Superheroes may be powerful, but there's another group out there that can easily give them a run for their money: gods. Few superheroes can go toe to toe with a god and expect to walk away afterward. Or rather, if a superhero does walk away from such an encounter, it's only because the god they faced was feeling merciful that day. Gods are simply on a different level than everyone else. They are extremely long-lived, if not outright immortal and they are incomprehensibly strong and almost impossible to so much as scratch. And they often possess various other superhuman talents, such as telekinesis, shapeshifting or reality warping.
But even within this elite group of super-beings, there is variety. Not all gods and goddesses are created equal. The very oldest gods tend to outshine the rest, but that's not always the case. There are many notable examples of the child surpassing the parent -- and given that we're talking about gods, the parents generally aren't real happy about it. In any event, here are 25 gods who, either through hard work, genetic good luck or both, eclipsed their parents to become some of the most powerful beings ever to grace the pages of a comic book.
25 MOONDRAGON
When she was still a child, Heather Douglas' parents were seemingly killed by Thanos. Her father actually survived and went on to become Drax the Destroyer, but young Heather knew nothing of this when she was whisked away to the Saturnian moon Titan. There, she was raised in a monastery and became an accomplished telepath, scientist, martial artist and overachiever. For all intents and purposes, Heather, now calling herself Moondragon, was a goddess.
She was quite snooty about it too, never passing up an opportunity to remind those around her about her powers.
Moondragon hung out with the Avengers for a while, starting in Avengers #134. She left them after a brief time, believing herself superior to everyone but her fellow deity, Thor. This hubris made her believe she had the right to mind control everyone on the planet Ba-Banis, which was embroiled in a global civil war. After all, what benevolent goddess wouldn't step in to stop such pointless violence? To help her maintain control over the volatile planet, Moondragon brainwashed her father Drax into helping her conquer Ba-Banis. When he rebelled, she killed him, thus proving once and for all who the most powerful member of the family is.
24 LOKI
Loki is the Avengers' oldest enemy. Heck, the Avengers formed for the express purpose of fighting him. But while Loki often has designs on ruling Earth -- or at least turning it into ice cream, as he did in Journey into Mystery #88 -- what he really seems to want is to rule Asgard. Loki has devoted a frankly embarrassing amount of time to trying to boot Odin from the throne and take Asgard for himself. But according to Thor #600, Loki is actually responsible for Odin sitting on the throne in the first place. He traveled back in time and disintegrated Odin's father, Bor, thus clearing the way for Odin's ascension.
While the film version of Loki has proven to be less of a threat than his comic book counterpart, he has still outmatched Odin more than once. He managed to take over Asgard for a time between Thor: The Dark World and Thor: Ragnarok. Heck, just yelling at Odin in the first Thor movie was enough to send him into a coma. But it seems obvious to us what Loki's greatest strength is: getting Thor to still occasionally believe what he says despite literal millennia of trickery and the epithet "god of lies." Now that is impressive.
23 NIGHTWING AND FLAMEBIRD
No, we are not talking about Batman and Batwoman's former sidekicks. And we're not talking about the disguises Superman and Jimmy Olsen used to fight crime in Kandor that one time, either. Those characters are cool and all, but they're not gods. This entry is all about the original Nightwing and Flamebird, the Kryptonian deities whose exploits inspired their various namesakes.
Their father is Rao, the sun god and top deity in Kryptonian mythology -- you may have heard Superman appealing to him once in a while.
But while Rao seems to prefer a hands-off approach, interfering little if at all in his worshippers' affairs, Nightwing and Flamebird have played a much larger, more important role in Kryptonian history. In other words, unlike their father, Nightwing and Flamebird actually get stuff done. In Krypton's early days, Nightwing and Flamebird, in typical godly yet creepy fashion, fell in love with each other. The pair has been inseparable ever since. They even played an instrumental role in saving Earth from the rogue god, Vohc. When Vohc tries to create his own universe, starting with Earth, they literally burn him right out of the scientist he had possessed. Nightwing and Flamebird were later merged with the Kryptonians Lor-Zod and Thara Ak-Var respectively.
22 THANOS
Thanos has been getting a lot of press lately, thanks to his appearance as the big bad in the movie version of Infinity War. But who is he really, and what's with that weird chin? Thanos first appeared in Iron Man #55 in 1973. But his story, like everyone else's, really begins the day he was born. His mother, Sui-San, was so horrified by his appearance that she tried to kill him. That pretty much set the tone for Thanos' entire life. He discovered an affinity for murder early on and has only rarely tried to control himself.
Much like Darkseid over in the DC Universe, Thanos does not have the greatest relationship with his parents. His idea of self-discovery was to murder his mother in the hope of finding a way to stop being such a monster. It did not work, as evidenced by the fact that he murdered his father, Mentor, not once but twice: first when Mentor was already in the process of being disintegrated by the Rot in Avengers: Celestial Quest, and again when Mentor refused to help cure his incurable illness. Thanos' ruthlessness and obsessive devotion to achieving his goals make him one of the greatest threats to life in the multiverse.
21 HERCULES
Here is a godling who scarcely needs an introduction. Hercules, the most revered of ancient Greek heroes, is known far and wide for his incredible strength. The comic book version certainly has physical strength to spare as well. But he also often wields a mace, which he has used to fight Thor to a draw on multiple occasions. He has even served with the Avengers from time to time, and during 2006's Civil War, Hercules single-handedly took out the Thor clone that had cut a swath through the entire rebel force and murdered Goliath.
Hercules is technically only a demigod, as he is famously human on his mother's side.
But this alleged weakness has more than once proved to be an advantage. Whenever a villain orchestrates an attack on Olympus that thoroughly incapacitates the other gods, Hercules' human half acts as a loophole, protecting him from spells that would otherwise hurt him. This allows him to help restore the full-blooded gods to their former glory when no one else can. Hercules is so tough, in fact, that you can usually find him running around in nothing more than a tiny green-and-orange skirt. And yet he still looks intimidating. You do you, Herc.
20 ARES
Ares, also called Mars, is the Greco-Roman god of war. He made his Marvel debut in Venus #4 in 1949. Since this time, he has proven himself more than a match for his father, Zeus, and for virtually everyone else who has ever tried to oppose him. Ares has devoted his entire immortal existence to wreaking havoc in Olympus and on Earth, spreading needless anger wherever he goes. On one memorable occasion, he took the alias Warhawk and inspired half the residents of New York to try to rip each other to pieces. Even the Avengers, minus Thor and the Vision, were affected by Ares' spell. And while Earth's Mightiest Heroes did manage to shake off Ares' influence, Ares himself still escaped their grasp.
That wasn't the last time a large assemblage of heroes was required to take Ares down. In Avengers #100, our favorite war god turns the Promethean Flame to crystal. The Flame is the only thing keeping the Olympian gods alive, so once it turns to crystal, the gods suffer the same fate. It takes the combined might of Thor and the Black Knight -- plus everyone who has ever been an Avenger joining forces to fight off the demons Ares unleashed -- to make him put everything to rights.
19 ORION
In a bid to prevent their planets from annihilating one another, Darkseid and Izaya, the leaders of Apokolips and New Genesis respectively, exchanged their young sons. We know, we know -- this sounds like the set-up for the worst reality show ever. But it was actually the only reason Apokolips and New Genesis didn’t obliterate each other years ago. This was a pretty terrible deal for the Highfather's son, the future Mister Miracle.
For Darkseid's son Orion, however, the swap was about the best thing that could have happened to him.
Through years of training with Izaya the Highfather, Orion learned to control the violent urges inherited from his biological father. From there, Orion became the greatest hero New Genesis had ever seen. The morals instilled in him by the Highfather are so strong that, even when he obtained the Anti-Life Equation and had the chance to rule over Apokolips, Orion stepped away, realizing that the people's free will was more important than enhancing his own power. As the final proof of the son outstripping the father, in Countdown to Final Crisis #2, Orion rips Darkseid's heart right out of his chest. Huh. So Darkseid does have a heart after all.
18 WONDER WOMAN
Most people know the story by now. Queen Hippolyta, fearless warrior queen of the legendary Amazons, longed for a child. Under instruction from her gods, she sculpted a baby from the clay of the island of Themyscira. The Greek goddesses who kept watch over the island brought the child, Diana, to life. As the little princess grew older, she grew more powerful as well. The goddesses endowed her with enhanced strength, courage, speed and wisdom. These powers, combined with Amazonian combat training and powerful artifacts such as the Lasso of Truth, made Wonder Woman one of the most formidable opponents anyone could ever face.
After she tricked her mother into letting her go to Man's World, Diana went from being a champion of the Amazons to a champion of the world. As one of Earth's "big three" heroes -- along with Superman and Batman -- and a prominent member of the Justice League, Wonder Woman doesn't just keep pace with Earth's other superheroes. She often sets that pace. While Queen Hippolyta is a strong fighter and just ruler in her own right, her daughter has long since surpassed her in almost every respect. And given that Hippolyta is one of the nicer godly parents on this list, we're sure she wouldn't have it any other way.
17 THOR
Thor has been regarded as the greatest of the Norse gods for thousands of years. When he made the transition from mythological hero to comic book icon, this reputation stuck with him. Thor technically made his Marvel debut in 1950's Venus #11, but the version we know and love today was created by the Marvel dream team of Stan Lee, Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby. But early in his life, Thor wasn't quite so heroic. He was so egotistical, in fact, that his father Odin deemed it necessary to ship him off to Earth to live as a human and learn some humility.
Brutal it may have been, but this lesson was so successful that Odin once tried the same thing on himself.
He erased his own memories and lived among the humans as a mortal for a while. The lesson doesn't seem to have stuck with Odin as much as it did for Thor. But that only reinforces how much stronger Thor is than his father. Despite suffering regular physical and emotional abuse from Odin, Thor still has a good heart. Like most gods, Thor could easily subjugate humanity if he felt like it. Heck, his own dad has tried it more than once. But that thought never even occurs to him. And that, as much as his hammer and nice hair, make him far stronger than Odin could ever hope to be.
16 DONNA TROY
The origins of Donna Troy, aka Wonder Girl aka Troia aka Darkstar aka Troia again, are among the most confusing in DC history. But what has never been in doubt is the sheer amount of power she possesses. Abandoned as a child, Donna was adopted, granted powers and trained by Rhea, one of the Titans of Myth who ruled Earth before the rise of the Olympians. When Donna reached adolescence, the Titans sent her to live with the Amazons. Hippolyta and Wonder Woman welcomed her with open arms and provided further training. Donna soon ventured into Man's World as the teenage superheroine Wonder Girl. She was very successful as a hero, even helping to found the Teen Titans. Obviously Donna has long since surpassed her mortal parents in terms of superpowers.
Her powers have waxed and waned over the years: the Titans of Myth once granted her the ability to shoot energy beams and create 3D images of people's memories, and on another occasion, Donna forsook all of her abilities in the hopes of living a normal life with her husband and son. But all throughout her superhero career, Donna Troy has consistently kept up with Wonder Woman. Not just anyone can do that.
15 DARKSEID
"Powerful" does not mean "nice," as Darkseid so ably demonstrates. Created by the prolific Jack Kirby in 1970, Darkseid is the ruler of the planet Apokolips. As one can easily surmise from both of those names, neither Darkseid nor his domain are especially pleasant. But before he was Darkseid, he was simply Uxas, son of the tyrant Yuga Khan. Given Darkseid's lust for power, it's likely Yuga Khan would have ended up with an omega beam in the back at some point anyway. But he might have ruled longer than he did had he not gotten greedy.
Yuga Khan was desperate to discover the Source, the unknown energy from which the universe was created.
His search ended with him getting stuck in the Source Wall, which protects the Source from power-hungry dictators like him. With his father gone, the Apokolipsian throne was within Darkseid's reach. All he had to do was swipe his elder brother's powers and arrange for his mother's murder, and Apokolips was his. Aside from the relatively brief periods that he has spent dead, Darkseid has ruled Apokolips ever since. So the moral of the story is that murder is profitable and cheaters do prosper. Thanks, Darkseid!
14 HELA
Hela’s parentage in the Marvel Universe is something of a mystery. When she made her first appearance in 1964 in Journey into Mystery #102 -- drawn by Jack Kirby and written by Stan Lee, of course -- her parentage never came up. In the original Norse mythology, Hela is the daughter of Loki and the giantess Angrboda, and the comic Thor: The Trials of Loki implies this might be true. In the 2017 movie Thor: Ragnarok, however, she is Odin’s eldest child, making her Thor and Loki’s cranky older sister instead.
Regardless of her parents’ identity, Hela most definitely has them beat in the power department She is the queen of the dead, and while the gods themselves don't have to worry about dying a natural death, they hold no influence over death itself. The one time Thor tried to tell Hela who could and could not stay in her domain, she wiped the floor with him, disfiguring his face and turning him into an old man. Thor just barely managed to eke out a victory and restore his youth, if not his good looks. Even then, it took the heroic sacrifice of Skurge the Executioner for Thor and company to escape to the land of the living.
13 THE OLYMPIANS
Before the Olympian gods -- Zeus and all the rest -- matured and came to power, their parents, the Titans of Myth, were the gods worshipped by humanity. But the Titans only held such power because they had deposed their own parents. This cycle repeated itself when Zeus and company overthrew the Titans and banished them to the hellish Tartarus. Admittedly, this is not the best retirement plan. But given how brutal Zeus generally is with those who oppose him, the Titans got off easy here. Of course, they did not see it that way.
In New Teen Titans #11, the Titans escape Tartarus and try to reclaim their status as top gods.
With the help of the Amazons and the Teen Titans, the Olympians defeat their parents once again, sending them back to Tartarus. This time, however, the Olympian Athena is able to convince the Titans that children taking over for their parents is the natural order the world. She also, in her infinite wisdom, encourages them to view Tartarus not as a prison but as a fixer-upper with the potential to become a kingdom worthy of their status as elder gods. The Titans buy her spiel and, for the most part, go away content.
12 LORD CHAOS
It can be difficult to predict what will happen when a god mates with a lesser species. Mythology is littered with stories of monstrous hybrids and other horrors resulting from an ill-advised union. You'd think that after a while the gods would learn to take a hint and be more careful about who they procreate with. Sadly, Donna Troy apparently failed to pay attention in history class. This resulted in the 1992 "Total Chaos" event.
According to the alternate future presented in this event, Robert Long, the son Donna had with her mortal husband Terry Long, is a precocious child. So precocious, in fact, that he instantly ages to adulthood and takes over the world. To cement his rule, Lord Chaos kills anyone with superpowers that he doesn't consider useful. The metahumans don't like that and soon form a resistance. One such group of rebels, calling themselves the Team Titans, travel in back in time to kill Donna Troy before she can give birth to the future tyrant. Lord Chaos himself shows up to stop them. It's likely both the Team Titans and the New Titans would have died if the Titans of Myth hadn't shown up to depower and detain Chaos themselves.
11 SETH
The Egyptians and the Asgardians better hope Seth and Loki never meet. It sounds like they have a lot in common. He is forever causing trouble for his fellow gods, particularly his parents, Osiris and Isis, and his half-brother Horus. According to his origins, as told in Thor #240, Seth is responsible for everything from the attempted murder of his father to the fall of ancient Egypt. He then locks his entire immediate family in a pyramid for several thousand years. With his do-gooding family out of the way, Seth imprisons the elder gods Geb and Nut, thus clearing the way for his army of the dead to destroy Heliopolis, the realm of the Egyptian gods.
Osiris, Isis and Horus get so desperate to stop Seth that they kidnap Odin and imbue him with the memories and spirit of Atum-Re, the father of all the Egyptian gods.
Only the combined might of Atum-Re and Odin could prevent the destruction of everything. But after this defeat, Seth only grew stronger. When he appeared in Thor Annual #14, he'd become a multi-headed snake creature and portal to the void. This time, it took the intervention of Demogorge the God Eater to put him down.
10 RAVEN
Don't let the silly-looking loincloth and reindeer antlers fool you -- Trigon is one of the most feared demons in the entire DC Universe. He has vanquished untold numbers of worlds, subjugating an uncountable number of mortal victims. And the more lives he controls, the more power he gains, allowing him to continue his cycle of terror indefinitely. So why hasn't he destroyed Earth yet? Earth is a perfectly conquerable little planet.Lots of other demons have tried -- it's practically a prerequisite for calling yourself a demon. Surely Trigon has had Earth in his crosshairs at least once?
Well of course he has. But every one of his attempts has failed, and for that, we can thank his daughter, Raven. As a half-demon/half-human entity, Raven was conceived solely so Trigon could use her as a portal through which to arrive on and subsequently lay waste to Earth. But after a lifetime of training with the pacifistic priests of Azarath and their leader Azar, Raven learned how to keep her father's evil influence at bay. Most of the time, she succeeds in doing so. But when she inevitably falters, she always manages to fight her way back thanks to her friends' support and her own bottomless reserve of willpower.
9 IKARIS
Thousands of years ago, an alien race called the Celestials arrived on Earth. While here, just for kicks, they created three species of intelligent beings: the Deviants, failed experiments who live underground and now seek to destroy mankind; Homo sapiens, the most common and boring of the three species; and the Eternals, a god-like race that lives in the mountains and defends the world from the Deviants' attacks.
Ikaris is among the most powerful of the Eternals, and he certainly has outshone his parents in terms of skills and accomplishments.
And it’s not like Ikaris’ parents were slouches, either. His father, Virako, once sacrificed himself to save the world (he's better now, but it's the thought that counts). Just like his dad, Ikaris has spent much of his very long life making sure the Deviants never succeed in their wicked schemes. But that's not all: the machine used to summon the Celestials to Earth for their final judgment upon humanity was lost with the fall of the Inca empire hundreds of years ago. None of the Eternals or the Deviants could locate it until Ikaris, having trained for a thousand years for that very purpose, finally recovered and activated the machine once more.
8 AURON
If you've read any comic book with Starfire in it, you've probably heard her appeal to the goddess X'Hal at some point. But who is X'Hal, and what is her significance to the Tamaranian people? X'Hal started life as an ordinary Tamaranian. She was then kidnapped and experimented on, which resulted in her birthing two sons and gaining almost unimaginable power. Unfortunately, with great power did not come great mental stability -- X'Hal lashed out and destroyed over two dozen planets.
But where most Tamaranians saw this as a tragedy, Starfire's ne'er-do-well sister, Blackfire, saw this as an opportunity for a little blackmail. In New Teen Titans #25, she kidnaps X'Hal and threatens to unleash her on the universe if the Omega Men, a group of interplanetary rebels, did not accept the rule of would-be despot Lord Damyn. Fortunately, one of X'Hal's sons, Lambien, inherited his mother's powers but not her instability. Taking the name Auron, he, the Omega Men and the Teen Titans put an end to Blackfire's schemes, while Starfire puts an end Blackfire herself. It's X'Hal herself who ultimately saves the day, but she could never have done it if her son and his friends hadn't freed her.
7 AGAMOTTO
Yes, this is the same Agamotto of “Eye of” fame. Doctor Strange has used the Eye's power to protect Earth from mystical threats since his very first appearance in Strange Tales #110 in 1963. Agamotto himself didn't show up until Marvel Premiere #5 in 1972, about a decade after Strange's debut. As it turns out, not only is Agamotto very real, he is not the sort of god you would want to meet in a dark alley. Agamotto boasts a list of powers as long as his lifespan; he can count sorcery, teleportation, shapeshifting, omniscience, and nigh-invulnerability among his many talents.
His mother Oshtur conceived and birthed him by herself, and tried to teach him how to be a good little godling.
As a result, Agamotto became Earth's first Sorcerer Supreme. But since those ancient days, his morals have sadly degraded somewhat. When he tried conquering Earth in New Avengers, the combined might of Wolverine, the New Avengers and multiple magic users -- most notably Doctor Strange and Doctor Voodoo -- hardly put a dent in him. And that's despite Agamotto being severely depowered at the time! Doctor Voodoo had to blow up Agamotto's famous eye right in his face to finally kill the guy.
6 PELE
Greek and Norse gods tend to dominate both Marvel's and DC's comics. But occasionally someone from another pantheon will pop up, and more often than not, they are more than capable of making the main character cry uncle. A prime example of such a deity is Pele, the goddess of fire and volcanoes. In Wonder Woman #15, Diana, desperate for help to save her mother, turns to the Hawaiian god Kane Milohai for guidance. This does not end nicely for the well-meaning Kane Milohai. Zeus, ever jealous of anyone who might steal his followers' affection away from him, rips the heart of his "rival" right out of his chest.
When Kane Milohai's daughter Pele learns of her father's death, she blames Diana and tries to extract vengeance with her fists. Even the mighty Wonder Woman struggles to hold her own against Pele's fury. The fight only ends when Princess Diana surrenders unconditionally, asking Pele's forgiveness. One can't help but wonder how Pele would have fared if she had gone after her father's true murderer. Given how easily she took Wonder Woman down, it seems likely that, if anyone else got their organs forcibly removed, it would not have been Pele.