Only 6 DC Heroes Are More Powerful Than Superman (original) (raw)

A comic strip image of Superman flying over a city

Image via DC Comics

Published Jun 12, 2026, 6:49 PM EDT

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His dedication to his craft has attracted renowned talent like Yuri Lowenthal to collaborate with him on his projects. As he grows and improves, Eddie is a shining example of a self-starter.

There's zero question in anyone's mind that Superman is, without a doubt, one of the greatest and strongest superheroes ever created. It seems like every year, the world gets to see a new power added to the hero's long catalog of already existing—sometimes absolutely unnecessary—super abilities, which has led to him being considered one of the strongest fictional characters out there who isn't an omnipotent being. Superman is the real deal, and billions of people will come to bat to defend that.

However, this isn't to say that he's necessarily the strongest hero of the DC universe. While there's a very small number of heroes that are stronger than Superman, the number itself is not zero, and there is, in fact, a group of heroes who could be considered stronger. It does need to be stated that there's a common misconception about Superman's weaknesses: the Big Blue Boy Scout does not have a specific weakness to magic, as some have been led to believe; rather, he simply has the same lack of resistance to magic as every other human might. This fact drastically changes the number of heroes who could be considered stronger than him, and that needs to be noted.

Orion

Orion looks angry in DC Comics.

Image via DC Comics

Many may not know who Orion is, but he's an incredibly strong hero and one of the most powerful warriors among the New Gods. Being the second son of none other than Darkseid, he actually goes against his father and uses his powers for good. With the Astro Force behind him, Orion can take on Superman, for sure. In fact, it's been shown before that a full-fledged shot from the Astro Force has enough strength to one-shot the superhero. So... that's kind of the end of the story, isn't it? Well, not necessarily, as his powers don't end with the Astro Force.

Next to the Astro Force, Orion can also tap into a state called the Source of the Beast, in which he becomes a more feral version and amps himself up to almost limitless potential and strength. Yeah, being a New God comes with a lot of perks, and if anyone knows how to use them to their advantage, it's Orion. So, while it's a close comparison when it comes to who is stronger, there are far more chances for Orion to overpower him than the other way around.

Captain Atom (Nathaniel Christopher "Nate" Adam)

Captain Atom facing away from an explosion in DC Comics.

Image via DC Comics

Despite not being known well by the general populace, Captain Atom—Nathaniel Christopher "Nate" Adam (talk about a mouthful)—is an extremely powerful superhero that has powers unlike any other. Fun fact: Captain Atom is actually one of the original inspirations for the also extremely strong Doctor Manhattan, making him almost on par with the blue, bald god. His incredibly unique power set is a huge part of what sets him apart from the rest. This also results in the fact that whatever battle he's part of is going to unfold unlike any other, and most certainly would take Superman by surprise, giving him a run for his money on a situational level.

Captain Atom has the absolutely badass powers of Quantum Manipulation, giving him borderline limitless power by having control over the literal building blocks of matter. He also has superhuman strength, going toe-to-toe with Superman prior and trading fists like it was a schoolyard fight, superhuman durability, superhuman speed (he can actually fly faster than the speed of light when drawing on Quantum Energy), Energy Absorbtion and Manipulation (can consume and utilize pretty much any form of energy to his liking), Elemental Transmutation (can turn something into basically anything he wants, so long as it's made of elemental matter), and, most importantly, Immortality (being made purely of energy). Even just one of these powers could put him close to Superman in power, but all of them combined place him just a bit higher on a tier list than the red-caped hero.

Plastic Man (Patrick "Eel" O'Brian)

Plastic Man launching forward

Plastic Man falling

Image via Warner Bros. Animation

While one may not immediately think of him when talking about strong DC heroes, Plastic Man is surprisingly one of the most overpowered heroes from the DC universe, period. In fact, he's so strong that it is almost scary. With absolute control over his body's molecular makeup, he can change his density at will, shapeshift without limit — seriously, he's turned into a tiny capsule on Batman's belt before and even shrunk down to a size in which he could extract a microscopic machine from Wonder Woman's head. Moreover, he has voice mimicry, which allows him to literally become anyone he wants, alongside telepathic immunity, full immortality and regeneration.

His only known weaknesses are rapid freezing and chemicals like acetone. However, they don't stop him from regenerating, meaning they won't kill him. So, while Superman could technically freeze him with his cold breath, it wouldn't kill him, and he'd eventually recover. It would genuinely be so easy for Plastic Man to enter Superman's body and kill him from the inside-out that it's almost laughable how easy it is. Plastic Man most definitely deserves his flowers, and should have a lot more attention given to him in media, given the fact that he could take on none other than Superman. Get on it, James Gunn!

Collider Exclusive · Action Hero Quiz Which Action Hero Would Be
Your Perfect Partner? Rambo · James Bond · Indiana Jones · John McClane · Ethan Hunt

Five legends. Five completely different ways of getting out alive — with style, with muscle, with charm, with luck, or with a plan so intricate it probably shouldn't work. Ten questions will reveal which action hero was built to have your back.

🎖️Rambo

🍸James Bond

🏺Indiana Jones

🔧John McClane

🎭Ethan Hunt

FIND YOUR PARTNER →

You're dropped into a dangerous situation with no warning. What do you need most from a partner? The first few seconds tell you everything about who belongs beside you.

ASomeone who already has three contingency plans running and is calmly working through all of them. BSomeone who reads the terrain instinctively and knows exactly how to use it against the enemy. CSomeone who keeps their nerve and their sense of humour when everything is falling apart. DSomeone who knows the history of wherever we are and what we're walking into. ESomeone with the right contact, the right cover identity, and the right exit already arranged.

NEXT QUESTION →

You have to get somewhere dangerous, fast. How do you travel? How you get there is half the mission.

AOn foot through terrain no one else would attempt — I move where vehicles can't follow. BOn a motorcycle, a cargo plane, or anything else that gets me there before I think too hard about it. CIn something that belongs to someone else — borrowed, stolen, or improvised under fire. DFirst class, with a cover identity and a gadget that does something I won't explain until it's needed. EBy whatever means are available — I've driven, flown, and once arrived by camel. The destination matters, not the method.

NEXT QUESTION →

You're pinned down and outnumbered. What does your ideal partner do? This is when you find out what someone is really made of.

ADisappears into the environment, flanks them silently, and ends it before I've reloaded. BCracks a one-liner, grabs a fire extinguisher or a chair, and improvises something that somehow works. CProduces a gadget specifically designed for this exact scenario and uses it with infuriating precision. DPulls out a whip, a pistol, and an archaeological insight that somehow gets us out alive. ENeutralises the threat with maximum efficiency and minimum words — they were already three moves ahead.

NEXT QUESTION →

The mission is paused. You have one evening to decompress. What does your partner suggest? Who someone is when the pressure drops is who they actually are.

AA bar with terrible lighting, cold beer, and absolutely no questions about feelings. BThe finest restaurant in the city, a bottle of something expensive, and a conversation that is equal parts brilliant and exhausting. CA local dig site, a museum after hours, or a long story about why that particular artefact matters to human civilisation. DPizza. Bad TV. Falling asleep halfway through a movie neither of you were watching anyway. EA debrief that turns into three hours of contingency planning that somehow becomes the most fun you've had all week.

NEXT QUESTION →

How do you prefer your partner to communicate mid-mission? Good communication is the difference between partners and a liability.

APrecise and minimal — tell me what I need to know and nothing else. Every word has a cost. BDeadpan and dry — keeping it light keeps me sharp, even when everything is on fire. CEnthusiastic and slightly chaotic — but always with useful information buried somewhere in the noise. DCalm and controlled through an earpiece, with a plan that covers every variable I haven't thought of yet. EBarely at all — silence is a language and they speak it fluently.

NEXT QUESTION →

Your enemy is powerful, well-resourced, and has the upper hand. How should your partner approach them? The approach to the enemy defines the partnership.

AInfiltrate their inner circle, learn everything, and dismantle them from inside out before they know we're there. BStudy the historical pattern — every villain of this type has a weakness written somewhere in the past. CGet them talking. The more they monologue, the more time I have to figure out how to beat them. DGo through them. Directly. With as much force as the terrain allows. EFind the one thing they haven't accounted for — there's always one thing — and make sure we're holding it.

NEXT QUESTION →

Things go badly wrong and you're captured. What do you trust your partner to do? Who someone is when you need them most is the only thing that matters.

ACome in alone, quietly, and get me out before anyone knows they were there. BHave already been working on the extraction since the moment I disappeared — the plan is already running. CCome in loud, come in fast, and worry about the collateral damage later — I'd do the same for them. DUse every resource, every contact, and bend every rule until I'm out — they don't leave people behind. ECharm their way in somehow, bluff through the hard part, and still manage to look good doing it.

NEXT QUESTION →

What does your ideal partner bring to the table that you couldn't replace? A great partner fills the gap you didn't know you had.

ATechnology that shouldn't exist yet and the training to use it under any conditions. BSurvival instinct so refined it borders on supernatural — and the scars to prove it's been tested. CKnowledge of history, language, and culture that makes them invaluable in places where force is useless. DThe ability to walk into any room in the world and immediately become the most trusted person in it. EStubbornness that refuses to accept a situation is hopeless — and the improvisational skill to back it up.

NEXT QUESTION →

Every partnership has a cost. Which of these can you live with? No one comes without baggage. The question is whether you can carry it together.

AA partner who never fully switches off — always watching exits, always calculating threats, even at dinner. BA partner who gets the job done brilliantly but has the emotional availability of a locked filing cabinet. CA partner who makes everything ten times more complicated than it needs to be — but who always comes through. DA partner who gets personally attached to every relic, ruin, and artefact we encounter, which slows everything down. EA partner who was not built for this and knows it — but shows up anyway, every time, without being asked.

NEXT QUESTION →

It's the final moment. Everything is on the line. What do you need from your partner right now? The last question is the most honest one.

AOne line. Absolutely dry. Delivered like the world isn't ending. Then we move. BNothing said at all — just a look that means we both already know what has to happen. CA plan I don't fully understand that somehow accounts for everything, delivered in thirty seconds flat. DA piece of historical context that reframes the entire situation and tells us exactly what to do next. ESomeone who steps forward instead of back — because that's who they've always been.

REVEAL MY PARTNER →

Your Partner Has Been Assigned Your Perfect Partner Is…

Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse.

Rambo

Your partner doesn't talk much, doesn't need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you've finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home. What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You'll never need to ask if he has your back. You'll just know.

James Bond

Your partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it'll take you a moment to remember what's actually true. James Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You'll never be bored. You'll occasionally be furious. But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing.

Indiana Jones

Your partner will know the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is actually the most important thing in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless, and occasionally impossible — but he is also one of the most resourceful, most genuinely knowledgeable partners you could find yourself beside. He approaches every situation with a scholar's eye and a brawler's instinct, which is an unusual combination and a remarkably effective one. He hates snakes and gets personally attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It doesn't matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you'll have together will be the kind people write books about. Assuming you survive them.

John McClane

Your partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks. John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren't so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more chaotic than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay.

Ethan Hunt

Your partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you've finished reading the briefing, and the plan he's settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn't exist. He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway.

↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ

Spectre (James "Jim" Corrigan)

The Spectre surrounding by smoke in DC Comics.

Image via DC Comics

While some may know the character of Spectre as Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) from the CW DC universe, the actual comic identity of the hero is James "Jim" Corrigan, and he's overtly stronger than how he was portrayed in the CW. In DC Comics, Spectre is the embodiment of God's vengeance, giving him limitless cosmic power, magical abilities, and the capacity to warp reality as the characters of DC know it. Powers like that give him almost complete control of whatever battlefield he's on and a sense of authority over the battle itself.

So, as stated, while Superman doesn't necessarily have a weakness to magic, he has zero resistance to it, meaning the magic that Spectre wields already makes him far stronger than Supes. Characters like Spectre, who have such profound reality-warping powers, are almost an instant answer to whether a character could beat Superman. It's a bit unfair, yes, but it's simply the reality of creating a character with borderline omnipotence. Superman may be powerful, but he's no god, and Spectre will almost immediately take the cake when stepping up to DC's ever-favorite Man of Steel.

Doctor Fate (Kent Nelson)

Doctor Fate surrounded by blue lightning in DC Comics.

Image via DC Comics

Quite simply, no one who holds the magical power that Doctor Fate does. He has basically god-like magic, and, genuinely, could wipe the floor with Superman if they came face-to-face. It's more accurate to consider Doctor Fate more of an entity than a simple man in a helmet. He's so filled to the brim with absurdly power magic that he is essentially a force of the supernatural itself. It's safe to say that his depiction in Black Adam, played by Pierce Brosnan, is wildly underpowered. Doctor Fate fans were genuinely disappointed upon seeing the 2022 flick.

With ease, Doctor Fate could trap Clark Kent in another dimension, freeze time around him to take him out, turn the hero into pure ice or any other material, go back in time to catch him by surprise— not to mention, Fate can also heal himself from mortal wounds. There is zero question whether Doctor Fate is one of the most powerful superheroes in the DC universe, and when it comes down to whether he could take Superman down for good, there's pretty much no question or competition. Also, he's incredibly smart, meaning he'll be cunning in battle, as well. So, in short, Superman, please don't piss off this magical mastermind.

Doctor Manhattan (Dr. Jonathan "Jon" Osterman)

Billy Crudup as Doctor Manhattan in Zack Snyder's Watchmen.

Image via Warner Bros.

Doctor Manhattan—Dr. Jonathan "Jon" Osterman—is commonly known as an absurdly powerful superhero, best known for his time in the Watchmen team. This all-blue hero is not only stronger than Superman; he's much, muchstronger than Big Blue. In fact, his power set is such that it's pretty much impossible to list them all without practically writing a novel. He's what people can essentially consider a god in all meanings of the word.

His most notable powers include complete mastery and control of all atomic and sub-atomic matter, teleportation at will, the ability to see all of time non-linearly, duplication, and absolute invincibility. That final one alone could make him stronger than Superman from the sheer inability to perish, but with his extremely long list of additional powers, Doctor Manhattan could comfortably take down Superman. Like Spectre, it does feel a little unfair, as he's god-level in power, but there's no denying the fact that when it comes to taking on the DC universe as a whole, Doctor Manhattan comes out on top almost every single time.

Watchmen

Release Date

March 6, 2009

Cast

Malin Akerman, Patrick Wilson, Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode, Jackie Earle Haley, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Carla Gugino, Laura Mennell, Matt Frewer, Stephen McHattie, Rob LaBelle, Gary Houston, James M. Connor, Mary Ann Burger, John Shaw, Robert Wisden, Jerry Wasserman, Don Thompson, Frank Novak, Sean Allan, Garry Chalk, Stephanie Belding, Michael Kopsa, William S. Taylor, Chris Burns

Runtime

163 minutes

Director

Zack Synder

Writers

Alex Tse, David Hayter, Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons