25 Most Powerful DC Superheroes

Raven, also known as Rachel Roth, is a dark superhero character with tremendous powers and a prominent member of the Teen Titans. Born from a human mother and a demon overlord father, she was raised in a pacifistic society called Azarath. She has many abilities including astral projection, telekinesis, teleportation, and flight.

As both man and machine, Cyborg has been part of both the Teen Titans and Justice League. With his computer enhancements, he’s got super strength, speed, agility, stamina, and can even shape-change certain parts of his body into weapons.

With the ability to absorb ultraviolet radiation and convert it to energy, Starfire has many amazing abilities. Not only can she fly, but she can also perform interstellar travel. While fighting her enemies, she uses her super strength and Starbolts (highly concentrated energy turned into blasts). She’s also been known to be able to absorb and take away the powers of other heroes.

In 1839, a spaceship landed in the American South; the creature inside was discovered by a slave woman named Miram. Arnus mimicked his appearance after her and chose his human identity to be Augustus Freeman but later chose the alias “Icon.” With many of the same super abilities as Superman, such as super strength, speed, and flight, Icon helps the less fortunate and the innocent from harm. Along with those powers, he also is near invulnerable and can force bolts and stun bolts to attack his enemies.

With her powerful and mighty wings and giant mace, Hawkgirl can kick some serious villain butt. She has enhanced strength, durability, and vision, but one of her most powerful abilities is essentially never being able to die. That’s right. She has the power of reincarnation which has allowed her to cheat death for centuries.

Aquaman, also known as Arthur Curry, is King of the Sea and can survive on both land and in the deepest parts of the ocean. He has enhanced vision, hearing, and strength. Plus, he can speak to fish. With the Trident of Neptune, Aquaman has tremendous power and is a formidable opponent of anyone who dares to fight him.

Raised by her magician father in New York, Zatanna is a direct descendant of Leonardo Di Vinci, Nostradamus, and Nicholas Flamel. As a stage magician, Zatanna actually has magical abilities, unlike other illusionists. She has tremendous power over many elements including fire, water, electricity, etc… but also has the abilities of telekinesis, flight, teleportation, force fields, and magical blasts. Her biggest weakness is she must speak the magical words backwards in order to use her magic.

Batgirl doesn’t have any superpowers but what she lacks in super abilities, she makes up for in genius level intellect, computer hacking, stealth, and an expert knowledge of many forms of martial arts.

Framed for a crime he didn’t commit, Nathaniel Adam was headed to the electric chair. But then the government offered him a pardon if he underwent an experiment. While Adam was in a crashed alien ship, they tested a nuclear bomb against its durability. Not only did the alien metal fuse to his skin but he was propelled twenty years in the future. As far as powers go, Captain Atom is insanely powerful with the ability of super strength, flight, time travel, energy absorption, and immortality, among others.

Alec Holland and his wife discovered a bio-restorative formula, solving food shortage problems. However, two thugs broke into his lab and planted a bomb. Holland got out just as the lab exploded with flames covering his body. So he ran into the swamp with the bio-restorative formula on his body. When he rose up out of the swamp, he became Swamp Thing. He has total control over all plant life with super strength, an enhanced intellect, and near immortality. As long as plant life exists, Swamp Thing can create a new body out of it.

After being struck by lightning, Barry Allen received the power of superspeed, becoming The Flash. Considered the fastest man alive, The Flash is capable of moving through walls, time travel, and dimension travel.

Despite being a mere human and not having any superpowers at all, other than maybe being rich, Batman has proven time and again to be an incredibly powerful and challenging opponent, using his stealth and intellect to him the day rather than sheer force.

Big Barda was born on the planet Apokolips and is part of the race of New Gods. From childhood, she’s groomed to lead the Female Furies, a fierce army of women warriors. Eventually, she turns her back on that and flees to Earth. With incredible strength, stamina, and reflexes, Big Barda isn’t a foe you’d want to tangle with.

Endowed with powers by Dr. Helga Jace, Brion Markov became Geo-Force to fight Baron Bedlam and save his country. Outside of the usual flight and super strength, Geo-Force can control the gravitational field of the Earth, creating earthquakes, lava flows, and shapes from solid rock. He can also project heat from the Earth, creating intense blasts from his hands.

Hal Jordan was an Air Force pilot before dawning the Green Lantern ring and becoming part of the Green Lantern Corp. With the Green Lantern ring, he’s capable of manipulating any form with a powerful green energy. He’s also capable of flight and superhuman strength. He’s a founding member of the Justice League and patrols the galaxy to keep evil at bay.

Martian Manhunter, also called J’onn J’onzz, is the last sole survivor of the planet Mars. After everyone he knew died of a deadly virus, J’onn was teleported to Earth by Dr. Saul Erdel through a transmitter machine. J’onn was so distraught, Erdel gave him new memories to heal and convinced him to become a champion on Earth. Martian Manhunter has incredible abilities, including shapeshifting, invisibility, and phasing through solid matter. Along with flight and super strength, he can also utilize telepathy to his advantage.

As the daughter of Queen Hippolyta, Diana Prince was the first born child on Paradise Island in over three thousand years since the Amazonians lived there. On the island, she became a fierce warrior and left to battle Ares, the god of war. Along with super strength, stamina, endurance, and the like, Wonder Woman utilizes many tools to defeat her enemies, including the Bracelets of Submission, the Lasso of Truth, and gold armor.

Originally an orphaned boy named Billy Batson, Shazam (also known as Captain Marvel) was given his power by a wizard named Shazam. Bestowed with the power of six Greek gods, Shazam became a force for good, fighting evil at every turn. Along with the normal superhuman traits like strength and speed, Shazam has the power of clarvoyance, divine grace and luck, and can summon a powerful lightning bolt. He’s usually considered one of the greatest superheroes of all time.

Kara Zor-El is the daughter of Superman’s uncle and is technically older than Superman, being a teenager when Kal-El was merely a baby. Kara’s parents sent her from Krypton to escape Brainiac, but her ship was caught in a kryptonite meteor and arrived much later to Earth than Kal-El. Supergirl has much of the same powers as Superman, including strength, speed, invulnerability, heat vision, and flight. She’s always proven to be a strong leader and valuable ally to the Justice League.

As one of the most famous superheroes ever created, Superman has a lot of clout behind his punches. With supervision, hearing, and smell, he can detect things from far distances as well as fight off the strongest of villains with his heat vision and super strength. Of course, his greatest weakness is kryptonite and is used quite frequently against him when a villain wants to get the upper hand.

A powerful sorcerer and agent alongside the Lords of Order, Doctor Fate has incredible magical powers that can eviscerate his enemies. From teleportation to power blasts, it seems like Doctor Fate can do it all and more, being almost invincible and indestructible. However, if his helmet is removed, he becomes significantly weakened.

As the second son of Darkseid, Orion is almost one of the strongest superheroes in the entire universe. He joined up with the Justice League and was also tasked with Big Barda to gather Earth’s greatest heroes in a battle against Mageddon. His super strength, durability, healing, and stamina are almost unmatched and is also immortal. He utilizes the Astro Harness to travel across the universe and manipulate energy.

The Spectre is the Divine Spirit of Vengence and a powerful agent of The Presence. Over the years, he’s taken on many hosts, including Hal Jordan. Since he is a direct servant of God, he has essentially omnipotent power, absolute knowledge, and immorality. However, he does have limitations to Divine Law and certain powerful magic can do damage to him.

The Phantom Stranger is a mysterious figure with an elusive background. Usually, he only appears when conflicts of great magnitude need his direct involvement. He has near omniscience, teleportation, flight, space adaptation, and mastery over most magic.

The Presence is hands down the most powerful entity in the DC universe. Essentially akin to the Abrahamic God of the Bible, the Presence rarely appears in the comics but is considered all powerful. His first appearance was in the More Fun Comics #52.

We all love Heroes, but what about the villains? Here are 25 Most Hardcore Comic Book Supervillains.