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Godhood is more than a name. It is a condition of being.... Being a god is the quality of being able to be yourself to such an extent that your passions correspond with the forces of the universe, so that those who look upon you know this without hearing your name spoken.... One rules through one's ruling passion. Those who look upon gods then say, without even knowing their names, "He is Fire. She is Dance. He is Destruction. She is Love."
I'm not normally a praying man, but if you're up there... please save me, Superman!
One step below being one of the Powers That Be. Occasionally shares space with The Great Gazoo. They usually start out as a Power That Is but gradually the plot drives them downward.
Mythology often depicted gods as "human, but bigger." Similar emotions, virtues, vices, etc. but with more power. Special effects and global story-telling exposure has expanded the concept. Gods are often humanoid (easier for actors to portray them) and have a number of powers. The difference between them and non-divine characters is they don't have to be " balanced" in terms of other characters.
Typical god powers and traits can include:
- Nigh Invulnerability - They can get physically hit occasionally, but no real physical damage will occur without a Deus Ex Machina or a MacGuffin. (See Implacable Man.)
- Super Strength
- Telekinesis
- Shoot fireballs/lightning
- Teleportation and/or Flight
- Power to alter reality at will, generally in limited areas or in ways relating to their attunement— see below.
- Limited Omniscience: They can be aware of what's going on in a general area, but they have to pay attention to it. So it's possible to surprise them.
- Attunement to concept: ie, Aphrodite the Goddess of Love is attuned to love, naturally. If fewer people love, then she's weakened. If she's hurt or weakened due to some plot reason, fewer people love. Not all gods have attunements, and the level of attunement depends on the writer at the time. Which may overlap with...
- Gods Need Prayer Badly: Their power may be directly proportional to the number of worshipers they have, or to the strength of their followers' belief.
- Immortality: They usually don't age, but can be killed - although it's incredibly difficult to do so and usually takes a great deal of effort or some special item to do so. If enough people still believe in them, they may be brought back to life - although they may have lost their memories or be forced to take a new form.
Interestingly, Superman fills most of these requirements. Err, except possibly the worship bit. Depending on how strictly you define worship.
In other fiction, characters who may not strictly be Gods may get powers like these simply because, in a place where Everyone Is A Super, then the only way you can really mount a truly serious threat to a world with millions of superpowered civilians is to give the baddies even more absurdly powerful abilities.
Sometimes, a human can become a Physical God, especially if it's possible for said gods to die.
The existence of a Physical God presents a superficial difficulty to a Flat Earth Atheist; however, the problem can be overcome by distinguishing a Physical God from whatever Powers That Be might or might not exist in the universe (considering the former to be "merely" ultra-powerful beings not different in principle from anybody else who happens to be immortal and omnipotent, and applying the label "god" only to the latter. The non-trivial difficulty in determining the difference when such beings can only be viewed from a limited human scale is often brushed under the rug). Smarter Flat Earth Atheists will turn into Nay Theists instead.
Compare Anthropomorphic Personification. See also Our Gods Are Greater and Humans Are Cthulhu, for when Puny Earthlings are this. When all that power amounts to nothing, see, Omni Impotence. God Job is when a mortal gets to become this.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- In Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha, Vivio is suggested to be one of these, though instead of being called an actual god, she's the "Vessel of the Saint", which is pretty analogous to being a God as far as the Church, and the plot, is concerned.
- Rei Ayanami, once completely unbound. In the penultimate episodes, she swept aside Tabris's AT field like it was nothing, and in the movie she becomes the Mother of the human race.
- The higher-ranked Gods and Goddesses from Ah My Goddess appear to be physical gods, but this may be deceptive — their physical bodies are mere virtual projections generated by Yggdrasil, the world-computer. Furthermore, unless they wear a limiter device, their full divine power manifests so easily through these projections that they could accidentally crack a planet in half. For example, in the AMS movie Belldandy removes her limiter and takes a direct blast from Heaven's ultimate weapon — and it doesn't even muss her hair.
- On the other hand, with their limiters on, they are quite vulnerable to being killed by something as simple as a bullet. They have been mentioned as in mortal danger from a large physical object hurling towards them.
- Most Legendary Pokemon fit this criteria. And Arceus is heavily implied to be literally the God of all Pokemon.
- While several Legendary Pokemon qualify for the trope (the ones that aren't Anthropomorphic Personifications at least), Mewtwo is the one most commonly associated with it, considering his humanoid appearance, mostly-human personality and reality-warping psychic powers. However, he isn't a true Pokemon either, he's a genetically engineered monster derived from Mew.
- Newer ones seem to be leaning towards Eldritch Abomination status. Palkia and Dialga are capable of destroying reality as we know it, and Giratina makes its home in somewhere beyond comprehension.
- Nagato Yuki fits most of the requirements. The character in that series usually referred to as a god meets far fewer, but at the very least is a Reality Warper and has above-normal speed and strength. (It's implied that she would be beyond it, to the point of being an omnipotent god, if she was aware of her power.)
- Funnily enough, Yuki actually stole Haruhi's god-powers once, which would indeed, combined with her other game breaking abilities, make her a textbook example of a very powerful Physical God
- This troper has seen Yuki being called "Dr. Manhattan with a different design."
- Kalutika Maybus from Rebirth is sort of a "Princess-Maker: Really Bad Ending" version, although he may have been god-like to begin with, being born from a giant floating egg from the sky. Considering the kind of story he's in, he'll probably get a Redemption Equals Death ending.
- Mikoto from Mai-Otome. Even Mai, a Meister-level Otome and the one contracted to her, is unable to beat her in one-on-one combat. Also an example of the playful trickster spirit.
- Hakuoro and Dii from Utawarerumono are two halves of the same god, though Hakuoro manages to put them back together at the last episode.
- Choushin from Tenchi Muyo are actually the second-tier Powers That Be, but mostly prefer to live in the Universe they created for various personal reasons. While living in the material world forces them to incarnate in the Physical God form, they still keep all their powers and can assume their true form at will, transcending physical world easily.
- Then there's Tenchi himself, whose actually the avatar of the first-tier Powers That Be. Unlike a few other cases, he actually learns this fact and actively uses it when necessary like his battle against Z.
- Enel from One Piece can turn into lightning to avoid any damage, can "hear" anyone and everyone on his island in the sky, and can attack anyone with a lightning blast no matter where they are. He is the closest thing to a God in One Piece, at least until rubberman Luffy takes him down a few notches.
- The Eight Devils of Kimon from Ninja Scroll are all this, the closest being Himuro Gemma, who can reassemble and reattach damaged body parts, making him quasi-immortal.
- In Shin Mazinger' the Greek gods were actually Humongous Mecha, controlled by the brains of the aliens who built them.
- Manga-only villain Saffron from Ranma One Half would count here. He can make and control fire, is nearly impervious to damage, has high regeneration, can be reborn, flies, and has a nasty superiority complex.
- Don't forget Rouge, who Jusenkyo Cursed With Awesome to transform into an Ashura, a literal goddess/demoness with multiple arms, several faces, the ability to fly, breath fire and throw lightningbolts, as well as an impressive level of physical ability. The only drawback is all those arms gives her wicked backache, so much so that she chased Pantyhose Taro all the way to Japan from China in order to retrieve the backache relievers he stole from her.
- Many characters in The Law Of Ueki (well, sort of...). Probably the best example would be whoever becomes the Supreme God.
- Let us not forget Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni which is in some ways all about gods. Not only is there a powerful local god who walks among the students but our Token Loli Rika, who is her descendant, is something of a demi-god as well.
- In Yu Gi Oh!, there are at least three trios of these. There are the Egyptian God Cards (which actually exist and can do magic in the real world, as LittleKuriboh is quick to point out. There are also the Wicked Gods, and the Sacred Beasts. There's also the Great Leviathan and Zorc, the Dark One.
- In Mahou Sensei Negima, The Lifemaker is one of these, at least within Mundus Magicus. Considering that he created Mundus Magicus, it makes sense. Fate also drifts dangerously close to being one of these, although it isn't clear if he's using his own power or borrowing from his boss.
- If Bleach's Sousuke Aizen isn't one, one has to wonder what he is. He's absolutely invincible, all-powerful and omniscient. Only the author can save Ichigo and friends from utter, utter defeat.
Comic Books
- Marvel Comics's gods such as Thor.
- And Jack Kirby's Eternals were godlike immortals who supposedly inspired the myths. When they were RetConned as part of the main Marvel Universe, a conflict with the real gods had to be resolved.
- Ultimate Thor was apparently a more abstract type of god, who incarnated in human form to allow him to preach a message to humanity (a New Age pacifism that seems to be almost, but not entirely, unlike the philosophy of the Thor of Norse Mythology.) Ultimate Loki is more powerful that his mainstream counterpart, able to "reshuffle reality" at will— until Big Daddy Odin gets off his cosmic duff and makes with the spanking.
- Some 'omega-level mutants' often look like Physical Gods. The 'cosmic entities' sometimes do, too, but they tend to go a bit beyond the average scale of a Physical God.
- And then there's the Beyonder - if there's any limit to his abilities, this troper is not aware of such.
- The DCU's gods, both the classic ones and the New Gods.
- The fairy-tale characters of the Fables comic book series. With some of them (such as Aslan or Weyland Smith) actually supposed to be gods. Others . . . not so much (Goldilocks).
- Goldilocks is more of an Implacable Woman than a god. Interestingly those that do quality as Physical Gods are mystically attuned to the concept of themselves rather than traditional concepts.
- In Captain Atom #54 to #57, Cap created and ruled his own universe. He turned out not to be very good at it, and had to destroy his universe after his own dark side took it over. Of course, it could all have been just a fever-dream he had after Shadowstorm blasted him.
- Ever since Superman died and came back from the dead, he has had a cult of worshipers though he tries to discourage them.
- Its probably worth pointing out that Superman did not actually "die", he was punched into a (temporary) coma. This makes the cult's reason for worshipping him quite misaimed (though he is STILL a physical god in his own right). They also appear to have turned to their attention to the recently deceased Superboy/Kon-El.
- No, Supes did die and come back. The same resurrection pod used by him brought back Superboy, who was completely dead.
- Captain Marvel also fills most of the requirements, and is empowered by literal gods.
- No one mentioned Dr. Manhattan of Watchmen yet! He experiences time on a non linear way. He can become many people. He can watch neurons. Nothing can stop him.
- Hell, it's even implied at the end of the comic that he leaves our universe to try his hand at creating one. You don't get much more Godlike than that.
- The Trinity of Hypsis in the Valérian comic series, an ironic pastiche of Christianity's Holy Trinity. They possess various powers typically associated with them in popular mythology; the Father can fling thunderbolts for example, and the Son can heal and (possibly) resurrect anybody - they do claim creating mankind, though. They perceive their divinity as a business enterprise in which they are struggling in the brink of bankrupcy, which would strip them of their position and powers. Christian characters tend to call them frauds or ursupers.
Film
- Horus from Enki Bilal's Immortal, and the comic series it was based on, along with the rest of the Egyptian pantheon in the flying pyramid fit the bill. They only demonstrate a limited abilities, such as possession, mind control and Eye Beams, but it's implied that they're not using more than a fraction of their actual powers. Their pyramid transport is only a mechanical ship that needs fuel and maintenance (in the comic, at least), so they're not exactly omnipotent, although the credit of Earth's creation is given to them.
- In the Roland Emmerich universe, Ra and the God of the Pyramid. Sort of.
Literature
- Steven Erikson's Malazan Book Of The Fallen is chock full of these, called Elder Gods and Ascendants. All are implied to have physical forms even if they don't outright appear that way in the novels. At least two of them are humans who took over an attunement that was vacant.
- They are far from omnipotent, though. In Reaper's Gale (book 7), Trull Sengar, a mortal Tiste Edur, manages to hold his own in combat against Silchas Ruin, at least for a while.
- And at that point Trull is also far from mortal, having become the Knight of Shadow in The Bonehunters.
- Most of the cast of Neil Gaiman's American Gods.
- Except for the bulletproof part.
- The Dragaeran gods are all physical—the definition of a "God" is a being who can manifest in more than one place and isn't subject to another being's control. The series, being fairly metaphysical, plays around with the concepts of gods and godhood. Sethra, for example, is as or more powerful than some gods, and she mentions she was once offered godhood- implying she turned it down.
- Lots of characters in John C Wright's Chronicles of Chaos. They describe mortals as "cattle" but they live out The Masquerade in the human world.
- In Jesse Hajicek's The God Eaters, people become gods through the belief of others, then make a practice of devouring each other to consolidate power.
- The Gods from Roger Zelazny's Lord of Light are either Physical Gods or Sufficiently Advanced Aliens.
- Neither, really, they're actually Sufficiently Advanced Humans!
- The Lord Ruler from Mistborn is ageless, Nigh Invulnerable and far and away the most powerful allomancer in the world, and is worshipped as king and god by The Empire. It turns out he's just a human who discovered a neat allomantic trick to make himself immortal, though he did briefly touch divinity in his Backstory. In the third book of the series, though, Vin briefly becomes the genuine article after absorbing the power of Preservation, one of the two fundamental forces of the universe.
- Coyote in Christopher Moore's Coyote Blue and Babd, Macha and Nemain in Dirty Job
- The Ainur from JRR Tolkien's 'verse (most elaborated on in The Silmarillion, though individual Ainur show up everywhere) are a whole race of these. They're incorporeal beings created by the creator deity before the physical universe, and some entered it. Those can and many choose to freely clothe themselves in physical forms. Ainur from Lord Of The Rings include Sauron, Gandalf, Saruman, and the Balrog of Moria. Other notable ones are Morgoth/Melkor, Varda/Elbereth, the other Valar, and possibly Ungoliant and her various spawn.
- At the end of Dean Koontz's short story, A Darkness in My Soul, a psychic goes on a Journey To The Center Of The Mind and finds God trapped in the psyche of an insane genius. He then absorbs God's powers and then takes over the universe after giving half of the power to his girlfriend. Bored with exploring the universe, they decide to start a world war back on Earth for amusement, using humans as playthings.
- The Dresden Files has the Faerie Queens, angels and their fallen equivalents, valkyries, the Erlking, and all sorts of old gods and the like who haven't shown up yet (Though one runs Monoc Securities). The Archive is powerful enough to match most of them, and skinwalkers hit this trope right where it meets Eldritch Abomination and dance gleefully in the ensuing rain of High Octane Nightmare Fuel. Yeah, conflicts in the Dresdenverse get a bit messy.
- Six different necromancers all hit town at the same time in Dead Beat to try to become this. Cowl would have managed it, too, if Harry had been a second or two slower.
Live Action TV
- Gods and Goddesses in Hercules The Legendary Journeys and Xena Warrior Princess often started at Powers That Be and then became Physical Gods.
- Glory the Hellgod from the 5th season of Buffy The Vampire Slayer is an example of a former Hellgod confined to a physical form — in this case, as a punishment.
- Illyria from Angel as well. Similarly to Glory, she had a true form, a taloned, tentacled Eldritch Abomination, but was trapped in a human body. This substantially decreased her power.
- Also Jasmine, one of the Powers That Be, and an Energy Being who spent considerable effort creating herself a physical body so that she could come to earth. Then her power had to be artificially reduced further, as it was eating through her physical form.
- The Trickster from Supernatural. Here, a Trickster is a pagan god. He can reshape reality and mess with time. Dropped a guy into a wormhole for fun. Good times. A few other Pagan gods have also featured in the series.
- It's been revealed that The Trickster is actually not a pagan god at all, but an Archangel, specifically Gabriel, who's hiding from his brothers.
- Q from Star Trek, as well as the better-behaved rest of the Q Continuum. It's unsure just what Q's limits are. He does enjoy to push humans' buttons by acting like a god, in any case. Some think Trelane is a Q, too.
- In the novel Q-Squared, he is, and Q has to deal with him.
Tabletop Games
- During "The Time of Troubles" in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting of Dungeons And Dragons, all the gods become Physical Gods. A lot of gods get killed during this time, and one mortal kills and absorbs the portfolios of so many deities that the Overgod is forced to do some role-shuffling when the whole thing is over. Oh, and the death of the god of magic is used as an excuse for the different rules for magic in the new edition of the game. More than once
- The C'tan star-gods from Warhammer 40000.
- Also, the Avatars of Khaine.
- Not to forget the aptly-named God-Emperor of Man. Well, back when he was still up and walking rather than on life support.
- The Chaos Gods and their demon minions, when they enter the Materium.
- From Warhammer Fantasy Sigmar, who was either the incarnation of a god or ascended to godhood after his death. To a marginally lesser extent Nagash, God of the Undead. At one point the new Lizardman god also manifested to chase out the Skaven, giving us a giant snake Physical God.
- The snake god appeared the same day Sigmar was born. It hasn't been confirmed, but that sure seems like a connection that two races were saved from extinction by different, brand new, physical gods at the same time.
- Also when Chaos first showed up, the elven gods gave Aenarion the power to kick so much demonic ass that the elves managed to beat back the outpourings of a fully open warp gate long enough to partially seal it off.
- The daemonprinces has most of these powers and are usually worshiped by bands/tribes of marauders.
- The tabletop RPG Scion focuses on the children of couplings between gods and mortals. In time, the character grow so powerful that they become gods of their own.
- In the Dungeons And Dragons core rules, deities are typically stereotypical, unreachable gods. The official Deities and Demigods book, and the unofficial (but considerably more popular) Immortal's Handbook presented the deities in a way that fits this trope perfectly, along with how to advance high-level characters to godhood.
- Don't forget the hated Book of Immortals
- Early editions also had a book called Deities and Demigods, and an adventure with deity rules called Wrath of the Immortals.
- Specifically, the old boxed set/later Rules Cyclopedia version of D&D had not so much 'gods' as 'Immortals' (yes, with a capital I) taking the same role — virtually all of which were actually ascended Bad Ass mortals who had once lived and fought in the game world. Really high-level player characters could potentially quest for and achieve the same status, using rules from either the old Immortals set or the Wrath of the Immortals box.
- Ascension to divinity or even beyond it is still in the cards for 4th edition D&D characters with an appropriate Epic Destiny (basically the third 'class' picked at level 21 in addition to the base class and the level 11-20 'paragon path' the character will normally already have). So far this simply means retiring the character from the campaign, though.
- In Exalted, all the gods are Physical Gods. One of the Exalted's duties (when the world is running properly, which it currently isn't) is to beat wayward gods into submission so that they'll do their jobs properly.
- Rifts had a book called Pantheons of the Megaverse with gods that boiled down to normal stats turned up to eleven.
- The Primal Order was a "capsystem," a set of rules that could be applied to any RPG system, that outlined how to play deities, and is often considered the best god RPG system around.
- Player Characters in Nobilis qualify, both physically and mentally. Even the weakest Nobles can throw around small cars or catch bullets in a pinch. The more powerful ones go Beyond The Impossible, able to leap across the ocean, lift mountains, and reconcile quantum mechanics and general relativity with a pocket calculator.
Theater
Video Games
- Raiden from the Mortal Kombat series in general, as well as Fujin, Shinnok and various others.
- This was initially handwaved as Raiden taking a mortal form in order to compete in Shang Tsung's tournament in the first Mortal Kombat, but has since been retconned.
- Okami is based around playing one of these (although you happen to be incarnated as a particularly doglike wolf).
- Actraiser also lets you play as a Physical God.
- The Sinistrals of the Lufia video game series are essentially ancient, malevolent gods, though the localizations of the games for North American audiences like to call them "super beings."
- In most of the Breath Of Fire games, Ryu's ability to turn into a dragon is considered to be either amazingly powerful or completely ignorable. For example, in Breath of Fire 2, no one seems to care about Ryu's transformations until very late in the game. However, in Breath of Fire 4, all dragons are considered to be gods called the Endless, and in Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter, Ryu is possessed by Odjn, a godly dragon, whose power is so immense that it's slowly killing Ryu, shown in game as the D-Counter.
- In World of Warcraft almost any god is up for becoming an endgame boss at some point. So far the players have killed 1 troll blood god, 13 avatars of troll gods, 2 Old gods, The Blood elf Pheonix God and a Titan. Also the God of the Burning Legion, Sargeras was killed hundreds of years before Warcraft 1.
- The Composer aka Joshua from The World Ends With You.
- In The Elder Scrolls, specifically Morrowind, the Living Gods of the Tribunal Temple are elves who stole their divinity from the Heart of Lorkhan, the literal still-beating heart of a dead god. Dagoth Ur did this as well but he did it in a way that left him insane.
- Though, to be fair, Almalexia and Sotha Sil were pretty damn batty too.
- Given that Sotha Sil is dead when we meet him, and the person that told us he had become insane was Almalexia, who were a quite lying, disturbed woman by the point she says this, it's hard to know whether Sotha Sil actually was mad just before the end. He could just have been regretful over the entire 'possibly killing Nerevar' thing, and pouring himself into his work to keep himself reasonably sane. It is also notable that Tribunal should take place after Morrowind for things to make sense... as Almalexia's final jump off the slippery slope is suggested to have been triggered by losing her Heart of Lorkhan-granted divinity due to the Final Battle of Morrowind, with the initial slide starting from her gradually losing her powers. In other words, Dagoth Ur became mad from being a Physical God, Almalexia became mad from gradually decaying from Physical God to mere super-powered Mer, and taking increasingly desperate (and crazy) measures to avoid that.
- And if you play through both Morrowind and Tribunal, you wind up with three of the four of them destroyed. Then you can go back and kill the last one. Too bad nobody believes you when you tell them.
- "Hey guys, guess what? I just killed three gods - No, four, but Hircine's aspect may not count - in less than a month! Oh, by the way, two of those gods you lot have been worshipping for thousands of years! Hows about that, eh?" Honestly, would you believe you?
- Oblivion - The Shivering Isles expansion has the player interact with Sheogorath - the daedric Prince (Read: God) of Madness, and ruler of the Shivering Isles.
- Then you become that daedric Prince.
- The Goddess in the online Flash RPG, Adventure Quest, Lorthia has no physical form, though she can manifest into her creations, usually as a female, hence the word Godess. She also had four children, and thouse four children had four children (Each pair had two) to make the eight Elemental Lords of Lore.
- She also had made the Devourer Uncreator The'Galin, who often manifests into people instead of making a form for himself, Though he is refered to him because he is once a human. He is also immortal.
- The God of War from Princess Maker 2 can get the crap kicked out of him by a 10-17 year old girl.
- That 10-17 year old girl is stated in all endings to have celestial origin as well, so its not terribly surprising. She at least has The Gift, as she learns way faster than any of her rivals, though may just be too poor to attend classes regularly, or lazy.
- Relatively newer additions to the Touhou cast are Kanako Yasaka and Suwako Moriya. The first is a Goddess of the wind and the sky, while the scond is a Goddess of rain and lakes (and frogs). Their shrine maiden, Sanae, was also said to fall under this as well back in the human world, due to her control over wind.
- There's also Shinki (from the 5th game, Mystic Square), who created Makai and all of its inhabitants; Sikieiki (from the 9th game) would count to an extent, since she's based off from the actual Yama divinity.
- And there's the Aki sisters (goddess of the abundant harvest and goddess of leaf coloring) and Hina (goddess of curses). Mountain of Faith is certain a Touhou game full of goddesses.
- And those are only the actual Gods. Yukari, Yuyuko, Flandre, Eirin, Keine, Mokou, Kaguya, Shiki, and even Reimu, the heroine according to some interpretations of her final spellcard, have seemingly unstoppable superpowers and/or actual immortality with 'merely' extremely dangerous superpowers.
- There exist beings much, much powerful than gods in this setting. Including the Watatsuki sisters who use kami as Mons...
- Summons from the Final Fantasy series certainly qualify. The Big Bad of each game may become this as well.
- God Of War. Enough said, right?
- Vagrant Story has several examples. Sydney is probably the weakest example in this trope, because while he starts the by taking a crossbow bolt to the heart and ripping it out, he doesn't display much sheer power in anything except summoning monsters. Guildenstern briefly ascends to this level before Ashley Riot kicks his ass. Ashley is the last one to ascend to this state, and everyone acquired this power by grafting the Blood Sin to their back.
- Maverick Zero from Mega Man X. According to an old man, who, in Sigma's words, was like Zero's father (it hasn't been proven, but generally believed to be Dr. Wily):
" Zero is the most powerful thing in the universe, when purified by The Virus."
- In Xenogears, Fei (and possibly Elly) is a Physical God. Since he is also one of the biggest woobie of the Video Games industry, any Genre Savvy player knows where it leads
- Summon Spirits from the Tales Series qualify as well, not even getting into individual characters.
- Half the appeal of any given Nippon Ichi game is in creating one of these.
Webcomics
Western Animation
- Disney's Hercules depicted Gods and Goddesses the same way as Hercules The Legendary Journeys and Xena Warrior Princess .
- Oberon's Children (and especially Oberon himself) from Gargoyles. Really they're The Fair Folk, but due to their immense power, they were worshipped as gods. Anubis and Odin for example, but not Jesus of course.
- Primus and Unicron in various incarnations of Transformers, the latter of whom is a space-traveling planet-sized eater of worlds and the former of whom either lives in or actually is the Transformers' home planet of Cybertron and created them to battle Unicron.
- Fully realized Avatars certainly seem like a physical god to this troper.
- As Aang found out the hard way, they do lack the "invulnerable" part of the above description.
- The Greek Gods in Class Of The Titans. Especially the series Big Bad Chronus.
- The Ninja Tribunal in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003) are four humans turned gods after intensive, if unspecified, training; when we first see them in the present, they are shown to possess immortality, limited omniscience, and the ability to reshape reality, among other perks.
- Teen Titans: Trigon the Terrible turned the world into a fiery wasteland as part of his dramatic entrance, is big enough to use the T-tower as an interimistic throne, and he reminds you that you are only an insignificant insect compared to him. Then Raven presumably kills him and establishes herself as one. For all of twenty seconds.
Web Original
- Gothmog, in the Whateley Universe. Maybe some of the more regular characters, but it's debatable. Fey, Sara, Tennyo, and Chaka have the best argument. Fey and Tennyo are bonded with insanely powerful entities, while Sara is Gothmog's kid. Fey is a 7 on the 7-point powerscale, but is capable of going HIGHER then that level. Tennyo can kill beings that cannot die, while Sara is Gothmog's kid. Chaka, however, simply has perfect control over her Ki energy. (But this means she may qualify in the sense that she perfectly embodies a concept.)
- Yes, some of these are quite debatable. (Fey, for example, is a powerful but still Squishy Wizard at her current level of development, and while Sara has her own cult already her physical powers are basically on the level of a hypothetical super-Shoggoth.) On the other hand, Whateley is also currently including the teenage hosts of the setting's actual Greek pantheon among its students — greatly weakened by their lack of modern-day worshippers, but very much the real deal complete with their old attitudes.
- The Greek Gods of O-Cast.
 Though their powers have atrophied and they're living around mortals these days, they are still gods and would like to be treated as such.
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