The Justice League is one of the most famous superhero teams to ever exist, having been DC’s number one team since its debut in 1960. Naturally, as comic books have expanded from small-scale events to cosmic crises, the superheroes themselves have grown much stronger. In that sense, the Justice League has become one of the strongest teams to ever exist, especially given how long they’ve been around and how many members they’ve had across the years. So today, we’re going to look at the seven strongest Justice Leaguers and rank them by how big a threat they could be if they chose to go bad.
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Before we dive into it, let’s give some caveats. For this list, we will only be including characters that are longtime members of the League and whose main team is the League. That means that temporary members like the World Forger won’t be counted. Also, although characters like the Spectre and Doctor Fate have been members of the League for long periods of time, they are predominantly members of the Justice Society of America. This is to give the most accurate representation of the League, as well as add diversity to the list, as those three would definitely take the top spots.
Furthermore, it’s important to note that superhero power levels fluctuate a lot. In one issue, Wonder Woman is bouncing rockets off her skin, and in the next, a regular gun brings her down. To give the fairest assessment of the characters, we will be looking at their general, consistent levels of strength, not just their highest peaks. Also, this isn’t a who’s strongest list, but a list depicting how dangerous these characters can be in their own world, which is a small but important distinction. With all that said, let’s get into the list.
7) Wonder Woman
Taking seventh on our list is Diana, Princess of the Amazons. It’s no surprise that she would place on this list, given her vast array of powers and weaponry. Wonder Woman is one of the physically strongest heroes around, only a smidge below people like Superman and Martian Manhunter, and by that level, differences in strength matter very little. She’s also one of the best-trained fighters around, and to top it all off, she can call the entire Amazonian army together should she need it. While the majority of them are not on her level of power, they are still incredibly well-trained warriors who have been known to fight for and against the gods.
6) Superman
This one sounds insane, but bear with me. Superman is arguably the strongest character on this list, and I believe him to be the most powerful one here. However, although Superman has established again and again that he will rise to meet any challenge he’s presented with, he has the most hard counters out of anyone here. Superman can rip the world apart in minutes, but if anyone gets Kryptonite near him or manages to hit him with red sunlight, then he becomes as vulnerable as a normal man. Superman takes sixth because he has one of the highest thresholds for damage here, but also a lot of ways to completely disable him.
5) Zatanna
Magic is very hard to rank. They use a soft magic system, so even though many rules are present for it, the exact limitations of magic and how it works are often handwaved, and magic can sometimes just do whatever it needs to. Zatanna is one of the most powerful magic users, with only Doctor Fate and, contentiously, Raven being stronger. She’s shown that she’s capable of rewriting reality itself and going up against quasi-divine beings, but Zatanna is still bound by certain restrictions, such as only being at her best when she can talk, as she casts by speaking backwards. Zatanna’s ceiling is potentially higher than everyone else’s, but she is limited because she is a normal human beyond her magic, and that brings plenty of weaknesses.
4) Swamp Thing
At the peak of his power, Swamp Thing is the Avatar of the Green and has access to every bit of plant life on Earth. He can turn any field of grass into a deadly weapon that he can rise from, and can remake the landscape of entire continents in minutes should he so choose. He is all but unkillable, but there are a few handicaps that limit him on this list. While almost unstoppable in terms of volume and presence, his ability to leap from body to body can be stunted by certain radio frequencies. Stopping Swamp Thing would be very, very difficult, but there are a few avenues to do so, so he takes sixth place despite his insane abilities.
3) The Flash
Specifically, Wally West takes this spot, although Barry wouldn’t be all that far behind. The Flash is capable of running faster than the speed of light and the concept of death. While he’s moving, all but a select few would be nothing more than statues. He can punch a person so many times in a single instant that he can effectively trick the laws of physics and strike with what amounts to infinite mass. He also has plenty of extra abilities, like the power to steal other people’s speed and render them immobile, and, more recently, create endless clones of himself. The Flash could take out more people than anyone else in the shortest amount of time, so he easily deserves to be in the top three of the most dangerous threats around.
2) Captain Atom
Oh, Captain Atom. Never has there been someone so powerful who has been Worf Effected so hard. With the power to control, absorb, and emit any and all types of radiation, Captain Atom is one of the most powerful people around. He’s literally a walking nuclear bomb that can hit as hard as Superman. Even ignoring his insane physical strengths and energy blasts, he’s also shown the ability to manipulate matter on a fundamental level, effectively letting him do alchemy. However, Captain Atom has also shown a big weakness in having his containment suit cut, which might cause him to explode. It’s potentially very easy to get rid of him if you can cut him, but even then, he just becomes an exploding nuclear bomb.
1) Martian Manhunter
Without a doubt, one of the people who can do the most damage of all is Martian Manhunter. He has physical stats and heat vision equal to Superman, shapeshifting, density manipulation, and is the most powerful telekinetic in the entire universe. Martian Manhunter can look like anyone and convince practically anyone to do anything, but he doesn’t need to, because he can just beat the tar out of people himself. His only weakness is that fire shuts him down, but even that is only a psychological weakness that he has been shown he’s capable of overcoming. J’onn is one of the deadliest threats in all of DC, and one of the very few people that Superman admits he is scared to fight.
So there we have seven of the strongest Justice Leaguers, ranked by how much of a threat they’d pose if they ever turned evil. Which character do you think belongs on this list, and how dangerous could they be if they wanted to be?
What do you think? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!
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