Dark, gritty and powerful. Those are just a few words that aptly describe the villains in the Worlds of DC film franchise. The reason why they're all generally so powerful is because the superheroes they were written to face wield the powers of gods...literally for some of them. In order for the inevitable climactic last act battle to be visually exciting, these supervillains have to prove themselves as destructive as possible in colorful, almost comical ways, unless they're the few that were written to tear down their virtuous opponents in other ways; when the franchise reminds its audience that strength and power can present themselves in many forms.

We're going to take a look at twenty villains that have appeared in the Worlds of DC thus far -- from Man of Steel to Aquaman -- and rank them according to how strong they are. We'll consider the obvious brute strength, but we'll also be taking into consideration how much power they had at their disposal and how they used it. That could mean any and all actual powers or it could mean strength and power in authority. Now that that's out of the way, let's take a look at the kind of strength that resides in the Worlds of DC, beginning with the weakest so far...

20 SLIPKNOT

We'll never know how great Slipknot was as a villain and that's his own fault for being naive enough to trust Captain Boomerang in Suicide Squad. According to Waller, Slipknot was a master climber and that's pretty much what we saw right before he was promptly blown up for trying to escape Waller's grasp. Climbing is great and all but in a world of godlike heroes and villains, it won't get anyone very far.

Slipknot is definitely the weakest villain the franchise has produced and that's fitting because his only real purpose was to prove to the audience that Waller wasn't kidding around when she threatened the supervillains with annihilation.

19 CAPTAIN BOOMERANG

Digger Harkness walks around armed with bladed boomerangs and the kind of personality that's most likely to drive people away, but don't let that fool you. He knows which allies to bond with, as we saw in Suicide Squad when he returned to help the squad fight Enchantress.

That last fight is when we saw that he's armed with more than just boomerangs, as his name would suggest. He's talented in more ways than one. He's more than capable of taking on opponents without throwing those boomerangs. Let's not forget that he was a thief first and foremost, which must have taken a considerable amount of skill since his criminal activities were only brought to an end thanks to the Flash. He may not intimidate any hero or villain but he has his strengths.

18 DOCTOR POISON

This brilliant mind may hide behind a somewhat timid demeanour but Doctor Poison proved herself to be a very real threat in Wonder Woman. It was her genius intellect that produced the toxin General Ludendorff hoped would help them win World War I. It might have if it weren't for the intervention of Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor.

She was able to arm herself with gas pellets and create concoctions capable of granting someone inhuman strength and endurance. As an individual, she may not have been a threat for Diana, but her actions and her mind proved to be challenging, not just for Wonder Woman, but for the world around her.

17 GENERAL LUDENDORFF

It's no wonder Diana assumed that General Ludendorff was secretly the god of war. He certainly fit the bill. He was a sadistic warmonger who didn't hesitate to cause harm toward another, going so far as to poison an entire room full of officers when they disagreed with him. To make matters worse, Ludendorff was supplied with Doctor Poison's special gases which granted him superhuman strength and endurance.

It was enough to allow him to go toe to toe with Wonder Woman herself, though inevitably, she was able to defeat him. Whilst, unknown to Ludendorff, he had the aid of Ares, the general still proved himself to be a formidable villain, maybe not so much for Wonder Woman, but for the human race since, he is a general and controls an entire army.

16 HARLEY QUINN

On the surface, Harley appears to be your average psycho armed with a giant mallet, dashing headfirst into battle with supernatural forces. In fact, one of her advantages is the fact that her opponents -- with the exception of Batman -- tend to underestimate her. Harley Quinn is every bit as lethal as the most ruthless and well-equipped supervillains in the DCEU.

Not only is she a talented acrobat armed to the teeth with firearms and other weapons, she has experience fighting superheroes like the dark knight. She's also able to win the affections of those around her like the Joker and Deadshot, ensuring she has powerful allies when she needs them. With all that in mind, it's no wonder this supervillain was kept in maximum security.

15 DEADSHOT

And so we reach the first villain on our list to actually possess superpowers of his own, or at the very least, skills so great as to constitute being superpowers. Deadshot is skilled in melee combat but his true strength lies in his ability to use firearms and other projectile weapons with pinpoint accuracy. It's how he was able to make a living as a hitman.

With those skills and his tendency to distance himself emotionally from his work, Deadshot would doubtlessly prove himself to be a formidable opponent for anyone. Certainly not the strongest or the most powerful, however. Especially since, in the Worlds of DC, many superhumans can withstand the force of a bullet.

14 KILLER CROC

He's big, he's vicious, he's a natural born, cold-blooded villain, it's Killer Croc. Waylon Jones is a metahuman who was born with a genetic condition giving him reptile-like skin and superhuman strength. He started out as a wrestler but turned to crime when he figured it was the more lucrative option.

Jones is a powerful opponent, even for the likes of Batman. It's why he was given a special cell in Belle Reve where the prison guards could stay at a safe distance when they needed to interact with him. He's arguably the most powerful villain in Waller's Suicide Squad, but still not powerful enough to last a minute against the franchise's most superheroes and villains.

13 JOKER

The Joker isn't a metahuman. He doesn't have special powers or skills, he's just insane. That insanity gives him an edge against anyone and everyone around him, including Batman. He's unpredictable and incredibly intelligent, both qualities that allow him to stand up to the strongest of superheroes. One of the reasons why he's able to accomplish feats like breaking into Belle Reve, is thanks to the charisma that attracts other criminals.

He doesn't go about his business alone. He commands the people around him with sheer will and the complete absence of fear. As a simple human being, the Joker is a tough opponent. There's no telling how much destruction he'd leave in his wake if he was an actual metahuman.

12 BLACK MANTA

Before encountering Aquaman on a hijacked submarine, David Kane was a highly skilled pirate whose services had been purchased by the Atlantean, Orm. Either because of his career up until that point or because of his thirst for vengeance, Kane showed a distinct lack of fear or hesitation, despite the fact that he was up against the technologically and physically superior Atlanteans.

He had more than his combat skills going for him. He was able to take Atlantean weapons and recreate them to suit his fighting style, which is how he acquired the Black Manta suit. With that suit, he proved himself to be capable of taking on Aquaman in one-on-one combat. Keep in mind that Aquaman was able to hold his own against Superman. That says a lot about Manta's strength.

11 EL DIABLO

Easily the single most powerful member of the Suicide Squad was the former gang leader, El Diablo. He's hesitant to use his superpowers in the beginning of Suicide Squad but when he does, we see just how dangerous he is, which is something he clearly understood well enough already.

His pyrokinetic abilities made him the perfect metahuman to stand up to the fiery being, Incubus. It's hard to imagine other superheroes or villains standing up to El Diablo when his powers are unleashed without at least flinching. He might have ranked higher on this list were it not for the fact that he was defeated in an explosion, which just doesn't make much sense.

10 AMANDA WALLER

If you focus purely on her combat skills, you're probably going to start wondering how and why she made this list at all. There was one scene in Suicide Squad when she took out a room full of her own men but even that doesn't speak to her skills as a marksman. We're not going to look at her skills as a combatant. Her strength lies in manipulation, coercion and scheming.

She's cold, ruthless and every bit as psychopathic as the supervillains under her control and they are under her control. It's not just the implanted explosives in their head that make those villains submit, it's the fact that Amanda Waller is a powerful individual who wields authority and knows how to use it to win. That's more than a lot of villains -- or even regular people -- can say.

9 LEX LUTHOR

In this day and age, it isn't difficult at all to evoke an image of villainy when a character is made to be rich. Lex Luthor in Dawn of Justice and Justice League takes that image and runs with it. He uses is substantial wealth to antagonize beings he views as gods, seemingly for no other reason than a case of megalomania. He wants to be the most powerful which means he'll have to bring those gods down to his level.

In Dawn of Justice, he proved that he was beyond the confines of human society. He had little trouble evading the law until Batman put him away and even then, he seemed to escape easily as evidenced by his appearance in Justice League. Most astonishingly, he managed to manipulate and even control both Batman and Superman. He is not to be underestimated.

8 DEATHSTROKE

We'll admit, we don't see Deathstroke at all outside of that one brief moment in the mid-credits sequence of Justice League.  We're going to make educated guesses based on that one appearance and on what we know about Deathstroke from the comics. For example, in the film we can see that his armor his slightly worn and damaged so we can assume he's seen battle.

Then there's the fact that Luthor bothered to ask this mercenary to join his league, one he presumably wishes to use to challenge the Justice League. That says a lot about what Deathstroke is capable of. In the comics, Slade Wilson was an extremely skilled, highly intelligent mercenary whose abilities were amplified by an experimental serum. If the film adaptation is anything like that, we're confident he should rank pretty high amongst the strongest villains.

7 INCUBUS

 

 

 

As if one ancient deity-like being wasn't enough in Suicide Squad, Enchantress unleashed her brother, Incubus, to aid her in her attempt to conquer the world. He may not have been as powerful as any of the members of the Justice League but he was powerful enough to challenge the Suicide Squad, even after El Diablo gave it everything he had.

It took the combined strength of the Suicide Squad and then some to take Incubus down. Throughout the film and that final battle, Incubus displayed a variety of mystical and psychic powers. Take that into consideration along with the fact that he's an ancient immortal and you'll find that he's one of the most powerful villains in the Worlds of DC.

6 OCEAN MASTER

Aquaman is a member of the Justice League and one of the team's most powerful members at that. He possesses superhuman strength, he can communicate with marine life and he's skilled with a trident. It's important to note this superhero's strengths because his arch-nemesis, Orm, was able to defeat him in single combat in the ring of fire. It took some effort but ultimately, Orm emerged the victor as he knew he would.

Orm is an Atlantean, which already places him far above any of the human contenders on this list owing to his superhuman physical attributes. He also possessed authority over the seas, which is how he was able to launch a warning attack on the surface world. That's a scary amount of power for a villain to possess.

5 ENCHANTRESS

The primary antagonist of Suicide Squad was actually a member of the squad for a brief period of time. Amanda Waller controlled Enchantress by keeping the ancient being's heart in an armored suitcase set to explode. Even that wasn't enough to keep Enchantress from wreaking havoc. The heart may have kept her from her full power but thanks to her brother, Incubus, that didn't matter in the end.

Enchantress may not be an actual goddess but she's nearly as powerful as one. She has mystical powers and a legion of vicious soldiers at her command. That's more than enough to make even the toughest superhero -- at the very least -- break a sweat.

4 GENERAL ZOD

On their home planet, Kryptonians don't seem that much superior to humans in their physical abilities. It isn't until they are bathed in the energy from a yellow sun that they gain unmatched strength, speed, vision and the ability to fly. It's what makes Superman such an effective defender of Earth. The only villain to really challenge him, without the aid of kryponite, was General Zod and his fellow zealots.

They each received similar powers and seemed to master them all relatively quickly, which is impressive seeing as how it took Clark virtually his entire life to master his powers. What makes Zod even more powerful is the fact that he wields absolute authority over his fellow Kryptonian criminals and possesses world-changing Kryptonian technology. He's among DC's strongest supervillains, with just a few supervillains who are even stronger.

3 DOOMSDAY

This monstrosity could only be created using Kryptonian technology and the body of a Kryptonian. The creation of this abomination was forbidden in Kryptonian society but of course, that didn't mean anything to Lex Luthor. To destroy Superman and Batman, Luthor used the body of Zod to create Doomsday.

The monster confronted the combined strength of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, the latter of which had experience fighting powerful villains. Even that wasn't enough to bring Doomsday down. In fact, their every strike only made him stronger. Superman had to sacrifice himself using a kryptonite spear. You just know that if Doomsday returned somehow and no one had any spare kryptonite lying around, it would take the combined might of  the Justice League to defeat him. That's one powerful supervillain.

2 ARES

The god of war lived up to his name. Not only was he a powerful adversary in combat, he was able to easily influence humanity, subtly inciting war and feeding off of the violence. Even Zeus, father of all the Greek gods couldn't stop him. It took the power of the God Killer, to finally put an end to Ares' madness.

There aren't a lot of superheroes capable of even fighting a god, let alone destroying one. There's a reason for that. They're immensely powerful, capable of controlling mankind. Even Wonder Woman, who was prophesized to defeat Ares, struggled against him initially. So much so that all seemed lost until she dug deep and unleashed her inner strength.

1 STEPPENWOLF

One of the New Gods, Steppenwolf and his parademons have plagued Earth more than once. In ancient times he arrived to conquer the Earth, but failed only because every tribe on Earth, every god, even the Green Lanterns united to put an end to this threat.

The Justice League didn't have the aid of every tribe and god, or even the Green Lantern Corps. They were on their own and they would have lost if it weren't for the timely intervention of Superman. Even then, Steppenwolf only disappeared through a Boom Tube. There's no telling whether or not he actually met his end. Unlikely though, given the immense strength we were shown throughout Justice League. The film needed a villain powerful enough to require the unity of six god-like superheroes and it delivered.