It’s hard to believe any character - even some of the literal gods who appear in comics - can be comparable to Watchmen’s Dr. Manhattan’s in terms of their level of power. Though he was once the human Jon Osterman, Dr. Manhattan now exists as a nigh-omnipotent being of pure energy; a god-like figure capable of manipulating reality and matter, and of inspiring both awe and terror. Not an easy act to follow, but for a few issues in 2002, one Green Lantern actually edges out big blue.
In the “Hand of God” Green Lantern storyline, written by Judd Winick and pencilled by Jamal Igle, Kyle Rayner has become Ion; a being who is one with nearly all the power of the Green Lantern Corps; a power which was once held by thousands of ring-slingers across the galaxy. In this moment in time, Kyle Rayner - Ion - has reached an (arguably) unprecedented level of omnipotence in DC Comics.
The scope of his actions in the galaxy is virtually limitless. He can simultaneously be drawing comics in his apartment, materializing food in Uganda, preventing a drive-by shooting down the block, stopping a truck from crashing into a packed supermarket in Mexico, stopping a bank robbery in London, stopping a tractor from sliding down a cliff in Iowa - and that’s just on Earth. Meanwhile he fixes the bay doors of an orbiting space shuttle, scuttles an alien mutiny, and ends a civil war on the distant planet of Tendax. Moreover, he can literally be watching every world in the galaxy, every minute of every day. He is unbound by space and time, the only limitation on his power is his will.
Ion also comes equipped with a whole array of secondary powers that aren’t exactly unimpressive, such as the ability to be absolutely undetectable by molding space/time around him, manipulating sound waves as he wishes, unlocking the full potential of his brain and materializing physical matter. What’s more, no longer requiring sleep, he can change the chemical composition of soil to make it fertile, and he can read minds. Basically anything that is energy (which atomically is everything in the known universe) is something he can manipulate at will.
He can exist in multiple segments of time, meaning that he can occupy the present laterally, and slip into the past as an observer or as a participant. He can hold all the threads of time in his hand and change what happened without altering everything that will be. In other words - and this sounds paradoxical - he could keep Martha and Thomas Wayne from being killed, but still make sure Bruce Wayne becomes Batman. Sound impossible? It is for Dr. Manhattan, otherwise Rorschach’s death at the end of the original graphic novel could have been avoided altogether, for example. But not for Ion apparently. And this is where he definitively edges out Manhattan. If Ion so desired, he could go back to that fateful day when Jon Osterman’s physical body was torn apart inside the intrinsic field generator, and stop it from ever happening, ostensibly with no collateral consequences to the present. All of this, by the way, is corroborated by another of DC’s near omnipotent characters, the literal “Spirit of Redemption” Hal Jordan’s Spectre.
In Green Lantern issue #149, readers see that even Superman believes Kyle has grown too powerful and overstepped his bounds as a superhero. As Ion, he has transcended the role of protector, and become a savior. In his discussion with Kyle, Superman makes another interesting point: that humanity must be the one to help humanity, and that if this dynamic is altered by an all-powerful being, then people are no longer living, they are being kept. In that instance, admiration turns to worship. The fact of the matter is, Kyle has transformed himself into a living deity, walking among the people of the galaxy. In the long run, this will represent a permanent change to the cosmological order of the universe.
Ultimately, Kyle decides to relinquish his godhood by reigniting the central Green Lantern battery on Oa and creating life by resurrecting a new generation of Oan Guardians. He returns to his status as Green Lantern of sector 2814 and a member of the Justice League. Perhaps this last part is the best argument as to how Ion is more powerful than Dr. Manhattan. After all, Dr. Manhattan cannot choose to return to the way things were before his transformation, while retaining all of his experiences. Jon Osterman was destroyed in the creation of Dr. Manhattan, Kyle Rayner was not. His power was so great, so limitless, he had the choice to give it up.
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