Is there a listing anywhere on the net (or elsewhere) for either the DC or Marvel universes with the most powerful heroes and villans of the respective universes ranked by power.
“Powerful” is too subjective in comics to rate like that. In the end, a character is as powerful as whoever’s writing the comic wants them to be. Batman has no super powers, yet in Grant Morrison’s Justice League, Batman can defeat any one of his team mates.
“Power” is definitely too subjective.
In simple terms of who can beat up who in a brawl, you’d have to look upward to the cosmically influential beings like Galactus and Thanos.
Personally, I’ve always thought Spiderman to be the most powerful. Not because he could take everyone and anyone out, but because you just can’t squish the guy.
The most powerful supehero is the one whose comic is selling the best.
That’s why a kid who sticks to walls and an ornery Canadan with metal prosthetics are among the most powerful creatures in the Marvel universe. It’s also why Superman got his ass whooped and was replaced by four wannabes. “Truth, Justice and the American way” had long since given way to mutant angst. I blame Watergate.
But even a serious comparison between characters should exclude those fey godlike ones like Thanatos, Galactus, the Celestials, the Eternals, the Divinyls and whoever the hell else.
There was a time where people looked to superhero stories to hear about unbelievably fanatstic beings of immense power. The current, more jaded audience would rather hear about heros that hover mere microns above reality. Any large man dressed in purple who eats planets and claims to be older that the universe will rightfully evoke an eyeroll.
You’ve also got to deal with the plethora of omnipotent characters. Magneto, for instance, can, as I understand it, exert total control over any and all of the Four Fundamental Forces of Nature. Which means, basically, that he can do anything he wants.
For the marvel superheroes, there was once a supplemental section in one comic that ranked the major heroes in terms of strength. This prompted the creation of “Marvel Universe”, a sort of encyclopedia that included a basic history, listing of powers and foes, etc., and a specific strength rating. The rating was in terms of how many tons the character could press over her/his head. The highest ranking was 100+, and included the likes of the Hulk and Thor.
Magneto is far from omnipotent. He controls only the electo-magnetic force, and wasn’t even the most powerful at it. A being called the Metal Master once nearly took over the earth with the power to manipulate all metal, but was outsmarted by the Hulk. (yes, outsmarted by the Hulk).
The most powerful character in either universe would have to be The Beyonder, who was an entire universe himself until he became aware of the Marvel universe. This was in a miniseries that pitted the major heroes and villains against each other.
In the same series, The Molecule Man discovers that the limits on his powers (distance, intensity, and the inability to control organic molecules) were actually a psychological block to keep him from going insane. On his way back to Earth, he creates some star systems. I’d nominate him for number two.
Which Hulk - Dumb Green, Smart Grey, or Smart Green?
Smart green. It was in twentysomethings, when Bruce Banner had developed a machine that enabled him to transform at will, retaining his intelligence, but with the Hulk’s temperament, although Bruce was pretty arrogant himself at the time.
A gold star for anyone who knows how the Hulk outsmarted the metal master.
HOLY “can of worms” Batman. 
Two series, actually – “Secret Wars” and “Secret Wars 2”. The first one was okay, but rather variable.
The second one consisted of twelve issues where each one featured a gadzillion heroes dogpiling on the Beyonder, failing to kill him, only to have the same thing repeated in the next issue. And the Al Milgrom art was horrible – I like his inks and his “editori-Al” cartoons, but the guy can’t pencil IMO.
I believe some other Marvel comic book eventually retconed that the Beyonder and the Molecule Man were actually two halves of a Cosmic Cube (a doohicky that gave the holder omnipotence), and someone merged them back together again…?
The Hulk constructed a massive weapon with materials gathered by Rick Jones and the Teen Brigade. The Metal Master attempted to control the metal of the weapon, and believed his power had deserted him when it failed, providing the opening the Hulk needed. It was all a clever ruse, the “gun” was made of plastic and cardboard.
Wouldn’t the most powerful character in the Marvel Universe be Eternity? As the living embodiment of the Universe, my guess is it could lift more over its head than even the Hulk.
Unless Marvel has introduced a character who’s the living embodiment of the multiverse…
As for DC, I seem to recall that the DC mythos has pretty conclusively accepted the existence of God, so I’d say the most powerful character is God.
When did this storyline happen?
The exact same ruse (OK, the weapon was wood, not plastic and cardboard, but still, the exact same ruse) was used by Reed Richards against Magneto in the old 70s Fantastic Four cartoon.
(I know this because Teletoon airs it right after I get home from work, and I’m too lazy to change the channel. And I like laughing at how awful it is.)
They Might Be Giants once wrote a song that featured the following superhero:
Beat that, Marvel!
Well, in The Infinity Gauntlet, Eternity asks The Living Tribunal for a ruling when Thanos attempts to displace him, so it looks like The Living Tribunal is the highest on the food chain thus far.
Marvel overfloweth with nigh-omnipotent characters. (I can think of a dozen off the top of my head.) Even Franklin Richards, the toddler offspring of the Fantastic Four’s Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman, has the ability to alter reality and create pocket universes on a whim. (Imagine finding a sitter for THAT kid 
) Which is why the question “Who’s the most powerful” is impossible to answer, and will make any comic geek’s head explode.
Yup. FANTASTIC FOUR around issues #314-325 give-or-take an issue or two. Steve Englehart, working around tremendous editorial interference (They yanked Reed and Sue off the team and made him add Ms Marvel/Thingette and Crystal. Then they yanked Crystal and added…um…someone else. In the middle of a story where the characters are trapped, lost between dimensions. As this continuted, Englehart got so frustrated that he didn’t even bother to write an explanation: Crystal would be there one panel and wouldn’t be there the next.) wrote a wonderful romp through the nooks and crannies of the Marvel universe, tying in Adam Warlock, Morbius the Living Vampire, the Cat-People who gave Tigra her powers, A.I.M., the Shaper of Dreams, the Beyonder, the Molecule Man, the Cosmic Cube, and so on…
The upshot is that to build a Cosmic Cube, you tap into a white hole (or something) and if you have a force-field ready to grab the energy that comes out and if you do it jussssst right, the field turns cube-shaped and you’ve got a Cosmic Cube. Eventually a Cosmic Cube “hatches” into a Shaper-of-Dreams type being.
Englehart looked at whatever issue of FF (#18?) that the Molecule Man first appeared in and noticed that the Watcher actually interfered, saying the Molecule Man was a threat to the entire universe (which was never explained). Englehart then did the retcon you described: the explosion that created the Molecule Man would have made a Cosmic Cube if there had been a force-field handy. Since there wasn’t, half the energy went into the Molecule Man and the other half became the Beyonder.
Ignore the cast, ignore the fact that characters vanish without explaination as other editors grab them, it’s probably one of Englehart’s great stories, almost up there with the Kang-War/Celestial Madonna stuff or the Captain America/Nomad stuff or his fantastic JLA run!
Fenris
In theory, Green Lantern should be one of if not the most powerful character in the DC universe, since he is limited by will alone.
<footnote>
*Due to a necessary impurity, Green Lantern’s ring cannot affect anything colored yellow.
or, if we’re talking about the modern one,
<not a real footnote, but it should be>
*Due to his inborn dumbness, and the fact that by getting rid of the yellow weakness, he was too powerful, Kyle will lose/drop his ring quicker than a hooker will drop her skirt. (Everyone short of Validus has swiped Kyle’s ring in his first 40 issues.)
Footnoting Fenris
Yes, Fenris, though you are my arch-enemy (alongside rakes), we can agree that Steve Englehart can be a wonderful writer when left to his own devices. His Scott Shaw arc in JLA was just terrific, even if everyone from Scott to Snapper to Krypto the Super-Dog turned out to be the Star-Tsar.
The problem with comparing Marvel vs. DC heroes/villains/concepts is that they’re only designed to be self-consistent, not cross-consistent.
Is the Hulk stronger than Solomon Grundy?
How would the Beyonder fare against the Spectre, Death of the Endless, or the Hand at the Beginning of the Universe?
Who is the better archer, Hawkeye or Green Arrow?
And who among you can truthfully state whether adamantium or inertron is the stronger metal? If such a man is out there, I want to shake his hand.