Summary

• From angels to demons, Supernatural's strongest characters continuously upped the ante with bigger villains and power struggles.
• Budget constraints limited the show's ability to depict powerful characters in action, relying on storytelling and threats to convey strength.
• Despite the formidable foes faced, all villains were ultimately bested by the unyielding force of Sam and Dean Winchester.

From angels to demons to a pair of brothers looking to keep them in check, Supernatural's strongest characters have added a lot of power to the show. Supernatural spent years building to a Biblical apocalypse. Over the course of decades, the Winchesters battled every monster imaginable - from the freak-of-the-week style ghosts and ghouls that didn't take much to kill to the world-ending threats of the later seasons. One of the more impressive things, of course, is that the show managed to continually build to bigger villains and characters, even long after having the boys battle the Devil himself.

The other curious thing about Supernatural is that it’s a paranormal procedural show about powerful characters, but the budget is usually too low to depict them in action. Fans meet a lot of monsters who claim they can reduce the Earth to a charred ball of flame, but the audience pretty much has to take their word for it. Based on their threats, stories, history, and what is seen, though - some of Supernatural's strongest characters stand out as the most powerful of them all.

20 Crowley

King Of Hell

Crowley showed his power through sheer pragmatism and cleverness. In the wake of the power vacuum following the canceled apocalypse, Crowley snuck in and appointed himself the King of Hell, keeping hold of that position for most of his time on the show. Throughout his reign, he proved himself to be a good strategist. He knows how to keep a low profile when a bigger threat appears. He’s always looking for ways to consolidate his power through souls, tablets, and alliances with stronger people.

His death in the end showed that he could be weakened and destroyed.

Crowley shouldn't be downplayed as one of Supernatural's strongest characters; he’s still much more powerful than the average demon. Season 8 was the one time he got to be the Supernatural from beginning to end, and while he eventually became an ally to the Winchesters, his power as an enemy shouldn't be forgotten. However, his death in the end showed that he could be weakened and destroyed.

19 Alpha Vampire

Alpha

The Alphas are the oldest and most powerful of Supernatural's strongest characters, and Crowley spent season 6 gathering them up. One, and only one, was wily enough to escape: the Alpha Vampire. The Alpha Vampire was introduced in a memorably spooky hallucination Dean had in “Live Free or Twihard,” but he wasn't truly seen in his element until season 7.

Left alone, the Alpha wears impeccable suits and hangs out in a lavish mansion. However, he can be more involved in the action and even temporarily aligns himself with Sam and Dean, so he can hang onto those nice trappings. One of the more amusing loose ends in Supernatural was the Alpha’s promise that he’d see Sam and Dean “next season.” The character promptly disappeared from the show for many years, before Sam finally killed him in Season 12’s “The Lair.”

18 Rowena

Witch

Rowena started out as a stronger-than-average witch, but made herself into one of Supernatural’s most fearsome characters when she got hold of the Book of the Damned. She’s used it to warp reality, turn characters into her own personal attack dogs, and even dispel the Mark of Cain. Fortunately, circumstances and even more powerful villains often forced Rowena into an uneasy alliance with the Winchesters and Crowley.

Having such a power player on their team helped the Winchester brothers in a number of difficult scenarios, even if her help was reluctant. In the end, she became an ally and mentor to Sam, and the Ruler of Hell. In addition to her power, Rowena had alliances with other witches and covens across the world. There really aren’t many characters who can say they survived two direct eliminations at the hands of Lucifer himself.

17 Lilith

The First Demon

Lilith spent an entire year traveling the globe and triggering the apocalypse, one seal at a time. Sam paid an enormous personal cost to become powerful enough to finish Lilith. Yet she was only a harbinger of what was to come. In Supernatural’s mythology, Lilith has the distinction of being the first demon turned by Lucifer. When she came to Earth and walked among humanity, she found a favorite pastime: possessing little girls and forcing them to torment their families.

Using Ruby, she frayed the bond between the Winchesters, and even personally unleashed a hellhound on Dean. Sam was so determined to get revenge, he spent a season corrupting himself via the Demon Blood Diet. Lilith is memorable, but mostly because of what’s done in her name rather than her own actions with others carrying out more impressive feats.

16 Abaddon

Knight Of Hell

Abaddon was one of Supernatural's strongest characters in season 9, but perhaps one who suffered from faults in the show's storytelling. She was brought into a season that already had a lot of big elements, from an angelic civil war to Gadreel possessing Sam. Though she initially arrived in the present timeline of Supernatural to take on Sam and Dean, she eventually abandoned those plans for a less interesting war against Crowley to restore Hell in the way she felt it should be.

Those stories may have hampered her reputation, but Abaddon's power is still noteworthy. The character was the longest-living and most powerful of Cain’s Knights of Hell, rampaging her way through the centuries. She survived a decapitation and comes back for more later. Just to have a chance in the fight against her, Dean was forced to take on the dreaded Mark of Cain - an act that had huge implications for the following seasons. It took the Mark of Cain and the First Blade for Dean to kill Abaddon once and for all.

15 Cain

The Original Criminal

The original Knight of Hell, the one who trained Abaddon and the others, is enough proof of Cain's powers. He was the Cain of Biblical Cain and Abel legend, and the circumstances of his fratricide are more complicated than what is presented in the Bible.

He ended his brother’s life to ensure he would get into Heaven and, at the urging of Lucifer, took on the Mark of Cain in order to seal away The Darkness. Cain took his own life, but the Mark resurrected him and made him into the most feared demon in the history of Earth.

He eventually mastered his violent impulses and led a life of quiet solitude, but after a meeting with Dean, his evilness returned and he began exterminating his entire line of descendants before putting a stop to him. Cain was a breakout character in the midst of the chaotic ninth season, and his return was a genuine highlight of the lower-key season 10. Fans didn’t see much of this guy, but he made a strong impression in just two episodes.

14 Eve

Mother Of All Monsters

Eve spawned every single Alpha monster in her time on Earth, then hung out in Purgatory as her descendants overran the planet. She mysteriously returned halfway through the sixth season, and it was several episodes before fans found out why. Like many things in latter-day Supernatural, it was all about Crowley. It was a surprising bit of plotting, setting Eve up as a new Lucifer-level villain only to dispatch her three episodes before the end of the season and reveal Crowley and Castiel as the true villains.

Crowley and Castiel were far more personal antagonists for the Winchesters in the end. Eve as a presence was powerful, but Eve as a character didn’t really make much of an impression until Mary Winchester assumed the role in her final scene. There was still some untapped potential with the character, but she spent her time on Supernatural creating new monsters like the Khan Worms and the Jefferson Starships.

13 Raphael

Archangel

The youngest of the four archangels, Raphael was mainly seen as a bright light any time someone threatened the prophet, Chuck. His proper introduction in season 5’s “Free to Be You and Me” drenched the entire Eastern seaboard in a powerful rainstorm, and they made a lot of solemn declarations about fate and the apocalypse. The character proceeded to completely disappear from the fifth season.

When it came time to introduce a villain in season 6, the writers had Raphael in their back pocket. In of character, they are also quite lacking. However, Raphael is a sort of conduit for great scenes and episodes. Castiel’s descent into darkness began when Raphael beat him up in front of everybody in Heaven. The character rarely appeared, considering they are such a major villain, but conveyed menace, power, and unflexible fanaticism in the brief time onscreen. It took an overpowered Castiel to kill the archangel.

12 Gabriel

The Trickster

The Trickster, with his wicked sense of humor and ability to warp reality, was responsible for some of Supernatural’s best and most entertaining early episodes. The character had already become a fan favorite by the time he met his end in the fifth season, and even though the future would bring episodes that were Trickster-esque in spirit, the character himself was sorely missed.

Fans of The Trickster celebrated the character’s return in Season 13 although, given what he’d been through, his sense of humor was not what it used to be. There was more to The Trickster than what met the eye. The Trickster was revealed to be Gabriel, one of the four archangels.

Retroactively his encounters with Sam and Dean were revealed to be offbeat life lessons. In of power, he was the one character in season 5 who even came close to finishing off Lucifer. It took Lucifer using the Archangel Blade to finally kill Gabriel.

11 Metatron

Angel Tablet Power-Up

Everything about Metatron seemed designed to make the audience underestimate him. Even when he betrayed Castiel in the season 8 finale, he still seemed too cuddly to be a real threat. However, he harnessed the power of the Angel Tablets to enact sweeping changes across Heaven and Earth. He kicked all the angels out of Heaven, he kept human souls from ascending, and he eventually went down to Earth in order to assume a role as the new God.

He ended up in jail, and he made a few desperate grabs for power. Ultimately, Metatron was redeemed when he convinced God to start paying attention to humanity again.

Metatron hung around for a couple more seasons as a shadow of his former self. He ended up in jail, and he made a few desperate grabs for power. Ultimately, Metatron was redeemed when he convinced God to start paying attention to humanity again. As a further testament to how powerful he was, it took the overpowered Amara to kill the angel.