Superman made DC Comics into a household name, his stories influencing their books (which influenced the entire superhero comic industry and beyond), leading to superheroes as we known them. He’s become the leader of the superhero community and is often on the front line of every battle. This makes a lot of sense; he’s been crafted into one of the most superlatively powerful heroes in the history of the comic industry. He’s the one who can handle the villains that other heroes falter against and you know that if he’s around, he’s not only going to save as many lives as possible, but also defeat the bad guy. He’s the one who everyone looks up to for good reason; he’s not only the most pure hero out there but he’s also one of the most potent.
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Looking at the villains of the DC Multiverse, Supes can basically beat most of them completely on his own. In fact, there’s a large portion of them he can beat in seconds. However, that doesn’t mean that he can beat everyone completely on his own. There are numerous DC villains out there who can make things extremely difficult for Superman. We’ve seen him fight some villains where he was completely outclassed often, needing help from others to win. Superman shouldn’t fight these seven DC villains by himself, their threats being too much for the Last Son of Krypton.
7) Starro
Starro the Conqueror is one of the Justice League’s most dangerous villains. He’s a massive kaiju starfish, strong enough to wreck cities, and that’s even before you get to his actual powers. Starro births tiny version of itself and uses those to control the minds of anyone they attach themselves to. This is what makes him so dangerous against any solo hero, especially Superman. See, all it takes is one little Starro-spawn to take control of him. Sure, he’s flying and he’s superfast, but if Starro attacks, the Man of Steel is going to be distracted trying to save civilians from the alien. It wouldn’t be all that hard for one of the Starro-spawn to get control of Superman and suddenly, you have the Conqueror in control of the most powerful person on Earth. There’s a reason that it takes a team to beat the kaiju.
6) Psycho-Pirate
Psycho-Pirate is one of my favorite DC villains and he’s way more formidable than he gets credit for being. Roger Hayden was in prison with the first Psycho-Pirate, who told him where to find the Medusa Masks that the Earth-Two villain used to battle the heroes. He got out, found the masks and melted them down into one, becoming an emotion-controlling criminal. He was taken by the Anti-Monitor in Crisis on Infinite Earths and had powers became linked to the multiverse, with the Medusa Mask gaining the power to bring back characters from older versions of the infinite Earths. Superman should easily be able to take Psycho-Pirate in theory, but he’s proven to be weak against mental control, so that’s a big problem. Add in Hayden’s ability to conjure up multiversal beings to fight on his side and he’s a problem that Superman shouldn’t try to deal with alone.
5) Maxwell Lord
Once upon a time, Maxwell Lord was an ’80s-style businessman. He was the financier behind the Justice League International, fitting into that madcap group of heroes perfectly. He was short-sighted and excessive, coming up with wild new ways to make money and run the team all the time. He was something of a clown, but that was all a lie. Lord was actually a member of Checkmate, meant to watch the heroes and ingratiate himself to them. He gained telepathic powers during his time with the group, allowing him to control the minds of people around him. We saw the consequences of this in the fantastic build-up to Infinite Crisis; he ended up using his mind-controlling powers to get Superman to kill Batman. He was able to take control of the Man of Steel at any time with something as simple as a phone call, so he definitely needs someone there to help.
4) Eclipso
Eclipso is one of the most terrifying DC magic users. He was once the Angel of God’s Wrath but he loved hurting humans and was stripped of his position, imprisoned in the Heart of Darkness diamond. Darkseid was able to fool Eclipso into working for him, and eventually he would escape the Heart of Darkness, taking control of Bruce Gordon and being reborn in the world. Since then, we’ve had numerous different Eclipsos (as well as numerous retcons on exactly who and what the villain is), all of them with amazing magical powers and the ability to control legions of people. While he’s not as powerful as he once was, Darkseid was able to make sure he kept a lot of his old power, and his magical might would be a problem for Superman. He could hurt him with his magic and control his mind. Supes can beat magical foes, but Eclipso is the kind of threat where he needs back-up.
3) Darkseid
So, I know what you’re thinking – “Superman fights Darkseid alone all the time,” – which is correct, but let’s be real, he definitely shouldn’t. Darkseid is the God of Evil, the master of Omega energy and the diametric opposite of the Man of Steel. He’s a complicated character; there are emanations of Darkseid that aren’t as powerful and then there’s the full power of the lord of Apokolips, which we only get to see rarely. Superman does fight the God of Evil all the time, but usually he needs some kind of buff to actually put up a fight against him, as we’ve recently seen in DC K.O. The villain is commonly shown to be more powerful than Supes even when the hero is fighting a weaker version, so he usually needs some kind of help against him. Darkseid’s threat is usually multi-pronged – he doesn’t just show up to have a fist fight, he brings an army and usually has some scheme unfolding – and even Superman could fail to stop every part of his evil plans, so back-up is a must.
2) Anti-Monitor
The Anti-Monitor is one of the most powerful villains in comics. The villain was first introduced in Crisis on Infinite Earths, using his anti-matter powers to destroy the multiverse. He was taking out entire universes like they were nothing and everything the heroes tried to do against failed. He was always a step ahead of everyone and had power levels that were insane even in pre-Crisis DC. Superman did try to fight the Anti-Monitor on his own in Crisis and that was quickly shown to be a stupid move. The hero was almost killed after a few shots, with Supergirl coming into save him and sacrificing her own life. He’s a proven Kryptonian killer, so Superman should usually bring as much back-up as he can.
1) Perpetua
DC has loads of overpowered villains and the most powerful is easily Perpetua. She was a Hand, one of the beings who created multiverses. She wanted to create one that could conquer the others and defeat the Judges, being who judged the creations of the Hands, but was defeated and imprisoned outside the Source Wall. She was able to re-enter the multiverse after the Wall was broken and became one of the greatest threats the heroes ever faced. She’s trounced the whole Justice League with little difficulty, so Superman on his own isn’t even remotely dangerous to her. He’s smart enough to know better than to go after her alone.
What DC villains do you think are too much for Superman? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!
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