It’s the dream of most parents that their children will one day reach heights they could never hope to achieve themselves. And most of the time, it’s not really any different when it comes to most super-powered folks’ kids, either. The only problem is, when your mom or dad has a reputation for saving (or nearly destroying) the world several times over, it does become a lot more difficult to exceed expectations, especially when they did it all using their fantastic superpowers.
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And while some kids are simply destined to become vastly more powerful than their parents no matter what they’ve done, others…don’t quite have that same chance. And that’s where this list comes in, as CBR lists the eight Super Kids that are way more overpowered than their parents, and the seven who don’t stand a chance of measuring up. For this list, we’re counting any time we got a look at powerful alternate timeline versions of someone’s children, noteworthy versions of the character from the future, and any time that a kid was aged up in the present day for whatever reason. So hopefully you’re ready for a lot of visions of depressing dystopian futures and messed up childhoods.
15 MORE OP: NATE GREY
A part of yet another alternate timeline that featured the confusing Summers family, Nate Grey comes from the Age of Apocalypse timeline where Mr. Sinister messes with his DNA. With no Legacy Virus to infect him like it did Cable in another timeline, Nate’s powers were allowed to grow to absurd, previously unthinkable levels.
As a result, Nathaniel is vastly more powerful not only than his parents Scott and Jean, but more powerful than any other mutant that’s ever been born, boasting everything from the ability to travel to other dimensions, precognition and more. Nate is very likely the only mutant to ever boast psychic powers that can equal an individual already in possession of the Phoenix, or at least he was until Dark Beast burned out most of his powers.
14 LESS OP: SKAAR
This is probably going to look insane to many, as it could be argued that Skaar has the potential to easily surpass his father one day. Born to Hulk and Caiera the Oldstrong during the whole Planet Hulk/World War Hulk era, he was hyper-aged inside of a cocoon and went from an infant to that of an adult’s intelligence and appearance in just over a year.
Mixing the strength of his father and the magical energies of his mother, you would think Skaar would eventually outpace Ol’ Green Jeans. But ultimately, the Hulk’s ability to always grow in strength, the fact that there appears to be no upper limits to his abilities, and just the existence of “Worldbreaker Hulk” is enough to ensure that the Hulk is always The Strongest There Is.
13 MORE OP: VULCAN
Really, any of the Summers’ brothers could have earned a spot on this list as stronger than their father Corsair, as they’re all mutants with extraordinary powers while their dad’s a mere “flatscan” human, but if you’re going to pick one you might as well go with the most powerful member of the family.
Vulcan was a part of an unmentioned, “doomed” squad of X-Men that Xavier sent to recover his first team after being captured on the living island of Krakoa. Possessing the ability to both absorb and project vast amounts of energy, which grants him a number of powers including flight, energy blasts and regeneration, Vulcan proved so powerful he was able to wrest control of the Shi’ar from the royal family, making himself emperor of an alien planet.
12 LESS OP: QUICKSILVER
This one is somewhat arguable. The current continuity has Quicksilver as the son of a random pair of humans named Django and Marya Maximoff thanks to Marvel wanting the movie rights to two of their most well-known Avengers. And in that case, Pietro is obviously more powerful than his human parents. But for decades, Quicksilver was the son of Magneto, the Master of Magnetism.
And while the ability to move at superhuman speeds is undeniably an impressive ability, it doesn’t match up to Magneto, who has mastery over one of the four fundamental forces of physics. Particularly when Quicksilver’s speed has always lacked compared to more well-known speedsters, topping out generally somewhere near Mach Ten instead of the space and time warping levels of speed that others are known for.
11 MORE OP: SCARLET WITCH
Unlike her brother, Scarlet Witch’s superiority to her parents is not in question. Whether she’s the daughter of Django and Marya who was experimented on by the High Evolutionary, or she’s the mutant daughter of Magneto, Scarlet Witch is vastly more powerful than her parents could ever be. Certainly, Magneto’s control over all things metal (of any type) is impressive, and has allowed him to fight the X-Men to a standstill more than a few times, but that’s nothing compared to Wanda’s control over the powers of chaos magic.
Whether she’s altering probability with her mutant powers, or casting magic spells Scarlet Witch is a terrifying hero. She’s so strong, she was even able to rob nearly 90% of mutantkind of their powers with those fateful three words: “No More Mutants”.
10 LESS OP: LOKI
This one feels somewhat obvious. Years back, when Odin was yet a young man, he slayed Laufey, the king of the Frost Giants during a war with them in Jotunheim. Nearby, he found Laufey’s son, a small child the size of your average Asgardian that Odin took pity on and decided to raise as one of his own.
That child would grow up to become Loki, and due to his jealousy at not being Odin’s real son, he would constantly play tricks and cause problems for those around him, until he was eventually dubbed the “God of Mischief” by those around him. Though Loki has made numerous attempts to increase his power and seem more worthy than his adoptive brother Thor, ultimately he will never match up to the powerful Odin, the All-Father and ruler of Asgard.
9 MORE OP: AQUALAD (KALDUR'AHM)
Initially created in the popular DC cartoon Young Justice, Kaldur’ahm served as a new protégé for Aquaman there, only to eventually be revealed as the son of Arthur’s greatest enemy, Black Manta. Aside from a mild level of super-strength and quick reflexes, most of Black Manta’s abilities come from his intelligence and special suit of armor that grants him even greater super strength and the ability to fire energy beams from his eyes.
On the other hand, as Kaldur’ahm’s mother is a member of the tribe of Xebel, he has been granted the same abilities as that group, possessing the enhanced strength of an Atlantean as well as the power to manipulate water to his whim, creating all manner of shapes and weapons. If he isn’t already superior to his father, it’s only a matter of time before he surpasses him and the King of the Seven Seas.
8 LESS OP: RACHEL SUMMERS
Rachel Summers is the daughter of Scott Summers and Jean Grey from an alternate, dystopian future where she was once a mutant hunter. What people should take from that story are two things one can always be sure of when it comes to the Summers family: their history and family tree is more complicated than anyone else’s in comics, and nearly all of them are absurdly powerful.
Even saying that, Rachel is still not nearly as strong as her mother, lacking the Omega-class telepathic and telekinetic powers of Jean even if she’s still a powerful psionic in her own right. Of course, all of this becomes a moot point when she’s imbued with the Phoenix Force, but there’s a reason it finds itself attracted to Jean far more often than it does Rachel, too.
7 MORE OP: CONNOR HAWKE
As DC tried to inject some new life into their universe, Connor Hawke was introduced in the mid-'90s as a replacement for the recently killed Oliver Queen. Meant to be fairly different from the former playboy turned political activist, Connor Hawke was a child sired by Oliver when he was much younger, who spent most of his life growing up in a monastery.
While Oliver became the master archer he was known for being after a hellish experience on a dangerous island, Connor was trained in archery by the monks he grew up with from the very beginning of his childhood. Not only that, but he was taught to become a master in several forms of hand to hand combat, making him a vastly superior fighter overall.
6 LESS OP: BART ALLEN
There was a time when one might have claimed that Bart Allen would eventually take the position amongst the Flash Family as the Fastest Man Alive. Born in the 30th century, he had been synced into the Speed Force since birth, and was even stuck in a state of hyper-aging for the first few years of his life until Wally West taught him how to slow down and control his abilities. From there, Bart would go on to train under Max Mercury, the most experienced of the Speed Force speedsters.
Everything was theoretically set for him to become the greatest of all time, when suddenly Flash: Rebirth happened, retconning the entire source of the Speed Force itself. Suddenly, the mysterious force of energy wasn’t just where Barry drew his power from, but he was the source of the power himself, making it nearly impossible for anyone to ever unseat him.
5 MORE OP: FRANKLIN RICHARDS
Though this list is mostly not in any real order, if there had to be one Franklin Richards would make his way to the top. The son of the Fantastic Four’s Reed Richards and Sue Storm, Franklin has displayed impossible levels of super-powers for decades. Considered the ultimate experiment by the Celestials, Franklin has aged and de-aged himself several times as the situation called for it.
When Onslaught came and laid waste to every major hero inside the Marvel Universe, it was Franklin who created an alternate universe for his parents and their friends in the Avengers to live inside. And most recently, a future version of Franklin has shown the boy as a man with his own Galactus-style herald: Galactus. That’s right, Franklin has the Eater of Worlds at his beck and call, because he’s just that OP.
4 LESS OP: DAKEN
Honestly, between Wolverine having been around for over two centuries and his known propensity for promiscuity, it’s a wonder Logan doesn’t have an entire college orientation room full of children. Still, only one has made as many appearances and has been as much trouble to Wolverine. Introduced in Wolverine: Origins #10 back in 2007, Daken has spent as much time being a thorn in the side of the X-Men as he’s been an ally, joining up with Norman Osborn’s Dark Avengers and making several attempts to become a big shot in the Marvel underworld.
Nevertheless, despite boasting almost exactly the same level of powers that his father does, Daken will never have his father’s decades upon decades of experience, even if he is a lot more eager to kill than his father these days.
3 MORE OP: WICCAN
Comic parentage is always weird. Even though they proved it to be impossible that Scarlet Witch and Vision could have children, somehow the souls of their non-existent kids found their way into another pair of children, and the two of them grew up to have powers that were close to identical to Scarlet Witch and her brother Quicksilver. That doesn’t all make sense, but it's superheroes so we’ll just go with it.
In any case, as ludicrously powerful as Scarlet Witch is, Wiccan is supposedly meant to achieve even greater heights than his mother. We’ve seen him become something called the Demiurge in the future and rewrite the laws of magic across time, space, and in different universes, and also seen him become the Sorcerer Supreme own the line after Stephen finally steps down for good.
2 LESS OP: DAMIAN WAYNE
There are a lot of people that would argue that given Damian’s background as a child who got the very best training from the League of Assassins before going on to train under his father Bruce as well as Nightwing, that it’s truthfully only a matter of time before the young former assassin surpasses his dad.
But we’ve already gotten a look at what Damian looks like as the Batman of the future -- it’s a horrific nightmare of a city. Though he isn’t perfect, Bruce has helped Gotham recover through waves of deadly contagions, earthquakes, being declared a No Man’s Land by the government and more, and through it all the city always bounces back stronger than before. Damian just doesn’t have that same skill.
1 MORE OP: JON KENT
As absurd as it sounds that someone could wind up more powerful than a guy who wrote the book on being overpowered, that’s exactly what they’re setting Jon up to be.
Though several Elseworlds storylines have hinted that Superman’s children would become less powerful over time rather than more, it seems in the main continuity DC has decided that Jon’s unique human genes will unlock additional powers thanks to the Kryptonian side of his heritage, with future versions of Jon boasting psychic powers during his brief appearances in the New 52 while even current Jon is supposed to have an invulnerability level higher than his old man’s. Even in DC One Million they claim Jon will eventually grow to be greater than Clark. Not bad for a ten year old.
What other OP children do you think should’ve made the list? Be sure to let us know in the comments!