DC Comics has a certain reputation among comic fans, and it’s one that has its origins in the Silver Age of comics. Characters like Superman started to become hyper powerful, with the man who was once merely faster than a locomotive and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound suddenly flying faster than light, moving planets, and destroying vast swaths of space with a sneeze. Powers levels in the DC Multiverse rose like the hemlines of skirts in the ’60s, and while the publisher has tried to cut things down multiple times over the years — post-Crisis DC, for example, had the weakest iterations of DC heroes ever — the powers levels always reach insane levels at some point, especially for the villains.
Of course, this is exactly what happens when the power levels of the heroes is so high. Even villains like the Rogues, the majority of whom aren’t metahumans, have weapons that can freeze things down to absolute zero and control the weather. DC villains have to be powerful to stand up to heroes like Superman, Wonder Woman, Shazam, the Flash, Martian Manhunter, and so many others. DC readers have seen some insanely powerful villains over the years, many of whom would definitely be considered overpowered. These seven DC villains are the most overpowered, their threats challenging the heroes with multiverse-quaking power.
7) Darkseid
Darkseid is the God of Evil, and as such is monumentally powerful. Darkseid was created by Jack Kirby as the personification of darkness in the human soul, and over the years creators like Grant Morrison, Paul Levitz, Keith Giffen, Tom King, and many more have shown just how powerful Darkseid truly is. Darkseid is many times stronger than Superman, and can fight basically the entire superhero community on his own. His Omega Effect eyebeams will hunt down anyone he sends them after where ever they go, and can kill almost anyone with one shot. His Omega Sanction allows him to throw people through time and make them into universe-destroying bombs. You can kill Darkseid’s body, but the destruction of Darkseid causes a black hole like structure that could devour the multiverse…. and he’s still alive, because he’s the living embodiment of entropy as a concept. Darkseid is the perfect example of a villain who is as powerful as the story needs him to be, and that usually means that he has to be more powerful than everyone he fights to make their victory that much better. Darkseid is the definition of overpowered, but since it’s led to so many great stories, most fans don’t really have a problem with it.
6) Eclipso
Eclipso was always powerful, but he got a major boost after the story Eclipso: The Darkness Within. The story established that Eclipso had once been the Angel of God’s Wrath, on par with the Spectre, and that he lost his angelic office because of his love of hurting humanity. Anyone who knows anything about the Spectre knows that putting Eclipso on that level is insane. While it has been established that Eclipso lost some of his power after being kicked out of the Silver City, he still had titanic magic and reality altering powers on his side. Eclipso is another example of a villain who is just as powerful as he needs to be. Eclipso has been able to defeat entire teams of the most powerful villains, and certain writers have made him do amazing things in stories like “Princes of Darkness”. Eclipso’s possession powers are also top notch, allowing him to control the minds of entire cities against his enemies. Eclipso is a B-list villain with S-tier power, and over the years, many writers have used Eclipso to battle the most superheroes in the DC Multiverse. Only in the DC Multiverse could a character as powerful as Eclipso be considered B-list.
5) The Batman Who Laughs
Evil Batmen can get pretty annoying. Batman may just be a normal human, but his intellect and resources mean that he can defeat nearly anyone, so evil Batmen all end up being super OP. There’s a way to do evil Batman-like characters — for example, Prometheus (I will die on the hill that Prometheus is one of DC’s best villains despite all of the terrible stories he’s been put in) — but the way to not do it is the Batman Who Laughs. The Batman Who Laughs premiered during Dark Knights: Metal, the leader of Barbatos’s evil Batman Justice League. The Batman Who Laughs was Batman infected with a Joker toxin, becoming the worst monster imaginable, and killing everyone on his Earth. He was the star of the Dark Knights, and soon became a major part of “The Year of the Villain,” a villain centric year of DC stories that led to Dark Knights: Death Metal. Fans got really tired of the Batman Who Laughs, mostly because he was an evil version of the Bat-God cliche. He always won, and in the end even bonded with Dr. Bathattan (who is exactly what you think he is) and became the Multiverse Who Laughs. The Batman Who Laughs was, frankly, ridiculous, all because of how overpowered the villain was.
5) Nekron
Nekron is the embodiment of death in the DC Multiverse. For years, Nekron was basically a B-list Green Lantern villain, but Blackest Night saw him rise to his most powerful and dangerous level. Nekron became the master of the black energy of death, and commanded the trillions strong Black Lantern Corps in battle against the living beings of the universe. One of the problems with Nekron is that other than being the embodiment of death and controlling the dead, his power level wasn’t really known beyond that it was very, very high. He was able to beat basically everyone who attacked him and could only be harmed by someone wielding the white energy of life. Nekron is one of those villains who got a massive upgrade for exactly one story, and hasn’t really done anything else. He’s one of the most powerful enemies in the history of the DC Multiverse, and he honestly makes other embodiments of death seem weak in comparison.
3) Mr. Mxyzptlk
There are some people out there who would question whether Mr. Mxyzptlk is actually a villain. Other than stories like “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?” and “Superman Reborn,” most of the time Mxy is more a nuisance than an enemy. Mxy hails from the Fifth Dimension, which is home to all-powerful, immortal Imps who get very, very bored. They often come to Earth to find entertainment, and there are multiple examples of this throughout DC history. Mxy, though, was the first. Mxy decided that the best way to entertain himself and his godlike powers was to match wills with Superman. Mxy can pretty much do anything he can imagine. Usually, what he imagines is pretty benign, but there have been times when he used his powers to hurt others. Mxy can do anything he wants to do at any time, and has used this to make his life more interesting, all while ruining the day for anyone on the other end of his all-powerful pranks. His reality altering powers make him ridiculously OP, and when he actually feels like doing something evil, stopping him is just about impossible.
2) The Anti-Monitor
Crisis on Infinite Earths is the greatest event comic ever, and a big reason for that is the Anti-Monitor. Now, the Anti-Monitor isn’t exactly a deep character — he’s a stereotypical “destroy everything so he can be ruler of the ashes” type villain — but his power level made him a challenge for all of the heroes of the DC Multiverse. The Anti-Monitor is the embodiment of anti-matter, and wants to transform the positive matter universe into anti-matter so he can have all of the power for himself. The Anti-Monitor was destroying universes for ages in the background of the DC Multiverse, and was capable of launching waves of anti-matter that could destroy everything in their path. Anti-Monitor was able to beat Supergirl to death, and nearly killed Superman before she got involved in the fight. The Anti-Monitor was a force of unparalleled destruction, and it took the combined forces of the greatest superheroes in the multiverse to defeat him. The Anti-Monitor is a symbol for the heroes of the DC Multiverse of that time they were able to defeat a ravening force of cosmic destruction. His defeat is still their greatest victory, because he was actually powerful enough to give them pause and almost devour them all.
1) Perpetua
DC is full of overpowered characters, but only one of them can create entire multiverses — Perpetua. Perpetua is what happens when power scaling goes out of control. The Anti-Monitor is one of the greatest villains in comics, but once you create something like him, the only way to outdo him is to create an even more powerful villain. So, Perpetua was established as one of the Hands who created the Multiverse. She created the DC Multiverse, and planned to use it as a weapon to conquer the multiverses of other Hands. She created the Monitor, the Anti-Monitor, and the World-Forger to help see her dream become a reality, and the other Hands were forced to band together to defeat her and imprison her outside of the Source Wall. When the Source Wall was cracked in Justice League: No Exit, Perpetua was able to re-enter the Multiverse, and readers got introduced to the most ridiculously overpowered being in the history of comics. She could basically do anything, and the only reason she was even defeated is because the Multiverse Who Laughs was able to match her powers. Perpetua is kind of a joke in a lot of ways, the end result of a creator trying to create a villain more powerful than the Anti-Monitor.
Who do you think are DC’s most overpowered villains? Sound off in the comments.
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