Summary
TheJustice Leaguemade its first appearance back in 1960 inThe Brave and the Bold#28. Since then, they’ve become one of the most famous superhero teams in the comic book world. The team’s lineup has changed a lot over the years, but one thing has remained the same: Each incarnation has been made up of heroes wielding unparalleled levels of power.
This has led to a lot of debate among comic book fans regarding which member of the team is the strongest. To answer that question, some ofthe Justice League’s greatest rostershave been studied, and each member has been examined based on their powers, weaknesses, and greatest feats while also taking into account their strongest versions. Only heroes who have been recognized members at some point have been considered in this ranking, ignoring outsiders who have simply helped the League on occasion.
The power levels of each member have tended to fluctuate over the years, depending on who is writing them, so this can be considered a “loose” ranking.
Updated Jun 24, 2025, By Robbie Mitchell:The Justice League roster changes more often than your favorite sports team’s, so we’ve decided to add some more heroes to this list. We’ve included a couple more founding members, as well as a hero usually associated with a different hero team altogether. For the most part, we’ve focused on current depictions of these heroes but have mentioned if they’ve undergone any major rewrites over the years. The Justice League has had a lot of members over the years, so let us know in the comments who else you’d like to see make our list and why!
Gadgets
Master Martial Artist
Going by the criteria that has already set out, Batman doesn’t make the cut to be featured among thestrongest Justice League members ever. The Dark Knight has zero superpowers, besides super plot armor, and that’s kind of the point of him. With enough prep time, Batman could likely take out everyone who has been a member of the Justice League, and he’s got a contingency plan for most of them.
Furthermore, certain versions of him, like The Darkest Knight (the strongest evil version of him), are immensely powerful. However, that’s not enough when most versions of the character have zero powers. He might be one of DC’s biggest earners, but he is not one of thestrongest members of the Justice League.
Energy Projection And Force Fields
Reliance On Ring
Universal Translation
Green Lantern lore has gone through some major changes over the years, so we’ll be talking in fairly general terms here. The different versions (besides Alan Scott) all have very similar powersets, too, so we’ll be lumping them together. Hal Jordan first joined the Justice League of America in 1960’sThe Brave and the Bold #28,as a founding member, and Green Lantern has been an integral member of the team ever since. Green Lanterns are incredibly versatile heroes who can use their rings to create any imaginable construct and create powerful force fields and energy projection attacks. Their rings' connection to Oa’s vast archives also makes them valuable sources of info for the team.
But the Green Lanterns are also limited. Their rings rely directly on the user’s willpower and concentration, weakening the hero significantly if he’s distracted, exhausted, or mentally drained. The ring itself also needs to be charged periodically, or it becomes next to useless. That’s a problem because, unlike most other members of the team, Earth’s Green Lanterns are regular humans. This reliance on the ring means Green Lantern gets a low ranking, especially since high-tier members of the team can overpower them even when their rings are fully charged.
Regeneration And Adaptation
Energy Weapons
Psychological Trauma
Cyborg has more traditionally been associated with the Teen Titans, but the New 52 reboot made him a founding member of the Justice League and gave him some impressive upgrades by connecting his power to Mother Box. On a basic level, Cyborg’s cybernetic enhancements (implanted by his father after an accident) give him superhuman strength, durability, and stamina. More impressively, he also has technopathy, meaning he can interface with and control any computer on the planet. He can also shape-shift his limbs into energy-based weapons, making him no slouch in a ranged fight.
Since the New 52 era, his connection to the Mother Box has made Cyborg even more powerful. His base powers were amplified, and he gained new abilities like Boom Tube teleportation and regeneration. But Cyborg’s greatest strength is also his biggest weakness. His tech-based nature has led to him being hacked multiple times, leading to him being disabled or even controlled. This over-reliance on technology and the limitations that it brings land Cyborg with a lower-end ranking.
Superhuman Strength And Durability
Superspeed Swimming
Weaker On Land
For many, many years Aquaman was a bit of a joke among the comic book fandom, portrayed as a dude who talks to fish and sucks on land. DC has worked really hard through retcons to try and make him more impressive. He’s usually depicted as being able to lift over 100 tons (sometimes more), and his innate ability to withstand extreme water pressure translates into incredible durability, even on land. His marine telepathy, which originally allowed him to talk to sea life and summon vast armies of sea creatures, has also evolved. In recent years, it has been shown to be able to affect organs evolved from marine life, even in humans and aliens, allowing him to induce seizures and threaten even the strongest Justice League members.
Along with Martian Manhunter, Aquaman has been shown taking on the entire Crime Syndicate, which is no small feat. But this is still Aquaman we’re talking about. Even in his revamped state, most writers still show him as being significantly weaker out of water, especially in particularly dry locations. He’s also simply lacking the sheer versatility of most other members on this list and doesn’t have the raw firepower of the likes of Superman and Wonder Woman. With this in mind, Aquaman gets a low ranking (unless you live in the ocean or on a boat).
Density/ Size Control
Superhuman Strength
Plastic Man used to be a bit of a joke character, but in recent years, DC’s writers have worked hard to make him look more formidable. The character’s powers are all centered around his malleable physiology, meaning he has almost complete control over his body’s shape. In the olden days, this just meant he wasa shapeshifter with extra stretchy limbs, but he’s more of a powerhouse right now.
He’s been portrayed as both immortal and pretty much indestructible, and has even survived being scattered into molecules for millennia. However, his offensive abilities aren’t quite as impressive. He’s known to either increase his muscle mass to grant himself super strength or use his shapeshifting abilities to turn his limbs into weapons. TheInjusticeseries did a particularly good job of showing just how dangerous/terrifying an angry Plastic Man can be, and Batman couldn’t even come up with a contingency plan for him. This all being said, the character lacks the kind of god-level, reality-warping abilities many of the otherstrongest Justice League membershave, resulting in a low ranking.
Needs to Speak for Spells (sometimes)
Human Physiology
Mind Control/Telepathy
Depending on the depiction, a character like Zatanna could be argued as thestrongest member of the Justice League. Magic users in DC tend to be incredibly OP, and their powers are frequently dictated by what the plot requires. DC has never put much effort into defining Zatanna’s limits. Early in her career, she was usually shown as being able to manipulate fire, air, water, and earth, but these days, her moveset is much larger.Zatanna has been shown banishing demons, altering reality, and holding her own against her universe’s most powerful magic users.
Her weaknesses are equally ill-defined. She is usually portrayed as having to speak her spells out loud and backward for them to work, but there have been plenty of instances where this hasn’t been the case. Besides her magical powers, Zatanna is basically human. That means that, technically, if caught unaware, a simple bullet to her head could put an end to her. She can also be exhausted if she casts too many spells and needs to be able to concentrate. Zatanna is a classic glass cannon; super powerful under the right circumstances but also vulnerable.
Flight
Energy Absorption
DC fans have been given a fair few versions of Firestorm, but arguably the most powerful and popular is the original Ronnie Raymond and Martin Stein combo. As a superhero, Firestorm is often underrated, and many casual fans are only familiar with him as having appeared in some ofthe best episodes ofThe Flash. Most versions show the hero being able to absorb radiation, shoot fireballs from his fingertips, and fly. It’s cool, but it’s not that impressive-sounding.
However, Firestorm is much stronger than that. He can manipulate matter at the molecular level and most forms of energy. That means that, at his strongest, the only limit to Firestorm’s power is his imagination. He has survived cosmic-level threats and defeated powerhouses like Captain Atom.One version of the character, Deathstorm, managed to absorb three Justice League teams into his Firestorm matrix, turbocharging himself in the process. The character only really has one weakness: his dual nature. Firestorm requires mental synchronization between his two hosts to be able to function effectively. This is a surprisingly major flaw that can make him unreliable in high-pressure situations. His power set is often underutilized, resulting in a lower ranking.
Combat Skills
High Magic Resistance
Wonder Woman is another one of those characters who’s almost impossible to rank. Her powers have been portrayed painfully inconsistently over the years.At her best, she can beat the snot out of Superman; at her worst, she can lose all her powers if simply bound by a man. Post-Crisis, she was up there with the likes of Shazam and arguably peaked as the new God of War, a transformation that gave hersome of her weirdest powers.
She’s one of the physically strongest meta-humans on Earth and is able to intuitively master any weapon. When she’s on form, there are very few beings who can go toe-to-toe with an angry Wonder Woman. But she’s just too inconsistent to rank any higher, and she lacks the kinds of reality-warping, cosmic-level powers that other Justice League members are packing.
Time Limit (Some Versions)
Lightning Manipulation
Shazam, aka Billy Batson, possesses the Wisdom of Solomon, Courage of Achilles, Stamina of Atlas, Powers of Zeus, Speed of Mercury, and Strength of Hercules. This usually boils down to him being portrayed as little more than a magically powered version of Superman, but he’s a lot more. In his empowered form, Shazam is nigh on invulnerable, but in his mortal form he’s just a normal kid.
To swap forms, all Billy needs to do is say the word “Shazam!” That’s a problem because if he can’t speak, he can’t transform. It also means that he can be tricked into depowering himself. It might not sound like a big deal, but the Injustice comics showed the worst-case scenario. His powers peak as the God of Gods Shazam, during the Darkseid War event, where he was given a range of new powers from new gods. There’s no denying Shazam’s raw power, but the fact that he’s just a kid deep down limits his ranking.
Accelerated metabolism
Energy Manipulation
Dimensional/ Time Travel
The Flash can run fast. While that may not seem particularly useful in a fight (who wants a superhero who just runs away?), DC’s writers have put the character to good use. The Flash can run faster than light, create infinite mass punches, time travel, and cross between dimensions. With the right writer backing him, the Flash is literally untouchable and is capable of outrunning death itself.
Unfortunately, with great power comes great responsibility, and this is something the Flash sometimes forgets. He might beone of DC’s greatest speedsters,but both Barry and Wally have had a habit of making things worse instead of better at times, especially when messing around with time. As the Speed Force avatar, Wally West can transcend the physical laws of the universe, but that connection is also his greatest weakness. If any version of Flash comes untethered from the Speed Force, they lose all their powers. Outside his sheer speed, the Flash also lacks any other impressive physical abilities like invulnerability. When his connection is strong, Flash can rewrite history; when it’s weak, he’s cannon fodder.
Energy Absorption And Projection
Invulnerability
Atomic Manipulation
Captain Atom started out as a United States Air Force officer who was framed for a crime he didn’t commit. Rather than be executed, he agreed to take part in an experiment that resulted in him gaining a metallic form and the power to tap into the “Quantum Field.” A bit like with DC’s magic users, Captain Atom’s powers tend to change from book to book, depending on what the story dictates.
Early on, he was limited to generating energy blasts and being able to fly. Over time, his powers grew until he gained the ability to transmute physical matter and warp reality.Unleashed, Captain Atom can easily defeat the likes of Superman, disintegrate and resurrect other heroes instantly, and even destroy universes. He lacks any real weaknesses but often has to restrain himself because he can become unstable if he over-exerts himself.
Many of the heroes who appear in this part of the ranking are interchangeable. In some events, Captain Atom could rank at the top, but most writers choose not to use his full suite of abilities because doing so would make him boringly overpowered.
