Be honest. Unless you were a hugeMarvel Comicsfan, you probably had no idea who Thanos was before theMarvel Cinematic Universe. But now, everyone knows the name of the Mad Titan who eradicated half of all life in existence with a literal snap of his fingers. Thanks to the creative minds behind Marvel Studios andJosh Brolin’simpeccable performance, Thanos has cemented himself as not onlyone of the best MCU villainsbut also one of the most memorable fictional villains of the 21st century.
RELATED:Strongest Marvel Villains Who Still Need To Show Up In The MCU
However, while Thanos has definitely left a massive impact on the current pop culture landscape, in the wider realm of comic book baddies, he is arguably surpassed by other characters, if only just in terms of raw power, Infinity Gauntlet or no. And several of them actually originate from Marvel’s rival,DC Comics.
A frequent adversary of Superman and the Justice League, the alien scientist turned intergalactic cyborg conqueror Brainiac is seemingly obsessed with gathering knowledge and studying various species across the universe, having captured the Kryptonian city of Kandor by miniaturizing it. He may have also destroyed the entire planet of Krypton itself, depending on which continuity you follow.
His most significant power is his intellect, which is so formidable that he is considered the greatest mind in all the DC Universe. With it, Brainiac has been able to amass a deadly technological arsenal, enhance his physiology to challenge the most powerful beings alive, and transcend death by creating duplicates of himself or transferring his essence into digital, computer, or organic systems and taking possession of them.
The unfeeling creature who would come to be called Doomsday was artificially bred on Krypton in its prehistoric years to be the ultimate being. The end result of this experiment was a beast of pure destruction who would visit his wrath upon many worlds before making his way to Earth.
Apart from the astonishing physical abilities that allowed him to single-handedly take on Earth’s strongest heroes, Doomsday has the power to survive anything that could harm or kill him and adapt to become immune to being injured or dying the same way again. Furthermore, Doomsday can develop new powers to negate those of any combatant he faces. For example, he grew poisonous bone spikes and claws that could overcome Superman’s invulnerability and harm him. Many villains have been able to go head-to-head with Superman and perhaps even defeat him, but Doomsday was the first to ever kill him.
Born from the dark emotions of the citizens of Azarath, a parallel world, the demon Trigon subjugated and laid waste to his home as just a child. He then moved on to inflict the same terror upon millions of other worlds. When he eventually set his sights on the Earthly realm, he sired a daughter with a human woman, intending to use her as a means to enter Earth’s dimension. Trigon’s offspring would oppose him as the Teen Titan Raven, and his attempts to conquer her homeworld have brought him into conflict with Raven’s team and the Justice League.
RELATED:DC Villains That Need To Show Up In The DCEU
With his monstrous power, Trigon is an eldritch horror upon the mortal plane, capable of a myriad of abilities, including the creation of his own demonic army, the corruption of human souls, and the power to reshape entire planets in his image.
Mister Mxyzptlk
Despite his cartoonish appearance and absurd name, the interdimensional trickster Mister Mxyzptlk is one of the mostdangerous and unpredictable members of Superman’s rogues' gallery, possessing nigh-unlimited reality-warping powers which he uses to terrorize Superman for his own amusement, unbound by conventional laws of physics.
His only weaknesses are his mental instability and that if you say his name backwards, he will be banished to his home dimension, but only for a finite span of time, and even then, the conditions for his dimensional exile have changed based on Mxyzptlk’s whim.
The Wrath of God personified, Eclipso was created to punish the sinful. However, he gave in to his own dark side and was condemned as a fallen angel, becoming trapped within a black diamond known as the “Heart of Darkness” and replaced by the Spectre as God’s Spirit of Vengeance. But Eclipso’s crystal was later discovered on Earth and shattered into a thousand pieces, with each fragment serving as a way for him to spread his evil by inhabiting the body of whoever comes into contact with them.
Being the avatar of divine fury, Eclipso’s power is theoretically second only to the Almighty Himself and other primordial entities. He supposedly caused the Biblical Great Flood. And while his strength has been significantly weakened by his imprisonment, Eclipsoremains a menacing forcefor chaos and calamity.
Originally, “Parallax” was believed to be a moniker taken by Hal Jordan after he went mad, killed his Green Lantern Corps comrades, and attempted to use the power he stole from them to remake the universe. Now, it is known that Parallax is actually an immortal parasitic being who invaded Jordan’s mind.
The living embodiment of fear, Parallax is composed of pure energy and has influenced the fall of civilizations since the beginning of time. In the modern era, the creature has taken on multiple notable hosts and threatened the very fabric of reality.
DC Comics has given death a name, and it is Nekron. Lord of the Unliving and creator of the Black Lantern Corps, Nekron is more than just a comic book supervillain, he is a fundamental aspect of the universe, acting in direct opposition to life itself. DC readers would recognize Nekron for having been the primary antagonist of the “Blackest Night” storyline, in which he sought to permanently extinguish all life and emotion with his legion of zombies.
RELATED:Every DC Movie Villain Ever, Ranked
As the manifestation of death, Nekron’s very being is lethal to living mortals, and he has control over the dead, enabling him to resurrect scores of deceased individuals and have them do his bidding. He also draws sustenance from departed souls and the eternal void of darkness that exists in nature, essentially making him an all-powerful and indestructible entity.
Superboy-Prime
On the alternate world of Earth-Prime, superheroes are merely fiction, but not to Kal-El, a.k.a Clark Kent, the native doppelganger for the actual Superman. Following the “Crisis on Infinite Earths” event, Earth-Prime was destroyed, but Kal-El survived, having developed real superpowers and become Superboy-Prime, a hero. Unfortunately, he could not let go of his past or his obsession with Superman, ultimately losing his mind and descending into villainy.
Superboy-Prime possesses all the same godlike powers as Superman, amplified by a special armor, and lacks the Man of Steel’s vulnerability to Kryptonite and magic. All of this, coupled with his murderous rage and warped sense of morality, make Superboy-Prime a fearsome juggernaut of nearly unparalleled destruction.
The Bruce Wayne of Earth -52 in the DC Multiverse allowed fear to overwhelm him after failing to protect his sidekicks while serving as Gotham City’s defender. Driven to extreme measures, he assimilated his fellow hero the Flash into himself along with the elemental energies of the Speed Force, the source of the Flash’s powers. He had hoped to become a more effective crime-fighter, but instead transformed into a monster who went on to stain his hands crimson with the blood of numerous victims.
The combination of the Flash’s super-speed with Batman’s tactical brilliance, hand-to-hand prowess, and zero restraint in the use of these abilities within one person underscores the under-appreciated and devastating powerhouse that is this version of Bruce Wayne.
Anti-Monitor
The malevolent counterpart to the cosmic entity known as the Monitor, the appropriately named Anti-Monitor was born of and rules over the Antimatter Universe, in direct contrast to his brother, who draws strength from and safeguards the positive matter of all universes.
Already asupreme being of unimaginable power, the Anti-Monitor set out to become even stronger by destroying the infinitude of alternate Earths across the endless Multiverse and absorbing their energies. More than any other DC villain, the Anti-Monitor is responsible for a staggering death toll of trillions upon trillions of lives through his annihilation of innumerable universes in the Multiverse.
