The Phoenix Force is one of the most powerful entities in the entire Marvel Universe. An immortal cosmic being, it has made a habit of possessing others, thus granting them a phenomenal new range of powers. The Phoenix’s most famous human host is Jean Grey, the former Marvel Girl, although this was later retconned so that Phoenix replaced Jean rather than possessed her. Unfortunately, this event coincided with the Hellfire Club’s attempts to bend Jean to their will. Thanks to their evil influence, Jean/Phoenix became Dark Phoenix and went on a rampage. This came to be known as the “Dark Phoenix Saga,” and it’s here that readers learned the true extent of Phoenix’s power. She consumed a star, indirectly snuffing out the billions who lived on the planets orbiting it. Professor X managed to calm her, but Jean/Phoenix, not wanting to risk Dark Phoenix emerging again, chose to sacrifice herself.
Since then, the Phoenix has possessed many others with varying degrees of success. But so far, we’ve only seen Phoenix test its power against Marvel characters. How would it fare if confronted by someone from DC? The DC Universe has plenty of its own heavy hitters who have gone-toe-to toe with seemingly unbeatable cosmic threats. This list will look at twenty theoretical match-ups between the Phoenix and the biggest, baddest bruisers DC has to offer. Do you think the DC characters listed here stand a chance against the Phoenix? Did we miss somebody? None of this is canon -- at least not yet -- so feel free to let your imagination run wild!
20 RAVEN
Defying intergalactic threats is Raven's whole shtick. Her entire life has been one long struggle against her father, Trigon the Terrible, a demon trying to take over the world. Although her demonic half constantly seeks to steer her towards evil, Raven manages to keep it in check most of the time. She is a woman with both extraordinary powers and extraordinary inner strength.
Raven also often relies on her soul self, which is a sort of astral projection. The soul self can withstand much more hostile conditions than Raven herself can. It would be an invaluable tool in the fight against the Phoenix.
19 THE SPECTRE
As the personification of God's vengeance, the Spectre is quite possibly the most powerful being in the entire DC Universe, except for God himself. If the Spectre can imagine something, he can make it happen.And given his fondness for whipping up appropriately ironic punishments for his foes, it's safe to say that he has a fertile imagination indeed.
In addition, when a rogue scientist tried to mash the Marvel and DC worlds together, it was the Spectre who jumped in to physically shove them apart. He is absolutely not someone whose bad side you want to be on. You will lose. Period. That means you, Phoenix.
18 DOCTOR FATE
Whenever someone dons the Helmet of Fate, their own personality is subsumed by that of Nabu, one of the Lords of Order. This composite being, known as Doctor Fate, is among DC's foremost sorcerers. Kent Nelson is the most famous Doctor Fate. As the good doctor, he is in tune with the universe, so he'd be able to sense Phoenix coming from light years away.
Doctor Fate also boasts a wide variety of other magic powers, including telepathy, teleportation, astral projection and energy blasts. Even without his helmet, Nelson is a talented sorcerer, though perhaps not powerful enough to overcome the Phoenix.
17 PARALLAX
Despite coming from different universes, Parallax and Phoenix share some fundamental similarities. Parallax is an immortal cosmic entity who resembles an Earth animal. So is the Phoenix. Parallax possesses humans to do his bidding. So does the Phoenix. If there was a dating website for celestial threats, it would match these two in a heartbeat.
Also like thePhoenix, Parallax is no stranger to destroying planets. He is the personification of fear and has caused entire civilizations to rip each other to shreds. More famously, he took control of Hal Jordan, a man renowned for his amazing will power, and convinced him to end all the Green Lanterns.
16 THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS
The Green Lantern Corps was created expressly to deal with interplanetary threats. If they can't put the Phoenix in its place, no one can. Founded by the Guardians of the Universe, the Corps is spread across galaxies, ever alert for anything that could disrupt the peace and harmony of the universe. Each member gets a ring that can create whatever its wearer can think of.
Granted, the Phoenix's propensity for fire attacks could pose a problem for the Green Lanterns, whose rings traditionally don't work against anything yellow. But Green Lanterns are nothing if not creative and are used to having to compensate for this flaw.
15 DOOMSDAY
Doomsday was engineered by an alien scientist, Bertron, to be able to survive anything. Bertron ended and resurrected the creature over and over again. After each time, the reconstituted Doomsday would be immune to whatever had ended him before. By the time Doomsday turned on his creator, he was virtually indestructible.
How indestructible is this guy? He is responsible for the infamous "Death of Superman" storyline. So the Phoenix can stop Doomsday as often as it wants, but he will just keep coming back. And with each resurrection, he'll be more determined than ever to destroy the entity that keeps destroying him.
14 JADE
Jade's biological father is the original Green Lantern, Alan Scott. Unlike her father, who needs a ring to channel his powers, Jade's own body serves as a conduit for her powers. And what powers they are! Jade's ability to manipulate energy allows her to create hard light constructs, generate force fields and more.
The kinds of threats Jade faces also indicate she'd do well against the Phoenix. She spends a lot of time with the Green Lanterns, facing off against villains capable of wrecking entire planets. We can easily see Jade holding her own against Phoenix, at least for a while.
13 X'HAL
Once an ordinary citizen of Okaara, X'hal was captured and subjected to experiments by an alien race called the Psions. She survived, but she was irrevocably changed. The Psions' experiments had turned her into a being of pure energy capable of blasting planets out of existence and surviving in space without protection.
X'Hal's personality had also changed. Whereas before she valued peace, now X'Hal had a dangerous, even deadly temper. Hmm... a nigh-uncontrollable god-like being prone to angry outbursts? Sounds like a good match for the Phoenix! Whether anyone unlucky enough to be in the vicinity of their epic battle would survive is another matter entirely.
12 SATURN GIRL
In "The Dark Phoenix Saga," Professor X uses his telepathic abilities to calm Dark Phoenix's rage. So if you were going to send someone from the DC Universe to confront the Phoenix, it would make sense to send someone with telepathic powers to rival Charles Xavier's. And in the DC Universe, no telepath is more powerful than Saturn Girl.
A founding member and eventual leader of the Legion of Super-Heroes, Saturn Girl hails from Titan, one of Saturn's moons. Everyone there is a telepath, but Saturn Girl is easily the most talented of them all. She is easily a match for both Phoenix and the telepathic Jean Grey.
11 ARION
Arion may be one of the more obscure figures on this list, but that could work to his advantage. The Phoenix might not expect such an average-looking being to be one of the greatest sorcerers who ever lived. His real name is Ahri'ahn and, despite his human appearance, he is an Atlantean demigod.
Arion is well-versed in virtually every kind of magic that has ever existed. Think of anything any magician in the DC universe has done; Arion can do it too, and probably better. He is also an immortal with no need for food, air or sleep. In other words, even the Phoenix might want to think twice about bothering Atlantis.
10 HARBINGER
When Lyla Michaels was a young girl, she nearly drowned at sea. She was adopted by the Monitor, an immortal responsible for guarding the known multiverse. He gave her powers and trained her to assist in his inevitable battle with his evil twin, the Anti-Monitor.
Tragedy struck early on in their plan. Harbinger was possessed by one of the Anti-Monitor's minions, who compelled her to kill the Monitor. But even this was all part of the Monitor's grand universe-saving scheme, as the Monitor's power transferred to Harbinger upon his demise. This allowed her to help save the remaining universes. Anyone with the power to save a universe could surely take on Phoenix.
9 THE ANTI-MONITOR
His name is his occupation: the Anti-Monitor exists to oppose the Monitor. Their first fight lasted for years and resulted in the two of them punching each other into million-year-long comas. The Anti-Monitor woke up first and picked up right where he left off, destroying positive matter universes to increase his own strength. Needless to say, he has a body count that makes even the Phoenix's look quaint.
It took the heroes multiple tries to finish him off in Crisis on Infinite Earths. Even then, the Anti-Monitor returned, apparently none the worse for his defeat, in Countdown to Final Crisis. Given the quality of that series, the Anti-Monitor may have wished he stayed gone.
8 SAINT WALKER
The Blue Lantern Corps is, like the Green Lantern Corps, an intergalactic peacekeeping force. Using hope to power their rings, the Blue Lanterns served mostly as a cheerleading squad. They lent physical and emotional support to other ring-wearers. But once the Blue Lanterns were destroyed by Relic, only Saint Walker was left standing.
There's a reason for Walker's resilience. Despite losing his entire family, the man literally recharged his planet's dying sun with the power of hope and faith. And unlike the Green Lanterns, who must recharge their rings every day, Blue Lantern rings don't need charging. Their power is limited only by the hope of those who depend on them.
7 PHANTOM STRANGER
No one knows much about the Phantom Stranger, except that he is inordinately powerful and has great taste in hats. He can jump between dimensions, see through illusions, survive just about any kind of attack, and much more.
That being said, the Phantom Stranger rarely uses any of these incredible powers. His specialty is delegating. Whenever trouble is on the horizon, he gathers everyone necessary to stop the impending crisis and gives them just enough information to ensure victory. There is no reason he couldn't do the same if the Phoenix Force ever saw fit to invade the DC Universe.
6 BLACK ADAM
Much as Shazam gets his powers from six Greco-Roman deities, Black Adam is powered by six Egyptian deities: Shu, Heru, Amon, Zehuti, Aton, and Mehen. While he occasionally deigns to help the Marvel Family out of a jam, he's mostly a villain who dedicates his time to ruling the nation of Kahndaq.
Regardless of what side Black Adam is on at any given moment, he wields enormous power. And unlike many others on this list, he isn't the least bit squeamish about using lethal force if necessary. A fight between Phoenix and Black Adam would likely be fatal for at least one of them.
5 MORDRU
Mordru is the 31st century's greatest and most vile sorcerer. The Legion of Super-Heroes has expended countless time and energy thwarting his various schemes. He subdued an entire planet, Zerox, to use as his headquarters, and was once able to defeat even the Atlantean sorcerer Arion.
Fortunately for the world, Mordru is not infallible. His former apprentice, the Black Witch, imprisoned him within Zerox. But keeping him there was not so simple. The Black Witch had to remain on Zerox and basically dedicate her entire life to preventing Mordru from escaping. Ever since the New 52 reboot, however, Mordru is back and tougher than ever.
4 NERON
The ruler of Hell is never a very popular deity, and with good reason. In the DC Universe, that deity is a fellow named Neron. With all the powers typically associated with demons -- immortality, magic, superhuman strength -- at his disposal, Neron has terrorized the DCU for thousands of years.
In the miniseries Midnighter and Apollo, Neron successfully imprisoned the superhero Apollo for a time. Apollo ultimately escaped with help from his partner, the Midnighter, proving that you need the abilities of a god and then some to put a dent in Neron's armor. Could the Phoenix live up to that standard?
3 ATHENA
Who better to put up against a being with god-like abilities than an actual god? Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom, is accustomed to fighting beings of unthinkable power. That includes folks who have a very bad attitude, like Ares, the god of war.
Athena is one of the goddesses that the Amazons appeal to for strength and support. Considering how tough they are, the Amazons wouldn't worship some weakling. With thousands of years of tactical experience to draw upon, Athena may not be the expected choice to send out to fight the Phoenix. She might, however, just be the smartest.
2 SWAMP THING
This might seem like an unusual choice at first glance, but hear us out. Swamp Thing essentially controls all plant life in his vicinity. If he suffers an injury, he heals it with flora. If someone attacks him, he fights back with the combined strength of every bit of plant matter he can lay his green hands on.
That all adds up to quite a bit of strength; the Swamp Thing has even bested Wonder Woman in combat. Assuming the Phoenix doesn't throw him into outer space -- which is, admittedly, possible -- he could most certainly hold the Phoenix off at least long enough for reinforcements to arrive.
1 BATMAN
We know what you're thinking. Batman might be the World's Greatest Detective, but he's still a human under all that bat-themed armor. How could he possibly stand up against the Phoenix, one of the most powerful entities in all creation? Because he's Batman, and being Batman never having to give up your plot immunity.
To be fair, Batman is very good at his job. But in recent years, he's gained a reputation for being impossibly good, to the point where he upstages other characters better suited to whatever task he is doing. If Marvel and DC ever put together a crossover where Batman faces off against the Phoenix, rest assured that the Dark Knight will come out on top.