The Top 26 Most Powerful & Strongest DC Characters, Ranked

Fortress of Solitude previously featured a list of The Most Powerful Characters in the Marvel Universe. Now it’s time to take a look at the equivalent list for the strongest and most powerful DC characters in the DC Universe. Have you heard of Anti-Monitor, Krona, Mr. Mxyzptlk, The Endless, Decreator, Eclipso, Superman Prime, Elaine Belloc, Spectre, Michael Demiurgos, Lucifer Morningstar or The Presence before?

26. Batman / Bruce Wayne

Now, don’t get me wrong—we all love Batman. If this were a list of how amazing or well-loved Bruce Wayne is as a character, he would probably be much higher on the list. When it comes to strength, I suppose there are some ideas of what strength is, and he is definitely stronger than the average human, but Bruce’s only real power is that he has a lot of money. Okay, and he knows martial artists and is super smart.

Granted, that money has been put to good use, funding technology and information to make him an amazing crime fighter, used to train Bruce in many ways such as hand-to-hand combat,  accuracy with weapons, and even how to fly his jet, but at the end of the day, he is still human.

While Batman isn’t the strongest DC character, he is certainly one of the best! Check out our list of the best Batman animated movies here.

25. Blue Beetle

Like many of the mantles passed from hero to hero, what makes the Blue Beetle heroes powerful is not actually the wielder but the Khaji Da. Commonly known as the Blue Beetle Scarab, this artefact is a piece of alien technology with artificial intelligence created by the Reach, an alien race of intergalactic conquerors.

The Scarab was first found by Dan Garret, who started to use the Scarab to fight crime, turning him into the superhero known as Blue Beetle before the mantle passed to Jaime Reyes. 

As with most sentient suits, items or artefacts, the problem with using one to gain power is that it can be used by almost anyone who gets their hands on it (with certain exceptions like worthiness and compatibility), and if that person is easily corruptible, it’s effectively in the wrong hands.

24. Swamp Thing

This being isn’t really a hero or a villain but a protector who will do everything he can to protect all living things, particularly plant life, because he is the Avatar of the Green. The Green is the force of nature, one of the elements of the entire universe, connected to all plant life. The character was created by Grant Morrison and Mark Miller.

Swamp Thing was never a part of the human race. There was once a scientist by the name of Alec Holland who worked out of a secret facility in the Louisiana swampland and managed to create a formula called the Bio-Restorative Formula. When the facility was attacked, Alec was completely doused in the formula, and he stumbled into the swamp before passing away from his injuries, causing his consciousness and memories to be transferred to the revitalised plant life in the swamp, causing Swamp Thing to rise.

23. Big Barda

Big Barda was introduced in Jack Kirby’s Fourth World and is one of the powerful New Gods from Apokolips. Although she was naturally conceived by her mother, Big Breeda, and the man she loved, Darkseid took her away and put her in a Gestation Lab, and she never had the opportunity to know her mother.

Big Barda was a part of the Female Furies when she was on her own planet, but when she left, she became a part of the Justice League for a while and even spent some time assisting the Birds of Prey. While she is incredibly strong, Big Barda shares the same weakness that most New Gods have: a vulnerability to Radion, much like Superman’s vulnerability to Kryptonite.

22. Wally West

​Wallace Rudolph “Wally” West is another speedster, the third to take on the name of The Flash. To simplify things, he is also known as Kid Flash and The Puddler. Wally was temporarily trapped in the Speed Force, a cosmic energy field and force that controls and taps into velocity and movement. The waking world forgot about him while he was trapped there. Few seem to remember that Wally West was a founding member of the Teen Titans when he was younger.

Like most speedsters, Wally West has an impossibly fast metabolism. To maintain his energy levels, he has to eat an intense amount of calories every day, or he can have a diabetic episode and pass out randomly. Read more about the best The Flash comics here.

21. Wonder Girl

Speaking of the Teen Titans, one of their beloved members is Donna Troy, who remained a member during her youth before joining the Justice League.

When Diana (Wonder Woman) was merely a little girl, the sorceress Magala created a perfect mirror copy of her with her own personality, making the young girl the perfect playmate. Unfortunately, Dark Angel mistook little Donna for Diana and abducted her, named her Donna Troy, and cursed her to keep experiencing tragic life cycles.

​While Donna is strong and durable, piercing weapons like arrows, spears, and, of course, bullets bypass her resistance and durability, meaning that she isn’t actually infallible.

20. The Great Darkness

This DC Villain goes by many names, such as The Darkness, The Great Evil Beast, The Absence, The Original Darkness and The True Great Darkness, all of which give you a pretty good idea of what this being is capable of. Not only is it a villain, but it’s considered an overarching antagonist. 

Many fans confuse The Great Evil Beast with the Decreator. Although they were created around the same time, it is thought that when the Creator said, “Let there be light,” The Great Darkness was forced to retreat into the shadows, where it stayed for an unknowable amount of time. While it has no real weakness, the fact that it acts as an unstoppable force of nature means that it has no motive and no sense of time, so it could happen whenever.

19. Kyle Rayner

Kyle Reyner is one of the many members of the Green Lantern Corps. When the Corps was decimated, he was selected to bear the responsibility and power of the last power ring and carry on the legacy of the Green Lantern. He has also been the human host for the Ion entity, one of many cosmic beings, as well as served as a member of the Justice League.

Like every Green Lantern in the DC Comics Universe, his source of power is his ring (although it wasn’t necessary when he was the host to the Ion). Still, because he was one of the last surviving Lanterns, he reshaped the way that the ring worked, allowing the ring to last for longer than 24 hours, but placed the limitation that the ring would slowly lose power based on the activities that the Lanterns were undertaking, like creating force fields as an example. If they weren’t careful, they could lose power at an incredibly crucial moment. 

18. Shazam

Shazam, or rather Billy Batson, is a young boy who suddenly finds himself empowered with the gifts of old gods. As most heroes in the DC universe are, Billy Batson was an orphan who spent some time on the streets of Fawcett, Philadelphia, hopping in and out of the foster care system. In a series of strange events, Billy fell asleep on a subway and was somehow transported to the Rock of Eternity, the magical structure that sits at the centre of all space and time.

Billy was found by the ancient wizard Shazam, who has sought people with pure hearts throughout history to impart the powers of the ancient gods to create a host that can protect the good of humanity. While Shazam is incredibly powerful, his situation can be seen as a little flimsy. Without the magic word “Shazam”, he is simply the fragile little boy, Billy, who is essentially a human host for power at the time. 

As we saw in the recent rendition of Black Adam, if a wielder of this power is able to be restrained and their mouth kept shut, they can be completely confined and prevented from transforming. If it wasn’t for that, Shazam would probably be a bit higher on the list.

17. Doctor Fate

Like many heroes, Doctor Fate is a mantle that has been passed through the ages when it comes to DC characters. The first iteration of the character was introduced in More Fun Comics #55 in 1940. The mantle is passed from hero to hero because Doctor Fate is a “sorcerous legacy” created by Nabu, a cosmic entity that safeguards the world against the forces of evil. 

One of the agents of Nabu selected was Kent Nelson, who wrestled with challenges throughout his time as Doctor Fate while remaining bound to his role as protector. Other well-known heroes who have taken up the mantle include Inza Cramer, Hector Hall, and Khalid Nassour, who was actually Kent Nelson’s grandnephew, keeping the legacy in their family. 

16. Supergirl

Kara Zor-El is the cousin of Superman and comes from his home planet, meaning that Earth’s yellow sun gives her the same superhuman strength and abilities as Clark, including heat vision, super speed and the ability to fly. Unfortunately, it means that she also suffers from the same weaknesses as her cousin. Despite being of the same race and having the same abilities, for some reason, Kal-El is often seen as being stronger than Supergirl, possibly because he was raised on Planet Earth from infancy, and Supergirl was not. 

She was sent to protect her cousin, but when Krypton imploded, the force knocked Kara’s ship off course, and instead of going to Earth, where she was meant to protect her infant cousin, she only landed on Earth years later when her mission was no longer necessary. While, of course, her spacecraft was trapped in the Phantom Zone, making her psychologically weaker and more susceptible to mind control. As her Earth-Two version, she is also known as Power Girl, who thought that she was a descendant of Arion, the Lord of Atlantis, before returning to her roots.

15. Martian Manhunter

Many fans don’t know this, but the Martian Manhunter’s real name is J’onn J’onzz, which means “Light to the Light” in his home language. He first appeared in The Manhunter from Mars in Detective Comics #225 in 1955 and quickly became one of the original founding members of the Justice League of America. 

On Mars (Ma’aleca’andra in the culture of the Green Martians), J’onn J’onzz was a law enforcement officer. To assimilate with Earth’s culture, he adopted the identity of John Jones and became a detective. As most Martians do, John Jones has the ability to communicate telepathically.

14. Captain Atom

Interestingly, Captain Atom didn’t start out as a DC comic book hero but was actually part of American comic books before they changed hands from Charlton Comics to DC Comics in the 1980s. Before Captain Atom was a part of DC Comics, his alias was Allen Adam, but this later changed to Nathaniel Christopher Adam as DC worked towards making the character its own.

Captain Atom is a hero who is connected to as well as powered by the Quantum Field. Like most heroes who are connected to the quantum realm through some kind of accident or experiment, Captain Atom has his gifts because of a secret government project. DC’s version of the hero is Nathaniel Adam, a former US Air Force officer who was framed for a crime that he never actually committed. To avoid the death penalty, he agreed to take part in the experiment.

One of the issues that he experiences as a result of the experiments is that he is incredibly strong. Still, if he absorbs too much Quantum energy at a time, he experiences Involuntary Quantum Jumping. This phenomenon can send him basically falling through time, either backwards or forwards, with no control over it.

13. Dr. Manhattan

Doctor Jonathan “Jon” Osterman was an atomic physicist before a lab accident gave him the ability to observe and manipulate matter at a subatomic level. Dr. Manhattan’s first appearance was in Watchmen, created by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.

The lab experiment that went wrong was a radioactive particle test. Along the way, he managed to alter the timeline of Prime Earth because his experiments essentially unlocked time travel. His creation was quite a tragic one, as he was simply going into the testing chamber to retrieve his lab coat when the door closed behind him. His matter was completely vaporized, destroying his mortal body, and he was declared dead.

It wasn’t until a few months later that his consciousness started trying to retake a material form. Dr. Manhattan was eventually able to make this happen, but was a completely changed entity. In his transformation, his emotional capacity was almost completely destroyed, which many DC fans think is the only thing that weakens him, but he does so to a great degree.

It’s hard to deny that he is one of the strongest DC characters of all time.

12. Anti-Monitor

The Anti-Monitor is a supervillain from Crisis on Infinite Earths who first appeared in issue #2 (he remained a “shadow” until issue #5). He is The Monitor’s counterpart from The Anti-Matter Universe and the sole Guardian of The Sinestro Corps. The Anti-Monitor was destroyed in Crisis on Infinite Earths #12 but returned in Green Lantern: Sinestro Corps #1.

The Anti-Monitor is definitely one of the strongest and most powerful DC characters.

11. Krona

Born on Maltus as an Oan, Krona is a scientist who is said to be near-immortal and invulnerable. He also possesses psychic powers, including telepathy and psychokinesis. Krona became obsessed with observing the origins of the universe and how it began, despite the legend that doing so would bring about a great disaster. He constructs a machine, breaking through the temporal barrier, which allows him to view the beginnings of time itself.

Then, he witnessed the hand of creation depositing the “speck” that would grow to become the universe, but this caused his machine to explode at that very moment. In turn, this caused the universe to shatter and, as a result, created a multiverse as the universe replicated itself into parallel universes.

Hence, the Anti-Matter Universe is also created, releasing new evil upon the cosmos. This spawned the likes of The Monitor and Anti-Monitor. Interestingly, these actions lead to the Oans becoming the Guardians of the Universe, and their first act was to punish Krona, transforming him into pure energy left to wander the cosmos.

10. Mr. Mxyzptlk

Hailing from the Fifth Dimension, Mr. Mxyzptlk appears as an imp fashioned as a jester. While he has the power to do almost anything he is able to imagine, such as erasing any being from existence, he takes no pleasure or fun in that. Instead, he often seeks amusement, which sees him challenge Superman.

Mister Mxyzptlk is not bound by any physical laws. His powers often appear magical, making him one of the strongest beings in the DC universe. However, he never taps into his full destructive capabilities. Ask any fan, and they’ll tell you that Mr. Mxyzptlk is one of the strongest DC characters.

9. The Endless

Technically, The Endless is not a single character in the DC Universe but rather a group of siblings that embody seven different fundamental forces of our existence. From the Vertigo comic series The Sandman, The Endless are ageless, immortal, and nigh-omnipotent. The seven siblings are not known to have names but are known by their functions: Destiny, Death, Dream, Destruction, Desire, Despair, and Delirium.

Although a collection of concepts and ideas, each sibling has their own feelings, thoughts and personality. Interestingly, each individual, while unique in their actions and personalities, is also depicted differently in the DC comics by means of their speech bubbles, with each having a panel description whenever an individual is speaking and a caption to explain the uniqueness of the speech.

8. Decreator

The DC Universe closely resembles the creation story and entities of Abrahamic religions. It is thus believed that God created the Earth with these words: “Let there be Light!” And it is those words that The Cult of the Unwritten Book, a group of supervillains which first appeared in Doom Patrol #31 (April 1989), believe cast a shadow that became the Decreator.

The Decreator, who cannot be reasoned with or stopped, is summoned by the Cult to unmake the world. The Doom Patrol succeeded only in slowing him down to such an extent that no one would notice the deconstruction of the universe by means of using similar vibrations equal to his powers.

7. Eclipso

You can’t talk about the strongest and most powerful DC characters without bringing up Eclipso, a supervillain who first appeared in House of Secrets #61 (August 1963). He is the first incarnation of the Wrath of God and the Angel of Vengeance.

Eclipso is sealed inside the Heart of Darkness, which appears as a small, black diamond, first mined on the desolate world of Apokolips. Eclipso possesses all those who come into contact with the diamond, most notably Bruce Gordon.

Dr. Gordon is a Solar Energy scientist, ironically, the one weakness of Eclipses. While studying and attempting to photograph an eclipse on Diablo Island, the natives feared this would steal the ‘sun god’. They sent their witch doctor, Mophir, who possessed the black diamond, to stop him.

While fighting, Dr. Gordon fell to his death off the side of a cliff but was wounded by the black diamond, allowing him to survive the fall. While picking up the diamond during the moment of the eclipse, it transformed Gordon into the host for Eclipso.

6. Superman Prime (One Million)

In short, Superman Prime is a version of Superman in the future. After living inside the Earth’s yellow sun for 15,000 years, the Man of Steel enhanced his powers to great cosmic levels, giving him nigh-omnipotence, invulnerability, and the ability to create life and entire universes.

In the DC One Million storyline, the original Superman watched his parents, friends, and wife (Lois) die (from natural causes) without the knowledge and means to save them. As time went by, the sadness of his losses began to slow him. This ultimately led him to pass the reins of being Superman to his heir, Superman Secundus. He then left Earth. His travels would last until the 700th Century, during which time he acquired immense abilities from beings he met and perfected them as his own. Having broken through the Source Wall, he studied under the guidance of the Source (discussed below) itself, also being granted a portion of its power.

Although the extent of his new abilities is unknown, he would eventually return to Earth in order to forge a new covenant with his descendants. Superman Prime also gained the powers and abilities of his descendants and magnified them to the level of his own. As part of the covenant, he would bestow a portion of his power upon them as long as they served for truth and justice. He would later return to his Fortress of Solitude, now in the centre of the Sun.

Again, Superman Prime is definitely one of the strongest and most powerful DC characters. He is definitely the strongest Superman.

5. Elaine Belloc

Elaine Belloc’s biological father is the Archangel Michael, who, along with his brother, the retired ruler of Hell, Lucifer Morningstar, supports Elaine on her quest.

Unlike any of the other angels, Michael was not sterile. Sandalphon began experimenting to create a being capable of birthing angels, which was fulfilled in Elaine. After a long series of battles and journeys, including both Michael and Lucifer, Michael is forced to hand over his demiurgic power to Elaine after he is mortally wounded by Fenris the Wolf. Michael’s death would result in the release of the demiurgic power, which would erase all existence.

Eventually, Elaine acquires the powers and goes on to take over the reins of Lucifer’s and Yahweh’s creations. After merging the two universes, she takes Yahweh’s place as the God of Creation in the DC Universe.

4. Spectre

In the DC Universe, the Spectre is an aspect of The Presence, God’s Vengeance. After creation, Lucifer led the rebellion of the angels against The Presence, one of whom was the angel Raguel/Aztar. Aztar later repented of his sins and, in return, was stripped of his memories and became the incarnation of His Wrath. This was his penance. Now known as the Spectre, he was to replace Eclipso.

The Spectre was accountable for the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the plagues of Egypt, and bringing down the Walls of Jericho, to name a few. When God took on human form as Compassion and Redemption, represented by Jesus, Spectre was not allowed to roam the earth any longer and was cast into limbo until the day of the crucifixion.

Upon completion, the Spectre burst forth on the Day of Wrath, ripping through the world and casting his vengeance on the man until Michael informed the Spectre of the new “rules”. From that day forth, the Spectre had to be bound to a human soul to walk the Earth again, seeking vengeance.

3. Michael Demiurgos

Before any life existed, even before the DC Multiverse existed, Yahweh, the Almighty, created two brothers. Alongside his twin brother Samael, Michael Demiurgos is said to be accredited for the creation of the DC Multiverse. Yahweh bestowed the two with a gift: Samael, that of fire and will, and Michael, that of creation and Demiurgic Power.

With God’s Demiurgic Power residing within him, DC’s Michael is often described as the strongest of all God’s created beings. It is also with this Demiurgic Power that God’s name is written on every atom of all creation, and with Samael’s will, they have the power to enable the physical creation of the cosmos to occur.

2. Lucifer Morningstar

Lucifer Morningstar was once proud and the most beautiful of all the angels. As discussed above, Yahweh created two brothers (Samael being the eldest). Yahweh had instructed and guided them on how to use their powers to form creation, known as the DC Multiverse. Samael then turned against Yahweh and led the rebellion of the angels in Heaven, taking on the name Lucifer Morningstar. After he fell, he was sent to rule over Hell for more than 10 billion years.

After this time and his retirement as ruler of Hell, his story picks up, as discussed in the storyline of Elaine Belloc above. Like the Biblical being, Lucifer is one of the strongest and most powerful DC characters, second only to The Presence and His light.

1. The Presence

The Presence is the highest form of being in the DC Universe, having created the angels, namely Michael and Samael. The Presence is known as the God of the Covenant and the creator of the DC Universe and all within it. This means he is also the strongest and most powerful character in the DC universe.

Writers Jerry Siegel and Bernard Bailey created him as the comic equivalent of the Abrahamic God, first seen in More Fun in Comics #52 in 1940. Seldom shown in comics, The Presence is often spoken about and referred to rather than depicted in any form.

The Presence has undergone many different forms and is known by many different names in the DC Universe, including Yahweh, The Voice, The Hand, The Source, The Presence and, oddly enough, Wally. There is no character more powerful or stronger than The Presence.

Are these the most powerful and strongest DC characters in the DC Universe? Also, check out our list of the 20 most powerful weapons in the DC Universe, including the Lantern Ring, the Batsuit, the Lasso of Truth and more.