Вы можете использовать Reduce
с pmax
...
#some dummy data...
l <- list(matrix(1:4,nrow=2),matrix(5:2,nrow=2),matrix((0:3)*2,nrow=2))
l
[[1]]
[,1] [,2]
[1,] 1 3
[2,] 2 4
[[2]]
[,1] [,2]
[1,] 5 3
[2,] 4 2
[[3]]
[,1] [,2]
[1,] 0 4
[2,] 2 6
Reduce(pmax,l)
[,1] [,2]
[1,] 5 4
[2,] 4 6