Nightwing vs Miles Morales: Why the Spider-Man of Earth 616 Takes This Protégé Showdown

But Nightwing in a fight with Miles Morales and my verdict is that Spider-Man wins. Nightwing is the better fighter, but Miles is stronger, faster and tougher, and his Venom blasts and camouflage stack the odds too heavily against Batman's first protégé.

We have seen plenty of Batman versus Spider-Man fights over the years, so I wanted to look at their two top proteges. For Nightwing, I am using a composite version of the character, drawing on post Crisis, New 52 and Rebirth. For Miles, it is all the same guy: he hopped over from Earth 1610 to Earth 616, but he is still the same Miles.

Grayson's strength feats reach super soldier range

Grayson was the original Robin after being adopted by Bruce Wayne. He eventually outgrew that position and was inspired by Superman to become Nightwing, with Jason Todd and Tim Drake succeeding him as Robin. Grayson has also taken up the Batman mantle itself for a while, with Damian serving as his Robin, before returning to his role as Nightwing. He has led the Teen Titans and even the Justice League.

Thanks to Batman's intense training, Nightwing is at the pinnacle of physical conditioning, almost on par with Batman himself. He can easily pick up and carry people with one arm, swing around a refrigerator, and some of his workouts are well within the half ton range. Probably most impressively, he prevented an orca from chomping down on him, and that is a bite force of 19,000 PSI. He can push over a gigantic penny weighing multiple tons or hold up a huge stone boulder. He might not technically be superhuman, but his strength feats are well in super soldier range.

That translates into a fight. He had enough strength to take on a holographic copy of Bane and actually break Bane's back. He has knocked out Batgirl with one punch, hurt superhumans like Blockbuster and Gorilla Grodd, and once shattered a man's titanium legs, titanium being one of the strongest metals on Earth.

Nightwing's durability and willpower are just as impressive

Nightwing is equally tough. He can take multiple punches from some pretty powerful superhumans and not go down, and he has survived point blank explosions multiple times. He is usually more than fast enough to dodge bullets, but it helps that his suit is pretty much completely bulletproof. In fact, the suit is so durable and so advanced that he has said Kevlar looks outdated compared to it.

It is not just physical durability either. Nightwing has some of the best mental toughness and willpower you will ever see. He can go days without sleep, ignore fear toxin and break through mental torture. He has gone over a week in the desert without food or water, and he has been stabbed in the gut or shot in the head and still kept going.

Speed and agility are where Nightwing shines most

He was headlining his own acrobatic show as a kid, so you knew this was going to be his specialty, and he is officially known as the best acrobat in the DC Universe. He has regularly dodged bullets, even whole crowds of gunfire, to the point where he can basically laugh off guns. He has even dodged point blank shots with the gun pressed against his head.

Nightwing is faster and more fluid in his movements than even Batman, and faster than Catwoman and Cassandra Cain. It is not unreasonable for him to react to super speed either: he has dodged attacks from Jesse Quick and has even caught Wally West.

For Nightwing, skill and gear matter as much as physicality

With the bat family it is never just about physicality, and skill and gear matter just as much. Batman trained Nightwing in every form of martial arts and every joint and nerve strike known to man, and he quickly mastered it all, to the point where it was said he was only just behind Bruce in skill and ability. He has fought and beaten Red Hood, absolutely schooled Damian, fought Deathstroke multiple times, held his own against Lady Shiva, and actually beat Batman, although you could say Batman was holding back and testing him in that fight.

His primary weapons are his escrima sticks, which can be electrified to release some pretty serious electrical attacks, and he is incredibly good at throwing them, ricocheting them all over the place with no problem. He throws his wingdings like crazy too and is ridiculously accurate with them. He also carries explosives, sonic disruptors and basically anything else you can think of. At the end of the day, Nightwing might go down as Batman's greatest success and maybe one of the best heroes on Earth.

Miles Morales can throw a shipping container, possibly up to 34 tons, and is still growing

Miles was an ordinary teen until he was bitten by a spider modified with the Oz formula that had been snuck out of the then defunct Oscorp. The bite gave him the traditional Spider-Man power set, plus electric powers he dubbed his Venom sting and the ability to become invisible. He served as Spider-Man of Earth 1610 for years, occasionally interacting with the Peter Parker of Earth 616. During Secret Wars, he was one of the few people from the Ultimate Universe to survive the rebirth of the Multiverse thanks to Molecule Man's favor, and since then he and his family have lived on Earth 616. He has been a member of the Avengers, the Champions and the Ultimates.

Miles has the proportionate strength of a spider, strong enough to lift and throw a police car, a large box truck or even a shipping container, which would mean up to 34 tons if the container is full. The crazy thing is that he is still growing into his strength and is not near his full limit. Even so, his punches send Green Goblin flying through buildings, can one shot a lot of opponents, and can beat up Hammerhead despite his adamantium skull. Like Peter, Miles is always holding back, but when the moment calls for it he stops, like when he shattered Captain America's shield with one punch. Granted, that was Hydra Cap and not Steve Rogers' classic vibranium shield, but it was still really tough and Miles broke it in one hit.

Miles has survived Rhino, Green Goblin and even Morlun

Miles is way tougher than pretty much everyone around him. He has been thrown a long way by Rhino and was just fine, and he has repeatedly taken punches from Rhino and Green Goblin, both of whom gave Peter Parker plenty of trouble in the past. He has survived hits from Morlun, who can straight up kill other Spider-Men.

It goes beyond physical punches. He took a whole beatdown from the Prowler's sonic attacks and survived. He has survived seeking missiles, an energy blast from Vision, powerful electric attacks that can melt Iron Man's armor, and hours of intense torture and experimentation meant to bring him to his breaking point.

Microsecond reactions and spider sense make Miles nearly untouchable

Like any Spider-Man, his best asset is speed and agility. He can move and react in microseconds. Iron Man once told him he had to destroy an ancient artifact in a microsecond to stop an army coming through a portal, and Miles succeeded. He has regularly dodged, reacted to and blocked bullets after they were fired, sometimes by marksmen like Winter Soldier. So it is not a matter of bad aim: Miles is simply faster than bullets, and he uses that speed to dance around opponents and easily react to their attacks.

Then add his spider sense, and it is a miracle Miles has ever been tagged. It warns him of pretty much every incoming attack and lets him predict what will happen next, often before the attacker even has the chance to strike.

Invisibility and bioelectricity set Miles apart from other Spider-Men

Miles regularly uses his invisibility to sneak up on opponents and take them out by surprise, or to hide from enemies, and he is ridiculously good at it. He stayed hidden on the Maker's ship while Thanos, Namor and the Maker were there, and none of them knew.

His body also produces a powerful bioelectricity. His Venom blasts can daze someone or knock them out entirely: he has knocked out Venom, Rhino and Spider-Man, somehow knocked out Fin Fang Foom and injured Knull. He uses Venom stings to amp up his punches, and his Mega Venom Blast releases energy from all over his body, destroying most of the surrounding area and taking out whole groups of enemies. Recently, Miles had even been learning to create constructs out of bioelectric energy, like electric webbing and even electric swords.

This fight is power against experience, and Miles is ahead physically

As I see it, "this fight is basically all power versus experience." Realistically, Spider-Man should easily outpace Nightwing in strength, durability and even speed and agility, because Miles is superhuman and he is not. Nightwing has some outrageous high end strength feats, but you still cannot see him throwing around cars or sending guys through buildings. He can take attacks from superhumans, but not these kinds of attacks from these kinds of superhumans. Speed and agility is the closest area, but most of Nightwing's bullet dodging comes from instinct, training or moving so fast no one gets a clear shot. Miles is simpler: he is just faster than bullets.

On the other hand, Nightwing has far more skill and experience, mostly because almost every hero has more than Miles. Miles does not really have combat training. He has basically gotten by on spider sense and reflexes, plus learning from old clips of Peter Parker in combat and trying to copy moves, with a lot of luck involved. That leads to mistakes in fights, and he does not fully know the extent of his powers. Nightwing, trained by the best, is considered the second best fighter behind Bruce, a brilliant tactician who will instantly come up with multiple strategies, and I bet a lot of them will be effective. Smoke bombs, explosives and sonic attacks should be fairly effective, and he can push Miles in a way he has never been pushed. Beating metahumans outside his weight class through skill and brains is something Nightwing does nightly.

Why Miles Morales still wins

That physical gap is still huge. "Nightwing is gonna have to land 10 attacks for every one that he takes" because Miles hits so much harder and can take so much more punishment, and that is ridiculously hard against someone faster and more agile. Nightwing might be the best acrobat in DC, but "he's still just a human acrobat." Add spider sense, which almost borders on predicting the future, and it gets ridiculous.

I do not think Miles's invisibility will be as effective as usual, because Nightwing's mask can see in infrared, but even losing track of him for a couple of seconds is dangerous. The bioelectricity is worse: Miles can adjust his Venom blast at will and take Nightwing down with one touch, or at least severely daze him, and it could short out a lot of Nightwing's gadgets. If Nightwing catches him with bolas or a grappling gun, Miles could channel the blast straight through the line, and the Mega Venom Blast is something Nightwing could not dodge at all.

Nightwing is definitely the better fighter, smarter and more cunning, with the experience and tools to give Spider-Man one heck of a fight. But Miles is stronger, faster and tougher, with better agility and reflexes, he can sense every punch before it is thrown, and then there are the Venom blasts and camouflage. I think the answer is pretty obvious: Spider-Man wins.

Do you agree that power beats experience here, or can Grayson's skill close the gap?