Comparing Man of Steel and Wonder Woman

After BVS, these two films are my favorite DCEU films and my favorite superhero films and I'm constantly going back and forth on which one I prefer. This is my breakdown of the 2 films into an arbitrary 12 points to try and figure out which one I like more.

Let me just start by saying that I LOVE both of these films to bits. Even the lesser parts of both films are good and the best parts are just...amazing. I alternate between the two because both capture my heart in different ways. 

Sections:

Both films I divide into 3 rough sections. Both films have an introductory section that introduces the viewer to a fantastical world that the rest of the film does not take place in. These are the scenes in Krypton and Themiscyra. Both films have then a section developing the main character, "the development section". For Man of Steel this extends from the cut to Clark working on the boat to Zod's introduction. For Wonder Woman this extends from the scene of Diana and Steve on the boat for London to No-Man's Land. Finally both have an action-filled final segment where the hero must engage with the villain and their allies, starting with Zod's introduction in MOS and the No Man Land's Scene in Wonder Woman.

If I compare these sections directly, two of the three comparisons seem pretty clear to me so I will start with those just to get them out of the way quickly.

Comparing the Development Sequence of MOS to the Development Sequence of WW to me seems a clear point for MOS. The Second Section of MOS is the film's best section in my view, with the First Flight sequence and the flashback sequences, which are amazing. WW's second section in contrast is the weakest part of WW. That's not to say it's bad, it's still quite good with many praiseworthy elements, however it revolves partially around a more cliche plotline of "fish out of water". MOS second section is more original and has far greater aspirations of depicting the Superman as a great figure of majesty. 

Conversely the Third Section is the inverse. The Final Section of MOS, while still very good and has some very exciting elements like the World Engine Scene and the confrontation with Zod, is probably the weakest to me, relying a bit on adrenaline rush and using a lot of fight scenes which is not as interesting to me. The Final section of WW is probably the strongest section of the film in my opinion also contains several fight scenes, but not only does the final confrontation more directly underscore the themes of the film (MOS had a little bit of that but not to the same extent), but also the culmination of the romance of Diana and Steve, the culmination of the arcs of WW's supporting cast, the destruction of Veld and the subsequent breaking of Diana's faith in humanity and so on. The Final section of MOS, while as exciting as WW and does carry thematic elements, does not naturally integrate all the thematic elements with the character development as fluid and naturally as WW's final section.

The one part that's pretty hard to decide for me is the prologue for both films. Both scenes are entrenched in themes of parental love, which is a big thing for me. Man of Steel contains an amazingly efficient exploration of the political drama of Krypton that shakes me with it's Shakespearean elegance. On the other hand, WW begins with Diana's time on Themiscyra. While not as classically elegant, I will admit getting to know our main character more in this first section is an advantage and the WW's opening sequence also benefits from a recreation of a classic storybook air with the story of Ares being related to young Diana, the intrusion of man on Paradise Island. Both scenes contain exciting action. This point I would say is a draw, though if I had to pick one I would probably pick MOS's introduction.

Characters:

Let's start the characters section by looking at the two main characters. Superman and Wonder Woman. I love both of them in the comics, and their film depictions are amazing. Superman is a philosopher hero, contemplating his role among the world of Humans, and on a rational level he comes closer to my internal ideal of the Superman, the inhuman contemplating the greatness of humanity and wanting to be one of them. Wonder Woman on the other hand is a romantic idealist. Instead of being unsure of her place, she is in fact TOO sure, which leads to her despair when her notions are challenged. The Film Wonder Woman is fantastically both godlike in her demeanor while still being humanly relatable. I fully and completely enjoyed both characters the whole time they were on screen and were always excited to see what they'd do. Both were relatable to me on different levels. I'd probably call this category a draw, though if I had to pick I probably would pick Wonder Woman as Wonder Woman had a more full character arc. Superman certainly changes during Man of Steel, but much of his development takes place off-screen while he's growing up. He doesn't so much change who he is, he just learns who he is. Wonder Woman in contrast has massive on-screen development, so much that it could be said to be central to the film. The film's plot acts as the testing of the romantic dreamer's ideals, and forces her through a full fall and redemption as she first loses her ideals thinking they were false only to gain them again then she realizes they were true in a way she didn't know. So overall, a draw, though if I had to pick one, I'd do Wonder Woman.

Moving onto the allied supporting cast, we have people like Jor-El, Perry White, Lois Lane, General Swanwick, Doctor Hamilton for MOS and we have Hippolyta, Etta Candy, Steve Trevor, Sameer, Charle, and Chief Napi for WW. Both of these are great supporting casts in my opinion and both are a cast of varied noble people supporting the DCEU's theme humanity being great. Both series have a very interesting supporting cast. That said if I had to pick one I'd go with Wonder Woman's. While both casts are very good people, WW's cast develops and has characters arcs which isn't really true of most of MOS cast. Most of MOS's supporting cast are just generally good people who do their job and do their part to protecting their world and while that's inspiring in it's own way, most of WW's cast has more complexity. One of my favorite subtle parts in WW is when Sameer said his dream was to be an actor but he was the wrong color, referencing the racism of the time, and yet he uses his acting skills to help get Steve into the Party of German Officers. 

Onto the primary villains General Zod and Ares. Again this one seems kinda clear to me. Ares is a great villain conceptually, but he doesn't have much to him outside of what is implied to him. While I still like him since conceptually he is very interesting to think about, Ares is mostly, as fitting his character as the God and Personification of War, mostly a symbol of what Wonder Woman has to overcome. Zod on the other hand....the comic book movie scene is imo bereft of good villains but Zod easily stands one of the best. Threatening and Imposing, yet complex and multi-dimensional. Motivation is both clear and realistic. Zod is a narrative force on all layers, an amazing villain. 

Finally we have the supporting villains. For the most part this is going to be Faora vs Doctor Poison. Even the people that didn't like MOS, I have only heard good things about Faora. Faora is a just a joy to watch, a cold machine representing the supposed evolutionary advantage of the Kryptonians. Doctor Poison is almost the diametric opposite, representing the brutality of humanity, a maniacial killer and psychopath. Faora is a lot "cooler" then Doctor Poison but Doctor Poison is a lot more entertaining. Both have their advantages. That said I would probably give the advantage to WW's supporting villains if only because the other Kryptonians have basically no personality while outside of Doctor Poison, General Ludendorff has an entertaining personality of a minor character and I do like his summation of war during the dance scene which pushes WW to get the point here.

Other:

Just some other things I wanted to compare.

If we compare the best scenes in both films; The best film in MOS is the First Flight Sequence while the best scene in WW is Wonder Woman's defeat of Ares. Both are amazing scenes though I would give the edge to the First Flight Sequence. While WW's defeat of Ares is symbolically resonant and beautiful, The first flight sequence is my favorite scene in all of the DCEU and one of the best scenes in both DC Comics and Cinema in my opinion, representing so much, including the very primordial joy of the superhero itself, the triumph of humanity over the forces of nature. 

If we compare the worst scenes in both films; neither of these scenes are terrible but they are the least great scenes in these great films. For MOS this is the scene with Teenager Clark doing the "You're not my real dad" scene in the car flashback. While this did give the feels in the love Jonathan Kent had for his son, it did feel a bit cliche, with the adopted son making the you're not my real dad exclamation and him dying to give his son purpose. It felt to me like an ape-ing of the dynamic in the first Raimi Spider-Man film. Conversely the worst scene in WW to me is the boat scene with Diana and Steve traveling to London. The jokes in that scene, while the others around me found them funny, I felt kind of cringe-y. "Do you not sleep with women?" "No...I mean Yes...I mean..." Bit cringe-y to me. The scene was it seems supposed to demonstrate the traits of Diana and Steve, that Diana is a childish romantic idealist and Steve is a cynic and a realist and begin to develop their relationship. Now don't get me wrong I like that dynamic, but I feel the information given was mostly information that could have been inferred from other scenes. While the question of if it is worse to be cliche to being redundant and a bit cringey is personal preference I'd have to give the nod and say the MOS scene was better because it did have the emotional payoff of Jonathan Kent sacrificing himself to save his son which was very heartwarming. 

If we compare the romances, Lois x Clark and Diana x Steve...I have a bit of a thing where I don't understand in superhero fiction the romances between civilians and superheroes, mostly because I don't get the appeal on their superhero's side. This seems to favor Diana x Steve. And that is definitely the one I'd go with but for more reasons then that. While I do like MOS' version of Lois Lane as much as I do most versions of Lois, the Diana x Steve's relationship is far more integrated into the narrative, and I generally prefer their dynamic. The Lois x Clark relationship in MOS comes off as rather idyllic and overly perfect, the two understanding each other almost instantly, and rarely coming into any serious conflict. Conversely Diana's curiosity, disgust, infatuation, further disgust and finally love and devotion towards Steve is actually a beautiful signifier of her feelings towards mankind at any point. the romance in WW is a lot more complex and impactful.

In terms of aesthetics...well let me get what I think is the obvious thing out of the way first. Both Henry Cavill and Gal Gadot are VERY easy to look at. :P To the point it's even mentioned in both films ("I just think he's kinda hot" and "Suddenly she's not the most beautiful woman you've ever seen"). Beyond that both movies are beautiful to look at, even if they often show very dark and brutal events, both infuse them with a dignity and majesty. This one is basically a draw as I completely enjoyed physically watching both movies at all points though if I had to give the point I'd probably give it to MOS for their musical score. While WW's track is awesome, MOS's whole track by Zimmer is awesome. 

In terms of themes....I love both of their themes so much. Man of Steel is all about the importance of free will and individuality to humanity, the kryptonians having genetically engineered them into a horrific caste system that destroyed them. Wonder Woman is about the redemptive power of love, and the importance of us each fighting our battle against evil, representing Diana's original ideals about fighting evil taken to the ultimate degree. I love both of them immensely, and both are immensely important to me. This one I would call a draw though if I had to pick I would give it to WW due to it's theme being more immediately relatable to me and more well textual rather then subtextual. 

Conclusion:

MOS and WW both got 4 points, draw on the last 4, and if forced to pick, they both get 6 points. I love both of these series but they do have advantages over each in my view:

Man of Steel has the more complex development of the hero and treats the legacy with more grandeur and majesty, has a complex villain that is one of the best in the superhero film genre, has the best scene in the entire dceu and has no redundancy being remarkable efficient. It also has a more enjoyable score, and it's introduction contains a brilliant elegance to it's introduction of us to this world.

Wonder Woman has the more thematically rich final section, a cast with a lot more development and change over the runtime and their own interesting scenes, numerous entertaining villains with their own interesting sections, a beautifully symbolic romance woven into the narrative. It also is more relatable to me in both it's heroine and themes. 

Man of Steel to me is like going to an amazing futuristic city and wondering at the marvels of mankind, realizing how much greatness went into creating such glories. It is an almost unnaturally elegant film, that leaps into the air and soars through the skies of humanity's greatness.

Wonder Woman to me is like watching a sun setting over a lake, seeing it's reflection in the waters and realizing in the inter-connectedness of nature the deeper meaning of the themes and stories we know, seeing the depths and beautiful significance of the little things in our lives. 

I take turns preferring one film or the other but I hope this has helped explain how I feel about them compared to each other. 

What happens if you exploit multipliers

This is a joke. This is a joke. This is NOT serious. This is just for comedic purposes. I do not think this. I have never claimed canon SM is multiversal.

So there's a feat I think people are overlooking when discussing how strong Sailor Moon is in versus debating.

Civilian form Usagi was able to withstand the power of Civilian form Galaxia. 

Why is this impressive? Well Galaxia's civilian power was stronger then any of Usagi's prior enemies

Sailor Galaxia's civilian form also casually destroys the Holy Grail:

For comparison, last arc the Holy Grail tanked the power that Usagi used to turn into Eternal Sailor Moon

and destroy Queen Nehelenia, the universe-maintaining final boss of the fourth arc:

In other words Fifth Arc Usagi is stronger then 4th Arc Eternal Sailor Moon who casually one-shot Queen Nehelenia. But how big is the difference between Base Usagi and Eternal Sailor Moon?

Well the multipliers needed to be known then are Usagi to Base Sailor Moon, Sailor Moon to Super Sailor Moon, and Super Sailor Moon to Eternal Sailor Moon.

The Base Sailor Moon to Super Sailor Moon transition is the only one where there is any stated multiplier. We know that Super Sailor Moon was tens of thousands of times more powerful then the Taioron Crystal.

Super Sailor Moon > 10,000 x Taioron Crystal (at it's MAX)

The much weaker Taioron Crystal (weaker from some massive amount of time where it's power has diminished) is stronger then the Witches V, able to grant them a level of power of "Magus" beyond even them

One of the Witches V, Telulu was able to tank the power of Sailor Moon, who thought she would need to use her FULL power to defeat her

Yet Telulu is still only level 404

while another one of the Witches V, still weaker then the Taioron Crystal is over 2.5x stronger, being level 999

Super Sailor Moon > 10,000x Taioron Crystal > 2.5x Base Sailor Moon

Super Sailor Moon > 25,000x Base Sailor Moon

While the third arc has a lot of clear quantification, the Usagi to Base SM and Super SM to Eternal SM multipliers require a bit more clarification.

The Base Usagi to Base Sailor Moon jump is CLEARLY the biggest one, going from a civilian to a cosmic guardian. That said let's downplay the multiplier needed.

In Chapter 3 Usagi's crying threatened to destroying a dimension

which is of course consistent with Rei destroying the same dimension with her first attack as Sailor Mars purely by accident

as well as Sailor V defeating Luuga who controlled her own dimension

Normal human crying at a high end gets up to 120 decibels. A nuke level event which is what would be needed at least for something like destroying dimensions of these sizes has a low end of 240 decibels in terms of sound. Adding 10 decibels multiplies by 10 so we know Usagi's crying is 10^((240-120)/10)=10^(120/10)=10^12=1,000,000,000,000x more energetic as a massive lowball.

Super Sailor Moon > 25,000x Base Sailor Moon > 1,000,000,000,000x Base Usagi

Super Sailor Moon > 25,000,000,000,000,000x Base Usagi 

So let's talk about the Eternal Sailor Senshi multiplier. 

There's pretty much no information to discuss how much stronger an Eternal Sailor Senshi is over a Super Sailor Senshi but there is a way to massively lowball it

Queen Nehelenia can't impact the Earth very much due to Nehelenia's seal. The only thing she can do is project her spiritual avatar, Zirconia onto Earth. Zirconia is an extremely weak Nehelenia, to the point that when she was almost dead Nehelenia reverted to Zirconia

In other words, Zirconia is basically a dying Nehelenia. Yet 7 Super Sailor Senshi's powers together only winded Zirconia

Yet as mentioned above, Eternal Sailor Moon completely one-shot Nehelenia. In other words an Eternal Sailor Senshi one-shot an enemy 7 Super Sailor Senshi couldn't even kill a basically dying version off. So let's say this multiplier is 7x as a massive lowball.

Eternal Sailor Moon = 7x Super Sailor Moon > 25,000,000,000,000,000x Base Usagi

Eternal Sailor Moon > 175,000,000,000,000,000x Base Usagi

Recall that Fifth Arc Base Usagi is stronger then 4th Arc Eternal Sailor Moon, meaning that Fifth Arc Eternal Sailor Moon would be over 175 Quadrillion times Universe Level. BUT it goes even further since this isn't even using her full power, since she gets ANOTHER power boost.

During the final arc, Galaxia takes control of Usagi's friends who themselves are Eternal Sailor Senshi and their normal attacks are able to harm Eternal Sailor Moon fine, showing that they are indeed comparable to her

and this was BEFORE they called down MORE power from Galaxia and using Galactica attacks

How strong is the Galactica Upgrade? Well Sailor Animamates with Galactica Upgrades are strong enough to fight Eternal Sailor Senshi INCLUDING ETERNAL SAILOR MOON

and without the Galactica power, the Animamates aren't even real sailor senshi

Galactica's powerup makes beings weaker then Base Sailor Senshi to Eternal Sailor Senshi meaning it's a powerup of at least 175,000x 

Yet Eternal Sailor Moon accessing her full power has power greater then 8 Galactica Eternal Sailor Senshi destroying them all in one attack

Full Power Eternal Sailor Moon > 8x Galactica Eternal Sailor Senshi > 175,000x Base Eternal Sailor Moon > 175,000,000,000,000,000x Universal

Full Power Eternal Sailor Moon > 1,400,000x Base Sailor Moon > 175,000,000,000,000,000x Universal

Full Power Eternal Sailor Moon > 245,000,000,000,000,000,000,000x Universal (245 Sextillion)

Sailor Galaxia equals this attack exactly, the impact so intense that at distance Chibi-Chibi has to create a shield to protect Chibi-Moon (who is an Eternal Sailor Senshi)

As such it's clear that Sailor Galaxia and Full Power Eternal Sailor Moon should be sextillions of times above universal and are definitely multiversal beings.

Again, and I cannot stress this enough, this is a joke. It was not meant seriously. It was just a parody of misuses of multipliers in the versus community.

Saint Seiya-Verse Strategy Guide

How to be OP in Saint Seiya, divided by different tiers.

Local to City Tier:

Protecting the Earth, enacting the Goddess' will upon the Earth are 48 Bronze Saints and 24 Silver Saints. Also to aid them, mankind's best scientists have made weaker Iron Saints who do not possess cosmo abilities but use high technology to aid them. There is also evil Black Saints, ex-saints who were stripped the usage of their title and cloth for their actions, as well as some other individuals that possess some ability in Cosmo. To gain local power requires the individual to be able to at least compete with these type of individuals and to gain any substantial power over a larger region requires one be highly competitive, even with the Silver Saints. What powers do these individuals have?

Even a Bronze Saint in training can casually manipulate atoms, the building block of matters to restore or replenish them, to release enough energy to atomize part of the ground, requiring gigatons of energy. Silver Saints are even stronger able to casually atomize mountains with their attacks requiring teratons of energy, and easily scale to being able to turn a normal nuclear factory into a planetary threat. Most physical defenses are going to do absolutely nothing against a saint as they can directly target the atoms of their opponent. At the same time trying to not rely on physical defenses and be intangible would probably not work EITHER as even Bronze Saints can clearly hit intangibles. 

The verse is rather hard to fight like that.

In addition hax is dicey even at this low scale. Even very low tier cosmo users can resist universal time stop freezing so time freezing is going to be absolutely useless. Saints have resistance to most natural forces like freezing as well as supernatural forces like mind and soul destruction (though at this stage their resistance to these things isn't too massive. Bronze Saint Ikki with his strikes can destroy the mind and soul of his foes yet Strong Bronze Clothes can take multiple strikes with no ill effect). There is resistance to several other abilities including transmutation and just magic in general.

Speed is important, as cosmo users get stronger as they fight, and saints gain resistance to a technique (what distinguishes a techique from anything else is somewhat unclear, presumably it's any non-natural, aka learned, ability) after experiencing it first, meaning that winning a fight quick is important.

Speed in general seems like it could be on the side of the invader, as the speed of the first scale threat is rather low compared to their raw power. Bronze Saints are stated to move at the speed of sound normally and even when trying hard only get up to about hypersonic which is not that fast for an Island Level character, even for a city level character that would be on the lower end. Silver Saints, Country Level, only move at supersonic speeds normally which would be bizarrely low and when trying hard can move at massively hypersonic (lightning) speeds which is fine for that tier. Because their max is MHS, that's the limit I have but most MHS characters do have the noted advantage they can normally move at what would be considered the top speeds of the strongest characters at these scales.

That said tactically speaking that is the seeming only notable general weakness the verse gives at first glance. And even that is not something that can be relied on given the verse's ability to grow stronger. At the very least some of the cosmo abilities are limited only to the actual strong cosmo-users or the saints so not all the above abilities are possessed by everyone. But what tactics can be used against the verse if one wants to go up against Bronze or especially Silver Saints?

The verse has no notable weakness is melee combat, in range, in stamina (though again trying to outlast a saint is probably a bad idea)...the only seeming tactics available from the start are some really strong soul/mind hax and just rushing characters. However thinking about it there is one other possible tactic I noticed.

You see, before unlocking the 7th sense, Saints actually need to breath. While they can hold their breath a superhuman time, it's actually brought up by Hyoga and Isaac that they need to breath. A strong enough character could theoretically throw them into space, or possibly portal them into space with an ability (since it took a gold saint to destroy a spatial tear), or you could just go with the most direct possible application of this weakness, which brings me to my first possible suggestion.

A high tier water bender from Avatar was actually my first possible scenario. Massively outclassed in power and range, if they start at range I can actually see this working. I hear that they are Lightning Timers in reaction time, which means they should be able to not be blitzed against a saint or other cosmo user. A High Tier Water Bender also has access to the ability Blood Bending, and if they have that they might be able to beat a Saint despite the massive power disadvantage. Saints don't actually have any resistance feats to my knowledge of bodily control or blood manipulation and if they were just held submerged underwater it could actually possibly kill them.

Now granted I don't think this is an ideal strategy outside the power/range disadvantage. Saints have superhuman stamina and breath-holding ability and could potentially outlast a Water Bender in a fight, the Saint can also emanate waves of force from their cosmo which could potentially throw off the motions Water Benders need to be able to manipulate water. More realistically you would likely need a team of High Tier Water Benders to accomplish the feat, hence why I think there are better options, however the efficiency of it impressed me and so wanted to include it.

A similar strategy but more conventional statwise and more effective in my mind is 

Mera, Queen of Atlantis from DC Comics. Country Level and MHS is about the ideal stats for this particular fight, and her water manipulation is strong enough to let her hold up an entire ocean. She can actively flood the Saints lungs with water using their own blood or actively dehydrate them. She would be SO deadly against the Saints.

She'd be strong enough to compete physically with them, fast enough that it would take silver saints going their fastest to compete, can attack at comparable ranges, if not larger ranges conventionally, and can flash drown them. She's also launched Aquaman into the stratosphere, suggesting she can also send the Saints into space if she needs too.

What other strategies are possible? Really strong mind or soul hax would probably work (The Dark Agency from a few strategy guides ago would probably do well) but generally affecting the Saints directly is not the right tactic. Just because you can't affect the saints with your haxes doesn't mean you can't affect yourself or the environment with the haxes. Dimensional BFR I think would be a really broken form of attack for this scale.

A high level mage, particularly Elminister, from Dungeons and Dragons I think would do really well. High Level Mind/Soul Manipulation, MHS Reflexes, as well as luck manipulation which would give him a massive advantage without having to effect his enemies directly. He also has really good dimensional bfr that would likely stop them cold.

Planetary to Universal Tier:
At this level are the Legendary Gold Saints of Athena as well as the highest tier of the warriors of other gods like the Mariner Generals of Poseidon, Celestial Specters and Judges of the Underworld under Hades, the God Warriors of Asgard and so forth. What unities these people is the awakening of the 7th sense, the power that allows for accessing the power of "miracles", the breaking of the laws of nature.

This tier is infamously hard to fight, with speed and hax/hax resistance overwhelming for tier.

General power in this tier varies from star level to someone first awakening to the 7th sense, capable of destroying the atoms of a star, to beyond baseline universal. An absolutely absurd variety of hax is at this level, including energy-matter hax up to universal control of atoms, multi-stellar level dimension creation full of souls and minds, mental battles on a godlike scale, dividing a consciousness across 6 different worlds, cosmic spacetime warping (The Ophiuchus Saint upon awakening warped all of spacetime of a universe), absolute zero temperatures, reality-warping, and many more.

Those users of the 8th sense have more, the ability to control the cycle of life and death allowing entering the underworld while alive and being able to leave at will, resurrecting the self, as well as being an enlightened one.

Speeds are absurdly fast. While anyone awakening to the 7th sense can move at the speed of light, speeds vastly outspeed the big bang are only mid of this ranking, and the strongest beings of this tier are so fast that characters that can blitz that speed while nearly powerless are seen as only the speed of sound in comparison.

Fighting against characters at this tier is REALLY hard. An immediate counter is needed for the insane speed this verse has that almost no verse can counter, let alone taking into account the fact that all the characters can grow massively stronger within the course of a single fight.

Most forms of haxes wouldn't work unless they are at an absolutely massive cosmic level. Intangibility based strategies would be highly unlikely to work as Bronze Saints can hit intangibles, and Gold Saints are able to destroy the atoms of abstract entities likely highly sealed Titans. They can also see things such as prayers or attack things like curses.

So what DOES work against them? Well it seems silly to suggest such a simple hax, but there is one hax which I think, if advanced enough, could be really strong, and that's energy manipulation. All the SS-verse abilities require cosmo, and if they were completely derived of cosmo they would lose the majority of their abilities. Now granted it needs to be EXTREMELY good energy manipulation, sub-atomic energy manipulation of particles and quantum fields. But that would be immensely powerful. In fact appearing rarely is Dark Cosmo, a form of energy that infects Cosmo users like poison and spreading like a cancer everytime they use their cosmo killing them. An energy manipulator with strong enough energy manipulation and cosmic awareness could theoretically replicate dark cosmo to infect the Cosmo user.

What else might work? Well for one, possession if that as viewed as distinct from mind control. Possession is how the Gods manifest in the world of humans, not risking their divine bodies, but instead possessing physical entities. Theoretically a powerful enough possession user could replicate this to cause havoc.

Dimensional BFR especially when coupled with Sealing also seems to be a strong power in verse, as Virgo Shaka though that Gemini Saga's Another Dimension technique was a major threat to himself.

Besides that while the speed of the verse is insane, there are ways to counter speed without being that fast yourself, primarily acausality, and being able to exist outside time. This would be extra beneficial if it was also with time travel as time travel as very difficult in Saint Seiya, and required the intercession of Chronos, far above this tier. The only other example of going back in time is Shaka managing to protect an avatar backwards in time which was not his full power. Another form of spacetime manipulation that seems to be strong (even if time freezing is easily resisted) is age manipulation, as Chronos used this technique to turn even the Goddess Athena into a baby.

So who would do really well? I have a few ideas

Professor Paradox from Ben 10 would be a good choice. Not only is he an acausal entity that can avoid speedblitz by traveling through time, he has a subatomic control of energy and he can dimensionally bfr pretty consistently.

He also with prep time can create machines that can destroy whole universes, which would likely be able to defeat characters of this tier, especially coupled with his subatomic manipulation. He also has age manipulation, which would be especially helpful given most of the fighters at this tier are not actually that old.

Monarch from DC Comics. DC High Tiers are some of the only characters comparable in speed as Saint Seiya, and Monarch fought evenly with Pre-Crisis Kryptonian Superboy Prime. Monarch has a quantum control of matter-energy across a casually universal scale. He even blasted the Firestorm Matrix out of Firestorm, suggesting it's possible he could steal the cosmo from a cosmo user or infect them with dark cosmo. He also has time travel. 

Monarch's raw power is likely comparable to the high rankings of this tier, also his "weakness", that being overloaded by energy sends him through time, is only likely to help here as he can easily maneuver through time unlike his opponents. 

However my favorite choice for this tier would be someone else from the same verse

Brainiac from DC Comics. 

Brainiac has brain-swapping and uploading, acting as a remote form of possession he can mass perform. His digitization hax is something unknown to the SS-verse, and avoids affecting their mass-energy by converting their atoms into bits of information which it's unknown if they would even have cosmo.

Brainaic is of course a massive supergenius and would figure out how to utilize dark cosmo to maximum effectively, perhaps seeding the verse with dark cosmo nanites to stealth disable fighters before they realize.

Brainiac has shown time travel as well as energy absorption enough to fight Imperiex who could create the power of the big bang, and while the SS Big Bang is greater then our own as it above universal attack techniques, the DC Big Bang was strong enough to create a universe over 100,000,000,000,000 lightyears across, and in fact 60,000,000,000,000 lightyears in the first 0.5 seconds. 

It should also be noted that Saints' Cloths are living beings, capable of making decisions on their own like when Cancer Deathmask's cloth abandoned him and naturally act to fulfill the will of their user if noble. However Brainiac creates a jamming signal capable of jamming even the telepathic messages of the Martian Manhunter, suggesting that the cloths may not be able to understand the wills of their users. 

Multiversal Tier:

At the top of the Saint Seiya Tiers are the Gods and Primordials, and the strongest of these are Zeus his father Cronos, and his father before him Chronos. Being such these are multiversal scale abstracts, whose power extend to destroying or preserving infinite universes. 

Their haxes are even stronger, including quantum manipulation of matter-energy, the 9th sense that confers Godhood able to change reality, the ability to reflect any attack from a non-god, a passive aura which deprives enemies of the 5 senses and the mind and so on. 

Massive haxes on all regard, infinite multiversal power, what can stand against these. Well what weaknesses do these have. 

Well firstly Zeus possess the lightning Keruanos, divine lightning which can strip the immortality of an enemy. An enemy that can replicate this would have a big advantage.

Secondly, memory manipulation of sufficient level seems to be very strong, as the relatively minor Titaness Mnesmonye's ability to manipulate memories was considered of such strength to change the great Titanomachy between Zeus and Cronos.

Sealing of sufficient power also seems like a very strong power, as seals placed on Titans including Cronos massively weakened their power.

So who would be a good choice.

Shazam with the "God of Gods" Amp would do great. Divine Lightning Manipulation, beat Yuga Khan, greater then even True Form Darkseid who has nigh-all the abilities of the SS Gods, his lightning has sealing, and he has divine power. 

Hastur, the King in Yellow, from Lovecraft would also likely do well, since he is a mental being that would avoid detection for a while ruling in Carcosa in dreamlands. He's able to affect them from outside dimensioned space, where they would not be able to counter, and be able to remove their memories, turning them to insanity. 

There's another eldritch king I think would be the best choice. 

Asmodeus from D&D, especially in his Greater God form, would also be a good choice. Equally to greater versatility, comparable power, and most importantly has multiversal memory manipulation, able to wipe out his name from the memory of every being including beings that resist memory manipulation which would mean he could spam that (especially if he duplicates as he is prone to doing) so that his enemies constantly forget his existence while he manipulates or defeats them. He could easily steal the power of the keraunos as he is prone to stealing powers and any Archdevil of a Solar Rank has powerful sealing abilities.

Coupled with his godlike manipulative abilities and Asmodeus would likely run circles around the verse. He could seal the godlike entities, or strip them of their powers including ones that are specifically detrimental to others like keraunos or dark cosmo, he can constantly make them forget him, exist where they can't reach, duplicate to making himself more far numerous then the top tiers of the verse etc.

And that's how to be op in Saint Seiya-verse.