Dr Manhattan is a good choice. He literally has the ability to rethink the universe. His last line in Watchmen…
Paraphrased: “Human life is interesting…I believe I’ll go create some.”
is one of the all time great exit lines.
Manhattan vs the Saint? The Saint could shoot him but he can’t be killed that way. He was reduced to constituent subatomic particles and reconstituted himself in minutes!
And then he could just say ‘Hmm. Saint? I just rethought the universe without you in it’ and his problem would be solved.
To which Veidt (as well as most of the readers, I expect) asks: “Wait, Jon, what do you mean by that…” only to realize he’s talking to a puff of blue smoke.[/spoiler]
I can’t recall the name of it, but one of E. E. Smith’s characters was capable, by book three in his series, of spontaneously rearranging multiple galaxies instantly with a short morning’s work. That beats most of the people described in sheer energy output.
In the Marvel Universe, is there not some little girl, guarded by Adam Warlock, who is another one of your basic “can think anything into happening” types? I seem to remember a graphic novel where Thanos destroyed the universe, and Adam Warlock had her “reset” it.
I saw the title of this thread a day or two ago, and then last night I was coincidentally reading through my Preacher TPBs after having them sit on the shelf for the last two years, and I thought to myself, I should drop in that thread and mention the Saint of Killers. He May not be the most powerful, but he’s close, and definitely one of the coolest.
The problem with the question, coolness of the Saint aside, is that every work of fiction takes place in its own unique universe. Dr. Manhattan doesn’t exist in Galactus’s universe, therefore we don’t know whose contradictory powers trump whose, etc., etc.
There are more powerful guys in the DCU than superman (especially post crisis)
I’ll limit my answer to American superhero comics
Specter
Living Tribunal
Dr. Manhattan
George Orr from Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Lathe of Heaven, who changed reality with his dreams but really didn’t want to.
Dr. Bruno Bluthgeld from Philip K. Dick’s Dr. Bloodmoney, another reality-shaper, only he did it when he was awake, and he was insane. Actually, there are a smattering of similar characters throughout Dick’s canon: Manfred Steiner from Martian Time-Slip and Palmer Eldritch from The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch come to mind.
The little boy in Jerome Bixby’s “It’s a Good Life.”
What about Duplicate Boy from the old Legion of Superheros? Being that he duplicate anybody’s powers, you’d think that he’s certainly as powerful; as anybody/anything else.
Or Doctor Manhattan from The Watchmen. By the end of the series, he’s literally a god.
Similarly, there’s Nemesis Kid, with the power to beat any opponent.
In the Marvel Universe of the Future, there was (IIRC) Prodigy, a mutant born with the ability to duplicate any powers he saw - including the Beyonder’s, apparently.
Let us not forget that the Saint of Killers killed God. According to the rules of Preacher, the Saint of Killers’ guns were Walker Colt revolvers that were forged from the metal of the Angel of Death’s sword. They had unlimited ammunition, never needed reloading or maintenance, always hit the intended target, and a single shot was enough to be a fatal blow to anyone, period. I would think that this would include Dr. Manhattan.
As far as Q goes, his power is limited by the rest of the Continuum. However, Cmdr. Riker was a fool to turn down his offer to make him a Q.
In the Marvel Multiverse, it might be the thing that resulted from the Beyonder and Molecule Man’s merger. The Beyonder, who was the sentient totality of a parallel universe, never found anything in the hero’s universe that could slow him down except for Molecule Man, who had taken on some of the power released by the Cosmic Cube that created the Beyonder in the first place. Together, they are something more than a universe-worth of power, with a little humanity in the mix.
Although i am not particularly a fan of the show, the characters of the anime Dragonball Z far surpass any of the mentioned characters in power by the end of the show. It’s cheap i know…but when their power levels get into the multi billions they can effortlessly destroy a planet (or universe), they can instantly apparate anywhere in existance, ect ect.
I always felt superman’s powers were too extreme and therefore cheap…imagine how i feel about golden azuru goku…
What about the Lady of Pain from D&D’s Planescape setting? She rules the city sitting at the center of the multiverse, and when she tells gods to stay out of her town, they listen.
