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With its extensive roster of heroes and villains, DC Comics has maintained a prominent presence in the superhero genre for nearly 90 years. DC’s iconic characters have faced threats stretching beyond their own universe for decades, including stories that put all of reality at risk of total annihilation. With battles at this level of sheer cosmic scale, it’s safe to say that the DC Multiverse has some particularly dangerous heavy hitters across its comic book history. Many of these characters have no moral qualms with killing and have done so at grandiose levels before.
With that in mind, we’re looking at the most lethal characters in DC Comics history, which is not to be confused with the most powerful DC Comics characters. While there is some overlap, strength doesn’t always come with willingness to kill, and all the characters we’re listing here have killed countless times before. Each of the characters that we’re mentioning here have racked up quite the body count, proving just how murderous they can be.
These are the 10 deadliest DC Comics characters, ranked in order of just how lethal they’ve each proven to be.
10. Reverse-Flash
Of all the villainous speedsters that have run against the Flash, the most sinister of them all is Eobard Thawne, the Reverse-Flash. Also known as Zoom, Eobard is the ultimate toxic fanboy, who felt spurned by his idol Barry Allen and recreated the accident that granted him super-speed to become Barry’s greatest enemy. Eobard’s antagonistic dynamic with the Flash spread to him targeting his loved ones, running back in time on separate occasions to murder his mother and wife. 2011’s “The Flash” #8 expands on this by showing the Reverse-Flash effectively erasing and altering history wholesale to deal with anyone who he believes stands in his way.
What makes the Reverse-Flash so deadly compared to other speedsters is that the changes he makes to the timeline tend to stick more permanently than his counterparts. As a character who can and has repeatedly erased people from the timeline, that makes the Reverse-Flash particularly deadly. Also, Thawne has an unhealthy tendency to come back from the dead, even reviving from being disintegrated by the omnipotent Doctor Manhattan. Before its shared universe collapsed, the Reverse-Flash was planned as a Thanos-level threat for the DCEU, cementing just how villainously powerful he truly is.
9. Monarch
One of the most convoluted supervillains in DC Comics history is Monarch, with multiple different figures taking on the mantle, occasionally under the name Extant. The most powerful Monarch is a corrupted version of the radioactive superhero Captain Atom, who grows unstable when his metallic containment shell is damaged. Driven mad, this universe’s Atom uses the Monarch suit to contain his power and absorbs the energy of other universes’ Captain Atoms to make himself stronger. Monarch seeks to pare down the multiverse, bringing its number down to a single, more easily controllable universe.
Just on his own, without the augmented power from his multiversal counterparts, Captain Atom is a hero who can kill Superman. When Monarch is defeated in the comic book series “Countdown to Final Crisis,” the resulting blast destroys an entire universe, killing everyone remaining in it. Fortunately, Captain Atom has regained control and become a superhero once again, but his destructive potential is a reminder how dangerous he is. Should Atom ever reclaim his Monarch persona, he’ll become an undeniable threat to all of reality once again.
8. Parallax
When Parallax was introduced, it was assumed to simply be a moniker from the corrupted Hal Jordan, as the Green Lantern became a seemingly crazed supervillain. Absorbing the raw energy from the Green Lantern Corps’ Central Power Battery, Parallax defeated the cosmic peacekeeping force singlehandedly. Gaining omnipotence from this upgrade, Parallax sought to alter the timeline as he saw fit in the 1994 crossover event “Zero Hour: Crisis in Time!,” with Extant as his vassal. When Hal was resurrected and restored, it was revealed that Parallax was the living entity of fear which had secretly bonded with the most powerful Green Lantern before being purged.
Parallax is as deadly as its host body is, and it definitely cuts a bloody path through the DC Universe whenever it surfaces. With Hal as its host, it not only virtually wiped out the Green Lanterns but also the Justice Society, with the empowered Parallax manipulating time to kill the older heroes. With Sinestro as its host, Parallax massacred the Guardians of the Universe, the omnipotent leaders of the Green Lanterns, with its bare hands. That level of murderous ferocity against such cosmic power makes Parallax a force to be reckoned with.
7. Superboy-Prime
Within the DC Multiverse, Earth-Prime is a universe that’s ostensibly designed after our own, where DC’s superheroes exist as fictional characters. However, this world also has its own Superboy, who is as powerful as the Silver Age iteration of Superman but also a petulant sociopath. Superboy-Prime can be fully charged the second he touches yellow sunlight, he can move planets with his bare hands, and his punches are strong enough to send reverberations through reality. Because of losing his world and being relegated to a pocket universe for decades, Superboy-Prime became unhinged and determined to wipe out the DCU to bring back his own universe.
Superman’s most powerful villain will probably never be in the movies, because of how uniquely evil he is. Given the nature of Earth-Prime, Superboy-Prime comes off as a personified commentary on toxic fandom but that metatextual nature doesn’t make him any less dangerous. In “Countdown to Final Crisis,” Superboy-Prime wipes out entire universes single-handedly and seemingly destroys Monarch all by himself. Whenever Superboy-Prime appears, it takes the combined might of the DCU to bring him down and that victory is always hard-won.
6. Nekron
In a universe full of personifications of different emotions and primal archetypes, Nekron represents death itself and wants to expand his domain. After becoming aware of the living realm, Nekron becomes obsessed with invading it to conquer it through death and darkness. Nekron names several individuals to serve as his arbiter among the living and facilitate his planned conquest, including Krona and Black Hand. Nekron is capable of creating Black Lantern Power Rings, which can raise the dead to serve as his army.
In the crossover event “Blackest Night,” Nekron temporarily succeeds in arriving in the living world after his Black Lanterns collect enough emotional energy to empower him. Nekron appears to be more formidable than not only the usual DC heroes, but also powerful entities like Parallax and the Spectre. Though he’s defeated by the raw power of life itself, Nekron can never truly be destroyed, surviving as long as death exists. Commanding an army of merciless undead and a force of nature himself, Nekron lives up to his status as death incarnate.
5. Darkseid
Of all the characters who beat Superman in a fight, the most sinister is Darkseid, the Lord of the hellish planet of Apokolips. A New God, Darkseid murdered his older brother and mother to seize total control of the planet and the cosmically destructive Omega Force. Darkseid becomes obsessed with expanding his empire, determined to subjugate all of reality through his corruptive Anti-Life Equation, often pitting him against the DCU’s heroes. During the 2008 crossover event “Final Crisis,” Darkseid temporarily succeeds in conquering Earth before Batman, Superman, and the Flashes defeat him.
During DC’s controversial New 52 reboot era, Darkseid was repositioned as a threat for the entire multiverse, invading and conquering different universes with his armies of Parademons. That makes Darkseid a tyrant over countless suffering subjugated populations, with those under his dominion regularly tortured and killed. Darkseid isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty either, killing anyone who shows him any impudence, usually disintegrated by his Omega Beams. Easily one of the strongest Superman villains, Darkseid is really more of a threat for the entire DC Universe.
4. Anti-Monitor
In terms of sheer body count, it’s hard to top the Anti-Monitor and his all-out assault on the multiverse during the 1985 crossover event “Crisis on Infinite Earths.” From the Antimatter Universe, the Anti-Monitor unleashed waves of pure antimatter which rapidly consumed entire universes, killing everyone within them. In short order, what was once a seemingly infinite amount of alternate realities was reduced to five, meaning untold populations were killed by the universal obliteration. Though he was defeated at the time, saving reality, the Anti-Monitor has resurfaced on multiple occasions to add to his catastrophic death toll.
If this was a ranking based on kill count, the Anti-Monitor would likely top it just based on “Crisis on Infinite Earths” alone. However, the cosmic villain is not the deadliest figure on this list in terms of what he’s capable of, though it’s not for lack of trying. Everyone from alternate universes’ versions of Superman to the Guardians of the Universe have been killed by him and his antimatter. In addition to these destructive waves and his army of shadow demons, the Anti-Monitor has a lethally toxic touch and being exposed to his raw energies can be fatal. For a time in DC’s history, the Anti-Monitor was the most evil omnipotent character in existence and still a force to be reckoned with.
3. Doctor Manhattan
Doctor Manhattan, the omnipotent figure from Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ seminal comic book series “Watchmen” has an interesting relationship with the DC Universe. DC’s 2016 publishing initiative DC Rebirth alluded to the continuity of the DCU being tampered with by Doctor Manhattan. This was confirmed by the 2017 comic book series “Doomsday Clock,” bringing the blue-skinned demigod in all his glory to the DCU after leaving his own universe. Intrigued by the unique and evolving qualities of the superhero universe, Manhattan tampers with it as part of a multiversal experiment to see how it reacts and adapts.
What makes Doctor Manhattan deadly is that his cosmic experiments have no moral qualms with killing those involved to see how reality at large reacts. The controversial “Watchmen” ending proved that Manhattan was a perfectly willing killer if murder aligned with his esoteric goals. That means Manhattan kills countless characters with his reality changes all in the name of cold and clinical science. Superman eventually inspires Manhattan to deviate from his amoral actions and reconnect with his humanity, but not with the lethally reality-shaking impact still felt.
2. Perpetua
The 2020 crossover event “Dark Nights: Death Metal” felt like the culmination of the DC Rebirth era, with all of reality at stake once again. The story opens in the aftermath of the multiversal apocalypse, with the villainous Perpetua having succeeded in conquering the world. This conquest occurred largely in the pages of the preceding “Justice League” comic book run by Scott Snyder, with Perpetua empowering the DCU’s greatest villains to serve as her loyal vassals. The combined might of DC’s greatest heroes couldn’t stop her from attaining this initial victory, forcing the multiverse to form its own resistance.
During her reign of terror over the multiverse, Perpetua is seen commanding an army of twisted villains from throughout reality. This includes alternate versions of Doctor Manhattan, while both the Monitor and Anti-Monitor are depicted as being weaker than her. Perpetua is so formidable and dangerous that several of the villains on this list actually side with the heroes as part of the resistance movement against her. An absolute powerhouse with murder and exploitation at the top of her agenda, there is only one DC character deadlier than Perpetua.
1. The Darkest Knight
The big twist towards the end of “Dark Nights: Death Metal” is that the story’s big bad isn’t Perpetua at all. Instead, the final villain is the Batman Who Laughs, who has his brain implanted into the body of an alternate universe’s Doctor Manhattan, renaming himself the Darkest Knight. Easily the most powerful alternate version of Batman, the Darkest Knight kills Perpetua in a colossal battle with the cosmos as collateral damage. The villain then plots to bring all of reality under his will and kill the ones who created the multiverse in the first place as his seemingly remaining opposition.
The Darkest Knight belongs at the top of this list because of how he approaches killing in comparison to other characters previously ranked. There is a reasoning behind why figures like the Anti-Monitor, Doctor Manhattan, and Perpetua are trying to destroy and reshape the multiverse. The Darkest Knight is up for complete multiversal annihilation delivered as gruesomely as possible, the more kills the better. The Batman Who Laughs was already a threat for the multiverse before he received his cosmic upgrade, but as the Darkest Knight, no one and nowhere is safe.
