The '90s was a golden era for animation. Disney emerged from its "Dark Age" to pump out hit after hit, even bagging a few Oscar nominations along the way. Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon changed the face of Saturday morning cartoons with a crop of weird and twisted shows like The Ren & Stimpy Show, Cow and Chicken and Courage the Cowardly Dog. MTV catered for totally radical teens with Aeon Flux, Daria and Beavis and Butt-Head. Fox took a chance on adult-orientated shows like The Simpsons and Family Guy. And of course, for young superhero fans, it was never a better time to be glued to your TV set, with the likes of Batman, Superman, Spider-Man and the X-Men all starring in their own acclaimed cartoon series. This is all not to mention the anime wave that swept through the West like never before.

Needless to say, there was a lot going on, and this wealth of new future-classics brought new, diversely-skilled characters. You might think the '80s produced the most over-powered heroes and villains, and while the Masters of the Universe and the Thundercats' strengths are nothing to be sniffed at, the decade that followed was brimming with mightiness too. We've put together a list of some of the most physically, mentally and magically powerful 'toons of the era from the big and small screen. We're only including characters who were created in or are synonymous with the decade, and -- to make things more interesting -- this is a comic book-based superhero free zone.

25 OPTIMUS PRIMAL

You know all the absolutely awesome things that Optimus Prime can do? Well, take all of that and add transforming into a big, bad gorilla to the mix, and you get Optimus Primal. Transformers has undergone many rebuilds over the years to keep the Autobots and Decepticons looking as shiny and box-fresh as possible. In the '90s, this meant shifting in a bold, new direction: animals! Or, more specifically, beasts. The series, Transformers: Beast Wars, was also a bold, new direction in terms of animation for the 'bots, which was cutting-edge at the time but, like a lot of CG media, unfortunately hasn't aged too well.

That hasn't tarnished our memories of Optimus Primal's greatness, though! This Optimus is a Maximal -- descendants of the Autobots and enemies of the Predacons. As artificially organic creatures, Maximals can blend in with the natural world, indistinguishable from normal animals. Unlike his namesake, Optimus Primal began as a low-ranking officer, but his courage, creativity and unwavering sense of duty helped him rise to the top, even instigating a techno-organic revolution of Cybertron. He might even arguably be the superior version between himself and Optimus Prime. In "Optimal Situation," reality is ripped apart by a time storm seeming to ensure Megatron's victory over a dying Optimus Prime. To save his ancestor, Primal makes the ultimate sacrifice -- merging his spark with Prime's to become stronger than ever before.

24 SONIC THE HEDGEHOG

He's the blue hedgehog who's just gotta go fast! Though Sonic is obviously better known as a video game character, he's also been on our TV screens for a long time now. He had a few series in the '90s -- Sonic The Hedgehog, The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic Underground. The latter, released in 1999, was the most radical departure from Sonic lore, reinventing Sonic as the lost son of an alien queen who, along with siblings Sonia and Manic, possessed a medallion that could transform into an electric guitar that was also a laser rifle. (Sonia's was a laser keyboard and Manic's was a drum-kit that could set off earthquakes.)

It was a weird time for the Sonic franchise...

Aside from laying down some sweet tunes and sick beats, Sonic is also a famed speedster. How fast exactly? Well, though the exact figures are up for debate -- and depending on where you source your data from -- he can definitely go faster than the speed of sound. While he wouldn't beat someone like the Flash, who can travel faster than the speed of light (which is faster than sound) Sonic's no slow poke. In fact, he's really deadly at full power, capable of slicing through just about anything like a blue tornado, and -- when juiced up on Power Rings -- his acceleration leaves explosions in his wake.

23 DEXTER

Dexter's Laboratory introduced us to the Russian-accented "Boy Genius" who quickly became a Cartoon Network favorite. On the outside, Dexter is just your average, American kid in a lab coat with a fondness for black rubber. You know, totally normal. But, back home in his parent's basement, Dexter is secretly the world's greatest scientist and a master inventor. He styles himself after his hero, Albert Einstein, and he certainly has the genius IQ to match, though Einstein didn't have the added stress of an annoying sister interrupting him all the time and messing with his stuff. Einstein also didn't have to deal with a jealous rival bent on proving himself the superior brain, even if that meant destroying the world.

Dexter's inventiveness seems to know no bounds when it comes to creativity. He's travelled in time, devised a means to bring Mount Rushmore to life (through "Tripolar Frankensteinian Electrodes") and created the greatest source of energy in the world -- the Neurotomic Protocore. This strange energy source can be adapted to suit the user's means. In the right hands, it can bring about global peace and prosperity. But, in the wrong ones, it can spell doom. It's also capable of powering any device with limit and supercharging intelligence to superhuman heights, enabling the brain to do things like pull objects out of nowhere. In the future, Dexter uses the Neurotomic Protocore to create the perfect world: "Dextopia."

22 HERCULES

From zero to hero in no time flat, zero to hero -- just like that! Hercules is an overpowered hero in any version of his legend, and the 1997 Disney iteration is no exception. In Greek mythology, Hercules was sired by Zeus, the king of the gods, and his mortal mistress, Alcmene -- the granddaughter of another famous hero, Perseus. Disney being Disney decided to declutter the family drama of a cheating father and his enraged wife by making Hercules a full-blooded god, born to Zeus and Hera. Instead, Zeus' brother Hades, kind of the Underworld, is the drama instigator, kidnapping his nephew, sapping of him of almost all of his deity mojo and abandoning him on Earth.

Just like Superman, Herc' was raised by human parents who try to curb his abnormal abilities so he can have a normal life.

But, their adopted son's destiny pulled him towards his skyward roots instead. Hercules trained under master hero mentor, Philoctetes (you can call him Phil, though) to channel his super strength, endurance, speed and stamina into beating up monsters and saving damsels -- even if they can "handle it" themselves, like Meg. Hercules slays every single thing Hades throws his way, even -- and most impressively -- after his evil uncle talks him out of his powers. He's willing to risk his life against a Titan, dives into the River Styx and reclaims his godhood.

21 MEWTWO

Today, trainers can choose from over 800 Pokemon to add to their teams, but back in the beginning, catching 'em all was a comparatively easier job when there were just 150 of them running around Kanto. (Well, 151 if you count the elusive legendary Pokemon Mew, but that little pink embryo was darn near impossible to get, no matter how times you tried the "move the truck" cheat.) Speaking of Mew, its genetically engineered clone, Mewtwo was, at the time, the most overpowered monster of them all -- particularly given the huge advantage that Psychic types had in Generation One. Years after the original games were released, Pokemon: The First Movie revealed Mewtwo's dark origin.

Scientists in the South American jungle uncovered rare genetic material from Mew, which, led by Dr. Fuji, they created a clone from. The clone soon became confused and angered by its status as a lab rat and razed the entire laboratory. "We dreamed of creating the world's strongest Pokemon," Dr. Fuji said, watching his creation fly away. "And we succeeded." Mewtwo then trained under Team Rocket leader Giovanni, defeating every other Pokemon it came up against, before deciding to give villainy a go on its own. It kidnapped and brainwashed Nurse Joy, set up its own cloning program and tried to reclaim the world from humans by inciting civil war. Mewtwo is very much the Magneto of the franchise, and just as dangerous.

20 HIM

You know when a villain has an unspeakable name they're not to be trifled with. (He Who Must Not Be Named, anyone?) The Powerpuff Girls' main Big Bad was the super intelligent monkey, Mojo JoJo, but let's be honest, HIM was the one we were actually scared of. Let's get into his appearance first. Despite having a distinctly gendered moniker, HIM is designed to look androgynous, sporting a goatee, puffy dress and high heeled black boots. Oh, and big lobster claws for hands, because... why not?

Coupled with an obvious satanic flair, HIM is clearly supposed to be alarming and subversive from the outset.

He also has the power set to back it up, too. As the King of Darkness, HIM is an immortal demon with considerable dark magic. He can change his size, form, create illusions, manipulate emotions, control minds, summon monstrous minions and, perhaps the creepiest and strongest of all of his abilities, he can raise the dead. In the episode, "Speed Demon," the Powerpuff Girls are flung half a century into a future in which HIM has turned the whole world into a hellscape where the villain assumes his true, terrifying form and is more powerful than ever before. Even darker is the fact that the girls actually don't manage to stop him this time, instead disappearing back into the time stream as he cackles victoriously.

19 THE IRON GIANT

Years before Vin Diesel leant his voice to a big, sentient, alien tree, he leant his voice to a big, sentient, alien robot. Loosely based on Ted Hughes' The Iron Man, The Iron Giant is your classic boy-meets-giant robot love story. After the 50ft metal behemoth crash lands on Earth in 1957, it begins a hungry trail of destruction, consuming everything metallic or electrical in its path. Luckily, it was stopped from munching on a power station (that might have killed it) by nine-year old Hogarth Hughes, who befriends the strange creature and gifts it with speech and a moral compass. He encouraged the Giant to take after his idol, Superman, whose origin he thought the Giant could relate to.

Despite being led in a more peace-loving direction, the Iron Giant is still not to be played around with. His huge size imbues him with great strength -- he can uproot tall trees, throw cars around and chuck boulders around as if they were footballs. His outer shell is pretty impenetrable, enabling him to survive after being directly hit with a nuclear missile -- although it doesn't shield him from pain. He can also fly, crunch on any metal, self-repair, and he's armed to the teeth: cannons, laser vision, guns and energy blasting weapons too. It's no wonder the US military were so threatened by the big guy. He also held his own against MechaGodzilla in Ready Player One.   

18 SAILOR MOON

Despite their super girly appearances, all of the Sailor Moon girls are packing some serious power. You could probably argue the case for every Sailor Senshi being the superior warrior; Pluto is the most ruthless, Uranus has that amazing Space Sword, Saturn can summon the Holy Grail and Saturn -- the governess of death and rebirth -- is capable of obliterating entire planets and turning back the clock. The big drawback, of course, is that that much power comes at the price of her own life. But, considering the genre of the show, Sailor Moon's most over-powered heroine can only be its titular protagonist.

On the surface, Sailor Moon is a ditzy teen girl who doesn't seem up to much. But, what she lacks in physical strength she makes up for in conviction.

Sailor Moon represents the very essence of the Magical Girl genre: indomitable positive energy. No matter the odds, she bounces back harder and stronger every time to claim victory. In terms of actual power though, she's the only person who can use the Silver Crystal, a diamond-like magical artefact that is considered to be the most powerful thing in the entire universe. Depending on the heart of the one who wields it, it can undo genocides and revive dead planets, and no-one is more pure of heart than Sailor Moon.

17 SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS

He's a sponge. He lives in a pineapple. He works in a fast food restaurant. He has a pet snail. What exactly is so powerful about this guy? Well, you'd be surprised. Much in the same vein as Bugs Bunny, the young fry cook is easy to underestimate because of his silliness and indifference towards achieving that much in his life other than just having fun and getting by. SpongeBob not only has the super power to unintentionally antagonize, but he's demonstrated super strength and elasticity powers, and his boneless physiology makes it easy for him regenerate after any injury.

Some fans also consider his fry cook skills to be on a superhuman level, too. He's been Employee of the Month at the Krusty Krab over 350 times, and in episodes like "Help Wanted" he's demonstrated the ability to make hundreds of Krabby patties at inhuman levels of speed. In "Neptune's Spatula," SpongeBob's culinary skills even bested King Neptune's. Riffing off of the "Sword in the Stone" legend, SpongeBob accidentally pulls the Golden Spatula from its greasy sheath in the Fry Cook Museum. "Only a fry cook who's worthy of King Neptune himself can wield the golden spatula," reads the plaque next to it. The King appears and challenges SpongeBob to a cook-off, and SpongeBob's one perfect patty beats the 1,000 gross-tasting ones that the King makes.

16 CAPTAIN PLANET

Captain Planet and the Planeteers is the quintessential '90s cartoon. A bunch of radical, diverse teens? A superhero who could rock a crop top and a neon mullet? Shoving an environmentalist message down kids' throats in every episode? It's all there! The eponymous hero battled against threats to the Earth's ecosystem like pollution, and against villains with toxic-sounding names like Doctor Blight and Duke Nukem (no, not that one.)

The Captain is less of a person and more of an embodiment our planet's will to defend itself against "hateful" things -- including "mental pollution."

The show even tackled things like substance addiction and the HIV/AIDS epidemic! Captain Planet is formed of five elements: earth, fire, wind, water and... heart? (Who knew that was an "element"...) He appears when the possessors of the magic rings created by Gaia are used. In terms of his actual abilities, they're a little hard to define, unless harnessing the power of deus ex machina counts. His body is incredibly malleable, able to transmute into virtually any kind of element, and do the same to other materials. He's displayed super strength, endurance, telepathic and empathic powers, and according to the episode, "Go Green and Stay Clean," he can also super size himself, and fans have speculated that his real form is comparable to that of the Earth itself.

15 FREAKZOID

Freakazoid is a superhero described as being "overloaded with useless information." Created by the superstar animation team of Bruce Timm and Paul Dini in 1995, the character seems more relevant now than ever before. On Christmas Day, teenager Dexter Douglas accidentally inputted a gibberish code into his computer: "@[g3,8d]\&fbb=-q]/hk%fg". After deleting it, the computer's Pinnacle Chip went haywire, transferring everything on the Internet into Dexter's brain, with superhuman strength and speed thrown in for good measure. Though at first his transformation was unstable, Dexter learnt that saying "Freak out" and "Freak in" could control whether Freakazoid was in charge or not.

Freakazoid has a lot in common with Deadpool -- wild, unpredictable and possibly insane, due to the sheer amount of knowledge in his head. He also shares Wade Wilson's fourth wall awareness and often criticizes the show he's on if it focusses too much on his alter ego, even going so far as to suggest to the animators that Dexter gets chopped out of the title sequence entirely. As well as his standard superhero powers of strength and speed (lightspeed, to be precise) Freakazoid can harness the power of "cartoon physics," meaning he can cheat the laws of physics and keep himself from getting seriously injured. When he's really, really mad he can unlock a latent telekinetic ability, too.

14 THE BRAIN

What should we do for this entry? Same thing we do for every entry, Pinky -- try to take over the world! Beginning as guests on The Animaniacs, it didn't take long for Pinky and the Brain to break out into their own show in 1995. The pair are lab rats who were experimented on in Acme Labs, gaining the ability to talk and think like humans. Every night in their cage, Brain, the, uh, brains of the pair invents wildly elaborate world domination plots and his loyal lackey, Pinky, tries to help them come to fruition... but usually completely foils them instead by virtue of his own idiocy.

Brain's swollen head marks him out to us as a genius and his creative plans -- although always ineffective in the end -- prove it.

These plans include, but are not limited to the following: buying the parts of buildings above the 39th floor and then melting the polar ice caps; creating a made-up island to con the US out of foreign aid; getting Pinky elected as the President; firing a rocket made of self-adhesive mirrors at the moon to turn it into a disco ball, leaving Earth defenceless while all of humanity boogies, and creating a papier-mache version of Earth and offering free t-shirts to draw everyone over to it. Though his plans are far too complicated to work, you have to give his intellect props for thinking of them.

13 YUGI MOTO

It's time to d-d-d-d-d-duel! In the world of Yu-Gi-Oh! card games are everything. Not just all and any card games though. Duel Monsters is a game that has roots in ancient Egypt, where it was played with real magic and real monsters. The game was revived in the present day by tomb-raiding megalomaniac, Maximillion Pegasus, who supplemented the mystical elements with pictures, text and Attack and Defence points. Being good at this game can earn you fame and fortune in globally watched tournaments, and no one is more famous than high school student Yugi Moto. Yugi is not only the owner of the most impractical hair in anime, but of an ancient Egyptian artefact called the Millennium Puzzle.

Unbeknownst to Yugi at first, his duelling is aided by the spirit of a Pharaoh named Yami, who possesses the teenage boy at opportune moments. With his own superior strategies combined with Yami's extensive knowledge of the game and Yugi's unshakeable belief in the "heart of the cards," he achieves the lofty title of King of Games at a young age, something that enrages his rival duelists like Seto Kaiba, who -- for all of his money, power and rare cards -- just can't catch a break. In fact, Yugi has such a natural aptitude for gaming, he beats Duke Devlin, the creator of Dungeon Dice Monsters, at his own game on his first attempt at it.

12 THE POWERPUFF GIRLS

The Powerpuff Girls' powers come from Chemical X, a mutagen created by Professor Utonium to complete his formula to create perfect daughters, along with "sugar and spice and all things nice." (The original ingredient would have been a literal can of "Whoop-ass," but the FCC-mandated rules about curse words in kids' cartoons forced the switch.) The Kindergarten-aged trio decided to use their new skills to stop crime in their home city of Townsville -- but only before bedtime. Collectively, the sisters have a ridiculously broad arsenal of abilities at their disposal beyond the normal super strength, speed, durability and endurance.

The girls teleport, use super punches, turn into water, and breakdance so intensely that they create force fields.

These powers include but aren't limited to: flight, heat vision, survival in space, energy blasts, super sense, night vision, elemental powers (fire and wind,) X-Ray vision, supersonic screams and waves, and general invulnerability to most forms of damage, including extreme heat and cold. In the episode "Nuthin' Special," they show off even more special abilities when Buttercup bemoans not having any powers that are unique to her. The girls teleport, use super punches, multiply themselves, turn into water, shrink, and breakdance so intensely that they create force fields around themselves -- a move dubbed "Electric Boogaloo." They can also combine their powers into things like huge tornadoes and energy beams. As for Buttercup? Her unique power is that she can roll her tongue!

11 THE RHINO

Adapted from the Roald Dahl children's classic of the same name, James and the Giant Peach was director Henry Selick's follow-up feature to 1993's The Nightmare Before Christmas, and it's arguably the scarier of the two. The film begins in live-action but slips into Selick's signature gothic-inflected, stop motion animation, as orphaned boy James begins an ambitious quest to travel to the Empire State building on his birthday like his parents promised when they were still alive, using a magically-inflated giant peach as his vessel. The cause of his parent's death is a Rhino. In the original book, the Rhino was an actual animal, escaped from London Zoo.

In the film, the Rhino is blown into supernatural proportions, becoming an ethereal, angry weather spectre made from huge, dark storm clouds. Its non-physical nature means it's likely completely invulnerable to harm, and it can whip up a storm just by its mere presence, reigning down gales, heavy rain, thunder and lightening. It's most powerful attribute, however, is that it feeds off of fear, and because James knows that the Rhino is responsible of his parent's death, there's nothing else he fears more, making it stronger than ever. Although, anyone in the presence of a giant, Rhino-shaped cloud would be terrified.

10 POWDERED TOASTMAN

The Ren and Stimpy Show was one of the most subversive kid's cartoons of all time, skating such a thin line at times between the appropriate and the obscene that the creator eventually got fired from his own show. It's most memorable for its graphic scenes of violence, ickiness and the bisexual subtext between the two titular housemates, but it should also be remembered fondly for giving us one of the best superheroes parodies in Powdered Toastman. As you'd expect from a character inspired by Superman and Frank Zappa, PTM is incredibly over the top and incredibly weird.

PTM has the traditional superhero power set of super strength and speed. He can also fly (backwards) using flatulence, and has a variety of bread-based abilities.

These include shooting raisins from his mouth at high speed, croutons from his armpits, wedges of butter from his head and corrosive marmalade from his belly button. He also has a kind of spidey-sense through the toast dust on his head. Speaking of Spider-Man, PTM actually went against the Marvel hero in a one-off crossover comic and held his own. PTM is also one of the few superheroes to have ascended to the highest political office, where he wasted no time in using the Constitution as fuel for a marshmallow toasting fire.

9 THE FOREST SPIRIT

Princess Mononoke is a 1997 Studio Ghibli movie that features all of the legendary anime studio's staples: a feisty, capable heroine; creepy creatures; Japanese mysticism and a strong environmental message about the evils of industrialism and human greed. The story follows San -- a wild child raised by a Wolf God -- and a young prince, Ashitaka, who, while trying to save his village from demon attacks, becomes infected by a curse from an enraged Boar God. While traveling through a strange forest filled with spooky little spirits, Ashitaka catches a glimpse of an even spookier thing: a huge deer with too many antlers and a human face.

What Ashitaka didn't know was that he'd been privileged to catch sight of the Forest Spirit, the god of life and death. In the day, it takes on its weaker deer form as a disguise, but at night, it becomes the Night-Walker -- a giant, semi-transparent being, which is its true and most powerful form. The Forest Spirit is an immortal and invulnerable deity with the ability to give and end life as it sees fit, and its the only thing that both humans and demons fear. When competing human forces try to steal the Forest Spirit's head -- believing it to be able to grant immortality -- its Night-Walker form becomes dangerously unstable, sucking the life out of everything it touches as it searches for the missing head.

8 MERLOCK THE MAGICIAN

Just sneaking into this list is DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp, released in 1990. In case the title wasn't enough of a giveaway, the poster makes it clear that it's a water fowl-filled parody of Indiana Jones. The film begins with Scrooge McDuck and nephews, Huey, Dewy and Louie, en route to the Treasure of Collie Baba and the 40 Thieves with intrepid explorer, Launchpad McQuack. Thanks to McQuack's haphazard flying, the plane crash lands through some ancient ruins, unearthing some of Collie Baba's old belongings. The group finds a map, and hoping it will lead to treasure, head off on an adventure. Unbeknownst to them, a villainous magician named Merlock follows their every move.

Thanks to a magical talisman, Merlock is able to change his form into an eagle, but the real power he's after lies in the treasure!

You see, he hopes to find a wish-granting genie's lamp. Unfortunately, he eventually does just that. The lamp's resident genie (known as "Gene") was previously forced to commit terrible atrocities that resulted in the loss of ancient cities like Atlantis and Pompeii, so he's not exactly thrilled with his new master's evil ambitions. Along with his shapeshifting powers, possession of the lamp and an unlimited supply of wishes makes Merlock an incredibly potent threat, as he wishes away Scrooge's vast fortune (and almost his life) as well as giving himself immortality.

7 CHAOS

In the world of Aladdin, genies are beings of godlike power. They can live forever, their magical power seems to be limited only by their own imagination, they can change their bodies at will, they can travel in time and space and the rules of normal physics just don't apply to them. Obviously, the one major drawback is the "itty bitty living space" and a life of servitude for a usually ungrateful master or mistress. What could be more powerful then a genie? Well, in the short-lived 1994 Aladdin TV series, a character called Chaos was introduced, a small, blue cat with purple wings, a mischievous grin and a lot of power.

Chaos is a master trickster, and like every archetypal trickster, he hates anything ordinary or predictable, even concepts like good and evil. Just to give you a sense of how strong Chaos is, the Genie fearfully confides to us that, "he has more power in his little whisker than a palace full of genies." Effectively, reality is an open book that Chaos can erase and rewrite how ever he wants. He can also teleport, manifest objects, shape shift, fly, manipulate the elements and even create evil doppelgängers of people, sometimes without even meaning to.

6 HOMER SIMPSON

Okay, we know how this looks. How can a famous idiot like Homer Simpson compete against the other supreme beings on this list? But, hear us out. There's very compelling evidence put forward by fans to suggest that the Simpsons patriarch might be a god. Let's dig into the evidence. Firstly, he's one of the few -- possibly only -- Simpsons' character to have an active relationship with the show's version of God, despite hating going to church. In Season Five's "Homer Loves Flanders," Ned Flanders presents Homer with football tickets moments after Homer prayed to God to be given them.

He's also openly flouted the Lord (in "Homer The Heretic") with none of the godly wrath that the deity usually exacts on rebels.

Secondly, Homer has been shown to have been alive in both ancient times -- Season Two's "Homer Vs. Lisa and the Either Commandmant" -- and in the dystopian future -- Season's Five's "Rosebud," proving that he's immortal. This is probably helped by the fact he's able to cheat death constantly. While characters like Maude Flanders and the Simpsons' many deceased cats prove that dying is a real possibility in the show, Homer has survived strokes, heart attacks and what should have been fatal injuries over and over again. And, what about that time Homer broke into our reality in the "Treehouse of Horror VI" episode? It all points towards one thing: divinity.