The launch of James Gunn’s new DC Universe marks a significant moment in superhero cinema, establishing a fully inhabited world populated by a diverse roster of heroes and villains. From its opening theatrical chapter, Superman, the DCU has made it clear that it is a universe with a deep history, including previous iterations of the Justice Gang and many classic DC heroes being referenced through Easter eggs. So, since part of the fun with powered individuals is to imagine who would win in a fight, the time is ripe to break down the power scale of the confirmed DCU superheroes.
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With just a handful of projects already released, we still can’t tell exactly how strong the DCU iterations of some of its heroes truly are. This means we are excluding figures who only appeared in Easter eggs and quick cameos, like The Flash, Batman, and Wonder Woman in Creature Commandos. Furthermore, this list focuses on public superheroes, not covert operatives, so we are also not listing the monstrous members of the Creature Commandos or Amanda Waller’s A.R.G.U.S. agents, who operate in the shadows of black ops rather than as crimefighters. Finally, we are also ignoring characters who are yet to debut, even if we know they’ll appear shortly, like Kyle Chandler as Hal Jordan and Aaron Pierre as John Stewart in the Lanterns series.
With that said, this ranking is based on the powers, skills, and overall combat effectiveness demonstrated by these characters within the new DCU canon so far. As this universe expands, this hierarchy will undoubtedly shift, but for now, this is how the confirmed heroes of the new DCU stack up.
9) Vigilante
First appearing in Peacemaker, Adrian Chase (Freddie Stroma) is the deeply disturbed and socially inept crimefighter known as Vigilante. While his DCU journey has been short, with Peacemaker Season 1 being recently canonized by James Gunn, the series establishes that Vigilante acts as a crimefighter for years before he becomes an A.R.G.U.S. black-op agent. Lacking any superpowers, he operates with a twisted moral code and an unsettling admiration for Peacemaker (John Cena). Vigilante’s combat effectiveness stems from his exceptional marksmanship, proficient hand-to-hand fighting skills, and a remarkable tolerance for pain.
Vigilante’s placement at the bottom of this ranking is unavoidable due to his status as a baseline human. While his combat training makes him dangerous to ordinary criminals, he is completely outclassed in a world that includes alien warriors and elemental beings. His skills and disturbing enthusiasm are his only assets, but they are simply insufficient against the scale of threats faced by other heroes. In any conflict that moves beyond street-level crime, Vigilante would be a liability, making him the weakest, albeit one of the most memorable, heroes in the new DCU.
8) Peacemaker
Christopher Smith, the infamous Peacemaker, is an expert killer who fanatically believes in achieving peace at any cost. His story, established in Peacemaker Season 1, continues squarely in the new DCU thanks to Season 2 of histitular show and a hilarious cameo in Superman. Peacemaker is a master tactician and an elite combatant with peak-human physical conditioning, just like Vigilante. However, his greatest assets are his collection of advanced helmets created by his father, each granting a unique and powerful ability, such as generating a devastating sonic boom, activating a defensive force field, or enabling underwater travel.
Peacemaker ranks above his admirer, Vigilante, due to his superior training, tactical mind, and highly versatile technology. His helmets give him options in a fight that go far beyond conventional weaponry, allowing him to contend with more powerful foes, as seen in his battle against the Butterflies and their leader. However, at his core, he is still a man who relies on gear. His power is borrowed from technology, and he lacks the world-breaking abilities of the metahumans ranked higher.
7) Hawkgirl
A core member of the corporate-backed superhero team known as the Justice Gang in Superman, Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced) is a fierce and aggressive warrior. Her primary abilities shown on-screen are flight, which she achieves with a pair of large wings, and her skill in close-quarters combat. She also wields a colossal mace, a weapon capable of delivering devastating physical blows, which matches her ferocious fighting style.
Hawkgirl is undeniably a powerful warrior, but based on what has been shown, her abilities are focused on direct physical confrontation. While her wings and mace make her a formidable opponent, she has not demonstrated the kind of esoteric or cosmic powers that many other heroes possess. Her strength lies in her martial prowess and the brute force she can bring to a fight. This makes her perfectly suited for battling monsters and armored soldiers, but her currently demonstrated power set appears more limited than other DCU superheroes.
6) Mister Terrific
Michael Holt (Edi Gathegi), also known as Mister Terrific, is another key member of the Justice Gang and is portrayed in Superman as one of the most brilliant minds on the planet. Operating without any biological superpowers, his effectiveness as a hero comes entirely from his genius-level intellect and his mastery of advanced technology. His signature inventions are his T-Spheres, a swarm of mentally controlled drones that serve multiple functions. In the film, these spheres are used as concussive explosives, hacking tools, and holographic projectors, showcasing the variety of powers Mister Terrific can emulate with technology alone.
In addition to the T-Spheres, Mister Terrific’s intellect is a superpower in itself. He ranks above purely physical fighters like Hawkgirl because his strategic capabilities and adaptable technology allow him to solve problems that cannot be solved with brute force. His quick thinking is crucial in containing threats during the film, where he successfully uses his T-Spheres to kill a kaiju and later closes a reality-threatening rift created by Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult). His T-Spheres give him a solution for nearly any scenario, effectively making him a one-man army capable of outthinking and outmaneuvering opponents who would otherwise be far outside his weight class.
5) Krypto
The Last Dog of Krypton, Krypto is Superman’s (David Corenswet) loyal canine companion and a super-powered being in his own right. Having traveled from Krypton as a puppy, he was exposed to Earth’s yellow sun and granted the full spectrum of Kryptonian abilities, including flight, super strength, and heat vision. In Superman, he is shown to be a playful but incredibly powerful pet, and his power is instrumental in defeating Lex Luthor’s Superman clone, Ultraman, by destroying the drones that Luthor uses to control the clone.
Krypto ranks this high for a simple reason: he is essentially Superman in the form of a dog. He possesses the same god-like abilities, making him one of the mightiest beings on the planet. He can move buildings and fly faster than a speeding bullet. The only factor that keeps him from being even higher is his animal intelligence. He operates on instinct and loyalty, not strategy or reason. This makes him a loving pet who just so happens to have the power to shatter continents.
4) Metamorpho
Introduced in Superman as a tragic figure, Rex Mason (Anthony Carrigan) is the hero known as Metamorpho. His powers give him complete control over his own molecular structure, allowing him to shapeshift, stretch his limbs, and create complex chemical compounds from his own body. Initially a reluctant prisoner of Lex Luthor, who coerces him into servitude by holding his son hostage, Metamorpho transforms into Kryptonite to poison Superman. After a change of heart, he then generates a miniature yellow sun to help a weakened Superman recover. Both feats serve to demonstrate how versatile Metamorpho’s powers can be.
Metamorpho’s elemental transmutation places him in a significantly higher tier of power. His ability to alter his chemical makeup at will makes him one of the most unpredictable heroes in the DCU. He can adapt to virtually any environment or opponent by turning his hands into solid weapons, his body into a gaseous state to evade attacks, or his skin into hardened steel for defense. He can also create acid or any dangerous substance on a whim. This level of molecular control grants him an offensive and defensive arsenal that far surpasses conventional technology or physical strength, making him a true powerhouse.
3) Green Lantern (Guy Gardner)
Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion) is the notoriously headstrong Green Lantern of Space Sector 2814. He appears in Superman as a veteran member of both the intergalactic Green Lantern Corps and the Justice Gang, wielding one of the most powerful weapons in the universe: a Green Lantern Power Ring. This device allows him to create hard-light constructs of anything he can imagine, with the strength of those creations limited only by his own willpower. In the film, he uses the ring to create aggressive and often humorous constructs, like oven mitts to handle a kaiju and a giant middle finger to swat at enemy tanks.
The sheer potential of a Power Ring places Guy Gardner near the top of this list. With it, he can fly at superluminal speeds, survive in any environment, and generate constructs ranging from simple energy blasts to incredibly complex machinery. Plus, his power source is cosmic in scale, allowing him to contend with threats that could endanger entire planets. While Guy’s arrogant and confrontational personality is often a weakness, the reality-warping capability of his ring is undeniable. In terms of pure potential, he operates on a level that most other Earth-based heroes cannot begin to approach.
2) Supergirl
Kara Zor-El (Milly Alcock), Superman’s cousin, is the other known Kryptonian survivor to have landed on Earth. Like all members of her race, exposure to a yellow sun grants her a staggering array of powers, including flight, superhuman strength, speed, and durability, as well as heat vision. Her appearance in a Superman closing scene establishes her as a more emotionally volatile character than her cousin, arriving at the Fortress of Solitude after an off-world bender, with Clark revealing to the audience that she travels to planets with red suns specifically to be able to get drunk.
While she’s not on screen for long, Supergirl shares the exact same Kryptonian physiology as Superman, making her one of the two most powerful heroes introduced in the DCU. Her potential is limitless, and in a contest of raw strength, she is his equal. She is ranked just slightly below him for her lack of experience, temperament, and self-destructive habits. While Superman is a seasoned hero who has spent years mastering his abilities and defining his moral code, Kara is portrayed as a newer and more impulsive superhero. So, she has the same world-breaking power but has not yet demonstrated the same level of discipline and control.
1) Superman
As the flagship hero of the new DCU, Clark Kent, the Man of Steel, stands as its strongest and most inspirational figure. A seasoned hero who is fully comfortable with his role as humanity’s protector, he embodies kindness and compassion while wielding an almost limitless array of powers. As a Kryptonian, he possesses immense strength, speed, flight, invulnerability, X-ray vision, and powerful heat vision. In his debut film, he also performs incredible feats, such as physically overpowering a monstrous kaiju and later defeating his own powerful clone, Ultraman.
Superman is definitely the most powerful hero in the DCU. In Superman, he demonstrates incredible precision and restraint, always prioritizing the safety of civilians in the most chaotic battles. He is the complete package, combining overwhelming strength with the control and character to use it for the good of all, setting the ultimate standard for what it means to be a hero.
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Image courtesy of Focus Features.
