Top 10 Powerful Comic Book Characters – Best of WatchMojo

Power. Everybody wants it. Some people got it – in spades. Welcome to WatchMojo.com, and today we’re counting down our picks for the top 10 most powerful comic book characters.

For this list, we’re focusing on the pure brute strength, physical power and awesome abilities of our favorite comic book characters, and not on their cunning, wealth or other advantages. However, if they have cool weapons or tools that offer them physical advantages, well more power to them.

Hulk smash. Now those are words to live by, and when you’re the Hulk – a mass of green- (or occasionally grey)-skinned muscle – you’ve got plenty of power for smashing. Overflowing with gamma radiation, the madder Hulk gets, the stronger he gets. The Mr. Hyde to Bruce Banner’s Dr. Jekyll, Hulk is one mean, green fighting machine.

Some aliens get up on the wrong side of the bed every morning. Take Thanos, for example. He used his special Infinity Gems to wipe out almost all life in the universe; and he still wasn’t satisfied. With his own power and those of the gems, his supreme intelligence and an ability to just take matter and energy and manipulate to his own purposes, he’s almost unstoppable. Almost.

Thor, the Norse god of thunder, gets his massive strength from his parents: Odin, the father of the gods and Gaea, who’s basically the earth herself. He also has a magic hammer than controls the weather and a special belt that doubles his strength. If that’s not enough, Thor goes into this weird “Warrior’s Madness” trance that makes him 10 times as strong. Warning, though: it ain’t called “Warrior’s MADNESS” for nothing.

The godlike ruler of the hellish world known as Apokolips, the granite-faced Darkseid is bent on ruling the universe. And he’s got the chops to do it, too: awesome strength, immortality, cunning and control over Omega Energy, which can cut down just about anything it comes in contact with. Darkseid also doesn’t waste his powers; he prefers to act more as a General and let others do his fighting, saving himself for the truly worthy opponents.

When Jean Grey first appeared as Marvel Girl, her powers were telepathy and telekinesis – cool, but not outstandingly powerful. However, when she accessed the Phoenix Force and became Phoenix, her abilities multiplied exponentially. As Phoenix, she basically has control over matter itself, as well as over electromagnetic and cosmic energies, making her one of the most powerful beings in the Marvel – or any other – universe. And she can resurrect herself and other people. God complex, anyone?

Doomsday is the dude that killed Superman. Is it any wonder he makes this list? Created by one of those alien scientists that just shouldn’t be let near a test tube, he’s the embodiment of savagery, rage and hate. The guy practically wiped out the Justice League with one hand tied behind his back – literally. He also has the annoying ability to come back to life. If you see this killing machine, give him a wide berth.

The first mutant on Earth, Apocalypse is drunk with power. Guy is a stronger believer in survival of the fittest and thinks no one is fitter than he. Not gonna argue with him. Hey, he’s got super strength, flight, can grow or shrink, and is almost invulnerable and immortal. If it weren’t for the fact that he’s weaker when regenerating, he’d be unbeatable.

Physicist Jon Osterman was disintegrated in an experiment gone wrong, but his atoms reassembled into the blue-skinned being known as Doctor Manhattan. This creature has immense strength, can create duplicates of himself, teleport items, control matter on a subatomic level and even has knowledge of future events. Doctor Manhattan eventually lost touch with his own humanity; now godlike, he departed Earth. Why? To go create life somewhere else, of course. Now that’s power.

By Krypton, of course we included the Man of Steel on this list! He’s the guy who started it all, and he’s still about the most powerful being in comics. With his array of powers – super-strength, speed, flight, invulnerability, super-vision and even, yes, super-breath – he’s pretty much got it all covered. Amazingly, he’s never tempted to use his powers for anything even slightly off base. Boy, what we couldn’t do with x-ray vision…

Before we unmask our top pick, we’re going to list a few honorable mentions (and hope they don’t beat us up for not including them on the list):

- Wolverine

- Wonder Woman

- Green Lantern

- Magneto

A godlike creature imbued with the Power Cosmic, Galactus goes around devouring – yes, devouring – entire planets literally for breakfast. The dude can do just about anything, including teleporting an entire galaxy from one side of the universe to another and creating pocket dimensions. With the ability to crush our meaningless little lives with a twitch of his pinky, do you think we’re going to tick him off by NOT naming him #1?

Do you agree with our picks? What other super-powered entities should we have considered for this list? For more enthralling top 10s published daily, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.