DC’s Authority is one of the most powerful superhero teams around, using their power to change the world for the better rather than simply protect the status quo. But which member of the Authority is actually the strongest?
With the Authority originally meant to be a darker version of DC’s Justice League, the team’s take-no-prisoners attitude saw them repel an invasion from an alternate universe, stage a coup of the US government and kill the godlike being that created the Earth in the first place. As such, ranking the heroes of Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch’s Authority by power level is no mean feat, as each hero is strong enough to take on an army by themselves.
10 Swift
Able to travel at supersonic speeds thanks to her wings, Shen Li-Men is the ultimate hunter and tracker. Swift’s enhanced eyesight and hearing allow her to see and hear enemies across great distances, and her retractable talons make her deadly in a straight fight. Not only that, Swift is also connected with the avian species of the planet, able to commune with them and use them as a source of information. On the rare occasion where evil escapes the Authority, it can’t hide from Swift.
9 Rose Tattoo
Introduced in the pages of the Authority-precursor Stormwatch, Rose Tattoo was a super-powered assassin called upon by Stormwatch leader Henry Bendix to engage in black-ops wet-work. Eventually revealed to be possessed by the Spirit of Murder itself, Rose can channel her energy in various ways to kill her enemies, whether it’s through creating weapons from thin air or psychically driving her opponents to do her bidding. She briefly transformed into the Spirit of Life after joining the Authority, and was no less powerful as a result. The fact she appears so low on this list is a major indicator of the team’s overall power.
8 Midnighter
His enhanced strength, stamina and durability make him a formidable foe, but Midnighter’s true power lies in the neuro-enhancements added to his brain. Able to compute every possible scenario of a fight in his head, Midnighter is basically able to see the future by correctly predicting every move his enemies will make.
Midnighter’s genetic enhancements include survival mechanisms such as complete control over his pain receptors, a super-immune system capable of eliminating any disease or infection and a super-metabolism that allows him to go without food or water for long periods of time. That coupled with his years of black-ops combat training make Midnighter one of the deadliest combatants on the planet. Midnighter does have one weakness – there are ways to trick his ‘Fight Computer’ brain, taking away his big advantage.
7 Manchester Black
A more recent addition to the team, Manchester Black and his original team the Elite was actually created as a parody of the Authority. In spite of that, however, Black’s power-set makes him a formidable foe. His telepathy is strong enough to create powerful visions in his enemies’ heads, and his telekinetic powers were strong enough at one point that Manchester Black was able to pinch off the blood vessels in Superman’s brain and give the Man of Steel the equivalent of a stroke. In Grant Morrison and Mikel Janin’s Superman and the Authority, an older Superman actually recruits Manchester Black as part of a team meant to recreate his fading powers, with Black’s telekinesis being equivalent to Superman’s superstrength.
6 The Engineer
Dr. Angelica Spica received her powers from the original Engineer before joining the Authority, taking his notes on nanotechnology and combining it with her own research to create nine pints of liquid machinery instead of blood. As such, the Engineer is capable of creating literally anything she can think of, thanks to the millions of intelligent nano-devices coursing through her veins. Whether coating her skin with a layer of metal to protect her from the elements, fabricating everything from machine guns to atmospheric jet engines to literal clones of herself or surrounding herself with an invisible web of microscopic machine sensors to act as an environmental alarm system, the Engineer’s near-magical nanotechnology allows her to create almost anything she can imagine out of thin air. Even without her own tech, the Engineer can instantly hack even totally unfamiliar devices.
5 Jack Hawksmoor
As a child, Jack Hawksmoor was abducted frequently by what he thought were extraterrestrials, but who turned out to be beings from the future who were preparing him for his destiny as a hero. His major organs were removed and replaced with enhanced tech that gave him near-total control of urban environments. Acting as the “God of Cities,” Jack can communicate with buildings, streets and other urban structures, even having them do his bidding, such as swallowing his enemies whole, Jack has complete control of every aspect of any major city he steps foot in. This unique connection to urban environments allows Jack to communicate with other cities across the globe, able to glean what’s happening in all cities across the globe, as well as teleport instantly from one to the next with ease.
4 Apollo
As the Authority’s answer to Superman, Apollo also draws his power from the sun. The true limits of Apollo’s powers seem to have no ceiling: his speed allows him to circle the planet in less than thirty seconds, his invulnerability is such that he can walk across the surface of the sun without harm and his heat/solar vision is powerful enough that he was once able to scorch the entire surface of the moon with one single blast. Apollo’s one weakness is his need to frequently recharge his abilities. He is especially unbeatable given his partnership with his husband, Midnighter, with the two occupying the highest tiers of power and skill in the DC Universe.
3 Jenny Sparks
As the Spirit of the Twentieth Century, Authority team leader Jenny Sparks was a ‘Century Baby,’ able to live for one-hundred years and having stopped aging beyond her twenties. Jenny is the embodiment of the century in which she lived, and exists in symbiosis with every element of human existence and accomplishment during that period. Most importantly, Jenny has complete control of electricity, allowing her to control and manipulate it in all its forms, discharge powerful bolts of lightning and travel through any electrical current. The limits of her powers were reached mere hours before her death at the turn of the new millennium, when Jenny discharged a powerful amount of electricity to kill the alien being that created Earth, aka “God.”
2 The Doctor
As the Shaman of the Earth, the Doctor is one in a long line of sorcerers and mystics charged with protecting the planet since the dawn of time. This grants the Doctor near-unlimited power, allowing him to do anything he can think of by altering reality through magic. In addition, the Doctor is also able to access the Garden of Ancestral Memory, the domain where all previous Doctors reside. There, he can access the vast memories and experiences of his predecessors, giving him access to the whole of human history. If that wasn’t enough, the Doctor’s enlightened nature includes fifteen new senses, placing him in complete harmony with the planet Earth and every living thing on it.
The Doctor does have some weaknesses, however. Using their powers depends on their imagination and personality, meaning that a Doctor can only solve a problem if they can figure out a specific solution. They can also be stripped of their abilities if the assembled previous Doctors judge them unworthy of protecting Earth.
1 Jenny Quantum/Quarx
On the stroke of the death of the Spirit of the Twentieth Century came the birth of the Spirit of the Twenty-First. When Jenny Sparks fell, new Authority leader Jenny Quantum/Quarx entered the picture. Jenny Quantum’s powers manifested just days after her birth, and as an infant she was able to generate an energy field powerful enough to blow the gigantic superhero Titan’s legs off in an instant. From there her powers developed into the ability to manipulate reality at the quantum level to achieve basically anything. Far more powerful than even her predecessor, Jenny is able to manipulate all forms of energy, change probabilities and even accelerate her own age from an infant to a teenager. As another Century Baby, Jenny basically acts as an immune system for the entire planet, existing solely to protect the Earth.
With so many heavy-hitters on one team, the Authority is easily the most powerful superteam around. Whether or not they’ll be as powerful in their upcoming movie adaptation remains to be seen, but the Authority will always be one of DC’s most powerful teams in the comics.
