Thinking about this Captain America vs. Spider-Man controversy, I tried to imagine what such a story might look like.

I love both those characters, they're my two favorite Marvel heroes. In fact, when I was a kid and was allowed to have 2 comics every Sunday when i went with my father to get the newspaper, Cap and ASM were the two titles that I refused to miss each month. I'd try other books on other weeks, but I refused to miss an issue of either of those 2.

Anyway, as much as I might agree that Spider-Man is physically stronger, faster, more agile, I can easily imagine a scene where the two fight and Cap manages to find a way to win, probably culminating in an unexpected maneuver that completely stuns Spider-Man, leaving him amazed and with the wind knocked out of him as he can't believe what Cap has just done. In my mind's eye, it works and feels right and could have been drawn by JB or one of the Romitas or somebody like that.

But when I try to picture the opposite result, Cap having been beaten by Spider-Man, it just doesn't compute. It feels wrong. It's like reading something Alan Moore wrote in one of those instances where he just needs to keep his hands off other people's characters.

It's just some silly, instinctual feeling on my part, but I just can't picture a well-written story where Cap loses to Spider-Man if they're both themselves. (Perhaps if Cap was brainwashed or something and not thinkig clearly it would work).

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Unfortunately, that's usually the first thing that goes out the window when fans get to debating who could beat who. All too often, it becomes an old fashioned "My Dad is tougher than your Dad" argument -- for "Dad" read "favorite character" -- and we get nonsense like "Batman could beat Galactus!"

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You're wrong

This is true. I'm bigger and stronger than my karate instructor but he continues to beat the crap out of me to this day. What he lacks in size and strength (compared to me) he makes up for in strategy, experience, and skill. Just like Captain America would.

Is Captain America technically a superhuman? Is his speed,strength,and agility supposed to be at superhuman levels?

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No. He's the pinnacle of human ability.

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This takes us into the somewhat gray area of just what defines a superhero.

The "hero" part is easy enough -- the character has to fight the good fight, preferably for the right reasons.

What about the "super" part, tho? Does this require actual super powers -- abilities normal humans do not possess, such as real wings, or optic blasts, or enough strength to lift the Great Pyramid? Or does it only require that someone be really, really, REALLY good at something?

For myself, I'd say the latter. I have no trouble defining Olympic athletes as superhuman, for instance. So someone like the Batman would definitely qualify. And Captain America, who has been elevated even beyond what an Olympic champion could achieve -- yeah, he definitely qualifies as a superhero!

As far as Cap vs. Spider-man...

In the Marvel Universe, the star-spangled Avenger would get the nod.

In the real world, the closest equivalent would be a 10 year old karate student trying to fight an Olympic-level decathlete.  Because the decathlete doesn't know how to fight, the kid would have a chance to catch him in a compromising position but at least 99% of the time, the laws of physics would beat the kid down in a few moments.

Mike