When you’ve got a weapon that is capable of creating whatever kind of shapes, forms, and weapons the wearer wants it to make, then you’d find it hard to fight against a Green Lantern, whose power ring is capable of enormous feats.
As a Green Lantern uses their willpower to wield their ring, diehard fans like to claim there’s no other character who could beat them. However, there are several more superheroes very capable of besting a Lantern, with a few of them already having achieved this accomplishment within canon. In this list, we’ve considered every Green Lantern we’ve seen, rather than focus on a particular character.
10 Superman
At full force and without any moral restraints, Superman might just be able to kill off any being in the DC Universe. And yet, a significant portion of the fanbase likes to underestimate Superman, greatly due to his weakness of Kryptonite. These people like to argue that a combination of the ring’s powers combined with Superman’s weakness makes him unable to overcome a Green Lantern.
For this, we’d like to point out how Superman was shown to have killed Green Lantern in the Injustice storyline, when the latter dared to go against Superman’s plans. This version of the Man of Steel became a villain (due to him losing Lois Lane), and the turn was cemented when he viciously clobbered Green Lantern to death.
9 Martian Manhunter
Since we’ve shown you that Superman can beat a Green Lantern, it should mean that Martian Manhunter can automatically do the same. That’s because J’onn has around the same powers, along with the benefit of shapeshifting, and mind-boggling levels of telepathy.
Unfortunately, since J’onn isn’t mainstream popular, casual fans think he’s just a side character who would have no chance against a more established figure like Green Lantern. Well, J’onn’s ability to fry the brain of almost every being within a few seconds begs to differ.
8 Silver Surfer
Both Green Lantern and Silver Surfer have enormous wills, making this a contest of who wouldn’t want to hold back against each other more. DC fans like to argue that Lantern could just imagine a weapon to negate the Surfer’s powers, but they forget this match-up has happened already.
In “Unholy Alliances,” their contest didn’t have a clear winner, but the “Marvel vs. DC” story had Silver Surfer defeating Kyle Rayner, who just couldn’t construct anything sturdy enough for the Surfer not to shatter. The Surfer’s cosmic powers allow him telepathy, insane durability, time travel, interstellar travel, among other abilities that outstrip the power ring.
7 Nova Prime (Nova Force)
On Xandar, the Nova Force is a power bestowed to the Nova Corps, but the Nova Prime gets to have the peak level of these abilities. Since only comic book purists are aware of the Nova Corp's deep powers, it’s natural to assume Green Lantern would overcome them.
But there’s the fact that the Nova Prime imbued with the Nova Force has speed that travels faster than light, meaning even the power ring might not be able to catch them. Along with that, the Force empowers the Prime with the ability to analyze all of their opponent’s strengths and weaknesses, thereby creating attacks their opponent just can’t counter.
6 Reed Richards
Since Mr. Fantastic doesn’t have the clobbering strength of The Thing, the force fields of the Invisible Woman, or the Supernova heat of the Human Torch, people assume he’s the weakest Fantastic Four member. However, he might just be the smartest superhero in all of the Marvel Universe.
Here’s where the “prep time” argument comes in, as Mr. Fantastic just has way too many smarts for him not to come up with a plan to take out any enemy. He’s outsmarted Doctor Doom of all people several times, the latter of whom has taken out god-levels of beings due to his smarts. A Green Lantern power ring seems like a simple weapon to counter for the man who can think up solutions to any problem.
5 The Flash (DCAU)
The Flash from the comic books is insanely fast, to the point that he can travel at a freakin’ attosecond — this easily makes him stronger than a Green Lantern. But the Flash from the DCAU is overlooked due to his immature nature. And yet, one should also give him the credit to be able to defeat a Green Lantern, since he proven himself to be powerful in epic levels as well.
We saw “Flash” beat Green Lantern on Justice League Unlimited, when Wally West’s mind was swapped with Lex Luthor’s. This Luthor Flash proceeded to decimate the Justice League, where Green Lantern’s attacks were easily deflected. Luthor used Flash’s full potential, with Green Lantern himself claiming these abilities would make him unstoppable.
4 Scarlet Witch
Due to her low level of durability, people like to laugh at the idea of Scarlet Witch being able to go up against the big guys, but her powers have been all over the place. In some instances, she’s displayed abilities that could easily beat the likes of Superman or Green Lantern.
Her character has been retconned many times to increase her feats, with her reality-warping being such that she was supposed to be able to warp everything in the universe (as shown in House of M #1-8). Sure, there might not be a clear idea as to what she could do, but changing the whole universe by herself is a feat that trumps any of the power ring's abilities.
3 Shazam
Due to his very comedic nature, people take Shazam as comic relief rather than someone who could be a threat, but these doubters would be very wrong. After all, this guy has an incredible combination of powers that make him one of the most powerful characters in all of the DC Universe.
With the speed of Mercury, he has quickness comparable to the Flash; the strength of Hercules allows him to move even planets; he has the potential to live forever and never tires; with the courage of Achilles, Shazam has willpower that makes his inner strength a superpower in its own right. All these qualities make him a perfect match, even a superior to the Green Lantern.
2 Captain Atom
The most powerful versions of Captain Atom make this an easy victory for the superhero, as he’s been shown to be able to absorb all forms of energy, to the point that he himself basically becomes energy.
Captain Atom can both consume unlimited amounts of energy, can destroy all kinds of energy, shrug off atomic explosions like they were nothing, and can even move through time. To make things even easier, these two did go head-to-head before in Action Comics Weekly #626-631, where Captain Atom beat Hal Jordan and left him knocked out.
1 Sentry
Galactus is known as one of the all-time most powerful characters in both Marvel and DC combined, and Sentry was shown to have stalemated a fight against a being of such incredible power (in The Sentry & Spider-Man), along with not having any visible signs of weakness at all.
He is known as one of the most powerful telepaths in the Marvel Universe, is immune to Rogue’s killing touch, shrugged off Doctor Doom’s attacks, and was capable of moving planets and Celestials. Suffice to say, a power ring would not deter this superhero. However, Sentry is generally underestimated due to being seen as Marvel’s attempt at making a Superman-style superhero.
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