#5 – Kong
Kong is the World Government Commander-in-Chief. He was the Fleet Admiral of the Marines at the time of the Battle in Edd War twenty-seven years ago and at the time of Gol D. Roger’s execution twenty-four years ago. Now, as World Government Commander-in-Chief, he works for the World Government, and possesses not only power over the Marines, but also authority over the Government’s espionage agents, the Seven Warlords of the Sea, Enies Lobby, and the Cipher Pols. According to the World Government hierarchy, his authority is second only to the Five Elders and Im.
Due to his muscles, his former rank in the Marines, and his numerous scars, he could be considered as one of the strongest marines ever, however he still has yet to reveal his powers in the series.
#4 – Dracule Mihawk
Mihawk is the current holder of the title, “Greatest Swordsman in the World”.
Part of Mihawk’s reputation as the most powerful master swordsman in the world is also due to his tremendous superhuman physical power and fortitude which supplements his mastery of swordsmanship. He possesses an immense amount of skill in battle and has exceptional eyesight.
The fact that Mihawk used to be a rival of one of the Yonko implies that Mihawk might be one of the strongest characters in the series. Infact he has been known to have frequently fought with Shanks when they were younger. Their battles were said to shake the whole of the Grand Line and Mihawk often sought Shanks out for duels. However, Mihawk lost interest in him after Shanks lost his left arm. Mihawk has remained unharmed thus far throughout the entire series.
#3 – Silvers Rayleigh
“Dark King” Silvers Rayleigh is the former first mate of the Roger Pirates, known as the “Right Hand of the Pirate King”. He’s extremely powerful, easily one of the strongest characters introduced.
Shakky vouches for his strength by saying that he is “100 times stronger than all of you boys”, referring to the Eleven Supernovas.
Furthermore, when Garp was informed Rayleigh may be on Sabaody Archipelago, he told his men not to confront him, he reasoned that the Marines should not confront two legends, Whitebeard and Rayleigh at the same time.
Due to his phenomenal strength, he was able to fight Admiral Kizaru equally and he even managed to scratch the admiral. However, Rayleigh himself has admitted that he is not as young as he used to be, and can tire in battle. This may mean when he was in the prime of his strength he may have been even stronger than when he matched Kizaru, a true testament to his strength!
Rayleigh has tremendous physical strength despite his elderly age. He is powerful enough to kill several Sea Kings with his bare hands while swimming in the Calm Belt.
He is shown to possess great mastery of all three types of Haki.
#2 – Monkey D. Garp
Garp is easily one of the most powerful Marines and one of the strongest characters seen in the series.
In terms of combat, Garp has had several decades worth of experience, in both combat and navigating the harshest oceans within the volatile “New World”. Alongside Roger, he fought and prevailed against the very powerful Rocks Pirates, which consisted of three future Yonkos, earning him the epithet of “Hero of the Marines”. He was also well known for cornering and fighting Roger many times. Roger also stated that he and Garp had almost killed each other on numerous occasions.
The extent of Garp’s power and fame is evident round the time of the Battle of Edd War, three years before the future Pirate King died. It was revealed that he was offered the rank of Admiral several times throughtout his life. It should be noted that those who hold the rank of Admiral are regarded as the World Government’s “Greatest Military Powers” and are the strongest individual fighters within the World Government structure and the Marines.
Despite his advanced age, Garp still posseses tremendous strength.
#1 – Shanks
“Red Haired” Shanks takes the number one spot! He is Luffy’s role model and the man that our main protagonist wants to surpass one day. It makes sense in the series that Shanks is powerful because he is that character that the main protagonist wants to fight last on his journey. Shanks’ full fighting potential hasn’t been explored yet but there is a lot of hints that indicates Shanks is an extremely powerful individual. For starters, he was able to scare off a massive Sea King just by staring at it (until we figured out he used Conquerors Haki: the strongest form of Haki). He also clashed evenly with Whitebeard, a fellow Emperor and even fought another, Kaido, and arrived at Marineford without a scratch on him. Additionally, he managed to ward off Ankinu where the savage admiral seemed a bit shocked at his presence and stopped going after Luffy after he came. Most of all, Blackbeard, who had the powers of the destructive Gura Gura no Mi and the evil Yami Yami no Mi chose not to fight Shanks saying “he is not strong enough to fight him yet”. That right there makes Shanks a force to be reckoned with and definitely one of the strongest guys in the series.
