The current shared cinematic universe is largely focused on superheroes, but that’s gradually changing. Besides the upcoming Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel movies, a few superheroines have graced both the big and small screens over the past few years, but mainly as secondary characters. Jessica Jones and Nebula would be obvious exceptions.
Things are moving forward for superheroines, and it’s about time! With numerous Marvel and DC characters available, the studios can make some pretty great choices!
In no particular order, the following is a list of the most powerful and awesome superheroines DC and Marvel have to offer. Who knows? Maybe we’ll see them on the big screen in the not too distant future!
Note: We haven’t included Mystique because we really can't say how many comic book movie fans enjoy the character’s arc the X-Men films.
Squirrel Girl
Squirrel Girl might seem like an odd choice, considering the characters we mentioned above and the fact that she doesn't have a wide array of powers and abilities. As a matter of fact, besides her superhuman strength and agility, her tail, and her ability to communicate (not telepathically!) with squirrels, she's just another superheroine.
She may not be the strongest or fastest of superheroines, but she uses her abilities in the most intelligent way possible to defeat supervillains such as Doctor Doom and even Thanos. At one time, she even managed to befriend Galactus and convince him to spare Earth.
In a way, her actual superpower is being able to win in any situation.
So, yeah, Squirrel Girl is an impressive character, and her victories against cosmic threats make her as formidable as anyone else on this list. Will she appear in a movie anytime soon? Well, Anna Kendrick did say that she'd be interested in playing this role.
Vixen
Vixen, one of the most awesome DC superheroines, is able to tap into Earth's morphogenetic field and channel the powers of any creature that’s ever lived on the planet. She’s even able to channel the abilities of mythological creatures such as dragons, which does come in handy.
Vixen's connection to the morphogenetic field enables her to conjure the abilities of multiple animals at the same time, and this makes her an incredible combatant. Sure, this has its drawbacks, including having no control over a powerful creature’s negative reactions (rage), but she is a powerhouse.
We should add that she can also tap into the human or extraterrestrial template to mimic the abilities of characters such as Black Lightning or even Superman.
Furthermore, she can use the morphogenetic field to create force fields and claws. And she has her own extremely sharp, durable claws that even managed to make the Man of Steel bleed. Again, she's awesome!
And she’s already appeared in the CW's Arrowverse!
Emma Frost
Emma Frost, who was previously a supervillain associated with the Hellfire Club, is one of the most powerful of the Marvel comics telepaths. She’s an Omega-Level mutant, which puts her among the most powerful. Her powers include the ability to transform her body into a diamond-like material, which gives her limitless stamina, invulnerability, super-strength, and other useful powers. She withstood a hit from World War Hulk while in diamond form, so she’s extremely resilient.
Not being able to use her telepathic abilities while in diamond form is a drawback, but it does make her highly resistant to telepathic attacks from others. Again, this is actually a highly useful mutation.
Frost’s intelligence, technical ability, and talent at hand to hand combat (she’s even able to fend off Wolverine) make her an extremely powerful adversary.
Emma Frost has appeared in movies and on television. Most recently, January Jones portrayed her in First Class, although we have to say that the character wasn't as awesome as she is in the comics.
Big Barda
When you’re born and bred to serve and protect Darkseid as the leader of his personal guard, the Female Furies, you deserve to be on this list. A member of the New Gods, Big Barda isn't just one of the strongest superheroines; she’s one of the strongest DC comic book universe characters in general. As such, she possesses tremendous physical strength, and is a formidable combatant who is proficient in most forms of combat. Big Barda is almost invulnerable and virtually immortal, making her one of this list’s true heavy-hitters.
Despite leading Darkseid's personal guard, she defects when she finds love, and later marries Mr. Miracle. Once away from Apokolips, she becomes the tank in the Birds of Prey and secures a place in the Justice League.
Besides her New God powers, she also has some pretty neat tools to use in combat, including Apokoliptian armor; Aero-discs, which she uses to fly; and her main weapon, the mega-rod, which has various purposes, including teleportation.
Even without these gadgets, Big Barda is a formidable and highly resilient warrior. She didn't become the leader of the Female Furies because of her good looks.
Hopefully, if the rumored New Gods movie is made, she’ll be in it.
Storm
Storm was one of the most popular character in X-Men history, but she was severely underplayed in the movies, although X-Men: Apocalypse tried to do her justice. Storm is able to manipulate the weather with varying effects (some of them terrifying and not restricted to Earth), but her character is richer than that.
With many sorcerers and sorceresses as ancestors, Storm’s magical potential is enormous, though she has yet to explore it. But, thanks to her ancestry, Storm was once able to host the avatar of Eternity itself.
Storm is a skilled thief and combatant, but her body has also developed the ability to control the weather. She’s able to resist extremes of temperature and atmospheric pressure, her night vision is excellent, and she is highly resilient.
Oddly, she isn't an Omega-level mutant, but if she could realize her true potential, we are more than certain that she'd be among the most powerful on this list.
Supergirl
What would a list of powerful comic book characters be without a Kryptonian? And what would a list of the most powerful superheroines be without Supergirl? She’s Superman’s cousin, and she’s even more powerful than he is. However, her lack of experience usually ranks her below Kal-El.
Kara Zor-El has all the powers and abilities of a Kryptonian under a yellow sun, including super speed (flying or running), invulnerability, super strength, X-ray vision, a superior healing factor, super intellect, and so on.
We assume she’s stronger than Superman because she doesn't restrain herself, a personality trait that makes her more powerful, although it’s also a vulnerability.
Supergirl has appeared both in movies and on television. Most interestingly, Zack Snyder left a Man of Steel Easter egg that led us to believe that we’ll see her on the big screen again.
Scarlet Witch
The daughter of Magneto, Scarlet Witch is one of the most powerful comic book characters ever. She’s able to rewrite the universe and threaten the overall multiverse, which is amazing, although it’s been revealed that her own powers weren’t responsible.
Nevertheless, the fact that she’s the living focal point for magic on Earth makes her extremely powerful. Her mutant ability isn't related to magic, though. She’s able to use hand gestures and mental concentration to manipulate probability fields and cause rapid rust or decay of organic or inorganic materials.
Her hexing powers are limited to her visual field, but by concentrating more, she can extend the effects far beyond that.
As portrayed by Elizabeth Olsen in the MCU, Scarlet Witch’s powers are the result of Infinity Stone experiments, and are quite impressive.
Raven
Being the daughter of one of the most powerful demons in the DC comic book universe cements Raven’s position among the comics’ most powerful characters, and ensures her a place on this list. This is all in spite of the fact that she’s mainly a member of the Teen Titans, rather than of the more powerful Justice League.
Using her main power, which is called the soul-self, she can conjure darkness and project it out of her body. This allows her to teleport, travel across dimensions, absorb energy and matter, and so on.
She uses her ability mainly as an offensive weapon or to incapacitate enemies. In the latter case, a trapped enemy will experience terrifying nightmares when engulfed by the soul-self. And it isn't easy to break free, although both Supergirl and Black Adam have managed to do it.
Raven hasn't appeared in live action yet, but Warner Bros. intends to release a Titans series, and she’ll likely appear in that.
We hope that her powers will be seen in action on the big screen, too.
Photon/Pulsar/Spectrum/Captain Marvel
Since her first appearance in 1982, Monica Rambeau has taken on a number of different superheroine names, including Photon. After she was bombarded with extra-dimensional energy, she gained the ability to transform herself into any form of light and/or energy. When transformed, she gains all of the energy's properties, which means that her powers are pretty awesome.
This enables her to become both intangible and invisible, to travel at light-speeds, and to project and absorb all types of energies. Given time, she can even manipulate magical energies, and this makes her even more formidable. She once managed to manifest one of Doctor Strange's shields, despite the fact that she’s not a sorceress.
We doubt that she'll appear on film, although we can be sure that Captain Marvel will.
Zatanna
Zatanna doesn’t use her powers to their true potential, but her magic can compete with that of the most powerful practitioners in the DC comic book universe. She’s best known for voicing her commands backward, since she speaks backward as easily as she speaks normally.
Of course, the need to voice her spells could be considered a weakness, especially against enemies with super speed. But she’s still the first magician the Justice League calls whenever they need one.
Her magic allows her to take on an array of powers, including telekinesis, telepathy, teleportation, dimensional travel, flight, the ability to enhance herself to a superhuman level, and more. She is truly amazing, and we wonder how powerful she'd be if she used her magical powers to their full extent.
In addition to appearing in Smallville, Zatanna will star in the upcoming movie Justice League Dark (whenever Warner Bros. decides to actually make the film).
Susan Storm
Susan Storm is known as the Invisible Woman, but making herself and others invisible isn’t her most awesome power. It’s her ability to create force-fields that grants her a spot on this list. Drawing energies from hyperspace allows Storm to create all sorts of fields and offensive constructs, from immense battering rams to darts.
But make no mistake, her force fields aren't just for protection against physical or energy-related threats; they can also be used as offensive weapons. As an example, she can create and expand a force field inside something or someone, and basically explode the target.
According to Doctor Doom, Sue Storm is the only Fantastic Four member who can crack the shell of a Celestial.
During the modern age of superhero movies, Invisible Woman has appeared in three movies. Unfortunately, all of those appearances were in the highly unsatisfying Fantastic Four movies.
Starfire
Another member of the Teen Titans, Starfire comes from the doomed planet of Tamaran, where she was the warrior princess Koriand’r. Thanks to her physiology, she can absorb solar energy and use it for supersonic flight. Before retconning, she was also able to fly faster than light through space.
She uses absorbed solar energy to enhance her energy blasts, an ability she gained after she was experimented upon. Her strength is on par with that of the most powerful Amazons, so she’s virtually invulnerable, and her ability to store energy can have devastating effects.
When in berserker mode, all of Starfire’s powers and abilities are greatly increased.
In addition, the Warlord of Okaara trained her from an early age in hand-to-hand combat.
Apparently, Starfire will appear in the aforementioned Titans TV series, although we'd like to see her in a big screen Teen Titans movie.
Jean Grey
Jean Grey is one of the original X-Men, and she’s a force to be reckoned with, even without the Phoenix Force. As one of the Marvel comic book universe’s most powerful telepaths and telekinesis users, Grey is more than an Omega mutant, the most powerful a mutant can be without outside intervention. According to Mister Sinister and Dark Beast, she’s an Alfa mutant, the most powerful mutant ever.
This puts her in an entirely different category from that of anyone mentioned on this list. In addition to her reputation as the most powerful telepath among the mutants, her ability to manipulate psychic energy, and her god-like telekinetic abilities, Grey is also adept at hand-to-hand combat. However, she prefers to use her other abilities to defend herself.
She might just be the most powerful superheroine on this list.
In the X-Men movies, she has been portrayed by Famke Janssen and Sophie Turner. Although the true extent of her powers has never been shown, maybe X-Men: Dark Phoenix will explore them.
Jesse Quick
Jesse Quick/Jesse Chambers is former leader of the Titans and a Justice League of America member. The only speedster on this list, she’s the daughter of the Golden Age’s Johnny Quick and the original Liberty Bell. Jesse can access the Speed Force as her father did, and also possesses her mother’s superior stamina and super strength.
Those two superpowers alone pose a serious threat to any antagonist, but Jesse can also fly and vibrate at tremendous speed, which enables her to pass through solid objects.
Jesse Quick has appeared on the small screen in CW's The Flash.
Captain Marvel
One of the most powerful superheroes in Marvel comics, Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel is set to make her debut in the MCU in 2019, becoming the most powerful superhero in this shared universe, as well (according to Kevin Feige). And she deserves it!
Besides the usual powers of super speed, super strength, and flight, Carol Danvers can also absorb energy directed at her, using it to enhance her own powers. Of course, she can overload if the energy attacks are too strong, but that rarely happens. The energy she absorbs can also be used to enhance her energy projection abilities, dwarfing the power of Iron Man's repulsor blasts.
Of course, we have to mention her Binary form, which enables her to achieve god-like powers. By tapping into the energy of a white hole, she controls all types of stellar energies, travels at light speed, controls gravity, and so on.
Captain Marvel is truly wondrous. We hope Brie Larson does a great job with the role!
Power Girl
Power Girl is a more mature and experienced version of Supergirl. In fact, she’s an alternate version of the superheroine from a parallel Earth. As such, she has all of the powers and weaknesses of a Kryptonian under a yellow sun.
While there’s no difference between the magic and the psionic attack weakness, Power Girl is vulnerable only to Kryptonite from her universe.
So, yes, she is easily one of the most powerful superheroines on this list. But we don't believe that she'll ever appear on the big screen, which is truly a shamely.
Rogue
In the X-Men movie, Rogue (Anna Paquin) was portrayed as a comic book mutant – with the lame powers that come with such a role – so the character never reached her full potential in the movies. She actually drained the life (powers, abilities, character traits, and so on) from any individual she touched.
This is a shame, because Rogue is a fantastic character with a very rich history, and she has probably the best superpower of all. As such, the former Brotherhood of Mutants member can take on any type of power she requires, as long as physical contact is made. At one time, Rogue was able to gain the powers and abilities of all of the Avengers combined in order to stop a Celestial.
Rogue’s touch also weakens her target or renders him or her unconscious, which always comes in handy. Sure, enemies such as Magneto or Ares have avoided being weakened, but how many possess their superpowers?
We need this version of the character on the big screen. And, apparently, a young Rogue is waiting to be cast in X-Men: Dark Phoenix.
Wonder Woman
Lastly, we have Wonder Woman, the protagonist in what is apparently the first DC Extended Universe movie to receive praise from critics, which is awesome!
If we’re talking about raw physical strength or speed, some of the characters on this list are more powerful than Diana Prince. Some of them also have abilities that Diana can only dream of.
However, her offensive and defensive abilities and training make her the most formidable individual on this list (except for a Phoenix Force-possessed Jean Grey and Photon). We know, the list is in no particular order, but we have to say that Wonder Woman is so wondrous because she is the best there is.
