Superheroes like Batman and Superman spend most of their time stopping dastardly villains from destroying their home cities. Whenever the Joker or Lex Luthor have various schemes going on, heroes know that if they don't spring into action something terrible could happen. Most superheroes prioritize keeping civilians safe from harm, but many have no problem tearing through public property or damaging buildings in order to defeat their opponent. As long as no innocent people are hurt in the ensuing carnage, superheroes typically have no problem being messy because they know they don't have to finance the city's reconstruction and they have a super powered team of friends ready to help clean up if necessary.
A superhero's primary responsibilities may include noble tasks like defending the innocent and fighting evil, but these powerful beings are also capable of causing destruction on their own. With various abilities, any one of these characters could cause some serious damage in the DC Universe if they wanted to. Luckily, most of DC's heroes would never choose to attack the world or their fellow superheroes, but some of these characters have been the target of mind-control or manipulative tactics that led to them using their abilities to perform evil deeds or cause wide destruction. Just because most of these characters have pristine moral codes, that doesn't mean they aren't capable of causing some extreme havoc when the going gets tough. Get ready to blast some metal music and punch a wall after learning more about the 20 most destructive DC heroes ever!
20 LOBO
An intergalactic bounty hunter, Lobo is an alien born on the planet Czarnia. Originally introduced as a villain, he's since softened and uses his big guns and grim attitude to help the Justice League. Born with superhuman senses and an increased healing factor, Lobo is incredibly difficult to beat on the battlefield. Add his massive guns and motorcycle into the mix and Lobo is easily one of the most destructive heroes operating in the DC Universe.
The character has even caused havoc in the afterlife, being banned from both hell and heaven for his annoying and destructive behavior. At one point the character even inherits a Red Lantern Ring, a weapon that could have made him even more unhinged and difficult to defeat.
19 THE FLASH
The world's fastest man, The Flash is capable of running faster than the speed of light. Not only does this make him a dangerous asset on the battlefield, but it gives the hero near unlimited destructive abilities. Thanks to his quick feet, the Flash is able to travel through time and has the ability to impact the timeline in dramatic, destructive ways.
His decision to travel back in time and save his mother's life in Flashpoint led to a total shift of events and a new world that saw Bruce Wayne die in crime alley instead of his parents and the world's fiercest monarchs, Wonder Woman and Aquaman, locked in a global war.
18 MARTIAN MANHUNTER
The last of the Martians, J'onn J'onzz is one of the DC Universe's most powerful and tragic characters. After watching his family and entire species die in front of him, the character headed to Earth and began a secret life as a private eye. Eventually, the character felt comfortable enough to reveal his martian heritage and he became one of the founding members of the Justice League.
Like most superheroes, the character can fly and has super strength, but he has a long list of abilities that make him incredibly destructive. Not only can he shape shift or turn invisible, allowing him to cause damage unseen, but he can also read people's minds and shoot plasma blasts.
17 ZATANNA
A powerful sorcerer who parades around the country as a stage magician for money, Zatanna Zatarra is a key member of the Justice League. Raised by her father, Giovani Zatarra, Zatanna was surrounded by the mystical arts her entire life and has since become an expert. After years of studying and practice, she is eventually able to make anything she says backwards happen.
While this may sound like a cheap party trick, it actually grants her wide destructive potential. Not only can she wipe people's' minds, but with a mere whisper she can cause buildings to blow up, planes to crash and individuals to harm themselves.
16 SHAZAM
Billy Batson is just a regular ten-year old kid when the Wizard Shazam first gives him a set of powers and transforms him into Captain Marvel. Blessed with abilities connected to mythological figures like Hercules and Zeus, Captain Marvel is an incredibly powerful individual who has even held his own while fighting Superman a couple times in the past.
Billy just needs to shout "Shazam!" and he will transform into his heroic form and have access to super strength, flight and various other abilities. Whenever he transforms, bolts of lightning come flying down, wrecking everything around Billy as he turns into Captain Marvel.
15 RAVEN
The daughter of a human and Trigon, one of the most powerful demonic entities in the DC Universe, Raven inherited her father's connection to dark magic. Capable of reading people's emotions, Raven is an empath who can project her astral form and even use it to fight villains. Her power levels have never clearly been stated, but she is an incredibly strong warlock who has no problem taking down numerous foes at once.
She first reestablished the Teen Titans because she was scared of what her father would do if he could control her body, signalling that the character is aware of just how much destructive potential she has in her.
14 SUPERGIRL
While her cousin may get most of the attention, Supergirl is one of the DC Universe's most powerful and iconic heroes. With super strength, laser vision and a degree of invulnerability, Kara can cause a lot of destruction whenever she is fighting bad guys. Luckily the character has her powers under control, but there have been a few instances where she slips and accidentally puts civilians in momentary danger.
There have even been a few instances where Supergirl is under the manipulative influence of villains like Darkseid and when she doesn't restrain herself it becomes clear just how dangerous the last daughter of Krypton truly is.
13 PHANTOM STRANGER
Another magic-based character, the Phantom Stranger is one of the most powerful and confusing sorcerers in the DC Universe. The character has multiple, contrasting origin stories that have labelled him as everything from a fallen angel to a variation on stories from the Bible. His shady past has allowed writers to bestow the character with vast, nearly unlimited magical abilities.
Not only can he warp reality around him, but he can teleport great distances and is considered to be immortal. While the character has helped various superhero teams in the past, he still considers himself a loner and goes about finding problems to fix on his own instead of with a group.
12 AQUAMAN
The King of Atlantis, Aquaman is a dedicated leader and hardened warrior. A founding member of the Justice League, Aquaman is super powerful and knows how best to wield his trident in a battle. His signature weapon isn't a standard trident though, it's actually the mythical Trident of Poseidon, an indestructible weapon that makes whoever wields it an even bigger threat.
With the ability to call upon aquatic life at any time, Aquaman essentially has an army of killer sharks and whales ready to sacrifice themselves for Aquaman's cause. Many people may think the character is constricted to water, but the hero can cause just as much destruction, and kick just as much butt, on the surface.
11 BATMAN
A regular human with an enormous wallet, Batman is still one of the most dangerous superheroes on Earth. He may not be able to punch a hole in the planet or destroy a skyscraper with laser vision, but he has access to vast technologies that allow him to do almost anything he wants.
He even has armor that allowed him to fight (some would say whoop) Darkseid one-on-one and live to tell the tale. While he normally fights on the side for good, Batman's paranoia has led him to develop plans to defeat his teammates on the Justice League if he ever felt he had to put them down.
10 GREEN LANTERN
Equipped with the most powerful weapon in the universe, anyone who dons a Green Lantern Ring has the potential to be a dangerous individual. Powered by the wearer's willpower, a Green Lantern can design constructs to use in fights. Everything from giant guns to complex defense mechanisms can be thought up in less than a second and constructed by the Ring.
Hal Jordan, arguably the strongest Green Lantern, has a strong will that enables him to overcome difficult situations. When Hal was burdened by Parallax's dark influence, he was even strong enough to single-handedly defeat numerous Green Lanterns as he tried to destroy the sun in an effort to remake the DC Universe.
9 CYBORG
A former member of the Teen Titans who was upgraded to an original Justice League member as part of the New 52, Victor Stone is a powerful, sensitive individual. Simultaneously blessed and cursed with a mostly mechanical body, Victor helps patrol the streets as Cyborg. Loaded with sonic cannons and various other projectile weapons, Cyborg always has something to pull out of his sleeve when the Justice League finds themselves in a tricky situation.
Thanks to his latest changes, the character can essentially repair himself and even upgrade his own weaponry, making him a stronger character as he progresses on his heroic endeavors.
8 DOCTOR FATE
A powerful sorcerer, Doctor Fate's presence in the DC Universe dates all the way back to 1940. Whoever puts on the Mask of Nobu, an ancient artifact associated with Nobu the Wise, is granted mastery over the mystic arts. Not only does the character have a degree of invulnerability and super strength, he also has telekinetic abilities and can cast a wide array of spells -- typically presented in the shape of Egyptian hieroglyphs -- to hurt his foes.
Unlike other sorcerers, Doctor Fate is unable to counter or negate other people's active spells, meaning he may not be able to limit some of his opponent's destructive capabilities.
7 ORION
The son of Darkseid, Orion was sent to New Genesis as part of a hostage exchange and raised under the caring, watchful eye of Highfather. An immortal being with vast strength, enhanced senses and an Astro-Harness that shoots energy blasts and creates force fields, Orion is one of the toughest fighters in the Universe and has helped the Justice League save the Earth numerous times.
His anger, partially inherited from Darkseid and caused by his father's betrayal when he was a child, leaves him a bit unhinged and more prone to violent outbursts. While he is a hero to the core, he has a tendency to cause vast amounts of damage and destruction whenever he is dealing with his opponents.
6 WONDER WOMAN
Wonder Woman may be a symbol for love and understanding, but that doesn't mean she won't kick someone's butt when she needs to. Born with superpowers like enhanced strength, speed and flight, Wonder Woman is one of Earth's most consistent defenders. Equipped with a razor-sharp blade and indestructible wrist gauntlets, Wonder Woman can be incredibly destructive when she needs to be.
Not only can she tear through buildings, but she has no problem slicing-and-dicing through her enemies with whatever weapon she can get her hands on. While most of her teammates are opposed to murder, this timeless warrior understands that sometimes a hero must truly take out her enemies, as is the case with Maxwell Lord in the lead up to Infinite Crisis.
5 FIRESTORM
While multiple people have been a part of the Firestorm matrix, every incarnation of the hero has the ability to manipulate matter and energy. Capable of changing the atomic structure of items or shooting multiple kinds of kinetic blasts from his hands, Firestorm has nearly unlimited power. He can turn water into fire and even turn lead into kryptonite if he wanted, a surefire way to mess with Superman.
The Firestorm matrix is so powerful and complex that Professor Martin Stein, a nuclear physicist who is typically one-half of Firestorm at anytime, has said that tapping into the matrix's powers too many times could trigger a second big bang, killing all life in the Universe.
4 SUPERMAN
The first superhero ever, Superman is the ultimate warrior. Blessed with invulnerability to most damage, extreme strength and a host of range-based projectile attacks, there are very few enemies Superman can't defeat on his own. A major asset to the Justice League and Earth's general defenses, Superman isn't impervious to mind control.
There have been multiple occasions where Superman's raw power has been manipulated into being a tool for evil and it has fallen to his teammates to take him down before his destructive rampages cause too much damage. In the Injustice games, the character finally snapped after a confrontation with the Joker and tried creating a new world order based on strength instead of understanding.
3 CAPTAIN ATOM
There have been multiple Captain Atoms in the DC Universe, but they all share a connection to atomic energy and have vast power levels. In addition to sterotypical abilities like flight, increased strength and speed, Captain Atom can manipulate huge amounts of atomic energy to trigger explosions capable of destroying the world.
He can also absorb various types of energy and store it in his own body to either safely store it or charge up his own abilities. The character and his emotional struggle to control his vast power later inspired Alan Moore when he created Doctor Manhattan for Watchmen.
2 THE PRESENCE
Packed full of alien saviors, mysterious cults and incredibly powerful individuals, comic books have always had a tricky relationship how they talk about and incorporate religious ideals. DC has numerous figures who play a god-like role in their universe, but back in 1940 Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel wrote a story that introduced The Presence, who was later brought into the DCU.
He's an omnipotent, all knowing character who can do anything he wants and he even has figures like The Spectre who do his bidding in the DCU. There are various god-like figures in the DCU from Greek and Indian religions, but it's essentially an unspoken rule that The Presence is the most powerful.
1 DOCTOR MANHATTAN
A recent addition to the core DC Universe, Doctor Manhattan is likely DC's most powerful character. Originally introduced in Alan Moore's Watchmen, Jonathan Osterman was a nuclear physicist who accidentally disintegrates himself in an intrinsic field subtractor. Instead of dying, he is able to restructure himself and returns as the omni-potent Doctor Manhattan.
Capable of altering matter on an atomic level and self-sustenance, Doctor Manhattan is an unstoppable force that no one has been able to overpower yet. Since DC Rebirth, Doctor Manhattan has been framed as a villainous figure who stole five years from the DC Universe's timeline and a select group of characters are trying to figure out how to reverse the effects and take him out in Doomsday Clock.