DC has a host of heroes, villains, sidekicks, and henchmen, not to mention gods and goddess that it would take a few encyclopedias to cover. But in the last decade alone, DC has debuted of some characters that are powerful enough to shake reality, and stand with the biggest heavyweights of theDC Universe.
Every comic label has their staples, and DC wouldn’t be DC unless it had Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, among others. But the legacy lives on through powerful new faces in DC’s roster, and thesemost powerful new DC characters introduced in the lasdt decade.
15Swamp Thing’s New Host Shows Potential
It’s a rite of passage for a costume to pass between many hands after a tragic death.But for a long time, Swamp Thing was only Alec Holland. That is, until Levi Kamei turned up to show fans just how powerful Swamp Thing could be, with his innate connection to the Green that makes him a beacon of creation and flora manipulation.
As an avatar of the Green, Levi is practically immortal, and can switch between his human form and his swamp form at will.The new Swamp Thing’s powersare still being discovered and mastered, but he stands poised to become even more powerful than the original Swamp Thing. After all, he has complete control over all plant life in the universe, making him less an avatar of the Green and more of a complete plant god reborn as a human.
14Damage Gives Doomsday a Run For His Money
In the wake of Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’sDark NightsL Metalevent and in the fresh bloom of DC’s New Age of Heroes, Damage debuted asDC’s long-awaited answer to the Hulk. There is a long list of borrowing that DC and Marvel have done from each other, but with Damage being a soldier whose entire physiology changed due to an experimental serum, the likenesses are a little too close to be called a coincidence.
Damage is practically invulnerable, and has even been able to fell Superman with a punch.The Doomsday-like extent of his strength were yet to be explored as his title was soon canceled, leaving fans to wonder just how powerful Damage was.
13Sideways Is Essential To DC’s Multiverse
There’s no question thatSideways is a Spider-Man looking hero, albeit possessed with a very different power. With the ability to teleport between dimensions, it didn’t take long for this new hero to end up being vitally important to DC, considering how many dimension-clashing crises DC seems to have these days.It isn’t just leaping either, as he can manipulate black holes and has superhuman strength, proving he isn’t just DC’s doorman.
Sideways proved crucial to the Justice League inDark Crisis, and woefully underappreciated at the same time.Sideways' powers means he’s destined to return in DC’s future when travel is needed from one event to another.Hopefully, he’ll be able to take on a larger role along the way.
12Lobo’s Daughter Crush is Just as Strong as Her Dad
Fan-favorite anti-hero and space bounty hunter Lobo is a fourth-wall-breaking killer with a bad mouth, and a bad attitude. Buthis daughter Crush is just as bad, reckless, and dangerous as her father, leading to plenty of tumbles and near-fatal collisions. But the “Main Man” and his daughter were able to reconcilein their father/daughterCrush/Lobominiseries, which made Crush even more of a powerhouse than before.
Like any hero with a healing factor, Crush is nearly impossible to kill, as she will always return to her peak form just before death. Even though she’s only half-Czarnian, Crush follows along in the vein of other legacy heroes that surpass their parents by strength of will alone.
11Trinity Is Soon To Make Her Official Debut
Superman has a son (and a few clones), Batman has a whole host of orphans that make up his Bat-Family. So even if Diana has had a few worthy successors throughout comic history,it’s time for Wonder Woman to have a biological descendant to call her own.Enter Trinity, who is coming soon to DC’s Universe.
Trinity’s story is currently told primarily through future glimpses in Tom King and Daniel Sempere’sWonder Woman,but Trinity is slated to finally make her official debut, aloowing comic fans to see just how powerful this new hero really is. Named after the iconic relationship between the Big Three of DC (Wonder Woman, Batman, and Superman) Trinity has a major relationship with Damian Wayne and Jon Kent as Superman that will help anchor DC’s future.
10Dreamer Is DC’s Best Hope of Keeping the Future Alive
Precognition is a superpower of unique potency, and Dreamer has it in spades. Dreamer can not only see visions of the future in her dreams, butshe can access dreams in a way that allows her to blast dream energy in explosive bursts, and create constructs out of them.She’s not just a mystic, but a brilliant fighter in peak shape.
This friend of Superman has kept him and his friends from death multiple times, and has quickly moved from a side character toan essential part of DC lore. She had a blooming part in theAbsolute Powerevent as Amanda Waller blackmailed her into submission against her allies. With the power of future-telling, Dreamer is practically too powerful, but her precognition didn’t save her from her own supposed sacrifice.
9Yara Flor Takes the Wonder Woman Mythos To The Next Level
This ally of Wonder Woman isthe most powerful Amazon warriorDC fans have had the pleasure to meet. As a Brazilian-Amazonian demigod, Yara Flor is a full-blown warrior, not a fish-out-of-water in the world of men. Her time as ‘Wonder Girl’showed fans a darker side of the Wonder Woman mythos, clashing with gods, andeven training with the gods on Mount Olympus (something not even something Wonder Woman has enjoyed).
Yara Flor presents a new vision of Wonder Girl for a modern age, steeped in the Brazilian history of the Amazons, and the mythological stories of her people.Yara Flor is ready for battle, and her debut ushered in a new era of Wonder Woman where the Amazonians are a new kind of force to be reckoned with.
8Brainiac Queen Topples the DC Universe
It’s not often that villains topple the entire DC Universe, but Brainiac Queen is up to the challenge. A relatively new character with a twist on the lore ofone of Superman’s oldest villains, she not only decimates an entire planet and its race, she defeats Superman and ushers in the events of Absolute Power.Villains aren’t all punching and superpowers, and Brainiac Queen proves careful planning can topple an empire.
DC Reveals Jon Kent’s Ultimate Form, Transforming Him Into Superman’s Living Nightmare
Jon Kent’s cyborg form makes its official debut in Absolute Power, forcing Superman to face the horrifying reality of what Waller has done to his son.
Even worse, Brainiac Queen took Jonathan Kent under her control, and transformed him into a cyborg. With Amanda Waller at the helm,this ultimate supervillainis the bane of DC, and already established as one of the worst villains Superman and company have faced.
7City Boy Has The Most Unique Power in Comics
One of the most interesting powers to come out of recent comics, City Boy’s powers are all in the name:the abilityto communicate with buildings and see the past and the future within them.City Boy is an urban protagonist for a modern era that ispowerful enough to be the next Superman.While Superman can hear the heartbeats of every living being on earth, City Boy goes further and is powered by the full consciousness of his city.
Darkseid even tried to recruit City Boy, as every hero and villain of DC started to realize he’s not just a kid and may hold the whole world in his hand - or the city, at least. Hearkening back to Grant Morrison’s Doom Patrol run, which featured a sentient town as a main character,City Boy is an urban hero that speaks for his entire city as it speaks through him in turn.
It’s not DC unless there’s some version of Batman present.Batman’s known for his many contingency plans, but most often, they come to fruition by accident, tearing apart the very Justice League. One of the newest contingency plans was afull character named Failsafe- only,he was meant to be the first contingency plan for Batman.Should Batman ever breach his no-kill rule, Failsafe was there to take down Batman and stop his killing spree. Unfortunately, Batman had to be there to stop Failsafe’s version of justice.
Failsafe merged with Batman’s alternate personality, Zur-En-Arrh, and became a sort of Gotham dictator that thought of himself as the absolute peak of what Batman is supposed to be: dark justice and no mercy.Failsafe became the very thing Batman was trying to avoid.He’s such a powerful character that his merciless victory madethe Justice League look absolutely pathetic, not to mention his hand in the event of Absolute Power.
