Pre-Crisis Villians more powerful than Superman

[TELLE]

Kryptonite Kid/Man and Dog?

Metalo

 https://www.supermanthroughtheages.com/wiki/index.php/Metalo

[Bregh]

Amazo is another one. I don't think Kal-El ever defeated him without having to employ wits over brawn.

[MatterEaterLad]

I guess that the brains and brawn always seemed a package for me when I think of how powerful Supes was...

[Super Monkey]

No, the name of the thread isn't which Pre-Crisis Villians smarter than Superman.  :wink:

Superman never lost his IQ when he lost his powers. See all those red sun, green sun stories.

Only when writers made him dumber to fit the story. :wink:

Or rebooted him that way forever... but that doesn't count.

[MatterEaterLad]

Well, the Flame Dragon flew with wings on Krypton, was it a faster flyer than Supes on Earth...was its flame hotter than a million suns or just an ordinary flame that could cause fires but affect a Kryptonian like Superman as well?  Sorry, I always used to think about things like that, it always seemed to me that when Kryptonians had such powers magnified to such scales, that the differences in size on the original world would be comparatively small and outweighed by the smarter opponent...

[Uncle Mxy]

Amazo is another one. I don't think Kal-El ever defeated him without having to employ wits over brawn.

I was gonna say Amazo when someone brought up Composite Superman, but I think of DC's favorite Super-Adaptoid as more of a JLA villain than a Superman one.

[Captain Kal]

Amazo started out as a JLA foe, but he had at least two Superman-specific storylines.  He's even included in the DCH RPG Superman Sourcebook as a Superman villain in the Pre Crisis days.

[llozymandias]

Whenever Superman lost his powers, he also lost his super-intelligence.  With his powers he is a super-genius, without them he is a genius.

     
     Darkseid was at most Superman's equal in power.  Lord Satanis (like most magic-using villains) was nowhere near as powerful as Superman.  If Superman were not vulnerable to magic,  Satanis would be ineffective against Superman.   Amazo seemed to be only slightly more powerful than Superman.  Mongul was slightly stronger than Superman, but not as invulnerable.  The Composite Superman was definetely more powerful.  Joe Meach had the power of two kryptonians (Superboy & Supergirl), one daxamite (Mon-El), & Ultraboy.  With the powers of several other legionaires thrown in.