The 12 Best Magic-Based Superheroes From Both Marvel And DC Comics, Ranked

The respective worlds of Marvel Comics and DC Comics aren't always associated with magic and sorcery. Some of the biggest characters from either franchise run the gamut from otherworldly aliens (Marvel's Captain Marvel and DC's Superman), technologically-capable geniuses (Marvel's Iron Man and DC's Mister Terrific), and even just straight-up powerless vigilantes (Marvel's Daredevil and DC's Batman). However, both comic book giants also have plenty of characters whose powers are less super and more archaic.

These powerful individuals from both franchises include some of the strongest superheroes to ever grace the pages of a comic book, and cover a wide variety of magic types. There's those who are given their powers by a god or deity, those who master the ways of sorcery and witchcraft, and those who are just simply born with the latent ability to manipulate matter and bend the universe to their will. These are the 12 best magic-based superheroes across both Marvel and DC, ranked according to their magical strength, overall legacy, and downright badassery!

Fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe may have been surprised to see Charlize Theron in the credits scenes of "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness," but comic book readers know just how important her character, Clea, will (hopefully) become. She's a citizen of the Dark Dimension, and was integral to Doctor Strange's first encounter with Dormammu in the comics as both his only ally and his eventual love interest. However, as the character's continued on in Marvel Comics, she's proven herself to be quite the sorceress of her own.

Clea's range of abilities aren't just limited to the typical strengths of Masters of the Mystic Arts, having many latent abilities as a result of her upbringing in the Dark Dimension. Though she learn how to cast powerful spells from Strange, she's also capable of flight and magical immunity just by virtue of being non-human. She's rarely even topped Strange in terms of magical ability, but recently in Marvel Comics she's inherited the title of Sorceress Supreme after Strange's apparent death.

While we still hope to see more of this Marvel Comics hero in the MCU, Clea's greatest magical abilities are sadly all inherently connected to her relationship with Strange, as proven by their ability to merge into one being and combine their strengths. Still, the title of Sorceress Supreme should not be taken lightly, especially for a character with as unique an origin as Clea. 

It's understandable if you didn't know about John Constantine's origins as a DC superhero, given that the anti-hero may be most recognizable in his on-screen adaptation from 2005, played by Keanu Reeves. Depending on who you ask, Constantine is considered by many to be one of the great character in DC's oeuvre, growing from a supporting role in Alan Moore's "Swamp Thing" to a lead all by himself in the "Hellblazer" comic series. Constantine has also appeared on-screen in The CW's Arrowverse as well as several incredible animated projects.

He's not only beloved by comic book readers, but Constantine's also one of the most powerful magic-users in DC Comics. That being said, his greatest skills are more his intellectual capabilities, working as a private eye investigating occult crimes. He does have a few interesting magical abilities that, when used right, make him a bit overpowered. One of those is synchronicity wave traveling, a form of probability manipulation that allows Constantine to bend luck to his favor. 

Constantine's a quite unusual case in terms of comic book sorcerers. He doesn't wear a cape, doesn't use any magical relics, and oftentimes eschews using his magical abilities in favor of simple manipulation tactics. One of the best examples of this is in the story arc "Dangerous Habits," when Constantine cons the Lord of Hell into curing him of terminal lung cancer. If only Walter White had the same connections...

Shazam, one of the strangest characters in the DC Universe, has been around since 1939 (then known as Captain Marvel before it was changed in 2011), remaining a popular member of the Justice League and other teams. It'd be easy to mistake Shazam as a regular ol' superhero like Superman or Aquaman, but his powers have intrinsic ties to the Greek pantheon. His human alter ego is actually a 12-year-old boy named Billy Batson, who is given the power to transform into a super-powered adult when he utters the phrase "Shazam!" by a wizard. 

Though his powers are pretty typical for a superhero, their origin in mythology is what qualifies Shazam as one of DC's best magic users. In fact, the name "SHAZAM" comes from these gods and their respective powers: Solomon (wisdom, clairvoyance, intuition), Hercules (strength, combat expertise), Atlas (stamina, endurance, self-sustenance), Zeus (electricity manipulation, spell-casting, teleportation), Achilles (courage, elemental resistances, invulnerability), and Mercury (speed, flight, reflexes). 

In terms of why Shazam isn't higher on this list, it's because one of his biggest weaknesses happens to be... you guessed it, magic itself. However, it takes the strongest magic-users in the DC Comics universe to be able to de-power Shazam back into his childish alter ego. 

Victor von Doom, aka Doctor Doom, is highly regarded as one of the greatest villains in the Marvel Comics canon, and we expect that "Avengers: Doomsday" will establish him as the most powerful villain in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, the iconic Doom from Earth-616 is no superhero, but his variant from Earth-928 has some surprisingly heroic qualities. Doom 2099 first appeared in 1992, leading his own self-titled series chronicling Victor von Doom in the near future, who is ousted from his throne in Latveria by a cyborg dictator named Tiger Wylde. 

Of course, Doom 2099 has had his fair share of evil master plans in the comics, at one point conquering the United States and forming his own version of S.H.I.E.L.D., but he also helps prevent an incursion from destroying Earth-928 with the help of Spider-Man 2099, a fight that results in Doom's own sacrifice. Yes, he's teamed up with villainous characters like Kang the Conqueror, but he's also at various points teamed up with other anti-heroes like Wolverine and Punisher.

Magic-wise, Doom 2099 pales in comparison to Earth-616's Doom, but still remains a powerful sorcerer in his own right (plus, come on, he looks so dang cool!). However, because of his faulty memory, Doom's mystic ability is nerfed. Luckily, Doom 2099's adamantium armor is enhanced with enough powerful cybernetics and technology that he can hold his own in a fight without even needing to use his magic. 

We'll have a lot to say about Wanda Maximoff later on in this article, but for the time being, all you need to know about William Kaplan is that he's the reincarnation of Wanda's son Billy, who was created with the help of the demon Mephisto. After growing up fairly normally in New York City, William was recruited by Iron Lad to join the Young Avengers, utilizing some of the same powers of witchcraft and chaos magic that made his mother one of the most powerful beings in the entire Marvel universe. 

Unlike Wanda, the origin of Billy's powers are unclear, considering he technically doesn't have any of the Scarlet Witch's DNA although he has access to her arsenal of magical abilities, including reality manipulation, teleportation, and transmutation. Additionally, considering the character's age, Wiccan has a lot of growth to accomplish before he ever reaches Wanda's level of power. 

Wiccan's not only hugely popular with younger comic reader given his status as an LGBTQIA+ superhero fans might not know about, but he's especially popular now after debuting in the MCU series "Agatha All Along," played by Joe Locke. While he may not be the strongest magic-user in Marvel Comics, he's impressive enough in-universe to warrant Strange considering him as a potential replacement for Sorcerer Supreme. 

Many younger fans of DC Comics were probably first introduced to Raven via "Teen Titans," one of the best Cartoon Network shows from the 2000s. With her iconic blue cape and goth aesthetic and as the daughter of an inter-species relationship between the demon Trigon and a human woman Raven is one of the most significant member of DC's younger roster of heroes. However, she possesses a pretty key weakness in the fact that the use of her powers makes her susceptible to being controlled by Trigon. 

Nevertheless, even under Trigon's control, Raven remains a formidable sorceress in the DC universe, capable of high-powered spell-casting including hypnosis, astral projection, as well as the unique ability to increase the presence of one of the seven deadly sins in any living creature. She's also capable of using chaos magic, but in DC it works a little differently than it does in Marvel Comics, simply allowing magic-users to utilize their powers without the need for incantation, though it can still have detrimental side-effects. It's ultimately not surprising that Raven is beloved by DC fans, given that she's pretty much the closest thing the franchise has to its own Scarlet Witch. 

Has there been a superhero movie casting more wasted than Anya Taylor-Joy as Illyana Rasputina in "The New Mutants," a middling movie that only works with lowered expectations? Illyana, also known by her superhero alias "Magik," is a mutant who first appeared in "Giant-Size X-Men" in 1975, the younger sister of Colossus who spent most of her childhood training in the ways of magic while imprisoned in the pocket dimension Limbo. Although her latent mutant power is the ability to teleport, that barely scratches the surface of how strong Illyana becomes in the comics.

Among Illyana's magical expertise includes the realm of black magic, which she learned from the demon Belasco in Limbo, and later became a mentee of Doctor Strange. Her most iconic weapon is the Soulsword, a blade made entirely of eldritch magic that becomes more powerful the more frequently she uses. This sword is especially useful against other Marvel magicians, given it only affects mystical creatures, not actual humans.

Despite being one of Marvel's most impressive and promising magicians, Magik didn't get her first ongoing series until 2024, which capitalized on the character's popularity from both the "X-Men" comics as well as "Marvel Rivals," in which Illyana appears as a playable character. Though she has yet to make a proper MCU debut yet, hopefully it won't be long into the franchise's proper reboot of the "X-Men," and maybe they can corral Taylor-Joy back to do the character justice. 

Zatanna makes this list on two counts: 1) she happens to be one of the most powerful magic users in the history of DC Comics, and 2) her day job is being an actual stage magician. Zatanna was born with latent magical abilities which she inherited from her mother, and learned the ways of performing magic while traveling with her father. She gets caught up in the affairs of DC superheroes when both her mother and father go missing, in which she first crosses paths with the likes of Hawkgirl, Green Lantern, and Batman.

As of the 1979 run of "Justice League of America," Zatanna was a full-fledged member of the team alongside staples like Wonder Woman and Superman, but even in that incarnation of the team, Zatanna wasn't at her strongest. She also has a pretty significant weakness given that her most proficient form of magic is "logomancy," requiring her to utter spells backwards in order to cast them, which can be prevented if she's somehow unable to speak, and she's even experienced a decline in her strength the more frequently she uses magic.

Despite these weaknesses, even in her most diminished form of power, Zatanna is capable of manipulating the elements and levitating objects, but at her highest, she can cross dimensions, alter reality, and summon eldritch magic. She's definitely the next DC superhero who deserves a movie, even though DC Studios cancelled Emerald Fennell's planned "Zatanna" project.

It may seem misguided to label Wonder Woman as a "magic" superhero, but that's because the character exists in a strange limbo between being a human and a deity. As one of the most iconic superheroes in the history of the genre, the character originated as Princess Diana of Themyscira, a remote island of immortal Amazonian women. She eventually comes to the United States to aid an American pilot during World War II and becomes a staple of the Justice League and a defender of mankind. 

Powers-wise, Wonder Woman's most notable abilities include the basics: super-strength, super-speed, and immortality. However, her ties to the Greek pantheon of gods also bestow her with a few key magical abilities as well. She's not only in possession of mystical weaponry (Lasso of Truth, Bracelets of Submission, Hephaestus' Sword), but Wonder Woman's DC Comics powers have also included a proficiency in forms of witchcraft, eldritch spell-casting, and reality manipulation, though rarely, if ever, are these powers permanent. 

Maybe it's not a fair comparison to put this incredibly powerful and world-beloved hero against some more proper magic users from Marvel and DC, but frankly, that'd be a disservice to possibly DC's greatest superheroine who has her own, albeit unconventional, connection to magic. "Weak" and "Wonder Woman" simply just don't belong in the same sentence together. More importantly, this is a good opportunity to remind everyone that Adria Arjona should play her in James Gunn's DC universe. 

It was only a matter of time before Marvel's Master of the Mystic Arts properly showed up on this list. Stephen Strange began his story as a successful neurosurgeon who, after a devastating car accident, seeks an obscure medical treatment in the Himalayas. There, he encounters the Ancient One, Earth's Sorcerer Supreme, whose duty is to protect the world from supernatural threats and abusive forces in the realm of magic and mysticism. Following the Ancient One's death, Strange inherits the role of Sorcerer Supreme, becoming Marvel's foremost expert on all things magic.

Not only is Strange one of the strongest heroes in Marvel Comics, as well as one of the strongest Avengers in the MCU, but in some comic book storylines, his powers reach limitless potentials. Omnipotent beings in the Marvel universe have been known to fear Doctor Strange and his mastery of many different forms of magic, including the volatile black magic and chaos magic. However, Strange's status as a noble hero makes him wary of using this type of unreliable and frankly dangerous magic. 

Still, it's rare to find super-powered individuals whose powers stretch beyond the limits of beings like Celestials, making him on par strength-wise with god or god-like beings, including Thor and Thanos. As far as Strange's weaknesses go, aside from the various physical toll of using dark forms of magic, Strange's biggest detriment to his own powers is probably his own arrogance, which at the very least isn't unearned.

Deciding who is stronger, Doctor Strange or Doctor Fate, can really be a toss-up depending on which comic iteration you're basing your judgement off of. In his original introduction from 1940, Doctor Fate was literally created by elder gods and placed on Earth as a defender against evil, not dissimilar to the origin of Superman albeit without the trauma. His origin is later revealed to Fate by the Mesopotamian god Nabu, who helps train Fate, at that point believing himself to be archaeologist Kent Nelson, into becoming a future founding member of the Justice Society. 

Because of his ties to elder gods, Doctor Fate is not a spell-caster, but can simply summon magic at will like a Green Lantern. Some of his equipment, like the Cloak of Destiny and Amulet of Thoth, give him the ability to fly and help him focus his magic abilities, making him more efficient and powerful. Doctor Fate is not immortal, with certain incarnations of the character finding their powers decrease as they age. 

Ultimately, it remains to be seen if this mystical DC superhero will be present in James Gunn's DCU, but if he is, he'll be quite the addition to any Justice League team. After all, he was arguably the best thing in 2022's "Black Adam," portrayed by mister 007 himself Pierce Brosnan, 

Wanda Maximoff, aka the Scarlet Witch, has lived many lives in the Marvel universe, initially introduced as a member of Magneto's Brotherhood of Evil Mutants with her twin brother Pietro, aka Quicksilver. Eventually, the twins switch sides and join the X-Men, and later even became prominent Avengers. However, Wanda's also notable for her powers being far beyond even her own control, resulting in iconic comic book storylines like "House of M" and "The Trial of Magneto." 

While MCU fans got a taste of this with "WandaVision" and "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness," those films don't even scratch the surface of how powerful Wanda gets in the comics. Canonically, Wanda is a Nexus Being, meaning she's capable of effortlessly harnessing the likes of chaos magic and reality warping, but she also has control over entire multiverses and timelines, too. That's on top of her being one of the most proficient witches in the history of Earth-616, having studied under the great Agatha Harkness.

Some may argue that Wanda's superpowers don't quite make sense, that's probably because it seem as the character's comic book history has continued, she's only grown more and more overpowered. If Elizabeth Olsen decides to return as Marvel's Scarlet Witch, there are boundless story opportunities for the fan-favorite character to journey.