10 Superheroes Who Are Literal Gods

5. The New Gods

DC ComicsDC ComicsWhen Jack Kirby finally got let off the short leash he'd been kept on during his time at Marvel, where he co-created many of the company's biggest and most popular characters with writer Stan Lee, he went properly hog wild. DC allowed him complete creative control and free reign to do basically anything he wanted with them, which saw Kirby carving himself out a whole new section of the publisher's shared fictional universe which he populated with a group of characters he dubbed "New Gods" as part of his epic, ongoing, cosmic Fourth World saga. This race of alien beings were, for all intents and purposes, as god-like as their title suggested. Natives of the twin planets of New Genesis and Apokolips, the New Gods replaced the "Old Gods" who were all killed off in the Norse mythology-derived Ragnarok which split the planets from one into two, and had powers to match their names. Not all of the New Gods could be described as superheroes, mind, least of all Darkseid; in case you couldn't tell from the name, he was a bad 'un, the DC Universe's equivalent of Death who tried to unmake all of reality in the Final Crisis crossover a few years back. He even got close to succeeding!...We think. That was a difficult comic to understand. On the side of light (mostly) were Metron and The Highfather, who had the usual Superman-level powers coupled with some "undefined god-like abilities". They mostly kept to themselves too, though, leaving it up to the younger Orion and Big Barda to be adopted into mainstream DC continuity once Kirby died - they even joined the Justice League for spells - with their immortality, invulnerability, superhuman strength, speed, stamina and durability all hinting towards their godhood.
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Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/