Power can look like a lot of things, and nothing quite exemplifies that like the world of comic books. In this case, the soon-to-be-defunct DC Extended Universe (DCEU).
The interconnected DC universe hasn’t been around as long as its Marvel counterpart, but the Warner Bros. franchise has served up a kaleidoscopic roster of heroes, supervillains and antiheroes that can do serious damage to their opponents. But they’ve got different ways of doing it.
With his combination of superhuman strength, speed, flight and laser-eyes, Superman can plow through you, pummel you to dust or incinerate you with his vision. He could grab you by the arm and fly 100,000 feet into the air before dropping you back to the ground where your body would most definitely be destroyed. The Flash can run so fast that he can literally alter history and bring the world to the brink of destruction. Or, he could just run right through one of his enemies, with the raw force ripping them to shreds. And Zeus can eviscerate you with a bolt of thunder. You get the idea.
The question is, which power is the most valuable? And who is the DCEU’s most powerful being? As “Blue Beetle” hits theaters and ahead of James Gunn and Peter Safran’s reboot of the DC universe (which formally begins with Gunn’s “Superman: Legacy” in 2025), The Wrap takes a shot at answering those questions by ranking the most powerful DCEU characters.
20. El Diablo
As a pyro, El Diablo has incredible destructive power and he showcases the extent of those abilities in the final act of “Suicide Squad.” In his final battle, he manages to do some damage to Incubus while keeping the monster at bay just long enough for the Task Force X plan to succeed. He’s not as powerful as the upper-level beings in the DCEU, but he proved to be the most powerful member of the aspiring anti-hero collective so, kudos.
19. Incubus
Incubus has incredible strength, considerable durability and the ability to project fiery limb extensions with massive destructive power. He had Task Force X on the ropes before Diablo and Rick Flagg’s expert maneuvering got him killed. He might be a god, but the cause of his demise makes it seem like he’s not quite as powerful as Amanda Waller suggests in “Suicide Squad.” That might actually just be a continuity flaw, but it happened, so it counts.
18. The Flash
In a vacuum, there are plenty of folks physically stronger than The Flash. But, he’s able to apply his speed in a wide variety of functional ways. On one hand, if he runs at even typical speed, he’s able to destroy a Parademon just by running through them. And in general, you can’t hit what you can’t see, so unless you’ve got some serious superhuman speed, you won’t be able to avoid The Flash’s attacks. On top of all this, he can run so fast that he can travel between times and universes, giving him the ability to alter outcomes in ways that aren’t even fathomable. For that alone, it’s hard to rank him any lower.
17. Kalypso/Hespera/Anthea
Kalypso and her two sisters Hespera and Anthea are titans with an almost unstoppable constellation of magic and physical abilities, with all of them being amazingly durable and possessing superhuman strength. As seen in “Shazam! Fury of the Gods,” Kalypso can send anyone into literal insanity using the power of chaos, Anthea can deconstruct and reconstruct matter to turn any piece of mass into a prison while warping reality itself. Hespera can freeze or burn you to death, and that’s just on top of all the spells she uses to reach her desired ends.
16. Cyborg
When it comes to matters of power, there’s a lot more to consider than raw strength. With his ability to control any piece of technology on the planet, Cyborg can make your life altogether more boring — or nonexistent. He can deflate your bank account and he can cancel your Netflix account. On a more extreme level, he can activate all of the world’s nuclear missiles and eviscerate just about anyone he wants to. More immediately, he’s got super strength, super speed and the ability to turn his arms into a missile launcher or a plasma blaster with the type of ammunition that can destroy almost anything. Together, these powers let him take down a ton of parademons while helping separate the Mother Boxes, which as evidenced by Superman straining to do so, is pretty damn impressive.
15. Enchantress
Enchantress is an ancient force with the superhuman strength, telekinesis and the ability to warp minds. She puts all those powers to use in “Suicide Squad,” where she turns a multitude of humans into zombies in her attempt to destroy mankind. While she’s eventually defeated, she generally had the entire Task Force X on their knees until the very end, with a level of deception being the only way for the squad to access her weakness. But, in terms of all-around power, she’s up there. Amanda Waller says she’s the most powerful metahuman she knows of and, even if that doesn’t feel true, it’s clear Enchantress is a multidimensional force to be reckoned with.
14. Atlanna
This one involves a little bit of projection. Based on the fact that she was queen of the war-like Atlanteans, “Aquaman’s” Atlanna had to be, at the worst, an extremely formidable warrior. The fact that she was able to easily defeat Atlantean soldiers and evade capture for so long only reinforces that idea, and if her two sons are evidence, her fighter genes have to be A-1. All of which is to say we’ll slot her right here.
13. King Orm Marius
Aquaman’s little bro might not have walked away from the first film victorious, but he more than proved his mettle as a warrior. In the first “Aquaman” film , he actually beats his big brother to a pulp before Aquaman is rescued by Mera. In their second bout, they fight to a near standstill before they go to the surface, where Aquaman, armed with his new trident, has an advantage and grabs the win, and his new role as King of Atlantis. Being able to fight on near equal grounds with his brother makes the former king a serious force.
12. Aquaman
Aquaman’s main powers are superhuman strength and speed that allow him to fight somewhat evenly with Steppenwolf and defeat King Orm. He’s able to lift a submarine. But his tertiary abilities are nearly as impressive. Able to communicate with sea creatures, there’s always the chance that you’ll face an army of sharks and whales if you choose to do battle with Mr. Arthur Curry, and because he can breathe both underwater and on land, he’s got a distinct edge over enemies that can only survive on the surface. Additionally, he’s able to apply his superhuman speed on land to the sea, being able to swim at supersonic speeds that no land-dwelling enemy could match, giving him two massive advantages should any fight take place underwater.
11. Shazam
Shazam might be a goofy teenager on the inside, but his powers are very serious. With the gifts of speed, strength, flight and near-invulnerability, he’s most of what Superman is, making him one of the strongest figures in the whole DCEU. He proves this from the jump, becoming an effortless (if needlessly destructive) crime-fighter before taking on the super-powered Thaddeus Sivana, who appears to be around as strong as him. Shazam’s youthful instincts can be a weakness at times, but he’s also super-smart, and it was intellect that helped him take down the first major bad guy of his career.
10. Thaddeus Sivana
With an array of quirky powers to match his raw strength, Thaddeus Sivana was a more-than-formidable bad guy. In “Shazam!,” he’s able to easily take blows from the titular hero while inflicting damage of his own. All of that was cool, but his ability to summon demons whenever he wants, as well as project electricity, give him a depth of powers not even Shazam can match. If it weren’t for Billy Batson’s clever last-second strategizing, there might not have been a “Shazam” sequel.
9. Black Adam
The flick itself wasn’t great, but Black Adam is an absolute force. In the DCEU, he shrugs off an attack from a giant before knocking him out, beats up numerous Dr. Fate clones and dominates Hawkman. His super strength and flight are tough enough by themselves, but his ability to shoot lightning out of his palms makes him a nearly incomparable destructive force. In DC Comics, he’s generally depicted as being more powerful than Shazam, and while it’s hard to say who holds the edge for certain, Adam’s older age gives him more wisdom and experience to pull from, so we’ll give him the edge in the DCEU, too.
8. Ares
Ares is a literal god whose raw strength, powers of mental manipulation, telekinesis, teleportation and electricity projection make him nearly invincible, even among the cosmic forces of this whole universe. An added advantage is his time on Earth, which at the minimum has stretched for thousands of years, granting him the sort of wisdom you could justifiably call ageless. His most impressive feat was fighting his dad Zeus on equal grounds before eventually catching an L. Unfortunately, the same went for Wonder Woman, who eventually defeated him after tapping into her Old God powers.
7. Wonder Woman
Besides anchoring the most well-received film in the DCEU, Wonder Woman’s got plenty of amazing feats based on her physical ability. One, in just the first movie, she managed to defeat Ares, the God of War. Any time you’re able to defeat a literal god, you’re pretty strong. But just as impressively, she was able to withstand blows from Doomsday and somewhat hold her own against Steppenwolf. She’s not as strong as Superman and she doesn’t have any energy-based projectiles. But with her thousands of years of combat experience, as well as her speed, strength and agility, she stands as one of the world’s most powerful warriors.
6. Steppenwolf
Steppenwolf wasn’t the most charismatic villain, but he was plenty strong. In “Justice League,” he managed to easily fend off the Amazonians while generally getting the best of the Justice League besides Superman. Aquaman and Wonder Woman were able to stun him and hold him back momentarily, but Steppenwolf clearly had the advantage. Superman was seemingly the only being alive that could bring him down. As part of Darkseid’s crew, he was a civilization destroyer with plenty of experience reducing populations to ashes. He wasn’t the most powerful being in the DCEU, but he also wasn’t that far off.
5. Darkseid
We didn’t get to see a lot of Darkseid in “Zack Snyder’s Justice League,” but we can use what we do know to make some educated guesses about his power. One, he’s in command of Steppenwolf, who was stronger than everyone in the Justice League besides Superman by a considerable margin. Wonder Woman was strong enough to beat Ares, who’s a literal god. This pretty much lines up with the comics, where he’s immortal and one of the most physically overwhelming forces in the entire DC universe. It’s just too bad we only got to see him for a few scenes.
4. General Zod/Kryptonians
Being a Kryptonian, General Zod was granted the same exact abilities as Superman while on Earth, but there are a couple of differences. One, he’s older. Two, by the time they first met, he’d collected years of combat experience Clark Kent could never dream of. So then, with those respective advantages, it makes sense that the two were generally even throughout most of their fight, but Superman managed to pull out the W in the end. The rest of the Kryptonians — Lara Lor-Van and the scientist Jax-Ur and soldiers Car-Vex, Dev-Em II, Tor-An, and Nadira — appear to have similar levels of ability, with Zod being their best warrior.
3. Superman
This one doesn’t need a whole lot of explaining, but here’s a rundown: Superman easily defeated multiple members of the Justice League at once and, in a movie before that, managed to thwart a Kryptonian invasion, taking on several fighters with powers that should theoretically rival his own. He’s either as fast or nearly as fast as a person swift enough to turn back time and alter history. He’s physically stronger than a literal demi goddess, which in turn makes her stronger than all of the Amazonians and Atlanteans. His array of powers — super strength, nigh-invulnerability, laser vision, ice breath, flight and more — are something beyond a cheat code. With all this in mind, going against Clark Kent just isn’t the move, unless, of course, you’re ahead of him on this list …
2. Doomsday
If you can beat up Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman at the same time, the chances are, you’re an unbeatable beast. If you can do that and take the full force of a nuclear missile, you’re something beyond that. Forged out of General Zod’s corpse, the will of Lex Luthor and some forbidden Kryptonian science, Doomsday is an unmatchable force in the DCEU. He’s got the power and speed of Superman with even more stamina. If Kal-El is the Man of Steel, Doomsday is the monster of vibranium. In both the comic and Dawn of Justice, Supes had to literally die to defeat him. Superman effortlessly dismisses Steppenwolf and easily dismantled an assault from multiple members of the Justice League. Basically, if you go against this guy, you are, indeed, facing your doomsday.
1. Zeus
His name alone is a self-contained argument for omnipotence, but we’ll get into it anyway. As an Old God, he was virtually immortal, and he was able to defeat Ares, who himself managed to vanquish all the other old gods. He can shoot large bolts of thunder that can destroy virtually anything, and he was perhaps the only being in history that could separate the Mother Boxes by himself. As if that weren’t enough, he literally created humanity, which has to count for extra credit in discussions like these. We didn’t get to see a lot of him, but his feats speak for themselves.
