Well, he is defeated by a side villain, (mainly because he was stuck in a PSTD style flashback and she wield's his main weakness (lighting) with skill). And he struggles with the main villlans, but he succseds in the end, he has a weakness.
In the past? yes. And again the actual story. He is shown to be awesome at first, but is then shown he can be defeated, just like anyone else. Although he gets back up all the time.