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Both of these characters have caused Superman no end of torment, and a case can be made for either as his most constant cosmic-level enemy. Difference being Mxyz only wants to torment the Man of Steel for pure fun; Darkseid does so basically because he's an embodiment of evil Tyranny, and Superman being an embodiment of Hope is abhorrent to him.

Supes and Mxyz have never really met in a full on "physical" battle; the Imp most often can't even be touched by the hero. Darkseid's "avatar bodies" have faced Superman time and again, sometimes whipping the floor with the Kryptonian with ease... other times getting his over-sized, overbearing, overly confident Apokalyptian @$$ handed to him with gift wrapping.

I'm uncertain if Darkseid and Mxyz themselves , however, have ever truly battled... but considering both are extra-dimensional beings of near limitless, barely fathomable, incredible power (Darkseid enough to exist outside the Crisis reboots, Mxyz enough to destroy the very concepts of words and their meanings from existence)... I wondered who would (most likely) win if they went all out. Both beings have shown capable of manipulating aspects of Reality, Space, Energy, Matter and Time, but to different effects. I do know that when Darkseid found out Mxyz was part of the simplified Anti-Life equation, he went either mad or depressed.

Has there ever been a definitive battle between the two?

If so, who won?

It may be somewhat speculative, but are there any feats which may fairly show their comparative power levels to each other?

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I don't believe Darkseid has ever fought Mxyzptlk himself, but he and the Quintessence were brought under the Joker's thrall when the Joker had acquired 99.9% of Mxy's power.

Superman - Emperor Joker 001 028

Superman - Emperor Joker 001 029

This occurred in the Superman: Emperor Joker storyline, where the powered up Joker nearly destroyed the entire DC multiverse, and was depicted as being beyond even the Spectre in power.

Superman - The Man of Steel 105 015

Superman - The Man of Steel 105 016

Superman - The Man of Steel 105 017

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  • Good find! But wow, that writing is childish.
    – TylerH
    Commented Jul 1, 2020 at 15:41
  • I have a number of issues from this series; it's where I learned Myxz could literally destroy "ideas" and eradicate them from the world. This was just one of Darkseid's avatars, though, not the "Full powered, fundamental force" of Darkseid him/itself. There's no evidence that if DS pulled this Joker into his domain if the results would have been altered. Also, its implied that Joker's innate "madness" was somehow "amplifying" Myxz's power at the time, hence his feats seeming so much more potent than the stuff the imp has done previously.
    – Russhiro
    Commented Jul 1, 2020 at 20:23
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    @Russhiro How can you tell that was only an avatar of Darkseid, and not the genuine article? Also, what leads you to believe that Emperor Joker was more powerful than Mxyzptlk? It was clearly stated that he had 99.9% of Mxy's power, so unless he was drawing on an additional power source, he couldn't have had access to more power than Mxy does. Mxy also explained why he doesn't normally perform feats on that scale himself: "I actually grasp the concept that if you obliterate reality, then there's nobody left to play with! The Joker, however, doesn't care! He's a homicidal maniac!"
    – LogicDictates
    Commented Jul 1, 2020 at 23:28
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    @LogicDictates, in Final Crisis, it was revealed that Darkseid's true form is a higher dimensional one, one that cannot be accommodated within the lower dimensions that the DC multiverse exists in, such that when Darkseid's true form falls through the multiverse, it begins the collapse of the multiverse. Hence, it couldn't have been true Darkseid.
    – Satyajit Sen
    Commented Aug 28, 2020 at 14:16
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    I don't know if Trigon is stronger than Darkseid (I'd like to believe that he is, but I have no proof), but I remember accidentally stumbling on panels on which Mxyzptlk was holding his own against Trigon to save Superman. That's something too.
    – Clockwork
    Commented Mar 27, 2021 at 20:21

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