Superman and the Strongest DC Superheroes

Detective Comics has a handful of iconic superheroes – the most famous of which are Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman (who’s really just a female, de-powered response to Superman). Princess Diana is, in fact, closer to a god than a human being.

There are, however, many powerful, relatively unknown characters that would rate high up on a list of the very strongest or most powerful beings.

We investigate two handfuls of such characters in the following, which is restricted to the Detective Comics universe – there’s one for Marvel coming soon! Here are the strongest DC superheroes, without further ado…

10. Nekron – Progenitor of the Blackest Night

 

We start out with the great entity Nekron at the bottom of this very powerful list. He has the ability to raise the dead, which ought to be it insofar as qualifying as a formidable beast goes.

But there’s more – Nekron can also fire bolts of dark lightning from his fingertips, which are powerful enough to make even mighty superheroes very dead. He can even kill Guardian-level entities with a single touch, and increase his mass in an illimitable fashion.

Nekron also carries with him a scythe that can tear through the fabric of reality and cause undue damage to ethereal beings like Eternity and Infinity.

As for the source of his power, he siphons the energy from dying souls – and since someone is always dying, the full scope of his power would seem to be just a step below Death, itself.

In addition to his ability to re-animate the dead, Nekron possesses vast telepathic powers and can manipulate dimensions, to the extent that gods tremble beneath his feet. He sent the extremely powerful Anti-Monitor being to another dimension after the latter launched an attack on him.

In the DC Universe, he is truly a most formidable opponent and his position as last on this list is an impressive indicator of the monsters (and gods) to come.

9. Life Eternity – It’s All in the Name

Next up, we have Life Eternity, who is more powerful than even Nekron – which doesn’t mean a battle between the two wouldn’t be hard-fought.

On his side, Life Eternity possesses unlimited levels of energy and matter manipulation. Of course, given Einstein’s most famous equation, these are one and the same thing, for the most part.

In any case, Life Eternity endows heroes in the same way that Galactus of Marvel comics imbues heralds with the Power Cosmic – giving his charge the ability to create powerful constructs of white light.

8. Mr. Mxyzptlk – Powerful Enough to Exasperate the Man of Steel

Next up, there’s an old “enemy” of early Superman – Mr. Mxyzptlk. With a campy outward appearance that utterly belies his near-omnipotence in the magical realm, Mr. Mxyzptlk was so powerful that even Superman was but a toy to him.

Even though he couldn’t really kill the Man of Steel, Mr. M could transport him across dimensions and perform all kinds of stunts against Clark’s will.

Of course, as a mischief-maker, he never really desired to kill Clark, and could only be sent back to the dimension from which he hailed by making him say his vowel-less name backwards.

This would also undo all of his actions, and return the universe to the state it was before he started rearranging things. His bevy of powers included the ability to create wormholes, entire realms and dimensions, complete teleportation and control over time and space. In fact, the fundamental laws of physics were his to mold.

The source of Mr. Mxyzptlk’s powers seem to stem from his 5th dimensionality and the higher planes of existence he establishes – which allow him to execute untold reality warping and Creation abilities. Indeed, it took Superman Prime One Million to finally reach a level where Big Blue was immune to the magical imp’s mischievous manipulations.

7. The Spectre – Right Hand of G*D

Sliding securely into the 7th spot is the legendary Spectre who, in the more religion-infused DC universe, is an essentially all-powerful – except for God – servant of the ultimate Divine. Not gods like Odin, Thor and Zeus, but GOD.

The Spectre is also more powerful than Marvel Universe cosmic entities like Eternity, the Living Tribunal and Infinity. Any feat within his vast imagination is possible. Makes you wonder why he isn’t number 2…

The reason is easy, though: the Spectre has divine limitations such as God’s laws for a direct servant of His, and he can even be unsettled a bit by very, very powerful magic. Obviously, he cannot be killed and Death holds no dominion over him – but it is isn’t inconceivable that an absurdly-powerful entity could confine him for a time; for the Spectre is not the Will of God, and requires direction – if even from a human host.

The Spectre’s most significant limitation, however, is his lack of direction, so to speak. His actions are dependent on a host, who guides him and essentially directs him to do a version of divine will. Yes – it can be a little confusing.

6. The Anti-monitor – A Force of Irrepressible Destruction

Next up and rounding out this introductory list is the Anti-Monitor. His laundry list of powers is enough to make even the strongest earth-bound hero quake.

In addition to his cosmic awareness, energy projection and feats of creation, the Anti-Monitor can emit antimatter waves that completely destroy anything comprised of matter. Furthermore, he can actually increase the levels of his powers at will, using them to alter the facets of reality.

In fact, the Anti-Monitor was responsible for absorbing hundreds of alternate universes by the time he got to the universe possessing the DC heroes with which we’re all most familiar. He wielded such power that even the Spectre couldn’t stop him.

As a surefire test of the Anti-Monitor’s durability, even conventional Superman couldn’t hurt him! He ate the blows from the strongest humanoid superhero of all time and continued his actions during the Crisis.

How did such a powerful being come to be so very strong? By the time he got to DC Universe Prime, the Anti-Monitor had consumed thousands of galaxies of positive matter, which had the effect of increasing his base power and size to the absurd level that allowed him to decimate the ranks of superheroes.

5. Mandrakk – the Chaos Monster

If you thought there couldn’t be any creature with even higher energy levels than him; you’re mistaken. Starting off the top 5 is the Dark Monitor called Mandrakk. Never mind his list of powers; Mandrakk has the singular ability to decimate whole universes – with greater ease than even the Anti-Monitor. But even he takes a seat beneath the following maxed-out incarnation of the greatest hero to ever live.

4. Superman Prime One Million – The Kryptonian in God-Mode

Superman Prime One Million is 4th in the entire universe when it comes to sheer, unadulterated power.

The red, yellow and blue are gone; this Superman sun-dipped for much too long for even invulnerable Kryptonian fabric to have remained.

Superman Prime cuts an impressive golden hue from head to toe, and engenders visions of the golden Greek god of the sun, himself (Apollo or Helios).

His power in this form ranks greater than even that of godly Skyfathers; his abilities of interstellar flight allowed him to travel and augment his already fantastic power levels.

In the eons following Lois’ death and his slow disconnection from the people of Earth, Superman drank in radiation and maxed out.

Superman Prime is now completely impervious to magic, which was a resistance he siphoned off the Queen of the 5 dimensional imps at her allowance.

Additionally, he absorbed all the power of the most powerful version of the Green Lantern Ring; now he holds dominion over time-warriors that were well beyond even his lofty reach as Kansas-raised Kal-El of Krypton. Now, Clark is a long way from Kansas (I couldn’t resist) and the thermonuclear core of the sun is his home.

Kal has even absorbed a substantial fraction of the power of the Source Wall, and is now the second-most powerful being in the DC universe – only the Presence lies above him. He retains all the powers of Superman before his ascension, magnified to illimitable levels: invulnerability, heat vision, flight, super-speed, breath, stamina, durability, super-senses and of course his trademark super-strength.

Even more impressively, he can now alter reality at will, employ powerful magic spells, is virtually omnipotent and omnipresent and cannot die – except, of course, by the Hand of God, Himself.

3. The Archangels – Dual Princes of Power Untold

As you can imagine, the line to the throne is thinning out quite resolutely in this list of the strongest DC superheroes, given that it’s difficult to be much more powerful than Superman Prime One Million and still make any sense whatsoever.

In fact, the third spot is a tie between the archangels Michael Demuirgos and his brother, Lucifer Morningstar (DC has always been the more ‘religiously-inclined’ of the two major comic book companies).

Michael, who is reminiscent of the angel Gabriel from the comics, possesses the Word of Fire, with which he can make and unmake realities spanning the multiverse. The only restriction placed on this power is by the Presence, Himself.

What then, is the insanely lofty power of Lucifer Morningstar? The Fire of the Word allows Michael to create the very idea of something from chaotic emptiness of nothing, but he lacks the ability to shape what his will brings forth. This power belongs to Lucifer – he can actually Create.

In tandem, this gives them the ability to create universes with no limitations – except the Divine Will of the Presence.

Michael is armed with a flaming sword and fighting skills untold – although one wonders what could possibly hurt him such that he needs to do battle. Of course, though, there are things whose power boggles the mind, and these are the threats he meets and defeats.

The only thing his brother has that Michael does not is an unmatched and endless cauldron of will-power. Just imagine if Lucifer had the Green Lantern Ring!

Of course, he doesn’t need such a paltry toy, for his powers are on an ultra-cosmic level that transcends any tool constructed by lesser beings. He is both conniving and convincing and knows that he can’t overpower Michael – but that neither can Michael overpower him.

2. The Great Evil Beast – An Illimitable Cauldron of Chaos

At this point, you would think there was only a single entity left, right? Wrong! Sliding in at the second-to-last spot is an enigmatic entity whose powers exceed even those of multiverse-destroying and universe-creating Michael Demuirgos and Lucifer Morningstar.

The Ultimate Darkness, or Great Evil Beast, is chaos-unlimited. It exists external to the creation of the DC Universe by The Presence, which ultimately means that Marvel Universe’s One Above All is more powerful that the best god-entity DC has to offer.

The Great Evil Beast has been described as the absence of divine light and the equal of The Presence in sheer power. It is wicked to its very core, and even the idea of evil is its very personification.

In fact, mortals and celestials alike are unsure of its continued existence, since it waged a war on the Presence and when the two met, they extended hands and merged. It is supposed that despite all their assumed infinitude, the power of the Presence had the edge and the power of their merger shifted the balance in favor of the Light.

1. The Presence – Creator of the DC Universe

In case you haven’t guessed it, the strongest entity in DC is The Presence. Also known as The Source, he is the creator of the DC universe and asserted the Light over the Ultimate Darkness in their one and only battle.

As it should be. Fiat Lux!