10 Most Powerful Members of the Justice League, Ranked by Their Strongest Forms

Superheroes, especially long-running comic book heroes, have a reputation for being very, very powerful. That’s the simple nature of the beast. If you keep characters around forever and constantly throw them into new situations, you’ll have to eventually raise the danger they face, and thus raise their abilities to match. Superman is the perfect example of this phenomenon. When he first debuted, he was only able to lift great weights, leap an eighth of a mile, and survive anything up to a bursting shell without damage. Nowadays, he’s flying across the universe in moments and decking gods. And that’s awesome. 

So, in celebration of how cool powerful heroes are, we’re going to be taking a look at the ultimate celebration of heroism in DC: the Justice League. Today, we’ll be looking at the ten most powerful members of the Justice League and ranking them, using their strongest forms. Now, as a quick disclaimer, comic book power scaling gets very weird, since comics are always driven by narrative first, so take everything with a grain of salt. Some of these heroes are positively absurd in terms of what they can do, and I cannot wait to talk about them, so let’s get into the ten strongest members of the Justice League.

10) Swamp Thing

Swamp Thing is the living Avatar of the Green, the collective lifeforce connecting all plant life across the universe. This power not only lets Swamp Thing connect with and control all vegetation, but manifest his consciousness through it. He is effectively immortal and near omnipresent wherever flora exists, able to see through all plants and create any number of bodies when necessary. Swamp Thing is the champion of every piece of plant life out there, and his total control over it makes him a one-man army unlike anything else. He’s one of the most powerful Elementals in all of DC, and the long list of people he’s fought should more than speak for his power.

9) Doctor Fate

There are many master magicians in DC, from Zatanna to Raven, but none have exhibited as much power or control as Doctor Fate. Within the helmet rests the spirit of Nabu, the strongest of the Lords of Order, cosmic beings with near limitless magical power. Doctor Fate might not take the spotlight a lot, but he is more than capable of flooring most threats when needed, especially when an experienced mage like Kurt Nelson wears the helmet. At the peaks of his power, he’s regularly battled with impossibly strong beings like the Spectre, and has been shown to be capable of destroying the Sphere of the Gods, the source of all magic and realm of the divine.

8) Mobius Chair Flash

Wally West is already the Fastest Man Alive, having greater control over the Speedforce than anybody else in existence. He’s crossed the universe faster than an instant teleporter and outraced the concept of death to the end of the universe. Add to that all the power of the Mobius Chair, which grants the wielder almost all the knowledge in the universe and nigh-omnipotence, and was imbued with some of the powers of Doctor Manhattan. Practically all the knowledge in the multiverse was handed to a person who can think faster than anyone else who’s ever lived. Wally could have been nearly everywhere, all at once, combining his speed and knowledge to be an unbeatable killing machine that you could never outrun.

7) White Lantern

When Kyle Rayner wielded the White Lantern Ring, he was one of the most powerful beings in the multiverse. He had control over every color of the Emotional Spectrum, which basically gave him every strength of the average Lantern turned up to fifteen, as well as heal and create life however he wished. The thing that earns Kyle his spot on this list, however, was actually when he passed beyond the Source Wall and was infused with the Life Equation. As the opposite of the Anti-Life Equation, the Life Equation is mathematical proof that life is worth living, and can impose that view on reality itself.

With the Life Equation, Kyle was able to literally rewrite reality at his will, his only limit being his own doubts and imagination. Of course, the thing holding Kyle back in reality and on this list is himself, as his own self-doubts gave rise to an evil version of himself named Oblivion, also possessing all of his powers. Kyle is unable to control his unstoppable power, but if he were, he’d be almost unstoppable.

6) Apex Predator Lex Luthor/Martian Manhunter

This is a two-for-one deal, considering both Lex and Martian Manhunter have been Leaguers. Originally, Perpetua, the Mother of the Multiverse, intended for humans and martians to be one race called the Apex Predators, with near-unmatched powers. Lex Luthor became one by combining with Martian Manhunter, transforming him into a creature unlike any other. Not only did Luthor possess all of Martian Manhunter’s powers, such as strength that rivals Superman’s, the greatest telepathy in the universe, and the ability to shapeshift into anything, but they were greatly enhanced by the fusion. Apex Lex easily killed Wonder Woman and Superman at the same time and dismantled the entire Justice League by himself.

Of course, not only did Lex have incredible intelligence matched with A-list power, but he had access to the seven Hidden Forces of Creation. These are the fundamental forces of Perpetua’s dark creation, the literal pillars of evil and selfishness codified into abilities. They range from the Still Force to the Tear of Extinction, which is capable of killing even immortals and gods. Apex Lex had all the powers he could ever need, an unfair intellect, and literal universal hacks on. And of course, somehow, he still wasn’t satisfied.

5) The Spectre

The Spectre is an angel, the embodiment of God’s Wrath and divine punishment, and he is sure to let everybody know that. A demon of Lucifer turned towards a divine purpose, the Spectre is one of the most powerful beings in the entire DC Multiverse, and easily the most consistently powerful of all the heroes. He has the power to manipulate reality as he wishes, literally given power the the Prescense, the ultimate creator and source of everything in DC. Some of his feats include recreating the Big Bang and pulling the Marvel and DC universes apart in JLA/Avengers.

One of the only weaknesses of the Spectre is that he has to be bound to a human host to properly ground himself, but even that is a mental requirement over a physical one. When not connected to a human soul, the Spectre loses himself to his rage and thirst for vengeance, wreaking havoc across the world with no remorse. The Spectre is one of the Justice League’s heaviest hitters, so when he shows up, you know that something serious is going down.

4) World Forger

Some of the only beings stronger than the Spectre are the Monitors. They are the three children of Perpetua, made to oversee different aspects of the multiverse. The World Forger was assigned the role of creating new universes to populate the multiverse, and from within the Forge of Worlds, every strike of his hammer created entire realities. He exists in the Sixth Dimension, the highest realm of existence there is, and even nigh-all-powerful beings like fifth-dimensional imps like Mister Mxyzptlk bow before him.

The World Forger can do practically anything he sets his mind to, altering and creating new realities as he pleases. He fought the entire Justice League off at once with zero effort, only being defeated once Superman once incredibly amped up by the power of dozens of suns. The World Forger officially joined the League after that, if only temporarily, to help them stop Perpetua, one of the very, very few beings more powerful than him.

3) Cosmic Armor Superman

Superman clad in the Cosmic Armor, called the Thought Robot, is a strange character to place on this list. There are two ways to look at him: the in-universe perspective and the meat perspective. Going by the in-universe perspective, this is a divine suit of armor crafted by the Monitors to protect the multiverse from Mandrakk, the Dark Monitor. Superman used this armor to defeat Mandrakk in a battle outside of the multiverse itself, and given that Mandrakk was the strongest of all the Monitors, it is easily argued that Cosmic Armor Superman sits at a level above the World Forger, even though the battle destroyed the armor. The in-universe understanding makes him stronger than the Monitors, but likely weaker than someone like Perpetua.

Then there’s the meta perspective. See, Cosmic Armor Superman was called a literal plot device, and was said to represent Superman’s place in DC as the hero who will always be strong enough to save the day. He is called the spirit of the story itself, and it can be argued that his body is simply a physical representation of Superman’s eternal victory, as superheroes will always win at the end of the day. Even his supposed “death” ends with him carving “To be continued” into a tombstone, implying that he was simply being written out of the story because his role in it was done.

The in-universe perspective places him at Monitor-level strength, while the meta perspective portrays him as a being capable of reshaping the very fabric of the comic book he is in to save everything. Cosmic Armor Superman would be the embodiment of a happy ending, and thus literally unstoppable. For the sake of our list, we will be ranking Cosmic Armor Superman with the in-universe perspective, as we could argue that every Superman should take first place if we went by the narrative idea instead of abiding by the rules comic books make up to tell a story. I don’t think Superman would mind, especially given who our top places are.

2) The Darkest Knight

Number two on our list is the ultimate form of The Batman Who Laughs, the Dark Multiverse version of Batman who was Jokerized and killed his entire world. Even though he was a villain, he was originally a member of his Justice League, so he definitely qualifies here. He took the name Darkest Knight when he had his brain transplanted into the dead body of a version of Bruce with the powers of Doctor Manhattan. Not only did this give him reality-warping powers, the ability to see throughout all of time and space, and near omnipresence, but he also infused himself with Crisis Energy. 

This energy was the pure evil and chaos wrought by the various DC Crisis events. It was the death and destruction given tangible power, and with it, the Darkest Knight was able to kill Perpetua. The Darkest Knight was able to rewrite not just the universe, but the multiverse at his whim. The only beings capable of stopping him were people on the level of the Hands, Perpetua’s people, who each crafted their own multiverse in the greater omniverse. The Darkest Knight was all but all-powerful, and only one character stood above him in strength.

1) Anti-Crisis Wonder Woman

Wonder Woman took on this massive, golden form after she dipped her Lasso in the Forge of Creation and was imbued with Anti-Crisis Energy, the opposite of the evil Crisis Energy. This power allowed Diana to show the truth of the multiverse to everyone, restoring their lost memories from the various resets and reboots. More than that, it let the Amazonian hero go toe to toe with the Darkest Knight and literally beat him across all of time and space. Every blow sent him through universes and timelines. Now, an important note for the Darkest Knight and this amped Wonder Woman is that the Darkest Knight might have been stronger, at least at one point.

He was able to create realities while Diana was not, and was even stated to be stronger several times, but it was also stated that every blow from Diana weakened him, and she was eventually able to overpower him. While the Darkest Knight had powers that Diana did not, she was able to prove herself better and beat him, throwing him into the Death Sun and finally killing him. While the Darkest Knight might have had a slight edge at some point, Wonder Woman proved that she was more than capable of making up the difference and took her title as the strongest Justice Leaguer of all time.

So, what do you think of our list? Something is fitting about the fact that the Trinity makes up the top three spots, and the fact that an argument can be made for all of them to take first place. They are DC’s best and brightest, and alongside the rest of these heroes, the Justice League is ready and willing to face any threat.

What do you think? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!

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