Power corrupts absolutely.
Or maybe not always absolutely.
It depends on the will and the intent of the individual.
And when superheroes are granted powers beyond even their wildest dreams no one knows for
sure what will happen.
Will they use the power good or ill?
Will they be corrupted by it?
Are they forced to wield it to take on an even greater foe?
These are some of the questions we will explore as we look at the top 10 superheroes who became
gods and just how they received such power or what they used it for.
So if you like stories where heroes surpass even their own limitations and go into god-mode,
give this video a like and be sure to stick around till the end of this video where I
will have some comments heading your way.
Alright, let's get counting.
10 Shazam
Technically every time Billy Batson transforms using the word Shazam, he becomes six different
gods all rolled into one.
He gets his powers from these six "gods:" Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles and
Mercury.
I put quotations around the word gods because some are not really known as gods based on
our own stories of them.
Solomon was a king and Achilles was a war hero.
And it's a little weird that they went with the Roman version of Hermes, Mercury but stuck
to Greek god names for the other gods mentioned.
Still in the Darkseid War it is revealed to Billy that he is actually the God of Gods
but that the death of Darkseid has severed his ties to the godly powers within him and
so the Wizard makes new Gods to reside within Batson.
9 Storm
Are you truly a god without people to believe it you?
When Ororo Munroe returned to her homeland of Kenya she found herself worshipped for
her mutant abilities, believe by local tribes to be a Goddess.
This not only made her a god in the eyes of others but she would go on throughout her
time with the X-Men to truly prove she was deserving of the title.
When going up against Doctor Doom in Uncanny X-Men issue 147, she proves just how strong
she is when Doctor Doom tortures her by encases her in chrome, praying on her claustrophobia.
This unleashes a power from within Ororo which her fellow X-Men liken to that of the Phoenix
Force in terms of her power levels and reach.
8 Batman
During the events of the Darkseid War it seemed like all the supers were getting power, Batman
not excluded.
He ended up finding himself in possession of Metron prized Morbius chair.
The Morbius chair grants him omniscient knowledge and turns Batman into the God of Knowledge.
He uses his powers to uncover Joker's secret identity and put a stop to crime before it
has even happened, much to Commissioner Gordon's displeasure.
As the justice system of Gotham isn't really made to prosecute criminals who have yet to
commit a crime.
7 Cyclops
When it was made known that the Phoenix Force was on it's way back to earth, it created
a divide between the Avengers and the X-Men.
The X-Men believed it the Phoenix Force could be used to fix the world after the events
of M-Day.
The Avengers believed that the Phoenix Force would only destroy the world.
The Phoenix Force was split into five by Iron Man became the Phoenix Five possessing Namor,
Emma Frost, Scott Summers, Magik and Colossus.
Eventually the power was rejoined as different members of the five fell off, losing their
power and having it reabsorbed into the others until just Scott was left.
Up until the last bit of power entered him he was able to stay light but the full power
of the Phoenix Force eventually turned him dark and caused him to kill Professor X.
6 Superman
Not only Batman got to have fun in during the Darksied War event.
Nope.
The more expected hero also got a taste of what it's like to play god.
And finally too!
Superman has always been one of those heroes who fans liken to a god even just at his normal
power level.
During the Darkseid War, Superman found himself changed while on Apokolips.
He was granted an immense amount of strength and became known as the God of Strength.
A very different and brutal version of Superman who left Lex Luthor for dead, threatening
that if Lex ever returned to earth that he would finish the job.
5 Jean Gray
You probably all know where I am going with this one.
We're talking about when Jean get the Phoenix Force.
Becoming the Phoenix and later Dark Phoenix grants Jean access to all kinds of power.
Remember when she ate a star and blew up a planet, inciting a war with the Shi'Ar on
her merry way?
Now the interesting thing is while there are many others who have found themselves possessed
by the Phoenix Force, Jean is special.
Which also proves just how powerful it makes her.
While many characters have died and been resurrected in the comics, Jean even stands out in that
regard.
Some believe this is due to her connection to the Phoenix Force which sees Jean as it's
one true avatar.
This Phoenix Force demonstrates its power in every way in which it can save her.
It is even willing and capable of punching a whole through spacetime to save Jean through
displacing her if it has to.
4 The Flash
During the events of the Darkseid Wars, Darkseid was killed by the Flash, who had merged with
the Black Racer.
As a result the Flash finds himself feuding with the Black Racer whom he has possessed,
becoming the new God of Death.
He tries to defeat death in his own comic exploring this transformation, Darkseid War:
Flash.
Here we see him try to actually outrun death and defeat him by killing the Black Racer
with his own scythe but ultimately, Barry Allen realizes that you cannot fight the inevitable
and accepts death, giving in and merging with the Black Racer and becoming the new God of
Death.
3 Scarlet Witch
Wanda Maximoff has always had the capacity to act as a god as her chaos magic abilities
allow her to alter and warp reality anyway she sees fit but we didn't really get to see
her play god in the events of House of M, where she altered all of reality to make an
almost-perfect world in terms of her's and other's liking.
After her illusion was shattered and her brother was killed, Wanda suffered a psychotic break
which sent her to full on god mode and caused her to go one step farther than the previous
delusional fantasy world she had previously created.
She removed 99% of mutant populations powers with the words, "no more mutants."
Later on she would use her power once more to defeat the Phoenix Force.
Although Scarlet Witch doesn't often flex her powers, when she does decide to God Mode
she is a force to be reckoned with.
She may not be as God-like in the MCU but she did manage to hold off Thanos, who is
basically a god, with a single hand.
So that's something.
2 Hal Jordan
Hal Jordan had become possessed by the fear feeding parasite, Parallax which caused him
to become evil and power hungry after the destruction of his home, Coast City.
He killed a bunch of Green Lanterns during his pursuit of power, venturing to the home
base of the Green Lantern Corps and absorbing their power battery.
Hal went by the name Parallax and believed all the death would be worth it as he planned
to use his now omnipotent powers to fix the universe.
Other superheroes banded together to stop him in the events of Zero Hour but failed.
However Hal would later attempt to atone for all the damage and death he had wrought by
sacrificing himself to power Earth's dying sun.
He would eventually become a normal human again but not before he spent some time as
the equally omnipotent cosmic hero, the Spectre.
1 Mr Fantastic
As the Incursion came to a boiling point, without seeing any way of avoiding the inevitable,
Reed Richards gathered together as many heroes as he could and deployed liferafts with them
inside to protect them from the ultimate destruction of both universes as they collided.
During the collision it fell to Doctor Doom to try and save both universes.
He became God Emperor Doom taking on the power of the Beyonders and creating a patchwork
world built from the remnants of both earth 616 and earth 1610 called Battleworld.
The life rafts from both worlds were discovered by Doctor Strange who was Doom's second in
command and both versions of Reed Richards, Mr Fantastic of earth 616 and the Maker of
earth 1610 decided to come together to put a stop to Doctor Doom, believing he was not
a good choice for a God.
After a fair fight against Doctor Doom who has his power level to even the odds, it was
decided that Richards was the better choice when it came to someone rebuilding the universe.
He was given Molecule Man's power who had been powering Doom previously and created
the Marvelverse that we know today, even showing kindness to Victor Von Doom by fixing his
scar and altering his memories so that he believed his nemesis, Richards was actually
dead.
Thank you so much for watching, nerd squad.
I hope you enjoyed this list and taking a look at some of the most powerful states of
some of your favourite superheroes.
Honestly almost every good hero deserves a chance to play god, just because reading about
the way that our heroes deal with such responsibility is often thought provoking and riveting.
What are some your favourite god-mode moments in the comics?
Who are your favourite characters who became gods?
Any interest in a video where we explore supervillains who activated god-mode?
Let us know in the comments below.
And speaking of comments, it's time to take a look at some of my previous comments from
one of my latest videos, "Top 10 Most Dangerous Ravencroft Inmates."
Deshawn Edwards says, "Imagining, if they did a crossover where the inmates of Arkham
go to war with the Ravencroft inmates."
Oh man!
That would be epic.
I would totally read that crossover.
Imagine the darkness Shriek would bring out in the Joker.
And imagine all of Gotham's crazed serial killers teaming up with Carnage.
They would wreak so much havoc.
Especially if they all escaped during the crossover!
Banards World comments, "You should do the five comments on your socials."
Hmmm hmm a lot of interest for comment response videos.
I think I'll have to make it happen.
Pick some of my fave comments and post some video responses to them for each vid.
I love reading and responding to your awesome comments!
And that's all the time we have for comments in this video today.
Be sure to comment below for a chance to be featured in a future video and get some personal
responses from me myself and I.
And remember to like, subscribe and ring our bell as well.
This has been top 10 nerd and I'm your host Amanda McKnight, reminding you as always to
stay nerdy, YouTube.