by Frank Nospam

Created on: January 02, 2009

The Most Powerful Superhero is, for the most part, a question of definitions. Who do you count as a superhero? What does "powerful" mean? Using reasonable criteria, I have assembled five characters who could easily defeat Superman, Thor, Green Lantern, etc, as seen at the tops of other lists. One reason for this list's higher power level is that it is not restricted to the mainstream DC & Marvel comics mulitverses. First, the definitions:

Hero: The superbeing must spend a fair amount of time protecting weaker beings from harm. If you want to rate ubervillains (e.g. Darkseid) or pseudo-deities (e.g. Galactus), you'll need to ask a different question.

Power: The superbeing's capabilities in their most powerful official version (e.g. Superman Prime vs 1 vs 2...), when used at their fullest. Inherent limitations (e.g. Oans can't affect yellow) and weaknesses (e.g. kryptonite) count, but the character "holding back" (e.g. doesn't want to hurt bystanders) does not count.

With that said, here is the list:

5: Franklin Richards, from Marvel's Fantastic Four. The never-aging son of Mr Fantastic & Invisible Girl. Theoretically able to do galaxy-scale energy manipulation if he grows up, which should earn him the #2 spot. However, due to the stagnant nature of the Marvel Universe, he probably never will. Therefore I rank him at #5.

4: Nexus, aka Horatio Hellpop, by Steve Rude. Telepathically drawn to mass-murderers who have escaped justice. Able to draw energy from stars (or other sources) to do basically anything. Fusion blasts, teleportation, matter creation, invulnerability, etc. His strength/telekinesis is an even match for an event horizon.

3: Dr Manhattan, from Watchmen by Alan Moore. Godlike energy being, slowly losing interest in humanity. Able to manipulate matter & energy arbitrarily, much like Nexus, but requires no power source and cannot be harmed by any known force.

2: Phoenix, aka Jean Grey (et al), from Marvel's X-Men. Various members of the Summers-Grey family of mutants. More powerful telepath than Professor X (read issue 136 carefully). Often portrayed as an even match for Galactus. Can eat stars.

1: God-Man, "the superhero with omnipotent powers", from Tom the Dancing Bug by Reuben Bolling. He is Bolling's tool for lampooning various people's irrational beliefs that they know what God wants. God-Man can do basically anything (for some examples, see the Old Testament), except, perhaps, change human nature.

There may be a few comic book characters who "go to 11" and exceed omnipotence, but none of them are superheroes, and few of them would ever end up "in a fight" with other beings.

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