Spider-Man’s 12 Most Impressive Displays Of Power In The MCU

The MCU’s Spider-Man has delivered many remarkable displays of power since his introduction in Phase 3. Tom Holland debuted as the MCU’s Peter Parker in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War, finally bringing the iconic wall-crawler into Marvel Studios’ shared franchise after Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield portrayed the character in Sony films. Holland has already appeared as Spider-Man in six MCU projects, including a solo trilogy comprising Spider-Man: Homecoming, Spider-Man: Far From Home, and Spider-Man: No Way Home, each of which has gifted Peter Parker the opportunity to show off his incredible spider-like powers with some impressive feats of strength and strategy.

Unlike his predecessors, Tom Holland’s Peter Parker was introduced into the MCU after already having been bitten by a spider and receiving his abilities, as Marvel Studios decided it wasn’t necessary to retell the initial moments of Spider-Man’s origin story. This allowed him to be thrown into action immediately, joining Team Iron Man during Captain America: Civil War before embarking on his solo stories. Over the last seven years, Peter Parker has grown up and become stronger in unexpected ways, and has had the chance to show off his powers by fighting a variety of villains. Here are twelve examples of Spider-Man’s most impressive displays of power in the MCU.

12 Peter Parker Stops A Moving Car Before Getting An Upgraded Suit

In Captain America: Civil War, Tony Stark approaches Peter Parker in his apartment to recruit the young hero. While Parker is initially reluctant to expose his superhero identity, Stark displays video footage of Parker’s pursuits as Spider-Man, including one that shows him in his civilian clothing Spider-Man costume stopping a moving car from colliding with a bus. This is a brilliant show of strength from the young Spider-Man, as he’s able to pull off these feats without having any of the fancy gadgets and suit upgrades that he’d be gifted by Stark. Instead, he’s simply using his new abilities to protect his neighborhood, earning the title of “Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.”

11 Spider-Man Climbs The Washington Monument

2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming explored Peter Parker’s first adventure as Spider-Man after being gifted a sleek costume in Civil War. However, in his early days, Parker felt controlled by Tony Stark, so unlocked the full potential of his suit and embarked on his own missions. One of these involved him saving his friends from an exploding Chitauri power core in an elevator in the Washington Monument. Even though the Monument stands at roughly 554 feet, Parker scales the entire obelisk, then hurls himself over a hovering helicopter and bursts through a window to stop the elevator inside from falling. This showed his stamina, agility, and the strength of his synthetic webbing.

10 Spider-Man Held The Staten Island Ferry Together

After taking on Adrian Toomes and his crew alone on the Staten Island Ferry in Spider-Man: Homecoming, the boat is inadvertently split into two halves by a Chitauri gun. Hoping to bring the two sections back together, Parker attaches webbing to key points and struggles to maintain the stability of the Ferry. Unfortunately, his webbing is only 98% successful, and the boat begins to collapse anyway, leading to Iron Man’s appearance to save the day and undermine Parker, but this was still an incredible display of sheer strength from the young Spider-Man. This also proved his bravery at his insistence to take on the Vulture despite feeling ignored by Stark.

9 Spider-Man Escapes Rubble After Being Trapped By Vulture

Spider-Man’s bravery and strength was once again shown towards the end of Spider-Man: Homecoming, as he abandoned Liz at the Homecoming celebration to take on her father, Adrian Toomes’ Vulture, with no assistance. This initially doesn’t go as planned, and Parker finds himself trapped beneath the rubble of the Vulture’s collapsed warehouse. While hope seemed to be lost at this moment, Parker willed the strength to lift the rubble and free himself, without using any of his other incredible powers and without the use of his technologically advanced costume. This was a turning point for Peter Parker, as he realized he didn’t need the suit to be a superhero.

8 Cull Obsidian Is Stopped In His Tracks By Spider-Man

2018’s Avengers: Infinity War brought most of the MCU’s heroes together to thwart the Mad Titan Thanos’ destructive plan to collect the six Infinity Stones. Before coming to Earth, Thanos sent the Black Order to collect the stones, including Ebony Maw and Cull Obsidian, on a hunt for the Time Stone. During the Black Order’s first altercation with Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, Cull Obsidian attacks Iron Man, but Spider-Man intervenes just in time, stopping Obsidian’s hammer in its tracks with an incredible amount of ease. No ordinary human would have been able to pull this off, but Parker seemed to take the arrival of powerful aliens on Earth in his stride.

7 Spider-Man Slingshots A Train In What If…?

Marvel Studios’ What If…? may have focused on versions of the MCU’s heroes from alternate realities, but Phase 4’s season 1 still delivered a display of power from a variant of Peter Parker. On an Earth infested with zombies, Spider-Man becomes a leader in a small group of surviving heroes, and after the group formulates a plan to find Vision, Parker has a pivotal role in getting them there. Planning to take a disabled train to Vision, Spider-Man uses his strong webbing to slingshot the train out of the station, narrowly missing getting devoured by zombies but giving the train enough of a jump start to get it going properly.

6 Peter Parker Outsmarts Doctor Strange In No Way Home

Back in the MCU’s main continuity, Phase 4’s Spider-Man: No Way Home replaced Tony Stark as Peter Parker’s mentor figure with Doctor Strange, but the pair didn’t see eye-to-eye. While Strange wanted to send the multiversal villains back to their deaths immediately, Parker wanted to try and cure them of their various inflictions first, leading to the pair battling it out in the Mirror Dimension. Doctor Strange is one of the MCU’s strongest heroes, but Spider-Man was able to outsmart him by using the geometry of the Mirror Dimension to his advantage, trapping Strange over the Grand Canyon for hours while he and his friends sought cures for the villains.

5 Spider-Man Anticipates Mysterio’s Illusions

In the wake of Avengers: Endgame and Tony Stark’s sacrifice, Peter Parker wanted to go on his school vacation in peace but instead became entiwned with the disgruntled former Stark Industries employee Quentin Beck, posing as the multiversal hero Mysterio. Beck’s use of Stark drones to create elaborate illusions had bested Spider-Man at every turn, but during the film’s final battle, when Mysterio threatened to destroy London with a fictitious Elemental, Spider-Man tapped into his Spider Sense and fought him with his eyes closed. This epic moment saw Parker take down several of Beck’s drones and crack Beck’s final illusion, proving his incredible agility and quick thinking.

4 Spider-Man Battles Captain America One-On-One In Civil War

Enhanced with the super-soldier serum, it’s difficult for anyone to take on Steve Rogers and bring him to his knees, but Spider-Man did just that during his MCU debut. During the Avengers’ battle at a German airport, Parker takes on Captain America and, using Stark’s advice of going for his legs, is able to briefly incapacitate the super soldier. While this doesn’t last too long, and Parker is eventually bested by Rogers, the fact that Spider-Man was able to briefly one-up Captain America certainly earns him a badge of honor – particularly since not even Iron Man could defeat his former friend at the end of Civil War.

3 Spider-Man Protected The Infinity Gauntlet During The Battle Of Earth

Avengers: Endgame’s final battle saw the MCU’s heroes battle Thanos and his army for one last time while attempting to get the completed Infinity Gauntlet off the battlefield. The Gauntlet passed through the hands of several notable heroes before falling into the care of Spider-Man, who used his impressive agility, durability, stamina, and strategic mind to hold onto the Gauntlet for as long as he possibly could. This battle also provided payoff for Spider-Man: Homecoming’s “instant kill” jokes and saw Parker utilize Mjolnir’s strength and seek the aid of Valkyrie and Captain Marvel in some epic moments. Spider-Man proved pivotal in fighting Thanos in both Infinity War and Endgame.

2 Spider-Man Beats Green Goblin In Hand-To-Hand Combat

Spider-Man: No Way Home delivered a much darker story for Peter Parker than audiences had become familiar with, not least as it featured the death of Aunt May at the hands of Willem Dafoe’s Norman Osborn, a.k.a. Green Goblin, from Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy. Fueled by his anger throughout No Way Home’s final battle, the MCU’s Spider-Man ended up battling the villain one-to-one, using his brute strength to easily weaken the Green Goblin. If Tobey Maguire’s Parker hadn’t stepped in the way, Holland’s Spider-Man may have even killed Osborn at this moment, but instead mustered up the strength to cure the villain, despite his actions throughout the Phase 4 film.

1 Peter Parker Asks Doctor Strange To Make Everyone Forget Him

Perhaps Spider-Man’s most impressive display of power in the MCU wasn’t a show of physical strength or superhuman abilities at all, but was, in fact, a case of emotional power and critical thinking. By the end of 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home, Parker realized that the only way to protect the stability of the multiverse was for Doctor Strange to complete his original spell, making everyone forget Peter Parker, including his closest friends. This decision came at a tragic cost for Spider-Man but was an incredibly powerful moment displaying his dedication to protecting others and laying his own life on the line.