10. SQUIRREL GIRL’S SQUIRRELS

Everybody loves the unbeatable Squirrel Girl, but nobody can beat her. Squirrel Girl was created by Will Murray and Steve Ditko in 1992’s “Marvel Super-Heroes” #8, where she was just a girl with squirrel powers (claws, strength, the power to command squirrels) geeking out over meeting Iron Man. She somehow managed to defeat Doctor Doom, Thanos and Wolverine without resorting to gimmicks like Doombots or imaginary stories.
In 2015, “Unbeatable Squirrel Girl” became her own series by Ryan North and Erica Henderson, and each issue starts with a recap by her. Each page also has footnotes from her that reference the comic book you’re reading. In the actual story, Squirrel Girl herself tends to stay in the comic book world, but her sidekick squirrels Tippy-Toe and Monkey Joe break through the fourth wall to comment on and critique the art and story. Sometimes, they’ll even tease the readers for taking things too seriously, as seen in the image above.
9. ALEXANDER LUTHOR JR.

We mentioned Superboy-Prime earlier, but he didn’t go to the “paradise dimension” by himself. He also left with Alexander Luthor Jr., who first appeared in “Crisis on Infinite Earths” #1 (Marv Wolfman, George Pérez, Jerry Ordway) as the son of an alternate Lex Luthor who’s a hero and married to Lois Lane. Alexander Luthor became frustrated by the “paradise dimension” as well and escaped into the mainstream DC universe to take Lex Luthor’s place and create a perfect world – at least, perfect from his perspective.
“Infinite Crisis” was really a commentary on the comic industry with Alexander and Superboy-Prime angry at the dark and gritty turn that comic books had taken, and wanting to return to the lighter stories of the Silver Age. In one moment, Alexander is looking for alternate worlds to combine into a single Earth. While searching for a perfect world, he looks straight at the reader and seems to reach out to grab us. Fortunately, he’s stopped. That’s why we’re still here.
8. MISTER MXYZPTLK

Like Bat-Mite, Mister Mxyzptlk is a trickster from the fifth dimension with almost limitless power who can change reality to become whatever he wants. Unfortunately, he’s not as nice as Bat-Mite, choosing to torment and torture Superman and other heroes. With his interdimensional travel beyond the known DC universe, it’s not much of a stretch. After all, he broke through the third dimension. Why not the fourth wall?
While lots of Mxyzptlk’s adventures have been meta, his most wall-breaking-est moment came in 2001’s “World’s Funnest” (written by Evan Dorkin and drawn by 19 artists including Frank Miller, Frank Cho and Dave Gibbons) where Mxyzptlk and Bat-Mite got into a battle that destroyed multiple universes. In the process, Mxyzptlk used a giant eraser to wipe out Captain Carrot’s universe and tore up the page in another universe. At one point, the two imps even crossed over into photos of the “real world” in New York City.
7. JOKER

Since his first appearance in 1940’s “Batman” #1 (Bill Finger, Bob Kane and Jerry Robinson), the Joker has been bringing chaos and destruction to the DC universe in general, and to Batman directly in particular. Whenever he’s not killing people in Gotham City, he’s usually hanging out at Arkham Asylum, where they try (unsuccessfully) to treat his insanity. He might not actually be as crazy as he seems, since he seems to know he’s in a comic.
At one point in “Detective Comics” #476 (Marshall Rogers, Steve Englehart), the Joker spent a page talking about his plan to no one (unless you count us, the readers) then reached out and turned the corner of the page. In 2010’s “Batman 80-Page Giant,” Joker had an argument with a psychiatrist about why he does what he does for his fans, because he’s believes he and the psychiatrist are fictional characters. He ends by asking if his fans are real, looking right at the reader. Creepy.
6. SUPERMAN

Of all the superheroes in the DC universe, Superman seems to be the most powerful. First appearing in 1938’s “Action Comics” #1 (Joel Siegel, Joe Shuster), Superman is the alien from Krypton with powers far beyond mortal men. He can fly, is super-strong, has X-ray vision and heat vision, among other powers. His vision also seems to let him see through the page, because he apparently can see through the fourth wall.
In his appearances during the Silver Age, Superman seemed way more casual about the fourth wall. At the end of the story, when Clark Kent would make a joke about his secret identity, he would often turn and wink at the reader. No doubt Lois Lane would look at him and say, “Who are you winking at?” Kent would go, “Oh, no one,” and then wink again. After a while, his friends probably stopped asking and would be like, “Just let it go, man.”