In the world of comic books, and DC Comics in particular, there is no hero more well known and popular than the Man of Steel himself, Superman. Otherwise known as Clark Kent of Earth or Kal-El of Krypton, the alien raised on Earth and born to be the world’s greatest protector is also one of its most powerful heroes as well.
The power the Justice Leaguer utilizes draws with it some of the universe’s most powerful threats imaginable, and many of Superman’s foes prove to be worthy foes to the Justice League and beyond. Here are the ten most powerful alien villains Superman has ever faced.
10 Lobo
One of the first villains of Superman’s rogues gallery who has an alien origin is also one of the more mindlessly violent and fun characters in the roster, and that is Lobo. A Czarnian alien and mercenary, Lobo is an individual who enjoys violence and carnage for the sheer joy and pleasure of it all.
Having become the last of his kind after destroying his homeworld for fun, he has come up against the Man of Steel on many occasions, as well as the larger DC Universe as a whole. More recently he has been seen serving on the Justice League of America working for Batman.
9 Imperiex
While this next villain is a truly powerful force of nature, he is not specifically a Superman villain and more of a larger DC foe overall, and so that is why he isn’t as high up on the rankings. That foe is Imperiex, the physical form of entropy who tries to restart the universe by causing a new big bang, which needs the destruction of Earth after making it the center of the universe after Crisis on Infinite Earths.
Superman finds himself allied with the likes of Darkseid, Maxima, Doomsday and Manchester Black as well as his own usual allies to fight off Imperiex, making him a powerful alien foe.
8 Jax-Ur
A lot of Superman’s alien foes are former residents of his long lost home of Krypton, including this next foe, Jax-Ur. A powerful and mad scientist who was sentenced to the Phantom Zone for the mass extinction event he caused of an entire inhabited moon surrounding their home planet, Jax-Ur has become a problem over the years both from within the Phantom Zone and on Earth.
With the power of a Kryptonian and the mind of a madman and genius, his cruel experiments and plots often bring him into conflict with Superman.
7 Faora Hu-Ul
The next alien villain is yet another Kryptonian sentenced to the Phantom Zone, Faora Hu-Ul. Regarded as a beautiful woman of Krypton, she held an unexplainable hatred for men and went on to commit several acts of violence, taking the lives of 23 men in a concentration camp she had established.
This earned her the exile into the Phantom Zone that saw her survive Krypton’s destruction. She has often fought alongside Jax-Ur and General Zod, plotting against Superman while trapped in the Phantom Zone, and has the power set most Kryptonians have on Earth.
6 Mongul
One of the most powerful DC villains of all time is also one of Superman’s greatest alien threats, Mongul. While Mongul also had a son who held his father’s mantle and title and became a villain himself, the original Mongul is who holds the belt as the most powerful alien threat from that family line.
The tyrannical ruler has long had a history of trying to and sometimes even successfully taking over the larger planet-sized weapon and ship known as Warworld, attempting to use it to conquer entire worlds, but Superman and the other Earth heroes always manage to stop his plots.
5 General Zod
The most powerful Kryptonian threat Superman has faced (at least in terms of naturally born Kryptonians), is the all-powerful General Zod. While never one to kneel before the would-be dictator, Superman has had some of his toughest battles with the entity known as Zod.
A former general and ruler on Krypton, he led an insurrection against Krypton’s government and failed in his coup, sent instead into the Phantom Zone. He avoided Krypton’s destruction, and has found his way to Earth several times. Recently he has come back into the DC Universe and has become a major galactic threat with his own planet.
4 Brainiac
A truly powerful alien threat to the entire DC Universe has consistently been Brainiac. A resident of the planet Colu, Brainiac has a long history of taking cities and in later years entire planets and shrinking them to the size of fitting in a glass bottle, taking entire civilizations away before leaving destruction in his wake.
Superman is his greatest foe, always defeating him before he can take a portion of Earth before destroying it. His superior intellect, advanced technology, and superhuman strength and power make him a formidable threat that has nearly brought the universe to its knees.
3 Darkseid
While this next threat is well known to be one of the biggest threats to the entire DC multiverse and could be considered by some to be the biggest alien threat of Superman’s, his power does have its limits, and although he is consistently reborn, he has faced his own demise on several occasions. That villain in question is none other than Darkseid.
The ruler of the planet Apocalypse is one of the New Gods, at war with his brother Orion of the other New Gods. He and Superman face each other constantly, in a bitter war that never seems to end.
2 Doomsday
The second most powerful alien threat and villain of Superman’s rogues gallery is the monster known as Doomsday. A genetic experiment that saw the creature slain in several different ways, only to be reborn having adapted to its previous defeat, the creature fed on violence and death, and became an unstoppable machine of chaos.
After defeating the Justice League, Superman sacrificed his life to take out the monster before it could destroy the world, and yet both have managed to come back time and again, with an innate hatred for Superman brewing as a result of their encounter.
1 The Anti-Monitor
The most powerful alien threat Superman has ever faced is the one and only Anti-Monitor. A cosmic being who was responsible for the events of the Crisis on Infinite Earths event, The Anti-Monitor is a creature who feeds on anti-matter, and sought to destroy every universe in his path.
Gathered by the Monitor, Superman was one of the heroes who led the charge against the Anti-Monitor as they tried to save their respective worlds from destruction. A couple of versions of Superman were left as the only ones to remember the existence of the multiverse after the event.