Characters who are vastly overpowered seem to me to be more of a fantasy thing compared to other genres. More specifically, I'm talking about wizards and other magic users. These are the people in fantasy literature that can seemingly defeat armies on their own and move mountains by just using the power of their minds. While this is undeniably cool, it also makes it hard to relate to them as characters or become invested in their stories. To give you a good example, there is Milamber or "Pug of Crydee" as he was initially known from the Riftwar books by Raymond E. Feist. Here we have a character who basically starts out as an orphan that was abandoned by the side of the road and ended up becoming an apprentice to a great magician. I don't want to venture into any spoilers, but Milamber goes on to accomplish incredible feats of magic that makes him far more powerful than any of the other characters in the books. It also causes the author to resort to the laziest of overpowered character cliches by making his loved ones his weakness. Meaning that because his enemies are not really able to harm him, they kill those close to Milamber, which in my opinion is a cheap way of milking emotion from readers for a character that is too overpowered. The author generally does a good job of not shying away from killing important characters, which keeps readers on their toes, but Milamber is never in any real danger of dying.

This will maybe a controversial response, but I really think that Daenerys Targaryen from the Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin is overpowered. Just think about it, she's beautiful, she's cunning and she has enough charisma to convince virtually everyone around her to die for her cause. On top of that she has got a couple of dragons and armies at her beck and call.

Lucia Eva Damora is one of the most powerful fictional characters ever. She appears in the six books of Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes. In the first book, she is able to use her elemental powers to destroy the barrier around the palace in Ayranis, a barrier that was standing for years, and thus allowing her father to kill the king and conquer the kingdom. Her blood was powerful enough to awaken the four Kindred, elemental gods who want to destroy the world. Lucia was the first elemental sorceress since 1000 years. While thinking thoughts of ice and winter, her water element accidentally froze the rabbit pet that she was holding I her arms. She was able to use her powers to force the truth out of people. She gave birth to her daughter, who was the result of an exiled Watcher, and fully recovered by the next day. In the end, it was her own powerful blood that destroyed the Kindred. So I think she is an overpowered characters who did wonders in the series that are too many speak of.

Check out these books and you'll find what you are looking for:

1. The Wheel of Time Series. This series by Robert Jordan has a whole bunch of characters that are all way too powerful for their own good and that of the story. One character in particular, Mat Cauthon, appears to have the power of luck, so he always succeeds against any and all odds. The other thing that makes Mat incredible powerful is something that I like to call "plot armor." In other words, there is just no way that anything bad would ever happen to him because the author wouldn't let it.

2. The King's Dark Tidings Series. This series by Kel Kade is another one where the protagonist is basically a one man army. The lead, Rezkin, is only 19 years old when the books start, but was apparently trained from birth to be a living weapon. In reality, this means that he has mastered just about everything to kill opponents and keep himself alive. I've read a few of the books so far and there is just nobody that can even come close to Rezkin in terms of skills, so he might as well be Superman.

3. The Iron Druid Chronicles. I have to admit that this series by Kevin Hearne are somewhat guilty pleasures of mine, but they do fit your requirements for an overpowered protagonist. The lead character is a man named Atticus O'Sullivan who has to deal with all kinds of supernatural creatures along with gods and goddesses. It's all in a day’s work for Atticus, who runs an occult bookshop, but who is actually an extremely powerful Druid.

4. The Demon Cycle Series. I'm only up to book three in this series by Peter V. Brett, but I'm already hooked. It is set in a world where demons have returned to cause havoc each night, so the surviving humans have to make use of all kinds of wards to stay alive when darkness falls. Think "I Am Legend," but with demons instead of vampires. There are multiple protagonists in this series, but the most powerful one is called Arlen. Once again, he is a character that starts out as fairly normal, but due to circumstances he basically becomes a "chosen one" and decides to take the fight to the demons instead of cowering from them. How he does it is also pretty ingenious. The books contain a couple of problematic elements in terms of how women are portrayed, but overall it is nice.

5. Malazan Book of the Fallen Series. I was a bit divided whether or not to include this series as although it is filled to the brim with overpowered characters, they tend to sort of cancel each other out. I also have to give credit to the author for managing to keep the stories interesting despite how overpowered the characters are as this is something that a lot of new or less skilled authors tend to struggle with.

It surprises me that authors still fall into this trap of creating characters who are too overpowered. As a reader, I enjoy characters that are a little flawed and could get hurt or in serious trouble if they are not careful. Without that sense of danger, then there is very little suspense and the stories tend to become boring. Not to say that all books that feature powerful protagonists are boring, but if you know that the hero is just going to stroll away from every encounter without a scratch, there's not much to keep you reading.

I don't read a lot of fantasy, so thankfully I tend to not see so many over powered wizard characters and whatnot, but it is something that crops up in science fiction too. Just take a look at the Andrew Wiggins character from the Ender's Game books by Orson Scott Card. When another boy teases him, Wiggins beat him up so badly that the boy dies from his injuries. When he is enrolled in battle school, he dominates all the other students even with the school leaders trying to do everything to stack the odds against him. Eventually he goes on to single handedly win a war thanks to his superior intellect. Oh, and did I mention that he accomplished all of this at the age of ten? Yeah, if that isn't overpowered, then I don't know what is.

1. Something from the Nightside by Simon R. Green. Something from the Nightside, and indeed all of the books in the series like Agents of Lights and Darkness, Hex and the City, Hell to Pay, A Hard Day's Knight etc. features a protagonist like this. His name is John Taylor and has access to a number of abilities that make him very overpowered. His primary ability is to find things, which is a lot more useful than what you may think. For example, he can "find" the weak points of any opponent he faces and "find" shortcuts to anywhere he needs to go. Since he has werewolf blood, it is also almost impossible to kill him as he would simply regenerate. There are a couple of other things, but overall this character is just a total bad-ass.

2. Storm Front by Jim Butcher. Storm Front is the first book in The Dresden Files series and it was followed by a whole bunch of sequels. The protagonist is named Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden and he is not just a powerful wizard, but also a detective. Harry has access to a number of powerful spells like fire and wind along with lightning, ice and cold. To be fair, Harry doesn't start out as all powerful, but over the course of the fifteen or so books he has escaped death more times than what I can count.

3. The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien. I would argue that Gandalf is the most powerful (and overpowered) character in The Lord of the Rings series. He is not just a very powerful wizard, but also able to use his scheming tactics to persuade those around him to do what he needs them to do. One thing that a lot of people who have watched the movies do not realize is that Gandalf is not just a mere mortal, but actually an angelic being of great power. This would explain why he isn't just incredibly long-lived, but also managed to come back from the dead even more powerful than before.