Superheroes have always had an element of the fantastic to them, going all the way back to when Joe Siegel and Simon Shuster introduced Superman to the world in Action Comics #1, where a baby rocketed all the way from a dying alien world light years away to the planet Earth. But despite how insane even the First Superhero’s origins are, most of the time our heroes remain bound to their homeworld. Of course, that isn’t always the case -- some of DC’s coolest and most fascinating characters are those which refuse to let the Earth be their only domain, and explore the stars. And some of DC’s best stories have come when their creators did the same, and brought us wonders from beyond, from Jim Starlin’s "Cosmic Odyssey" to the "Rann-Thanagar War".

As the final story of Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps ramps up, with writer Robert Venditti pulling characters from all across the cosmic corner of the DC Universe, we thought it might be fun to take a look at some of the most powerful and well-known DC cosmic heroes of all time. Now for this list, characters who are more associated with being on Earth rather than actually being in space are off-limits, so people like the Martian Manhunter, Superman, and even Supergirl are all out. But that still leaves a wide array of heroes from other worlds, interstellar policemen with very powerful jewelry, and even some of the gods themselves. Read on to see who managed to land the number one spot!

20 ADAM STRANGE

Created by Julius Schwarz and Murphy Anderson, Adam Strange is easily one of the oldest characters on this list, as he made his debut in Showcase #17 back in 1958. Adam started out as a simple archaeologist who found himself transported to the other side of the galaxy, landing on the planet of Rann through the use of the unique “Zeta Beam” technology.

The truth is, Adam isn’t gifted with any special powers or abilities -- he survives off his pure wits. But don’t let that fool you. As the adopted son of Rann, Adam’s saved the planet and its people numerous times with nothing more than his intelligence, a jetpack, and his trusty ray gun.

19 HAWKWOMAN

Same as her male counterpart, there’s several versions of Hawkwoman because comics don’t know how to make things simple. For this list though, let’s just say we’re going with Shayera Thal. Shayera was a member of the Thanagarian police department who worked alongside Katar Hol for years, until "Zero Hour" caused Carter, Shiera, and Katar to fuse into some strange…Hawk deity.

Yeah, don’t think too hard about that. As a Thanagarian, Thal possesses the same Nth metal harness as many of its denizens, and as such is capable of defying gravity itself. She’s also got a bit of super strength, but compared to some of the really heavy hitters it’s not exactly anything to be concerned about.

18 HAWKMAN

Carter Hall might just be one of the most complicated characters in comic books. He started out as the reincarnation of Khufu, an ancient Egyptian prince. But gradually they introduced the planet Thanagar and the character Katar Hol, separated by both of them belonging to Earth 1 and Earth 2.

Eventually they were folded together, and now Carter’s origin is he’s got the power of reincarnation, and has existed across multiple time periods in different lives. As if that’s not enough, he has the special Nth Metal, which grants heightened strength, enhanced healing, and advanced alien technology thanks to his connection to Thanagar.

17 VRIL DOX

Carrying off on the theme of a child of a great villain turning into a hero, we have Vril Dox. Though… hero might be a tad strong of a word, Vril Dox is the son of the original Brainiac, the guy who goes around being a pain to Superman and putting cities in bottles. When introduced in Keith Giffen, Bill Mantlo, and Todd MacFarlane’s Invasion #1 comic series, he was cast as the clone of the original Brainiac.

Vril forms the organization L.E.G.I.O.N. as a peacekeeping force, protecting outer space for several years with the help of his associates. Truthfully, Vril doesn’t have much in the way of superpowers, but as a 12th level intellect he’s actually more of a threat than most people with them.

16 JEMM, SON OF SATURN

Introduced in the mini-series Jemm, Son of Saturn by Greg Potter and Gene Colan, Jemm’s people are cloned from the Green Martians, meaning he’s something of a cousin to the Martian Manhunter. Though the Saturnian people can’t shapeshift like the Martians, they retain much of the same other powers, and can instead regenerate rapidly.

Jemm appeared briefly on Earth while looking for his lover Syraa, but spends most of his time in space, ruling over his people. In fact, the last time we saw him was during the New Krypton storyline, where the character was in charge of not one, but three tribes of Saturnians.

15 ULTRAA, THE MULTI-ALIEN

Originally Ace Arn, Ultra has an absurd origin story, matching the era of comics he emerged from. He started as an astronaut from a future Earth who crashed on a planet in a system far away. While on that planet, he ran into a group of four aliens fighting one another. Each wanted to make him into their slaves, so they fired special weapons at him which seemed to be met to cause a person to become the other race.

When they all hit him at the same time, instead he gained their powers -- super strength, flight, magnetism, and electrokinesis. Of course, he also took on their forms as well, so he looks like a weird Frankenstein’s alien of a stitched together creature.

14 TANGA

A rather obscure character in the grand scheme of DC Universe development, Tanga was introduced in the comic mini-series Weird Worlds Vol. 2 #1 in 2011 by Kevin Maguire. Though she talks about having met Lobo and members of the Green Lanterns before, we’ve never actually seen the character interact with any DC characters, only heard about it.

But in terms of raw power, she certainly deserves her spot -- when we meet her she starts out as the guardian of the planet of Cammera, and spends her time there defeating monsters to protect the people. She doesn’t know her own strength though, which means she lacks in the fine control necessary to master her powers, even if they are considerable.

13 PRINCE GAVYN

One of a number of characters who would take on the identity “Starman”, Prince Gavyn started out as a spoiled alien prince from another world. Created by Paul Levitz and Steve Ditko, the character learned he wasn’t all he seemed after being killed to prevent him from taking claim to his world’s throne.

Gavyn would eventually be given wristbands which channeled his mutant power into the ability to firing energy blasts and granting him the ability to fly in space. He would appear throughout the '80s before disappearing until James Robinson’s Starman series, where we’d eventually learn he was responsible for giving the Will Payton version of Starman his superpowers.

12 CAPTAIN COMET

Adam Blake was one of the few hero characters created during the '50s, introduced as a type of pulp space hero courtesy of the minds of Julius Schwarz, John Broome, and Carmine Infantino. Thought to be a “man of the future”, Comet holds the honor of being one of the few metahumans from the early period of comics who was simply born with his powers.

The original story claimed he was simply born a hundred thousand years before the era where his powers would be commonplace. Described as the absolute pinnacle of human evolution, Comet has a genius IQ, telepathy, mind control, super strength, teleportation, and a long list of other powers that would make even Superman blush.

11 MAXIMA

Not all versions of Maxima are the same, but for the sake of argument we’ll go with the one introduced in the New 52 instead of the Roger Stern and George Perez version that was obsessed with turning Superman into her mate so they could rule over her homeworld of Almerac.

The younger one is from the same planet, but joins the Crucible Academy, making her appearance in Supergirl vol. 6 #36 by K. Perkins, Mike Johnson, and Emanuela Lupacchino. Maxima possesses some incredible psychic abilities, including telekinesis, a low level of mind control, and enough strength to stagger even Doomsday. No matter how you look at it, she’s certainly a threat.

10 STARFIRE

Given how much time she spends with the Teen Titans, it doesn’t always feel like Starfire is a cosmic hero. But when you’re literally a princess from another world, it’s hard not to use the word “cosmic” to refer to you at some point. Still, during the mid-2000s she spent quite some time out in space, first on a journey with Animal Man and Adam Strange after a mishap with Zeta Beam technology left them trapped in space, then later in Rann-Thanagarian Holy War fighting against the forces of Lady Styx.

Starfire tends to be a powerhouse no matter what team she winds up on -- she’s come out on top in matches with fellow Titan Donna Troy thanks to her training.

9 MIKAAL TOMAS

The third person ever to take the mantle of Starman, Mikaal was meant to be an alien invader at first, but upon landing on Earth he became taken enough with it to want to fight against his own people. Working during the '70s long after Ted Knight had retired and the second Starman had vanished, Mikaal used the power of a sonic crystal he had to protect Opal City.

The crystal granted him flight and energy projection, and combined with his natural alien toughness and long lifespan he’s spent decades as a hero. He even briefly joined the Justice League, helping them fight threats like Prometheus and Doomsday.

8 VALOR

To begin with, Mon-El’s a Daxamite -- that already places him roughly in the same class of strength as Superman when he’s not juiced up for the sake of some crossover where he’s got to beat some impossibly strong foe. A member of the Legion of Super-Heroes, Lar Gand starts out as a hero in the 20th century until he starts to suffer poisoning from lead and winds up stuck in the Phantom Zone as the only way to keep him safe until someone could invent an antidote to his weakness.

During the pre-Flashpoint timeline, Valor was even responsible for bringing genetically altered humans to different worlds and creating the United Planets responsible for forming the Legion in the future.

7 WAVERIDER

Matthew Ryder was a scientist from the year 2030, a world in which a monster known as Monarch took over and killed all of Earth’s superheroes before ruling with an iron fist. Sent back in time thanks to the invention of a dangerous time machine which had killed every subject who had ever used it before, Ryder’s body merged with the timestream itself.

Transformed forever, he became the superhero Waverider, gifted with the ability to time travel whenever he wanted, see a person’s past and future, and fly at the speed of light. Waverider worked alongside the DC heroes of 1991 to take down the hero who would eventually rise to become Monarch.

6 DARKSTARS

Meant to be an interstellar police force, the Darkstars are remarkably similar to the Green Lantern Corps. Instead of rings, the Darkstars were given devices called “exo mantles” that drew power from their creators, the Controllers -- distant cousins of the Guardians of the Universe. The mantles augmented their strength and speed, making them capable of interstellar travel as well as firing energy bolts.

The real fault in this group’s power is that their suits rely on the power of the Controllers, which can easily be cut off if they aren’t obeying orders. Still, in their heyday the Darkstars recruited legendary heroes like John Stewart and Donna Troy, and did quite a bit of good for the galaxy.

5 GREEN LANTERN CORPS

The Green Lantern Corps is an attempt by Guardians of the Universe’s to impose some form of order on the universe. An army of men and women with exceptional moral character, the Corps were given special Power Rings -- items of advanced technology that run off the collective willpower of the universe, they allow their users to create literally anything they can imagine.

Dubbed the "Most Powerful Weapon in the Universe", the Power Rings allow the Green Lanterns to battle against everything from an army of New Gods to the avatar of death itself. They do have one weakness though: insufficient willpower can cause the ring to either be less effectual, or not work at all.

4 INFINITY MAN

The identity of the Infinity Man varies, but regardless of who’s underneath the mask he is always one of the most powerful warriors of the members of New Genesis. The most recent version of the character is one half of Highfather, after the leader of New Genesis had gone to the Source Wall seeking answers for the war between him and Darkseid and found the compassionate half of himself stripped away.

This half would go on to become the Infinity-Man. But even half the Highfather was still able to battle two Green Lanterns and a Red Lantern to a standstill during the New 52 crossover "Godhead".

3 ORION

The son of Darkseid himself, Orion was a part of a peace treaty between Highfather of the New Gods and Darkseid to put an end to the war between New Genesis and Apokolips. Orion, the son of Darkseid, would be given to New Genesis -- while the boy who would become Mr. Miracle would find himself in the clutches of Darkseid.

Representative of the constant struggle of nature and nurture, Orion struggles to control his rage and inner brutal nature, but he’s still considered one of the greatest and most powerful allies of New Genesis. Orion also has the benefit of his Astro Harness, capable of harnessing energy directly from the Source itself that he calls the Astro Force.

2 NIX UOTAN

The Monitor of Earth-51, Nix Uotan was actually pretty bad at his job at first, allowing the Earth he was looking over to fall to ruin not once, but twice. Still, after all of the Monitors fell, Nix became the last of their kind. When all of existence was at risk thanks to the vampiric Monitor Mandrakk, Nix gathered an army powerful enough to defeat him once and for all, including Supermen from across the multiverse, the Zoo Crew, and the Green Lantern Corps.

Since then, Nix has become the multiversal monitor of the Fifth World, protecting the rest of the multiverse from all manner of impossible threats.

1 AHL

Introduced in Gerard Way and Nick Derington’s Doom Patrol Vol. 6 #1, Ahl is referred to as the god of superheroes. During the primordial period of time, Ahl left Final Heaven and arrived on Earth in the spot that would eventually become Mount Justice, the location of the Justice League’s first headquarters. The very notion of superheroes as a concept originates with Ahl, and he’s been described as a “beacon of both hope and omnipotence”.

Ahl is essentially an upgraded version of Superman, imbued with every power from immortality to time travel. Of course, every hero has a weakness -- and Ahl’s happens to be “the brick that can think”, which is eventually used by Haxxalon the Star Archer to kill him.