Man is faster, and I think they have both admitted this at different points. But Spider-Man has also complimented Wolverine's speed enough times that you have to take notice. Wolverine has also hit Spider-Man enough times that you have to admit he's going to land hits in this fight, whether Spider-Man is faster or has his spider sense going full blast.

One edge Spider-Man does have is that he can fight at a distance. He can pour on the webbing and try to restrain Logan enough that he can't do anything. If Spider-Man gets enough webs going, I think that could happen. For as strong as Wolverine is, this webbing has held back the likes of Rhino or Venom, characters significantly stronger than Logan. Spider-Man could probably restrain Wolverine.

Of course, Wolverine has the perfect counter to webbing in those adamantium claws. "Spider-Man's webbing is nothing to those claws", and they'll slice right through it. Wolverine has regularly done that in their fights. And if Wolverine gets one or two hits in with the claws, that instantly swings the fight in his favor. Logan can heal from everything Spider-Man throws at him, but Pete can't heal the same way. Three stab wounds in the gut will obviously affect how he fights from then on, and even if he keeps going, the advantage is now all Wolverine's.

What Spider-Man and Wolverine's comic book fights show

They've fought many times, and both have their wins. Some were easy. Once, Wolverine was trying to talk Spider-Man down while he was the Superior Spider-Man, and Spider-Man sucker punched him. But Wolverine has sucker stabbed Spider-Man too, during a training exercise, and Peter nearly bled out on the floor. Wolverine has often pinned Spider-Man with his claws, usually when they're talking and Logan gets ticked off. And Spider-Man has embarrassed Wolverine, leaving him webbed up with his claws stuck against his head and unable to escape.

Probably the two most accurate fights between them were the graveyard fight and the Contest of Chaos fight. Those fights showed a few things. First, they're equals in speed and fighting skill. Spider-Man is faster and Wolverine is the better fighter, but against each other it's close to a wash.

Second, Spider-Man's webbing was close to a non issue at the time. Wolverine knows Spider-Man well enough to know how Peter is going to use those webs, and he can counter them successfully. Third, Spider-Man has a very hard time putting Wolverine down with his punches. Wolverine lay there letting Spider-Man punch him with everything he had, and he was still smiling. Logan is nearly impossible to consistently knock out.

Why I think Wolverine wins the fight

Originally I thought Spider-Man would win, but now I'm thinking it's more likely Wolverine. They're just as fast, and while Spider-Man is stronger, Wolverine is so much tougher that the strength advantage doesn't matter. If both of them are going to land hits, I'm liking the guy with three razor sharp blades on his fist over the guy with webs.

"Wolverine just needs to land one good hit to turn the fight in his corner." Spider-Man, meanwhile, has to fight a perfect fight and avoid getting hit to keep from being killed, and even that might not be enough, because he can't reliably put Wolverine down. This fight is very close, but if I had to put my vote on someone, Wolverine wins.