I wouldn’t even bother asking this question about Marvel, because they’ve had so many omni-cosmicly powerful entities you need a scorecard to keep track of them. But how about DC?
I’m not sure if Mxyzptlk counts or not. In his current version he’s sort of the authors’ joke. In one issue, he and Batmite annihilated the entire DC continuity playing “hide and seek”; then put it all back the way it was.
For that matter, the authors have at least twice (Animal Man and Suicide Squad) written themselves into the story. But I don’t know if that’s cheating.
In stories relating to the Spectre, God (Judeo-Christian version) is an unseen character. However I don’t know if this entity is “really” God, or is only God Almighty within one belief system that is not as universal as He thinks it is.
The Spectre is currently one of the most powerful entities to regularly put in an appearence, but he’s gotten his butt kicked a couple of times. Once by the fifth-dimensional “genies” (of whom Mxyzptlk is supposed to be one of) and the Joker when he tricked Mxyzptlk into giving him (most of) his power.
Finally in the contenders for hyper-powerful entities there is the Anti-Monitor from the Infinity Crisis. Yet while in some senses he was certainly extremely powerful- enough to cause the destruction of entire universes- on a purely “slug it out” physical level he got some major lumps in his battle with Supergirl.
Ok, so disposing of beings so powerful that they challenge the very framework of the stories they’re in, who would be the most powerful (in the “regular” sense) entity to ever appear in the DC universe?
The Penguin. The Penguin is the most powerful entity in the DC Universe.
He hasn’t cut loose, yet, I grant you. He’s lulling Batman (and by extension the entire Justice League) into a false sense of security. But one of these days, there’ll be a reckoning.
If power includes cunning, followers and access to weapons, then Darkseid.
If power means the potential ability to beat the crap out of anyone, then Doomsday or Nemisis Kid are good contenders (Doomsday can evolve traits that help him survive, including being DAMN hard to kill, and NK had the power to aquire whatever power would allow him to defeat any one opponent:kriptonite beams for Superman, fire powers for Martian Manhunter, ect. ).
Othwise, you have the Greek and Roman pantheons, as well as the one being who almost certainly wins this competition:
The “Brother” from the DC vs Marvel mini-series, one of the dumbest serieses to date. It’s essentially a one-on-one fighter video game rendered in comic form.
Each universe was personified by a massive all-powerful diety that accidently discovered his counterpart and decided to stage little battles to see whose universe was better.
Then again, religion-based DC characters like the Spectre and the Seraph have had one-on-one conversations with God, so maybe the big G qualifies.
Kyle Raynor often says he has the most powerful weapon in the universe wrapped around his finger. Since the Green Lantern no longer has a yellow/wood weakness, and I think recently created an almost omnipotent evil being just by doodling in the margins of his notebook, I’d say he gets a nomination at least.
Also I think The Swarm (from Martian Manhunter #1,000,000) could count. Most battles resolve in a few issues; J’onn J’onzz claimed to have fought The Swarm for thousands of years at a time.
Y’got Duplicate Boy, who has any power/combination of powers he wants, (“Let’s see: I want all of Superman’s powers, Mordru’s sorcery, Braniac 5’s intelligence, and…oh…say…Jade’s powers too.”) (His drawback is he’s pretty damned dense and generally doesn’t use his powers well.)
Y’got the Composite-Superman who has all the powers of every member of the Legion of Super-heroes PLUS Superman and Batman (Batman’s powers=in this context, brains/deductive skills) all at once.
Y’got what’shisname: the alchemist guy who fought Hawkman with the “mentachem”(?) rod. Exactly the same powers as the Molecule Man.
Y’got Mon-El, pre-Crisis: as strong as Superman, but (after meeting Braniac 5), none of the weaknesses.
Y’got The Quiz, who has every super-power that you’re not thinking of.
Y’got Myrrwhiddn(sp), a sort of Mytzxtplk-type who fought Green Lantern, but Myrrwhiddn was smart and mean.
Whether they’re part of the DC universe is debateable, but the Endless have to be mentioned. “Ideas clothed in the semblance of flesh”, the Endless are eternal is a sense even gods envy. Kill one, and it’ll reincatrnate. I mean, how do yopu truly destroy a concept? The Endless are:
Destiny
Death
Dream
Desire
Despair
Delirium
and Destruction, who has abdicated his post in favor of roming the cosmos.
I mean, how do you kill Death, beat Destiny, or take out Destruction? Can’t be done.
Sandman also gave the impression that while all gods concieved exist, the J-C-I God is on the top of the heap. Other DC stuff seems to follow that lead.
The problem here, obviously, is whereas the more down-to-earth, hands-on type superheroes have relatively well-defined powers (e.g., Pre-crisis Superman could move a planet, Post-crisis Superman can lift anything from a mountain to, I think, the Moon, depending on how much sunlight he’s been getting), once you get into your quasimagical Omnicosmic Beings and Pagan Deities, there’s really no effective yardstick. Any given entity can exhibit an unlimited range of powers and abilities, and generally they can only be defeated by some random Macguffin that the protagonist pulls out of the blue (“Aagh! The Crystal Orb of Mormath; I am undone! Nooooo!!!” or something like that). A good example of this is Vertigo’s Sandman; as mentioned before, he is presented as posessing power exceeding even the gods, and yet his origin story revealed that he was once sealed in a glass globe for decades by some nobody sorceror.
This points out another general rule: As comic characters increase in power, they either decrease in general efficacity (“I am sworn not to intervene,” etc.) or they increase in dumbness. The most powerful beings, such as Mxy or the old Justice Society character Johnny Thunder, are handicapped by their inability to use their power effectively. Perhaps this is what happened to the Sandman; the magician summoned him and said, “Sorry to bother you, but I was wondering if you’d like some ice cream? It’s over there in my Globe of Endless Imprisonment.” Personally I have to go with Mr. Mxyzptlk as most powerful entity, as the only reason he is ever defeated is because he feels honor-bound to obey rules that he himself establishes.
The connection between Death from Neil Gaiman’s Sandman and the Black Racer from Kirby’s New Gods has not really been explored, I believe. Probably no one at DC wants to touch it, since the basic premises of the two series are so incompatible.
It’s sort of funny, though, to imagine that the hot goth girl can turn into an enormous black man on skis at a moment’s notice.
Imperiex Prime ya big sillies. I don’t read Superman anymore(too old), but I hear the guy did incinerate Doomsday into a heaping pile of bones and is also the icarnate form of entropy
Wh’t th’…?! Too old? Why I oughtta… er, I mean, yeah, man! Take a hike, daddy-o! Don’t be, er, oppressing us with your establishment vibes. Get back on the bus to Squaresville, Pops.
“The Seventies are over, old man. Take your mood ring and go home.”
Now, I grant you that Superman was once written at a level somewhat more appropriate for kids. Fortunately for everyone, John Byrne fixed that by having Superman kill people. That’s more adult, right? Surely everyone can look up to and appreciate Superman now, right?
I grant you I didn’t follow the Imperiex storyline all the way through. Sadly, the guy came across to me as a rather transparent Galactus knockoff. I do seem to recall, however, that Superman eventually beat the guy by flying into the sun, and then hitting him…really hard.
So it looks like we’re back to Superman as Most Powerful DC Entity. But only when he’s in the sun.
Oh yeah, that Byrne story really screwed Superman up. I mean, he didn’t even follow it up and Superman has gone right on killing everyone he meets. Oh, wait, Byrne did follow it up with a several month long storyline about what killing someone did to Superman and re-emphasized the point that Superman shouldn’t kill (something that wasn’t even considdered with the Death of Superman storyline when he descided to beat Doomsday to death).
Ahem. Well, yes, Byrne did follow up on this issue. My point is that having somebody kill and then feel sorry about it later is not exactly the same thing as having the moral fiber to never kill in the first place.
The old Superman could always figure out a way to use his powers to disable his foes without killing them. Byrne’s Superman, on the other hand, was willing to kill off three villains who had already had their powers removed, simply on the off-chance that they might get them back later. I simply felt that this stance not only diminishes the character of Superman, but serves to undercut all the other superheroes who capture and don’t kill their opponents.
Sorry, didn’t mean to hijack with a two-decade old snipe.
