The Most Powerful DC Villains Ranked

When it comes to comic book fandom, one thing we all love to debate is the strength of a character, and that goes for villains as well as heroes. We've already ranked the most powerful heroes in DC history, so now it's time to size up the evil-doers to find out who's baddest of the bunch. This is far from an easy task, especially in a fictional playground as vast and heavily populated as the DC Universe. What really defines "power," after all? 

Simply being an iconic character is not enough; the Joker and Lex Luthor may be household names and the archenemies of their respective heroes, but they lack superpowers of their own. And the most powerful supervillains are not necessarily those who punch the hardest, either. Doomsday famously fought Superman to the death in "Superman" #75, but the raw strength of that brawling behemoth is still a poor match against ancient cosmic parasites or the destroyer of the multiverse.

While a hierarchy of evil has been roughly established in the comics over the decades, there's no official villainy ranking. That's where we come in: From immortal warlords and rogue Kryptonians to the lord of the dead and beyond, there are some pretty powerful beings in the world of DC, and we've put together a list of the most impressive ones. Here are our picks for the most powerful villains in the DC Universe, ranked from least to most powerful.

With a name like Vandal Savage, you know this supervillain means business, but that isn't even his most fearsome alias. An immortal warlord anywhere between 50,000 to 1 million years old, he's had a lot of identities: Savage has been everyone from Genghis Khan, Alexander the Great, and Julius Caesar to Vlad the Impaler and Jack the Ripper. At one point, he even claimed to be the Biblical Cain, who killed his brother Abel and became the world's first murderer in the process.

A Golden Age supervillain first appearing in 1943's "Green Lantern" #10, Savage was granted immortality by a passing meteorite and became a brilliant (and bloodthirsty) military tactician. He has honed his superhuman skills in combat and weaponry over centuries, making him one of the first known metahumans and one of the most dangerous villains on Earth. Savage's mission to conquer the world has made him a deadly foe for DC's heroes in the past, the present, and the future. And, while he certainly isn't the only immortal villain to face the Justice League, his world-hopping origins and connections to some of history's greatest monsters give Savage a sinister edge.

It's not wise to mess with Mother Nature. Just ask anyone in Gotham City who has dared to cross Poison Ivy. One of the most iconic supervillains in Batman's Rogues Gallery, Poison Ivy is Dr. Pamela Isley, a brilliant and beautiful botanist. Poison Ivy gains her metahuman powers through scientific experiments with plant toxins, making her immune to most poisons and granting her mind-control pheromones. But what truly makes Poison Ivy dangerous is her connection with The Green, a powerful elemental force linked to the natural world. This mystical link grants her complete control over Earth's plant life, enabling her to rapidly grow and animate plants and use them against her enemies however she sees fit.

Poison Ivy has frequently been depicted as an eco-terrorist driven to destroy humanity — or to at least make humankind pay for the damage they have inflicted on the planet. Recently, however, Poison Ivy has embraced the more complex role of anti-heroine, thanks in part to her romantic relationship with Harley Quinn. Even when she uses her powers in "Batman" Vol. 3 #43 to control the minds of everyone on Earth (even Superman!), Poison Ivy is motivated by a need to save the world rather than pure malice. All of this makes her a sympathetic — and extremely powerful — DC villain.

Some supervillains need only one evil alias. The Reverse-Flash, also known as Eobard Thawne and Professor Zoom, has three. Hailing from the distant future, Thawne developed a dark, all-consuming obsession with the second Flash, Barry Allen. Thawne sought to recreate the accident that gave Barry his superpowers, eventually generating the Negative Speed Force. This allows him to travel through time and alter reality to suit his evil whims.

As the Reverse-Flash, Thawne is naturally The Flash's greatest nemesis. Thawne is behind every tragedy in Barry Allen's life, using his Negative Force Speed to rip his rival's existence to shreds. In one timeline, depicted in "The Flash" #275, he kills Barry's wife, Iris West, and in another timeline revealed in "The Flash: Rebirth," Thawne murders Barry's mother Nora and frames his father for the crime for good measure.

Reverse-Flash has become a kind of living time paradox, deliberately altering history for his own personal gain but trapped in an endless loop of antagonism with the Flash. His abuse of his tremendous time travel powers, combined with his staggeringly cruel, single-minded hatred of his archenemy, makes Reverse-Flash one of DC's most fiendish villains — get in his way, and he can make sure that you were never born.

One of the most controversial villains in the DC Universe, Superboy-Prime is a dark and violent variant of Superman. It's something of a tragic tale: Superboy-Prime was an eager young hero before the Anti-Monitor obliterated his homeworld, Earth-Prime, in the era-defining "Crisis on Infinite Earths" event, published between 1985 and 1986. Following the Crisis, Superboy-Prime was a multiversal refugee living in a paradise dimension, but the loss of his family and Earth-Prime drove him to madness and one of DC's most powerful villains was born.

In the 2005-2006 limited series "Infinite Crisis," the super-strong Kryptonian breaks the barrier between worlds. What follows is a teenage rampage that ends with the deaths of several heroes, including the mainstream DC Universe's Superboy, Connor Kent, who passes away in the arms of Wonder Girl. What's terrifying about Superboy-Prime is that he's immune to Superman's traditional weaknesses, such as magic and kryptonite.

Superboy-Prime was a persistent threat to the Teen Titans and the Justice League during his time in the spotlight, but he's best remembered for his so-called "retcon punch." During "Infinite Crisis," it's established that Superboy-Prime's punches are so powerful that they can literally tear the fabric of the DC Universe, resulting in timeline changes. Of course, this was a way for writers and readers alike to blame anything they didn't like in DC Comics on Superboy-Prime, but make no mistake — this is one incredibly powerful DC villain.

Just mentioning the name Parallax will elicit an emotional reaction from many DC fans, which is fitting for an ancient entity representing fear in the galaxy. When Parallax was first named in the "Emerald Twilight" storyline (told across three issues of "Green Lantern" Vol. 3 back in 1994), he was believed to be Hal Jordan, a once-great Green Lantern driven to despair after the destruction of his home, Coast City. Embracing the supervillain name Parallax, Jordan slaughtered the Green Lantern Corps, a tragic but historic DC event. That single atrocity warrants inclusion on this list, but Parallax's true identity is more complex than that.

Published between 2004 and 2005, the six-issue limited series "Green Lantern: Rebirth" revealed that Parallax was a cosmic parasite once imprisoned by the Green Lantern Corps. If you've been wondering how the Green Lantern Corps' power rings actually work, Parallax is the reason they're weak against the color yellow. The embodiment of the power of fear, Parallax had actually possessed Jordan, and would go on to possess The Flash and Green Lantern Kyle Raynor, as well. Any living creature susceptible to fear is vulnerable to Parallax's mind-control powers and solid light constructs, and its evil influence has no limit — Parallax is the ultimate power source for the Sinestro Corps, who use their yellow power rings to spread fear and terror throughout the universe.

Forget the Batfamily or the Superfamily, the truth is that the Endless are the most powerful family unit in the DC Universe. As sentient embodiments of the natural forces of the cosmos, the seven siblings (Destiny, Death, Dream, Destruction, Desire, Despair, and Delirium) are billions of years old, and, unlike gods, they will continue to exist, even if no one believes in them, until the end of the universe.

While humans may fear Death or Destruction, Desire of the Endless is actually the cruelest and most capricious of the lot, believing all mortals to be their personal playthings. Their eons-long feud with their brother Dream nearly destroyed the world, as revealed in "The Sandman" #16. Desire manipulated events so that their own granddaughter, Rose Walker, would become a Vortex, a being with the power to collapse the walls between the minds of every living dreamer and destroy the fabric of reality.

Thankfully, Desire's elaborate plan to trick Dream into killing Rose failed, with the fate of the universe seemingly inconsequential to the vain immortal. As the personification of need itself, with the ability to bestow love or take it away, Desire wields enormous power over the DC Universe, and it is perhaps only their self-absorbed nature that prevents them from becoming a more active threat — for which every DC superhero should be thankful.

Created by the legendary Jack Kirby to be the God of Evil, Darkseid is one of the most iconic DC villains ever put to the page, and his reputation is well-earned. The ruler of the grim planet Apokolips is an iron-willed, stone-faced tyrant who commands vast armies of Parademons, fires destructive Omega Beams from his eyes, and has razed worlds in his quest to find the mysterious Anti-Life Equation. A persistent archenemy of Superman, the Justice League, and the New Gods of New Genesis, Darkseid's goal is to eliminate all free will and hold supreme power over the universe. He believes that possessing the Equation will make this possible.

Darkseid finally unleashes the Anti-Life Equation in the seven-issue crossover event "Final Crisis," released between 2008 and 2009. With this, the villain is able to control the minds of nearly everyone on Earth and turn the planet into a doomsday singularity that risks ripping apart time and space. Though Superman and a specially constructed Miracle Machine ultimately save Earth, Darkseid drives one of DC's greatest heroes to do the unthinkable: While trying to stop him, Batman shoots Darkseid with a gun loaded with a special Radion bullet, thus breaking his oath to never use the weapon that killed his parents. It's one of the few times that Batman has broken his biggest rule.

In a world of gods and monsters, Trigon is as evil as Satan himself. Though he should not be mistaken for the actual devil, Trigon's origins are similarly mythical: According to the 1982 four-issue limited series "Tales of the New Teen Titans," he was an entity born after the peaceful mystics of Azarath attempted to exorcise their darkest emotions and urges, and in "Teen Titans" Vol. 3 (which ran between 2003 and 2011) he was a despot who consumed the evil of a billion worlds.

Regardless of his origins, Trigon is an interdimensional demon of immeasurable power who wiped out countless civilizations. He is also a strong candidate for the worst dad in DC history (and there are plenty of contenders), siring multiple children across eons in order to extend the reach of his evil empire. This has led to plenty of discussion on Reddit, where DC fans have brought up his terrible parenting. "He only had children to take over worlds, no love at all," wrote u/Nateddog21.

This villain's daughter, the noble half-human superhero Raven, actually formed the New Teen Titans because of Trigon. She wanted to thwart her father's conquest of Earth, and she has spent her life fighting his demonic influence on her soul. But Trigon is way more than a bad dad — he represents the evil that lurks deep within the hearts of mankind, and that's what makes him so terrifying. This is one powerful DC bad guy you definitely don't want to cross.

Just like in the real world, one of the most frightening and powerful villains in the universe of DC Comics is death itself. The skeletal, scythe-wielding Nekron rules over the Land of the Unliving and is one of the multiple personifications of death in DC lore. With his powers of necromancy, he repeatedly crosses dimensions to battle the Green Lantern Corps, and Nekron becomes a threat to all life in the cosmos when he creates the Black Power Rings.

In the 2009-2010 crossover event "Blackest Night," Nekron imprisons the Anti-Monitor as a power source and resurrects deceased superheroes and villains as undead Black Lanterns. He even revives loved ones (such as the civilians who perished during the destruction of Green Lantern Hal Jordan's hometown Coast City and Donna Troy's husband and child) to torment the heroes. It's heavy stuff, and it's only possible because Nekron is insanely powerful.

Nekron also recruits some famous faces to his zombie ranks here: Dead versions of Green Arrow, Wonder Woman, and even Superman are all brought back as Black Lanterns. Nekron's evil plans are derailed when Hal Jordan bonds with the cosmic Life Entity to become a White Lantern, and Nekron is condemned back to the Land of the Unliving. But can death ever truly be defeated?

If the criteria for DC's most powerful supervillain was reduced to kill count alone, then the Anti-Monitor would easily conquer this list. The antagonist of the seminal "Crisis on Infinite Earths" maxiseries, the Anti-Monitor destroyed the DC multiverse, killing innumerable worlds and their inhabitants. A cosmic entity from the antimatter universe, the Anti-Monitor exists in opposition to his "brother" from the positive matter universe, the Monitor.

The Anti-Monitor has the power to release universe-annihilating antimatter waves, feeding on the energy of their destruction. When encased in his armored suit at full power, the Anti-Monitor has near-unlimited strength and energy and was directly responsible for the deaths of Supergirl and Barry Allen's Flash. When the Anti-Monitor attempted to alter the course of history by traveling to the beginning of time, it took the combined powers of the universe's remaining heroes and villains (and a punch into a star by Superman of Earth-Two) to end the Anti-Monitor's threat.

Though he was inevitably resurrected (joining the Sinestro Corps as their new "Guardian of Fear") and DC's heroes have since faced other world-shattering "Crisis" events, the horrors committed by the Anti-Monitor in "Crisis on Infinite Earths" will never be forgotten. As far as we're concerned, there's only one DC villain who is more powerful.

Ultimately, the most powerful supervillain in the DC Universe is the godlike entity who created it. Perpetua is a Super Celestial, a nigh-omnipotent being who shaped the first incarnation of the multiverse with the Big Bang. After this, Perpetua was meant to die and return her energy to the cosmos, but she refused, instead overseeing the now-unstable multiverse. As the immortal mother of the Monitor and Anti-Monitor, Perpetua is the definitive instigator of the Crisis on Infinite Earths and the other catastrophic "Crisis" events that followed.

Along with her abilities as a Super Celestial, Perpetua is powered by destructive Crisis energy, enabling her to destroy realities and alter the universe at will. In 2020's "Dark Nights: Death Metal," Perpetua battled the Justice League, joining forces with a sinister Batman variant called The Batman Who Laughs to reshape the multiverse and establish evil as the natural order. Perpetua was destroyed when the Batman who Laughs betrayed her and drained her Crisis Energy in a cosmic duel. Even after her defeat, her impact on DC history cannot be overstated. One might say that Perpetua is the mother of all evil in the DC Universe.