It’s no secret that My Hero Academia creator Kohei Horikoshi draws heavy inspiration from everyone’s favorite friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. As his favorite superhero, Spider-Man shaped Horikoshi’s view of heroism and a hero’s responsibilities, teaching him that the bond between a hero and an ordinary person lies at the heart of true heroism. This can be seen in his favorite moment from Spider-Man 2, when a child returns Spider-Man’s mask, showing how ordinary people support their heroes. And his admiration for Spider-Man can also be seen in his own writing.
Much like Spider-Man, Deku too has a strong moral code, an unshakable sense of justice, and complete willingness to risk everything for civilians. These similarities become even more obvious once Deku gains Black Whip. And thanks to these parallels, fans love comparing the two underdog heroes to see who is stronger. With countless versions of Spider-Man existing across fiction, this article will be focusing on Deku facing off against the MCU Spider-Man. Now, without further ado, let’s dissect their greatest battles, weaknesses, and the cold, hard math behind who wins.
The Two Heroes’ Greatest Feats
In Spider-Man: Homecoming, when Chitauri tech ripped the Staten Island Ferry in half, Peter gripped the fractured hulls, his muscles screaming under 2,800 tons of deadweight. For eight seconds, he held firm—exerting 1,400 tons of force per arm—before Stark drones stabilized the wreck. This feat proved that Spider-Man’s strength rivals that of Captain America.
In contrast, Deku’s biggest feat comes from the Final War Arc. When Tomura Shigaraki’s decay Quirk birthed a continent-sized storm over Japan, threatening millions, Deku channeled One For All’s full power and punched the sky. With a single punch, he cleared the skies from Japan to the United States of America while on his last legs. This attack had the equivalent power of 42.37 Petatons of TNT, the strike not just matching the storm but erasing it.
Strengths And Weaknesses
Peter Parker’s genius lies in his gadgets, but they’re also his Achilles’ heel. In Spider-Man: Homecoming, Vulture’s EMP disabled his Stark suit mid-air, leaving him stranded and vulnerable. Without tech, Peter’s strength and reflexes remain, but his tactical edge vanishes—a flaw exploited again when Mysterio’s drones overloaded his Spider-Sense with holograms in Far From Home.
Meanwhile, Deku’s Quirks demand a brutal toll. During his first major battle against Muscular, using just 5% of One For All shattered his arms. By the Final War Arc, 45% Full Cowling let him shatter Shigaraki’s reinforced limbs. But this isn’t without consequence. Gearshift’s inertia manipulation can strain Deku’s heart to near-failure. And even Danger Sense, which warned him of Lady Nagant’s sniper rounds, can be overloaded in chaotic battles like the Paranormal Liberation War, leaving him disoriented.
Speed: Relativistic vs. Human Reflexes
In My Hero Academia Chapter 368, Deku unlocks Gearshift, a Quirk that allows him to increase or decrease the speed of anything he touches, defying inertia. But even before he unlocked Gearshift, Deku’s speed and reflexes were no joke. In the fight against Lady Nagant, he was able to dodge bullets moving at around 18,000 mph while analyzing air displacement mid-fight.
In Spider-Man’s case, Peter’s reflexes peaked in Captain America: Civil War, when he dodged Bucky’s Mach 2.5 bullets from 10 meters away, showing a 0.0117-second reaction time. Another example is when his Spider-Sense warned him of Mysterio’s drone strikes in Far From Home. But without precognition, Peter is stuck at supersonic speeds, meaning Deku can absolutely speed blitz him with Gearshift’s physics-defying hacks.
Who Wins Based on Pure Stats?
A rift in space and time opens up above downtown Manhattan, and Deku is launched out of it at full speed, crashing into a cab and nearly flattening it with the force of impact. One moment, he was mid-battle with All For One, and in the next, he’s been thrown across the multiverse by a warp-type Quirk. He groans as he gets up, still running on adrenaline from the fight. His muscles are tight, his breathing sharp.
Spider-Man spots him from a nearby rooftop. From his point of view, someone just shot through a portal and crushed a car. His instinct kicks in: get control of the situation before anyone gets hurt. He drops down and shoots his webs towards Deku to pin him down. But Deku sees the motion and reacts, using Full Cowling to jump out of the way before using Blackwhip to grab Spider-Man and toss him several meters away.
Peter twists midair, fires a web to a streetlight, and redirects himself into a smooth landing. But now both heroes are convinced the other is hostile. Trying to take Deku down as fast as possible with minimal property damage, Spider-Man swings wide, building speed, and aims to knock Deku off balance with a kick using momentum from a tight arc around a lamppost.
But Deku just activates Gearshift on his legs, builds up Fa Jin from earlier movement, and blinks around Peter, reappearing behind him. He winds up a 20% Detroit Smash, not anywhere near as strong as his storm-clearing punch, but still carrying 2.15 megatons of force — enough to tear through concrete and crush steel. Thanks to his Spider-Sense, however, Peter reacts in time, ducking under the blow. Deku’s punch misses, but the pressure behind it blasts forward like a cannon, hitting a nearby sedan hard enough to lift the front end and flip it forward.
A civilian inside screams, and both heroes react on instinct. Peter shoots a web to the car door and pulls the driver out, getting him clear just before the car hits the curb. At the same time, Deku uses Blackwhip to grab the car by the bumper and pull it down before it smashes into another vehicle. They both realize it at the same time: they’re not enemies. Just two heroes from different worlds.
If they were to keep fighting, Deku has raw power, speed, and multiple Quirks that give him control over mobility (Gearshift), crowd control (Blackwhip), predictive defense (Danger Sense), and energy output (Fa Jin). Spider-Man has good reaction speed, high-level agility, creative web use, and tactical instincts—but not the same output. Peter could stall, dodge, and redirect Deku for a while using the terrain. But the moment Deku lands a clean hit, even a held-back one, it’s over.
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