Every Superman Character Ranked By How Powerful They Are

James Gunn’s Superman introduces a ton of characters yet does a good job of balancing them all. And, as for the metahumans, it does a good job of showing off their powers. But which of these metahumans is the most powerful? Let’s go through them all. There were exceptions to what we included, though. For one, the character had to be played by an actor, so Lex Luthor’s Kaiju didn’t count (nor did Krypto, for that matter). Furthermore, with the exception of Lex Luthor himself (we’ll specify why he was included in the entry itself), anybody who wasn’t a metahuman was left off.

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Lois Lane’s assuredly a powerful writer, but she’s flesh and blood, it wouldn’t be fair to stack her up against Mister Terrific or Green Lantern. Furthermore, the film’s two big cameos were left off. We don’t see them in action, so there was no test of their skills in this particular case.

8) Lex Luthor

Lex Luthor is here because, like it or not, money is power, and he has a ton of it. But it’s a hollow type of power, one that’s only as strong as the individual shelling out the cash. And this film’s version of Luthor, while intelligent per usual, is pretty far from strong as a human being.

He’s needy, abusive, and has an incredibly short fuse. He makes Gene Hackman’s version of the character look fully calm and collected by comparison. He also gets severely beaten up by a dog, which was assuredly a blow to his massive ego, even if it was a super dog. Basically, this version of Luthor still seems stronger in emotional character and physicality than Jesse Eisenberg’s take on Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, but not by much.

7) Hawkgirl

Isabela Merced’s Kendra Saunders AKA Hawkgirl is the least powerful member of the Justice Gang, but it’s pretty far from being a case of one member not bringing anything to the table. It’s just a case of the others being extra powerful. Like how Green Lantern needs his ring to be fully effective, Hawkgirl needs her suit. But even without it she has more strength than the average human. But, when she’s wearing that suit, she’s able to fly at great speeds, which she uses to help her get an extra powerful swing of her mace.

All that said, there’s an argument for Hawkgirl being bumped up a few spots, mostly because of an important part of her past the movie only hints at. Specifically, Hawkgirl is reincarnated from a member of the Thanagarian alien species. If this version of Hawkgirl can just continuously reincarnate over and over every time she’s killed, she’d be worthy of a much higher spot. But it’s too early to tell whether that is in fact the case.

6) The Engineer

Angela Spica AKA the Engineer is one of Lex Luthor’s two main enforcers, and while the other one is more powerful she’s no slouch. In fact, if anyone comes the closest to actually killing Superman in Gunn’s film, its her.

The Engineer has been enhanced with nanotechnology, which like Green Lantern she can use to form pretty much anything she imagines. When the group of villains infiltrate the Fortress of Solitude, she forms saw blades and uses them to take out the Superman Robots and, later in the film, she uses the nanotechnology to suffocate the Man of Steel, at which point he flies high up in the atmosphere to shake it off. But even still, she doesn’t stay conscious after she, Superman, and Ultraman land with a thud back on Earth.

5) Mister Terrific

Edi Gathegi’s Mister Terrific is most people’s choice for the best character in Superman, unless you count Krypto. Gathegi really does knock it out of the park, with charm to spare. But, while not quite well known, it turns out the character he plays is pretty neat, too. It’s another case of Gunn taking a B-list character and turning him into an A-list presence, not unlike what he did with the Guardians of the Galaxy.

If any character gets a really fantastic action sequence in Superman, it’s Mister Terrific. He and Lois Lane have gone out in search of Superman, and upon arriving at the entrance to the pocket dimension, they’re faced with a ton of goons hired by Luthercorp. Mister Terrific keeps Lane safe with an energy bubble and we see him jump around and beat the tar out of every goon. He does so with his flying chair and T-Spheres. Toss in Mister Terrific’s exceptionally high intelligence and he’s a phenomenal member of the Justice Gang…or whatever that ends up being called. Surely there’s a better name out there.

4) Metamorpho

The timid, sweet Metamorpho AKA Rex Mason is a prisoner of Luthor’s in his pocket universe. He could easily break out of his reinforced glass cell, but he doesn’t, because in the cell across from him is one of Luthor’s goons holding Mason’s infant son.

Metamorpho is really there to keep Superman at bay. He has the ability to elementally transmutate. For instance, into Kryptonite. This also means that he can turn his body into corrosive acid, which in the film he uses on Luthor’s soldiers, AKA Raptors. Metamorpho can also fly and, depending on what type of material he’s turned himself into, has exceptional durability and even super strength. Furthermore, if you shoot off one of Metamorpho’s limbs, he can just grow another one. By film’s end we see him join the Justice Gang during their intervention in the conflict between Boravia and Jarhanpur, and he spews a bunch of rainbow liquid on a horde of Boravian soldiers, immobilizing them. He would be the most powerful member of the Justice Gang were it not for one other, and even then it’s close.

3) Green Lantern

Nathan Fillion’s Guy Gardner AKA Green Lantern may be arrogant and a bit dim, but he’s the most powerful member of the Justice Gang. Really, no matter who wears the Green Lantern Corps Power Ring, they’re one of the DC Universe’s most powerful characters.

As seen here and in the regrettable 2011 film, the Power Ring can manifest anything the user imagines. This means that be it for offense or defense, the potential is only limited by the wearer’s creativity and imagination. It also means he’s a particularly useful member of a gang, e.g. when he saves Mister Terrific from the Kaiju by manifesting a Kaiju-sized muzzle. At one point he disables about 100 Boravian troops with giant green middle fingers, so it seems fair to put him in the number three spot.

2) Ultraman

Superman begins in medias res, which means it starts in the middle of a larger story. At the very beginning, we meet Ultraman as The Hammer of Boravia, who is terrorizing Metropolis, doling out threats to its residents about Superman’s meddling in the war between Boravia and Jarhanpur. We see Lex Luthor controlling this villain, with specific codes tied into The Hammer of Boravia’s fighting movements once Superman shows up.

This is our first major hint that Ultraman is in fact a replica of Superman. His movements are mirror images of moves Luthor had seen Superman use. And, once Superman, the Engineer, and Ultraman tumble back down to Earth after she stuffs the former full of nanotech, his mask is broken, and we see he is in fact another Corenswet Superman. But at the end of the day, he isn’t, because Superman is fully independent. Ultraman is controlled, and as is mentioned by Luthor he’s not quite as intelligent as Superman. So, in terms of brawn, they’re equal, but if one is to look at strength from multiple angles, Superman has the edge.

1) Superman

When we meet David Corenswet’s Superman, he’s gravely injured. He needs Krypto to drag him back to the Fortress of Solitude so his Superman Robots can help him catch some of the sun’s rays and heal up. But he’s still Superman, and that means he’s the most powerful character in the film.

This take on Superman is, like all others, strong in multiple ways. He can beat up a Kaiju, he can fly at supersonic speeds, and he can basically lift a building without breaking a sweat. But he’s also emotionally solid, even when faced with a devastating twist regarding his birth parents. This is a Superman who got only part of his parents’ full message and made the best of it. It was his heart that guided him in his decision making and, we imagine that were he to have received his parents’ full message, his decision making wouldn’t have been altered.