DC Comics set the standard for the what the superhero would be with Golden Age legends like Superman and the Justice Society. These heroes were the best of the best, people who were willing to give their all to fight evil. They didn’t kill, lie, cheat, or steal. They defended the innocent and worked with the powers that be to make the world a better place. DC heroes are the most pure-hearted in comics, led by the Man of Steel, who is basically the platonic ideal of the superhero. However, the pure-heartedness is just one of the things that DC is known for; the other is massive power levels. DC heroes are more pure-hearted but also more powerful, with some of them having power that could destroy the world itself.
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It’s a good thing for everybody in the DC Multiverse that some of the most powerful heroes are often the most pure. They could do the most terrible things imaginable – and often have in various alternate universe stories – but they don’t. They love their work as heroes, existing to save the innocent from the threats out there to devour them. These five DC heroes are some of the most pure-hearted out there while having power that could destroy the world, battling the greatest evils in the multiverse.
5) Superman
Superman is DC’s greatest hero. He’s the blueprint for every one that came after him, raised by the Kents to be the best person you can imagine. He’s kind, friendly, intelligent, helpful, diligent, and basically every positive adjective that you can imagine. He’s the guy who will be out in space fighting monsters one second, then use his super speed to save a cat from a tree, and then zoom back to battle. That’s the kind of hero he is; he takes the time out to help everyone possible. His power level is also one of the greatest in the superhero community. Supes is basically as powerful as any story needs to be. So, while sometimes a creators tries to come up with an upper limit to his power, his power level is basically infinite in every way that counts. This even makes sense in-universe, since it’s been established that all creation stems from him. We’ve seen evil Superman many times over the years, and we’ve even seen them destroy the planet in various stories, but we also know that Superman is the purest hero of them all. His purity is his greatest attribute, spurring him to use his powers in the most responsible ways.
4) Zatanna
Zatanna is the Prime Magus, the cop of the magical community, which is a mantle she’s earned. Zatanna is the daughter of Giovanni Zatara, a Golden Age magic-using hero who fought alongside the Justice Society and would later help train Batman. He trained her to be both a stage magician and a superhero magician, taking his place in the superhero community. She would soon become the Justice League’s premiere magic user, battling against the biggest threats and becoming everyone’s friend. She’s a master of every kind of magic you can think of, most well-known for her own unique spell-casting ability. She casts spells by saying what she wants to happen backwards, giving her a unique gimmick that has set her apart from some scarlet witches that were big at the time of her debut. She’s since become the heart of the Justice League Dark on her way to becoming the Prime Magus, traveling the dimensions and righting magical wrongs. Zatanna is a great human being, so we all sort of ignore how dangerous she could be. This is a woman who can burn down a city with a sentence. If she ever went bad, she could be one of the greatest enemies out there, but her pure heart keeps her on the path of good.
3) Firestorm
Firestorm was meant to be DC’s Spider-Man. Created in the late ’70s, Firestorm was actually two people. Ronnie Raymond was a stereotypical jock who was working with Professor Martin Stein after school because Stein saw something in him. While experimenting with nuclear energy, an explosion saw them combine into the Firestorm matrix, becoming the Nuclear Man. Stein became a voice in Ronnie’s head and the they gained superhuman strength, speed, invulnerability, intangibility, and matter-controlling powers that allow them to transform matter into other forms and states by manipulating the molecules, as well as powerful energy projection abilities. Stein was revealed to be working for the government as part of the Superman Project, trying to create a superhuman and getting more than he bargained for. The matrix itself can become sentient, but doesn’t care about anything, viewing the world as something to manipulate. Ronnie is the good person that makes it all work, keeping Firestorm from being a vengeful god.
2) Mary Marvel
We talk a lot about the goodness of Mary Marvel a lot but one thing we don’t talk about is her power level. She has all of the powers of Captain Marvel – the wisdom of Solomon, the strength of Hercules, the stamina of Atlas, the power of Zeus, the courage of Achilles, and the speed of Mercury. While she does have them at lower levels than Billy Batson, Mary is no less a frightening opponent. Her powers would allow her do massive damage and she could easily figure out a way to destroy everything if it came down to it. However, that will never happen because Mary is one of the best human beings you could ever meet. While we talk a lot about Superman when we talk about pure, old-fashioned heroes, we should be taking about Mary first and foremost. She’s an astounding hero with a strict moral code which she follows to a tee. However, she does it all with a smile, proving that the most dangerous people can be some of the best.
1) Martian Manhunter
Martian Manhunter is DC’s most underappreciated icon and also one of its most powerful heroes. The stalwart Justice Leaguer has the best combination of powers that you can imagine – super strength, super speed, super agility, super senses, invulnerability, shapeshifting, Martian vision, telepathy, invisibility, and intangibility – and he’s often considered on the Superman-level of power by his fellow heroes. J’onn J’onnz is the last Green Martian, pulled from the world as the Curse of H’Ronmeer burnt his people to ash. He became a hero on Earth, fighting to save the innocent from the worst threats out there. He lost everything in the world that mattered to him, but found something new to fight for: the people of Earth. J’onn cares deeply about people and that love is what keeps him fighting the good fight day in, day out. An evil Martian Manhunter would definitely be a world-ending threat, but it’s doubtful that would happen without some unpredictable event changing him completely. He’s just too good, devoted to his adopted world.
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