Ok, my take on this is going to be little different. I am focusing on character makers with an really good imagination and what is possible. It is easy to say, hey, here is a character that his ability is he can do anything he wants and is the master of all reality. there, done. But, how would that work, silver surfer has "power cosmic" which is what exactly? and lets face it, Batman is a creep who is emotionally disturbed and would be a big baby because he was raised by an employee. Since Superman gets his power from the sun, he would be about as powerful as a small bush. (and I like the Superman character). Bruce Banner would die of cancer in a really short time.... etc... The other problem is consistency. Sometimes many writers change powers, personalities, and intelligence to suit their preferences and story line so it is difficult to tell what a character can really do or not. Or, there is no frame of reference like Dr Manhattan. Does his powers extend to the limits of the universe or does he have to be present? Is there a limit on how many ergs he can summon up at one time? If not, why didn't he win Vietnam in a second instead of how it went down? So many variables and unanswered questions. So, I am looking for something that is plausible and could really be out there. Something that someone has really put a lot of thought into. I came across the writings of Fredric Pohl (?spl) who was a science fiction writer. In the book the world at the end of time he created a being named Wan-to. He is a star that among the trillions in the universe randomly had a pattern of plasma that was able to become conscious. He is able to marshal all the powers of a star to his will. Lets put just this against ol Dr Manhattan. First bath him in a tachyon stream, then ionize his individual atoms and then magnetically hold them individually - potentially forever or shoot them in a plasma stream individually away to the ends of the universe or since he is a star, fuse those atoms into other elements destroying their nature. Its one thing to walk on the sun but quite another to have it out to get you.
He also has the ability to form the intelligent pattern into other stars cloning himself. (a mistake he made when he was younger. He got paranoid that his children were out to get him and started a galactic war of stars) or make dumber copies that are more easily controlled potentially turning all the stars in the galaxy into zombie killers - or other galaxies too as he has more than once transferred his essence out of his current galaxy into another star to escape his children or the heat death of the universe. (Dude! you got to read this book!) so, it is impossible to tell which star is him or not. He can make other stars flare or if the situation requires it, can turn objects other than stars into his servants such as planets. But he tries not to do this too much because solid matter is just slow, yucky, and kind of stupid compared to the literally enlightened ones. So, superman is asleep, Wan-to (who never sleeps) turns the Earth sentient and tells it to do his light work. End of comic strip. In the book, he made a cluster of stars accelerate to near the speed of light and then just forgot about it until a planet he made signaled him looking for guidance trillions (if not more) years later.
So , Wan-to has my vote for most powerful fictional character. Someone who, if he really wanted to, could turn everything in the universe against you. Good luck.
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