Superman is often considered comic's srongest hero, but there have been villains who surpassed his strength that he still found a way to beat anyway.
In DC Comics, there isn’t a more powerful character than Superman. In 2022, DC kept Superman off Earth, fighting in an intergalactic war for much of the year, and allowed his son Jon to take over the mantle. It was a way to put a lesser-experienced Man of Steel on Earth, one of the man ways DC has attempted to de-power Superman in comics over the years.
As a result, there are few characters Superman has not beaten in comic book history. When characters appear overpowered themselves, such as Darkseid, the Justice League teams up to stop him. However, even in that case, Superman often needs a plot device to weaken him because it almost seems unrealistic that anyone would stand a change against him in the comics.
Bizarro
When Superman fights Bizarro, it often pushes him to the limit. This is because Bizarro has the same basic powers as Superman and is just as powerful and strong, the Man of Steel’s perfect opposite duplicate. However, there is one other reason he struggles against Bizarro.
Superman knows that Bizarro is not a genuine villain. Bizarro wants to be a hero like Superman. He just doesn’t understand social norms. When Superman fights Bizarro, he usually holds back, but he has beaten him before using blue Kryptonite to weaken his nemesis.
Ultraman
Ultraman has the same powers as Superman because he is the evil Superman from Earth-3. There is one major difference. Superman is a hero, and Ultraman has no moral compass. This means Superman would normally fight fair and Ultraman would cheat at every turn.
Ultraman and Superman finally met up and Ultraman beat both Superman from Earth-One and his Earth-Two counterpart. However, thanks to Alexander Luthor, Sr., from Earth-3 (a hero), Superman recovered and finally helped beat his overpowered Earth-3 version.
Imperiex
Imperiex-Prime has existed since the dawn of time, and his sole purpose is to destroy the universe constantly and then rebuild new ones from the ashes. After destroying Mongul’s Warworld, he went to Superman for help, and they beat what they thought was Imperiex.
When Imperiex-Prime showed up, the heroes didn’t stand a chance. He even vaporized Doomsday, the one villain who had killed Superman. It was Superman who came up with the plan, and he used his immense strength absorbed from the sun and a mix of various magical items to use a Boom Tube to send Imperiex back 14 billion years to the Big Bang to kill the villain.
General Zod
As Man of Steel showed, General Zod was more powerful than Superman in most ways. While his earlier version in the comics was not as powerful, DC later improved the character, and he became a genuine threat to Superman.
General Zod has the same powers and strength as Superman, but he is a trained military genius, with Superman raised a farm boy. Despite this, Superman has beaten Zod, and there was even one point where he killed the General, one of the few times Superman broke his no-kill rule.
Doomsday
Doomsday did something no one else could do in DC Comics. He killed Superman. This was one of DC’s biggest comic book moments. Doomsday was raised on Krypton as a weapon of mass destruction, killed and resurrected constantly, ensuring it could never die the same way twice.
By the time it fought Superman, there was almost no way to stop the monster. However, while he died, Superman stopped the monster and killed it before dying himself after beating his most powerful foe.
Rogol Zaar
Rogol Zaar is another villain that was more powerful than Superman thanks to his alien physiology. He is an alien with an intense hatred of all Kryptonians, and he set out to kill any survivors after Krypton’s destruction.
In one fight, he actually stood toe-to-toe with Superman, Supergirl, Jon Kent, and General Zod, and he held his own. However, Superman had one thing that Zaar didn’t have, and that was a higher intelligence, which is how he finally took the villain down.
Darkseid
In the New 52, the Justice League originally formed because no one hero was strong enough to beat Darkseid. This took place while Superman was still young and had little experience as a superhero. He was still discovering his powers.
However, there have been times in comics where Superman proved he was more than enough to handle Darkseid. It is never easy, but Superman can usually beat the lord of Apokolips, but has never been strong enough to stop him for good.
Superboy-Prime
Superboy-Prime was one of the most powerful evil versions of Superman in history. This character actually killed an entire team of Teen Titans without missing a beat. He even killed Superboy and the Superman of Earth-2. It seemed nothing could stop him.
However, after his murder spree, Superman finally defeated the young angry villain and banished him to an inescapable prison. Of course, he eventually escaped, but no matter what he did, Superman always beat him in the end.
Mister Mxyzptlk
One thing that Superman learned in the Golden Age of DC Comics was that there was no chance of beating Mister Mxyzptlk. It should be noted that Superman never wanted to physically fight the imp because he was a trickster and not a fighter.
However, there was an instance where Mister Mxyzptlk approached an evil Superman and tried his annoying antics. That Superman beat the imp to an inch of death and made him want to escape back to his own world in the end.
Anti-Monitor
The Anti-Monitor was a villain that almost destroyed the entire multiverse. This was in Crisis on Infinite Earths, and it took heroes from all the dead Earths to join forces to stop him. Even Superman’s cousin Supergirl died in the battle.
However, Flash weakened the Anti-Monitor at the cost of his own life, and that opened up the door. This allowed Superman from Earth-2 to fly in and finally defeat the villain once and for all and help create a new Earth that rose from the ashes.
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