Top 10 Hard to Kill DC Comics Characters
For this list, we're only looking at characters who are next to impossible to kill. We're excluding resurrection characters like Solomon Grundy, who are actually pretty easy to kill but who keep coming back.
The bigger they are, the harder they fall – but sometimes they just won’t fall at all. Welcome to WatchMojo.com and today we’ll be counting down our picks for the top 10 hard to kill DC comics characters.
For this list, we’re only looking at characters who are next to impossible to kill. We’re excluding resurrection characters like Solomon Grundy, who are actually pretty easy to kill but who keep coming back.
#10: Starro the Conqueror
Once upon a time, this merciless, alien warlord was living a quaint life on the planet Hatorei, until its invasion by a Starro Mothership. Driven insane, he eventually merged with the Starro and became the Conqueror, continuing their purpose of conquering as many planets and species as possible. Starro gains strength based on how many people he’s controlling, and he – as well as the Starro themselves – are almost completely invulnerable. The more species he enslaves, the more power he absorbs from them, getting harder and harder to defeat as time goes on.
#9: Plastic Man
One of the few DC heroes to have never been killed off at one point or another, Plastic Man is about as hard to get rid of as actual plastic. His plastic powers grant him all kinds of additional abilities, not in the least invulnerability and regeneration. It’s incredibly difficult to even damage someone who can stretch into any shape and heal almost immediately, and who also doesn’t age or die naturally. He’s so resilient that when he’s ripped apart he can reform himself out of all the pieces, and he even survives having his entire heart ripped out of his body.
#8: Lobo
Notoriously, this intergalactic bounty hunter has died before, though his death only served as the driving force behind his immortality. After he wiped out his entire species just for the sheer amusement of it all, he continued his chaotic activities until much later he was killed and went to Hell. In the afterlife, he wreaked so much havoc that the Gods banned him from both heaven and hell, forcing him back to Earth. Lobo cannot be killed simply because the people in the afterlife don’t want to deal with him.
#7: Anti-Monitor
Top 10 Comic Book Anti-Villains
Energy can neither be created nor destroyed, so when the Oans created the Anti-Monitor – a being of pure, antimatter energy – they should have known what they were letting themselves in for. Anti-Monitor was so powerful and greedy for power he started a million-year-war with the Monitor and has even been one of the more formidable members of the Sinestro Corps. Most heroes won’t even make a dent when trying to fight the Anti-Monitor as he gets more and more powerful with every universe he absorbs and is one of the most terrifying foes the Justice League have ever faced.
#6: Darkseid
The Fourth World exists outside of space and time, affording its native race the New Gods tremendous abilities. Able to live, unaging and undamaged, for potentially thousands of years, they’re one of the most powerful species in comics and are supposedly the pinnacle of evolution. Darkseid is the leader of the planet Apokalips: possessing all the same abilities as the rest of his kind, Darkseid stands out because of his desire to take control of the universe and remake all of life in his own image. The only heroes who pose any kind of threat to him are Kryptonians and the Spectre, making him incredibly deadly.
#5: Mister Mxyzptlk
Supervillain Origins: Mister Negative
This mischievous, fifth-dimensional imp is probably Superman’s most annoying rival, but his status as a creature from another dimension grants him some truly exceptional powers. For a start, his only weaknesses are the rules he imposes on himself about how someone would go about banishing him. His magic makes him practically all-powerful, able to teleport anywhere in all of existence instantaneously. He can bend matter to his will and even twist reality itself to suit his needs, meaning he regenerates any injury inflicted upon him nigh-instantly.
#4: Superman Prime
Top 10 Characters Who Have Beat Up Superman
When he grew tired of outliving his friends and loved ones, Superman left Earth and traveled the multiverse and all of creation for hundreds of thousands of years. With Kryptonians already hugely powerful, Superman built on his existing abilities to become a god-like creature whose new Fortress of Solitude existed at the center of the sun. Absorbing the yellow sun’s energy from within the star itself made Superman Prime one of the most powerful beings to ever exist. It’s lucky for everyone else that he always stayed true to his ideals and would never dream of using his powers for evil.
#3: The Spectre
Top 10 Hard to Kill Marvel Comics Characters
You can’t kill what was never really alive to begin with, which is why the Spirit of Vengeance can never be put down. Inhabiting the bodies of various hosts and taking on the moniker of the Spectre, this omnipotent and divine force can bend reality to its will as the personification of the Wrath of God. Because the Spectre is bound to the spirit of a deceased human, once the host dies the spirit just moves on to somebody new. For that reason, nobody has ever successfully been able to kill it off. Even when his powers were limited by The Voice he remained one of the most capable entities around.
#2: Doctor Manhattan
Top 10 Worst Things Doctor Strange Has Done
If a guy can walk across the surface of the sun and go completely unharmed you know he’s gonna be pretty much invisible – which Doctor Manhattan certainly is. After having his intrinsic field removed during a lab experiment, he reformed his atoms into the recognizable blue form and became an omnipotent being. Able to experience his entire life simultaneously, he understands the workings of the universe better than anybody else. As well as this he is infinitely durable and can reconstruct himself from nothing as long as his consciousness survives, and that’s only if something actually succeeds in hurting him, to begin with.
Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few Honorable Mentions:
Doctor Fate
Etrigan
#1: Nekron
The ultimate overlord of the Land of the Unliving, Nekron spends his time plotting about how to escape his own realm and take over other dimensions. As the undead enemy of all life, Nekron is one of the most dangerous foes the Justice League has ever faced, and he and the Black Lanterns have succeeded in defeating many of them. Killing Nekron merely sends him back to his domain, free to try and escape again, making him technically undefeatable.
