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As I saw, the Winter Soldier's metal hand is very powerful. And in many combats with the Avengers it's been shown. But in Captain America: Civil War, when both groups are combating, Spider-Man, here just a kid, was able to lift and bend the Winter Soldier's metal hand very easily. I don't understand how he can do this?

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    A kid with superpowers. :S
    – Walt
    May 9, 2016 at 7:57
  • Even captain has the super powers! but he coudn't do that!?
    – Hakuna Matata
    May 9, 2016 at 8:02
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    Capt. America does NOT have super powers, he just is the best in everything with the limit of what a human can do because of a serum.
    – Maarten
    May 13, 2016 at 12:24
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    MCU Cap is not just peak human, he's clearly superhuman @MaartenOlijve
    – cde
    May 31, 2016 at 6:33
  • Related: movies.stackexchange.com/questions/15829/…
    – cde
    May 31, 2016 at 6:35

3 Answers 3

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From this answer on SciFi.SE;

Bucky Barnes does not have superhuman abilities.
Neither does Steve Rogers. Instead, Steve is simply at peak physical fitness for a human being (to the point where he may appear to be superhuman). It would seem that after Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Bucky also shares these traits.

From Captain America: Civil War, I believe we can assume that Bucky and Steve are about equal when it comes to physical strength, endurance and speed.

However, despite being "leveled up" to peak human, they are both significantly weaker than Peter Parker.

Peter Parker was bitten by a radioactive spider, which gave him the proportionate strength of a spider. This means that if a spider were scaled up to the size of a human (along with their strength), it would be as physically strong as Peter Parker.

In fact, we get an indication of Peter's raw strength in Captain America: Civil War. Tony is showing Peter vidoes of Spider-Man's good deeds all across New York, and in one of them, Peter stops a van from driving into a bus at the last second by simply picking it up.

Being as spiders can lift many times their own body weight, so can Peter Parker, which makes him one of the strongest characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to date; and that is why he can block Bucky's punches and move his arm around so easily.

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    My one gripe with this answer would be, we don't yet know the origin of Peter Parker's powers at this point. Stark says that Peter picked up a 3000lb minivan driving at 40mph.
    – Jack B Nimble
    May 9, 2016 at 15:40
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    Although Bucky's biological arm is probably about as strong as Cap's arms, I think the idea is that the metal arm is significantly stronger. Doesn't change any of the rest of the answer, as Spider-Man is much stronger either way.
    – DCShannon
    May 10, 2016 at 1:57
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    I think it's clear that Cap does have superhuman abilities. Superhuman durability and metabolism, at least. In the first movie he is shown as incapable of getting drunk due to metabolizing too quickly, and shortly after he jumps out of an airplane with no parachute (and he doesn't have his Vibranium shield to land on yet). While it's possible a normal human at peak physical condition could survive such a fall (or jump), they would probably break some bones, and definitely not be fit to infiltrate a Hydra-Nazi prison camp and liberate an entire regiment of troops. (1/3)
    – TylerH
    May 10, 2016 at 13:07
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    The helicopter in the movie generates about 2000hp, or 1491.4 Kilowatts. As shown in quora.com/How-much-energy-can-a-human-produce and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_power, as well as worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/32336/…, a healthy human (on average) 1.2 horsepower for a short time, whereas a trained athlete can generate twice that. Considering Cap is capable of holding that helicopter indefinitely, and thus generating at least 2000 horsepower... (2/3)
    – TylerH
    May 10, 2016 at 13:11
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    He is being shown as able to generate ~1666x as much power as the average human. That by very definition of the word is superhuman ability. Superhuman doesn't only mean "magical" or "alien". Cybernetic implants or genetic modification (which is what happened to Cap) qualify, too. All this just to nitpick your quoted answer (3/3)
    – TylerH
    May 10, 2016 at 13:17
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Both Cap and Bucky are on about equal strength, with Cap being stronger but handicapped by his friendship to Bucky. In Age of Ultron, we see Cap flip a moving motorcycle over his head. It's 600 pounds dry weight. Cap isn't moved at all. That's super human, as the human weightlifting record is a 400 lbs snatch.

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In Civil War, Bucky does much of the same, flipping a motorcycle around in the air without skipping a beat. This bike is clearly smaller than the one Capt flipped.

enter image description here

But in Civil War, we see a video of Spider-Man dead stopping a moving van. Tony Stark explicitly states it is 3000 pounds.

That's 6 times what Capt was able to do. And that's EXPLICITLY why Tony seeks out Parker. Because he knew he needed a heavy hitter in order to bring down two Enhanced Humans like Capt and Bucky.

Spider-Man is in a completely different strength class. His strength dwarfs Capt and Bucky's strength. Even an enhanced human with an Vibranium Arm like Bucky can't produce the same amount of force of a 3000 pound car moving at 40 MPH. He lacks the pure mass/density to do so.

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    big fan of your answers always, much respect. I think you hit the nail on the head with this one. The one observation I have is that you mention Bucky's mass/density with respect to the van. It might be what sparked this question in the first place. Spiderman is just a teenage boy and he doesn't look like he has much mass to him. It's hard to believe he can stop a moving van like that but hey, it's just a movie, right? The physics of the Hulk and the Ant-man don't always make sense either,
    – m1gp0z
    Oct 8, 2018 at 21:10
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In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, both Captain America and the Winter Soldier possess powers even surpassing what is said to be peak human. The MCU takes a great deal of it's inspiration and characterization from the Ultimate Marvel series.

Captain America has displayed strength beyond even peak human since his first canonical showing in the MCU by lifting a motorcycle with three showgirls on it. That's a lifting feat in the 900-1,250 pound range. In Age of Ultron, he threw a motorcycle at an attacker. In Civil War, he held back a helicopter from taking off with only one hand.

Cap has also been able to sprint at speeds reaching that of 30-45 miles an hour for long periods of time as shown in Civil War when he, Winter Soldier, and the Black Panther outran cars. Not a car, CARS.

Considering that Winter Soldier was enhanced with the same serum he was, albeit a different version and in smaller amounts, yet still able to fight on the same terms as Cap, display similar feats and still hold his own, I'd consider the two of them superhuman.

Spider-Man is a completely different story. Even at their highest showing, Cap and the Winter Soldier aren't any stronger than the 2-3 ton range. Spider-Man, even at his weakest and as a child, is blatantly superhuman. Considering that the MCU has shades of the Ultimate Universe, what with nearly all the non-tech Earth-based powers coming from Erskine's Super-Soldier serum, I'd say that this Spider-Man is definitely not going to be rocking Normal Spider-Man strength.

Normal Comic (616 Universe for those that know) Spider-Man is in the 35-45 ton range as of right now. That's strong enough to lift two armored trucks overhead.

Ultimate Comics has Peter Parker Spider-Man (there's a distinction) at around a 3-5 ton range. Near the end of his run, even while near death, burnt, bruised, bleeding and with a bullet in him, he lifted a truck (approximately 11 tons=22,000 lbs).

This MCU Spider-man is faster, stronger, more agile and more...well...super than Cap and the Soldier, even with the Soldier's metal arm.

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  • 2 to 3 ton is an exaggeration. MCU Cap is clearly in the 1~2 ton range. As for Spidey, last I remember he had issues lifting the average sedan (2 tons) until he got the Symbiotie boost. Vans and such were much harder for him. From the 90's cartoon "i used to have trouble lifting a Volkswagen". From the Amazing Friends cartoon: 8m51s youtube.com/watch?v=eiHVdJNUtMM
    – cde
    Dec 13, 2016 at 5:37

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