Its also a silly comparison because as the decades have passed by they kept rewriting all the super heros, particularly superman and making them stronger and stronger. There's no consistency. The original superman couldn't even fly and now superman is basically immortal and impossible to kill. 40k has been pretty consistent throughout.
Over time DC has significantly nerfed Superman and Flash and many others. There was a time long, long ago where Superman was so over powered it was absurd. He had Super everything.
Silver Age Superman was literally an Unstoppable God.
Powers and abilities: Superhuman Physical Characteristics, Regeneration, Flight, Time Travel, Super Breath, Freeze Breath, Can absorb solar energy, Heat Vision, Microscopic Vision, Telescopic Vision, X-Ray Vision, Telekinesis, Can invent new Super Powers such as: Super-Hypnosis, Super-Knitting, Super-Weaving, Super-Mathematics, Super-Ventriloquism, Super-Landscaping, Super-Friction, Super Sneeze, Super-Makeup, Super-Kiss.
Attack Potency: Universe level (Pushed himself towards the center of the Big Bang, and destroyed a structure that had withstood the event. Fought against Darklord Maaldor, whose evil power was so great that upon dying he created an entire new universe. Stronger than Supergirl. Comparable to Captain Marvel, who has defeated Invincible Man). Likely beyond universal (It was heavily implied that the Sword of Superman made him one with the universe throughout all time)
Speed: Massively FTL. Could cross the universe in seconds, and the multiverse in minutes. Tied in a running race across the galaxy against the Flash. Flew to a long dead universe in seconds to safely sneeze. Nigh-Omnipresent.
Lifting Strength: At the very least Galactic, most likely beyond Universal. Endured the gravity and weight of heavy-mass galaxies. Also has multiple showings where he practically tosses around planets with ease, has also thrown spaceships to another galaxy, picked up and thrown neutron stars, towed planets across space.
Striking Strength: Universal.
Durability: Universe level (Survived the Big Bang. Took hits from Maldoor. Took hits from Darkstarr. Was hit with the power of 100 Galaxies and was only slightly surprised)
Stamina: Incredibly high but has been shown to tire when fighting incredibly strong opponents
Intelligence: Supergenius intellect (Smarter than supercomputers, can build advanced robot and technologies, vast knowledge on aliens and the universe, can understand all languages). Nigh-Omniscient.
Most Powerful Feats:
- A sneeze from Superman destroyed an entire solar system.
- Superman was so powerful that he could easily move a star with just his breath.
- He could close a Boom-Tube with his bare hands.
- He was able to eat molten metal.
- Superman toyed around with an enraged Hulk like he was a child in a crossover.
- He could move the entire Earth like a ping-pong ball.
- He was able to fly at such speeds, that he could enter hyperspace effortlessly.
- Superman was so powerful that he could alter time itself without even trying.
- He was able to travel trillions of miles in seconds without exerting any effort at all.
- He easily threw a neutron star several light years away. He claimed that the star weighed Trillions of tons and that it exerted a magnetic pull greater then dozens of Supernovas, but this didn’t affect him in the slightest.
- Superman threw moon-sized balls of ice at the Earth, when all of its oceans had been dried up.
- He was able to fly through the time barrier and go millions of years into the past on a whim.
- Supes brushed off the explosion of a nuclear warhead which could have vaporized the entire East coast.
- Clark could move so fast that he appeared invisible.
- With the sword in his hand, Supeman's cape deflected the most powerful blast that King Kosmos could muster. It was a blast that could have altered reality itself, yet it was blocked by Superman’s clothing.
- Superman (after nearly killing King Kosmos out of anger) decided that this sword, which was present at the dawn of time, could not be controlled as a seperate entity, so at this point he actually started to merge with the sword. Superman remarked that it had power which he had never felt. Before Superman completely merged himself with infinity (the sword), he stopped just as he got to its hilt, and decided that he no longer needed to merge with the sword, so he threw the remainder of it into deep space. The reason for this is that, in the midst of fusing with the sword, he heard a godly voice (either Jor-El or God himself), and this voice spoke of Superman's greatness.
- “Your greatness among living things is assured. So shall it EVER be”. Had Superman merged with this sword, he would have become one with all of the universe.
- Superman displayed his super-intellect by learning a long dead, yet incredibly sophisticated language (which he had never heard before); instantly.
- Supes caught meteorites, and moved around planet-sized asteroids effortlessly.
- Not even the Flash was swift enough to punch Superman.
- The Guardians sent Superman on a special mission to preserve the Galactic Balance of Nature. Superman was not at full power during this event, as the part of the Galaxy he flew through was full of red stars. Despite this, Superman was still strong enough to make a small planet by fusing meteorites together, and then proceeded to move it.
- Superman intercepted a bomb that was meant to destroy the Earth and wasn’t harmed at all.
- A Supernova only dazed Superman for a microsecond. He then found himself in an unknown solar system and proceeded to drill his way to the center of a planet.
- Superman could actually create a tiny version of himself, an avatar so to speak, which was endowed with all of his powers (but he loses his powers if he does so).
- Superman one time defeated the Galactic Golem. The Galactic Golem is the monstrous result of Lex Luthor’s attempt to create life by collecting galactic matter into the form of a man. Infusing his creation with a hunger for the hyper-stellar energy that made its creation possible. During this battle Superman uses the Golem’s own energy-radiation to speed up his vibrations and shift every living thing on the Earth to another dimensional plane.
- Superman balanced a replica of the Empire State building with just his pinky.
- Superman’s Fortress of Solitude contained an entire solar system that he created by himself.
- Kryptonians could travel between universes at will.
- Superman and Power Girl easily defeated creatures that had conquered entire worlds.
- Maaldor, a powerful cosmic being who had existed for billions of years and conquered an entire universe, refered to Superman and Power Girl as the two most powerful beings in the multiverse. He tries to kill Power Girl, then Superman fought him, narration stated that Maaldor shrugged off attacks that could reduce a planet to rubble, and replied with attacks that had been used for just that purpose. Superman was fine, and it turned out that Power Girl survived.
- Superman and Power Girl tricked Maaldor into confronting his own soul which caused him to self-destruct and create an entire new universe from the remains of his energy. Superman sealed off that universe from the rest of the multiverse with his heat vision.
- A rogue Superboy robot grabbed Superman and flew him thousands of miles into space in a fraction of a second, then flung him faster than light across the solar system. He couldn't turn around until he reaches Uranus, but he still got back in only a matter of minutes.
- Superman contained a nuclear bomb with his cape.
- Superman contained a supernova explosion.
- Was only knocked back slightly by a gravitational force that could move a planet.
- Used some extra energy to reignite a dying Sun.
- Casually flew past galaxies in seconds.
- Superman moved a star with his breath.
- Superman turned a piece of coal into a diamond by altering it’s molecular pattern.
- Fired a beam of heat hotter than the sun from his own eyes which is capable of starting up stars, and even sealing holes within reality.
- Could move stars and planets with his super-breath. And could also freeze planets and stars alike with it.