Miles Morales's Powers, Ranked: Could He Ever Surpass Peter Parker as Spider-Man?

With everyone's favorite new Spider-Man back in the spotlight, I wanted to take a proper look at Miles Morales's powers and abilities and figure out just how powerful this version of Spider-Man truly is. More importantly, I wanted to answer the bigger question: can he ever actually surpass Peter Parker in power and take that top spot as the Ultimate Spider-Man?

How Miles Morales Got His Powers and Became Earth 1610's Spider-Man

Miles was just an ordinary teen until he was bitten by the Oz formula modified spider that had been snuck out of the then defunct Oscorp. That bite granted him a wide array of powers, including the traditional Spider-Man power set, but it also came with electric based powers that he dubbed his Venom Sting and the ability to become invisible.

Miles served as his universe's Spider-Man for years on Earth 1610, and he'd even occasionally interact with the Peter Parker of Earth 616. During the events of Secret Wars, Miles was one of the few people to survive at the end of all things, and he ended up being one of the few people from the Ultimate Universe to survive the rebirth of the Multiverse thanks to Molecule Man's favor.

Since then, Miles and his family have been living out on Earth 616. He's been a member of the Avengers, the Champions and the Ultimates, making him one of the most important heroes in the world.

Miles Morales's Strength Lets Him Throw a Shipping Container and Shatter a Shield

Miles has all the proportionate strength of a spider, meaning he's easily superhumanly strong, strong enough to lift up and throw around a police car, a large box truck or even a shipping container, which would mean he's lifting and throwing up to 34 tons if that container is full. The crazy thing is that Miles is still kind of growing into his strength, so this isn't near his full limit just yet.

Even without maxing out his strength, Spider-Man can throw a punch that has no problem sending Green Goblin flying, even straight through buildings. It's the kind of punch that can one shot a lot of opponents, and he's used it to beat Hammerhead all up even with his fancy adamantium skull, generally overpowering everyone he runs across.

Just like Peter, Miles is always holding back in a fight, but there are moments when he stops holding back, like when he shattered Hydra Cap's shield with just one punch. That wasn't Steve Rogers's classic vibranium shield, but it was still really tough, and Miles broke it with a single hit.

His Durability Has Him Surviving Rhino, Morlun and Torture Meant to Break Him

It's not just the proportionate strength of a spider either. Miles is way tougher than pretty much everyone else around him. He's been thrown far by Rhino and was just fine, and he's repeatedly taken punches from both Rhino and Green Goblin, two villains who've given Peter Parker plenty of trouble in the past.

He's survived hits from Morlun, who can straight up kill other Spider-Men. It's not just physical punches either. Miles took a whole beatdown from Prowler, including one of his attacks, and survived. He's also survived energy blasts from Vision and powerful electric attacks capable of melting Iron Man's armor.

On top of all that, Miles has survived hours of intense torture and experimentation that was meant to bring him to his breaking point.

Speed, Reflexes and Spider Sense That Make Him Nearly Untouchable

The best thing Spider-Man has going for him is the same as any other Spider-Man: his speed and agility. Spider-Man can move and react within microseconds. Iron Man once told Miles he had to destroy an ancient artifact in a microsecond in order to prevent an army from making it through a portal, and Miles was successful.

He's regularly been able to dodge bullets, react to bullets and even block bullets after they've already been fired, sometimes from some of the world's best marksmen like Winter Soldier. It's not a matter of bad aim or missed shots, Miles is simply faster than bullets, and he uses that speed to dance around opponents and easily react to punches and attacks thrown his way.

Then on top of that you throw in his spider sense. It's a miracle Miles has ever been tagged before, since it warns him of pretty much every incoming attack and allows him to predict what will happen next, often before the attacker even has the chance to attack.

Invisibility Lets Him Hide Even When Thanos Is in the Room

Those are all normal Spider-Man powers. What sets Miles apart are his electricity powers and the ability to turn invisible. With his invisibility, he's regularly able to sneak up on opponents, get the drop on them, catch them by surprise and take them out.

He's also able to use it to sneak around or hide from enemies, and he's ridiculously good at this too. Miles was able to stay hidden on the Maker's ship while villains like Thanos, Namor and the Maker were hanging out, and none of them knew he was there.

Bioelectric Powers Give Him Venom Blasts, a Mega Blast and Electric Weapons

Spider-Man's body also produces a powerful form of bioelectricity, which Miles can manipulate in all sorts of ways. He learned how to discharge energy blasts from his hands, which he calls Venom Blast, and they can either simply daze someone or knock them out entirely. He's used them to knock out Venom, knock out Rhino, and he's even knocked out another Spider-Man before. He's also somehow managed to knock out Fin Fang Foom and injured Null.

He can fire his Venom Stings out as energy blasts too, and he'll regularly use them to amp his punches and make them more powerful. Spider-Man is also able to do what he calls a Mega Venom Blast, where he releases a powerful blast of energy from all over his body, destroying most of the area around him, and he can use it to take out a whole group of enemies at once.

More recently, Miles has even been learning how to create constructs out of bioelectric energy, including electric webbing and electric swords. At the end of it all, Miles Morales is looking like one of the most powerful Spider-Men out there, and I'd say so.

Could Miles Morales Ever Actually Surpass Peter Parker?

That still raises the question of how Miles compares against the original Spider-Man, Peter Parker, and whether Miles could one day surpass him in power. Miles does have a good edge here. He's got pretty much every single power that Peter has, but on top of that he's got all of his bioenergy powers, Venom Blast, and the ability to turn invisible.

Even when it comes to physicality, sure, Peter might be stronger right now, but you could argue that's just because he's older. Give Miles a few more years to grow and mature and that difference might not be there. We've already seen that Miles is roughly just as strong as Peter was when he was Miles's age. It's the same with experience, Peter has plenty more years with the whole superheroics thing, but give it a few more years for Miles and that could become a non factor.

Of course, Miles isn't quite there just yet, and you really don't want to discount Peter's physicality. Peter is constantly holding back his true strength. When Doc Ock took over Spider-Man's body for a little while, he accidentally took off a villain's jaw the first time he threw a punch, having severely underestimated just how strong Peter was, and he never knew that Spider-Man was holding back in every one of his fights. On top of that, when the daughter of Peter Parker time traveled back to the past to see her dad in his prime, the thing that shocked her wasn't just that he was very strong, it was that he was also very fast, which is actually a rare combination in Marvel. Usually the strongest characters tend to be clunky and slower compared to their faster, agile counterparts, but not Spider-Man. The best way to put it is that he's stronger than everyone faster than him, and faster than everyone stronger than him.

Then there's the one area where Peter has a clear edge over Miles: intelligence. Sometimes Miles is portrayed as pretty smart on his own, but more often than not he's just like a regular guy. Meanwhile Peter is like top 10 smartest people in the Marvel Universe. He's often able to outthink his opponents, come up with unique solutions to problems, and use math and science to defeat his most powerful villains.

When it comes down to it, Miles might physically surpass Peter one day, he's definitely growing in power, and it could happen, and his bioelectric powers and invisibility will always give him an edge in a fight. But I don't think he'll actually ever get to be better than Spider-Man overall. Peter right now isn't the strongest Spider-Man, that would probably be Scarlet Spider. He's not the fastest, and he doesn't have the best spider sense, that would be Silk. He might not even be the smartest, that'd be a toss up with Superior Spider-Man. What Peter does have is the best balance between all his powers and abilities, and that's what essentially makes him the best of the spiders.

It's the same as over in the Bat family. Nightwing is more acrobatic than Batman, Red Hood is much more brutal and ruthless, Tim Drake is the better detective, Cassandra Cain is the better hand to hand fighter, and Damian is even the better warrior and soldier, but none of them are actually better than Batman, because while they might beat him in one thing, Batman is better at them in everything else. Peter Parker is like that for the spider family. There may be some things he can't do, but he's still the best of them. Who knows, with how much more powerful Miles is getting day to day, I could be wrong, and he might very well surpass Peter one day, earning that top spot as the Ultimate Spider-Man.

Could Miles Morales's bioelectric powers and invisibility ever be enough to make him a better all around Spider-Man than Peter Parker?