The Most Powerful Character in the Comic Book History

by Artashes

This is a non-biased story that provides the reader with the information needed to evaluate and see who is the most powerful character in the comic book history.

The Most Powerful Character in Comic Book History

Have you ever thought who is the most powerful character created in the comic book universe? Maybe it is Superman, Mad Titan Thanos, or even Dr. Manhattan with his radioactive skin. I will use comic book science to evaluate character abilities in order for the reader to determine who is the most powerful being in the comic book universe.

I asked some young adults to see who they think is the most powerful being, and the majority of the answers were Superman. Why do they think that? It could be because of the amount of superpowers he has, which include superhuman strength, speed, senses, endurance, longevity, flight, heat vision, freezing breath, and extrasensory and visual powers, (including X-ray vision). But do these powers make him the most powerful? There are a lot of characters with these super powers, such as Martian Manhunter and Vision. While doing research on this topic I came up with lot of powerful characters other than Superman, and most of them were published by Marvel comics. The list of characters include: Galactus, Thanos, One Above All, and Apocalypse. There were also some that were published by DC comics, such as Imperiex and Darkseid.

Apocalypse, a.k.a. En Sabah Nur, is an ancient Egyptian. He is reputed to be the first mutant on earth and also the most powerful. He scores an impressive 39 out of 42 on Marvel's official power grid ( ). Apocalypse has control of his body on the atomic level to go along with tremendous energy absorption and energy projection abilities. His powers are greatly enhanced due to his mastery of alien technology specifically genetics and biochemistry. For example between a fight against Magneto (one of the most powerful

mutants on earth) on Earth 58163 he almost died, because of his metallic exoskeleton, which Magneto destroyed, and he thought, that he killed Apocalypse, but after a while his exoskeleton re-constructed and went to fight all members of X-Men at once, which ended up in a draw. Apocalypse is invulnerable, can control every single part of his body, as well as everybody else's body which makes him the most powerful mutant in the Marvel universe. Yet the next character can manipulate an unlimited amount of Omega Energy.

The next character was published by DC Comics. Many people, consider him one of the most powerful in the DC Comics. He is the Omega Powered, Darkseid. Darkseid is worshipped as an "anti-god." He is a supreme conqueror who is one of the greatest threats to the DC universe as he seeks to control all living beings. Darkseid is capable of unleashing unimaginable amounts of energy through his "Omega Effect" beam, which he gets from the "Anti-life equation." For an example of his powers, in Batman/Superman: Apocalypse when The Justice League was fighting Darkseid, Darkseid used his Omega Blast. Unlike Heat vision, the Omega Blast is controllable, which means Darkseid controls the way it flies. He was able to chase The Flash with the Omega Blast because of this ability. The Justice League barely won the battle, and actually Darkseid said that he will be back. Darkseid is also immortal and displays immeasurable levels of strength, stamina, endurance, and mental abilities. But do these abilities makes him the most powerful, or is he in need of something "Cosmic?"

Many Marvel and DC character are copycats. Marvel and DC have almost the same characters with little differences, which makes a reader choose which copycat is better. One such example is Imperiex. Imperiex is the DC Comics version of Galactus. Imperiex's plan was to hasten the end of the universe by collapsing galaxies into super black holes thus creating a new, perfect universe with the corresponding release of energy. Imperiex wields near omnipotent power derived from the big bang and has been described as an energy being requiring a material shell. It has shown the ability to project immensely powerful energy blasts and exert its will through a near infinite supply of "probes" which are capable of annihilating entire planets. You can see a little amount of his powers in "Our Worlds at War". Lex Luthor asks Superman and Doomsday to fight Imperiex in order to save the world, and Doomsday goes first, but Imperiex annihilates him with a single move, leaving only the skeleton. Because of this, Doomsday would not be able to regenerate ("Our Worlds at War" comic book storyline). One would probably think that possessing these powers would make Imperiex the most powerful, but what about Galactus?

As I mentioned before, Imperiex is the DC version of Galactus, but who or what is Galactus? Galactus the Devourer of the Worlds, is the only survivor of the universe that existed before the Big Bang; Galactus consumes entire planets for nourishment. He has displayed god like abilities, including manipulation of molecules on a cosmic scale, conversion of matter to energy and vice versa, teleportation across great distances, erecting impenetrable force fields, etc. All of his abilities are on levels beyond human comprehension. His intelligence, stamina, and endurance are also beyond any known method of calculation. Galactus is also able to scan the thoughts of virtually any known being. Mankind observed his unlimited and cosmic powers in the graphic novel Rise of the Silver Surfer, when Silver Surfer was flying to Earth from other galaxies to prepare the Earth for Galactus, Galactus was behind him eating all the planets from Pluto to Mars in just a couple of seconds. When he reached Earth, The Fantastic Four fought him, but of course he left, because he was hungry, since planets in our galaxy were too small for him (Rise of the Silver Surfer). Manipulation of molecules on a cosmic scale is one of the most powerful ability. But what about other non-God like characters?

Onslaught is not that popular, however he is one of the most powerful beings in the Marvel Comics. He was a sentient psionic character that blossomed from the union of Magneto and Professor Charles Xavier's consciousness. His powers are a combination of Professor X, Magneto, Franklin Richards's and the X-men's abilities. This gives Onslaught the ability of astral projection, illusion creation, and mental bolt projection, sensing mutant presences, manipulating magnetic fields, and affecting reality itself. Onslaught could also enhance its physical size and strength. Once in Earth-616, Onslaught fought Galactus the Devourer of the Worlds, one of the most powerful beings ever, and it ended up as a draw, because the X-Men came and Galactus left and Onslaught teleported him to the other corner of the galaxy (Marvel Comics atabase). Onslaught is obviously really powerful, but he does not have a radioactive skin.

Dr. Manhattan is well known because of his glowing and radioactive skin, but only a true comic book reader knows what he can do with his limitless powers. In the world of Watchmen, Doctor Manhattan is the only super-powered character and it is the implications of his powers that make him so frightening. The most shocking of his powers is on display after his body is disintegrated and he is able to reform his atoms in under a minute (Watchmen Wikipedia). He can also teleport, manipulate matter with his mind, project energy, disintegrate people, duplicate himself, and exist outside of time. He can do almost anything except identify with the rest of humanity. In the Watchmen graphic novel he teleported himself to Mars, he built a small city with indestructible diamond-like glass from nothing, or when he killed Rorschach, which was noteworthy because he just thought about it, and Rorschach exploded. As I mentioned before DC and Marvel have many copycats. The next character is the Marvel universe's version of Dr. Manhattan.

Norrin Radd, also known as the Silver Surfer, herald of Galactus, is one of the most powerful superheroes in the Marvel Comics. The Silver Surfer is endowed with the Power Cosmic, an ability only the most powerful beings can hold. This power includes creating shapes and manipulating cosmic energies to produce nearly any effect they desire, including the molecular restructuring and transmutation of matter, the manipulation of matter across space and time, the creation of force fields, the creation of inter-dimensional portals and vortexes, telekinesis, and cosmic awareness. In the Infinity Gauntlet graphic novel, he teleported himself and Adam Warlock to the Celestials, then teleported them to the Galactus, and then Teleported all of them to Mistress Death's mansion to defeat the Mad Titan Thanos, who at that moment was OP (overpowered) because he was wearing the Infinity Gauntlet. Also in The Rise of the Silver Surfer he flew from one galaxy to another in a couple of seconds. Next is the character who appeared in the 2014 film, Guardians of the Galaxy, as the main antagonist.

A super OP character is the Infinity Gauntlet wearing, Mad Titan, Thanos. He gets even more powerful with the Infinity Gauntlet, but without it his powers include superhuman strength, durability, endurance, energy manipulation, telekinesis, teleportation, and longevity. By wearing the Infinity Gauntlet he gains control over space, mind, soul, reality, time and power because of the six Infinity Stones which are called The Space Gem, Mind Gem, Soul gem, Reality Gem, Time Gem and Power Gem. In the Infinity Gauntlet he snaps his fist by wearing the Infinity Gauntlet and half of the living things die. Some of those killed include superheroes, such as Quicksilver, Black Panther, and thirty more. Another character that needs to be mentioned are the Celestial(s).

The Celestials: who are they, and are they more powerful than everything in the universe? The Celestials are essentially a group of godlike cosmic entities who have existed in the Marvel universe since its birth. They are each tasked with a different responsibility, such as judging whether the civilization of a planet will live or die, surveying and mapping the geography of planets and, in one case, maintaining and monitoring the mutant Apocalypse, who uses some of their technology to augment his powers. There are too many Celestials to list individually and they all possess the same amount of power, so for the purpose of this essay they are listed as a collective. They appear as silent, armored humanoids with an average height of 2,000 feet. They can create pocket universes, move planets and possess the destructive power to turn the incomprehensibly durable Asgardian Destroyer Armor to a trash can. Comic book fans know only six of them, and each of them hold one Infinity Gem, and one of the most powerful of them is Arishem, who's true identity has been alluded to as being Jack Kirby, the legendary comic book creator who created Celestials. There a lot of comic books, where Celestials appeared. In every comic book, where Celestials were mentioned, one of them destroyed an entire planet, with one hit of a staff, which contained an Infinity Stone, concluding, that that planet is not worthy to live (Marvel Comics Database). In the next paragraph the information about the most powerful Celestial, TOAA will be provided,

The One Above All: the name that makes chaos and fear. The creator of all realities in all timelines in every single part of the omniverse. TOAA is essentially "God" and therefore nothing can possibly exist without him. This makes TOAA more powerful than all beings or entities combined. His true identity has been alluded to as being Stan Lee, the legendary comic book creator (Marvel Wikipedia). The most important thing to remember about TOAA, is that he created the Marvel Universe, which says everything about his limitless and unbelievable abilities.

The last powerful character that will be discussed is of course, Superman. He is one of the most popular superheroes because of his logo, and because he is one of the first

superheroes created by mankind, along with Batman. He is one of the few survivors of the planet Krypton, with other notable Kryptonians, such as Supergirl, General Zod and Superman's deadliest enemy Doomsday, who is the only one who managed to kill Superman in all comic book history. Superman has all of the most popular superpowers such as superhuman strength, speed, senses, endurance, and longevity, flight, heat vision, freezing breath, extrasensory and visual powers, including X-ray vision. In the Superman/Doomsday graphic novel he used all his powers to stop the ultimate killing machine Doomsday, but he dies at the end, because of Doomsday's brutal and unstoppable wrath.

All of the characters listed above are powerful, and you as a reader should evaluate the information given in this essay and judge, in order to find out who is the most powerful character in comic book history.