Superman Returns Superman's Super speed... Super thinker too?

[ChrisBaleBatman]

Here, Here.

 

[Nerial]

But Superman's never been characterized as being of genius intellect. He's a smart man, no question, but he's never really shown the tactical, scientific or academic intelligence of Batman (yes, Batman can do more than just build gadgets) or Lex Luthor.

And All Star Superman isn't in continuity.

I don't know. I've met a lot of people with extremely high IQ's that do the dumbest things (my brother-in-law has a 190 IQ and is going for his law degree, but he accidentally burned my sister's hand when he decided that instead of gently placing a piece of chicken onto a hot pan of boiling grease, he'd toss it in instead. NOT KIDDING).

Batman has a detective-mind, and can piece together by logical thinking, and strict facts. He also has uncanny street-smarts and is terrific at reading people's characters. You can't pull one on the Dark Knight.

Superman is idealistic, and way too nice for his own good. He has 'book smarts,'--things that have ultimate truth like math and science. He can do complicated math in his head, and read and memorize books with little difficulty. So can Rainman. That doesn't make Superman a detective, but it does make him a genius in that regards.

Does that makes sense at all?

 

[Nerial]

Grrr...why is it everytime I contribute into a topic, all of a sudden the topic is no longer active?

Do I have bad cyber-breath, or something?

 

[knightofistari]

In order to process the speed at which he is moving, he has to have a "super-brain" or at least one that can think at Super speed. Similiar to how Clark in SV can see people moving in slow-mo when he's running.

 

[ChrisBaleBatman]

Yeah....but the thing is I've never seen him portrayed as this SUPER BRAIN. I mean, if he were smarter than Lex.....then what'd be the point? Lex might as well quit.

 

[Nerial]

Yeah....but the thing is I've never seen him portrayed as this SUPER BRAIN. I mean, if he were smarter than Lex.....then what'd be the point? Lex might as well quit.

No...no...there are so many different types of genius.

Superman is not clever like Lex, nor does he have the creativity. He's not a detective like Batman; the boy lacks street-smarts. But, he can comprehend book-smarts--theories, languages, mechanics, math--these types of things that require very little bias to understand.

Think about it. Superman is the most naive of the superheroes. Wouldn't it make sense that his intellectual strength lies in fields that are prone to find absolute truths like math and science?

 

[JokerNick]

I was thinking... with all that speed that he has, wouldn't he trip when he's running fast? Like when turning a corner, isn't he going too fast to acknowledge it? And if he's a super quick thinker as well... why isn't he a genius?

I wish lois would have said, "faster then a speeding bullet.... that's about right" when the talked about her banging supes

 

[ChrisBaleBatman]

True. I get you Nerial.

 

[knightofistari]

No...no...there are so many different types of genius.

Superman is not clever like Lex, nor does he have the creativity. He's not a detective like Batman; the boy lacks street-smarts. But, he can comprehend book-smarts--theories, languages, mechanics, math--these types of things that require very little bias to understand.

Think about it. Superman is the most naive of the superheroes. Wouldn't it make sense that his intellectual strength lies in fields that are prone to find absolute truths like math and science?

I wouldn't say he doesn't have street smarts. The man doesn't just run into all the nice things in Metropolis while saving people. Superman has seen horrible things too. He's witnessed people dying, people having been beaten to a pulp. He's seen disasters and destructon. He's not some niave book worm that doesn't know the world around him.
Sure he's not Manipulative like Batman or Lex. And he doesn't use people. (although SV Clark tends too).

Superman is smart and has SOME not much but SOME street smarts. He has to have some creativity and investigative skills since he is a Reporter in his other guise as Clark Kent.

 

[ChrisBaleBatman]

Well, compared to Lex and Bruce......he's not as street smart as they are. Far as I know, Lex had to build his fortune from nothing......living in Suicide Slums.....adn if you go with the SV Lex, which I like too, he's just been through darker stuff. Same with Bruce.

But, he is a bit niave. Some would say it's bad, others would say it's good. It depends I guess.

I think how he is perceived, by us and the characters around him, as much to do with his upbringing and the life he life he lived BEFORE Metropolis.

 

[Nerial]

I wouldn't say he doesn't have street smarts. The man doesn't just run into all the nice things in Metropolis while saving people. Superman has seen horrible things too. He's witnessed people dying, people having been beaten to a pulp. He's seen disasters and destructon. He's not some niave book worm that doesn't know the world around him.
Sure he's not Manipulative like Batman or Lex. And he doesn't use people. (although SV Clark tends too).

Superman is smart and has SOME not much but SOME street smarts. He has to have some creativity and investigative skills since he is a Reporter in his other guise as Clark Kent.

I'm saying in comparison to Batman and Lex. Compared to most people, Superman is very world-knowledgable; compared to the world's greatest detective and one of the brightest criminal minds, the boy's naive. That's what I meant.

 

[Cougar]

Now I know heredity doesn't always guarantee you anything, wasn't Jor-el Krypton's BEST and SMARTEST Scientist? With a father who is that smart on a planet of people so far beyond our own as to seem magicial, you'd think Superman would inhereit just a little bit of that.

As far as not being as tactically smart as the others (Batman, Lex). I think that if you allow him the ability to speed read books and memorize them then he could just as easily read books on strategy and military tactics and battle sceme's ect. Again, it's the whole Neo "I know kung fu" thing where knowing a thing doesn't mean you can internalize it, but with Supes' amazingly fast brain you would think that he could just think about a thing quick enough to have it seem as if it's instinct.

Also, he would have little reason to be as much of a dectective as batman, when he can just float above a city and listen to everyone's voice and look through nearly everything until he finds what he's looking for. And with his extremely fast mind that shouldn't take longer than a few seconds.

Just a thought.

 

[Saint]

Actually, I don't think this "super intellect" power happened until this year in the Up, Up and Away arc.

However with that said, I still wouldn't call him a genius on the level of Bruce Wayne or Lex Luthor.

The superintellect has been around for a while, actually--it's just rarely mentioned.

In any case, what Superman has isn't super intelligence, it's essentially a super-speed brain. His brain operates at a much faster level than the human brain, which allows him to 1) operate his various powers and 2) operate at super speed. Like the Flash, his brain function are increased so he can register things at super speed. But that doesn't make him a genius. It's just calculating power, and it takes more than calculating power to be a genius. If Superman was so inclined, he could probably educate and train himself to have a genius-level intellect, but I don't see that happening.

What has been added in Up, Up, and Away, I think, is merely an intuitive understanding of the things his senses take in.

 

[Spawn187]

I was thinking... with all that speed that he has, wouldn't he trip when he's running fast? Like when turning a corner, isn't he going too fast to acknowledge it? And if he's a super quick thinker as well... why isn't he a genius?

Thats like asking does it still take superman 1 minute to cook minute rice??????? HMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm












Eat Snacky smores

 

[casketmouth]

I was thinking... with all that speed that he has, wouldn't he trip when he's running fast? Like when turning a corner, isn't he going too fast to acknowledge it? And if he's a super quick thinker as well... why isn't he a genius?

lol true, superman is a dumbass, He gets out smarted by Lex all day. BATMAN out smarts him and they don't have nothing super about them. Superman gets too much help from other people thinking. The movies damn sure ain't shown one stroke of genius and if he trully was a genius then he would run earth and not constantly get be littled by mankind here and there.

 

[casketmouth]

Thats like asking does it still take superman 1 minute to cook minute rice??????? HMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm












Eat Snacky smores

actually no it doesn't. Minute rice is nothing to do with superman's speed. That would be the time it takes the RICE to be ready.

 

[chaseter]

I was thinking... with all that speed that he has, wouldn't he trip when he's running fast? Like when turning a corner, isn't he going too fast to acknowledge it? And if he's a super quick thinker as well... why isn't he a genius?

How do you know he just doesn't move so fast that everything around his seems slow???

 

[casketmouth]

I wouldn't say he doesn't have street smarts. The man doesn't just run into all the nice things in Metropolis while saving people. Superman has seen horrible things too. He's witnessed people dying, people having been beaten to a pulp. He's seen disasters and destructon. He's not some niave book worm that doesn't know the world around him.
Sure he's not Manipulative like Batman or Lex. And he doesn't use people. (although SV Clark tends too).

Superman is smart and has SOME not much but SOME street smarts. He has to have some creativity and investigative skills since he is a Reporter in his other guise as Clark Kent.

If he was smart he wouldn't have been thrown off guard EVER by Lex cause Lex's plans are stupid ones in most cases and Batman would never fall for them, but superman doesn't think on point and he should have expected Lex to be smart enough to have kryptonite some where, why would he be that dumb. Gosh!!!

 

[Nerial]

lol true, superman is a dumbass, He gets out smarted by Lex all day. BATMAN out smarts him and they don't have nothing super about them. Superman gets too much help from other people thinking. The movies damn sure ain't shown one stroke of genius and if he trully was a genius then he would run earth and not constantly get be littled by mankind here and there.

I'm stil going to argue that being a genius doesn't mean you can't be naive and also fall for traps. I mean...

...who doesn't know a nerd--really smart, well educated--that has fallen for a bully prank, or has gotten their head dunked in the toilet (or something to that effect)? From what I've seen, intellectuals are many times the butt of jokes and the most gullible people on the planet.

All I'm saying is that, when it comes to certain things like science, math, languages, and theories, Superman can understand those quite easily. It's applying those "truths" to real life that seems to be his difficulty.

Question: How many languages does he speak, anyway? Anyone know?

 

[Steelsheen]

I don't know. I've met a lot of people with extremely high IQ's that do the dumbest things (my brother-in-law has a 190 IQ and is going for his law degree, but he accidentally burned my sister's hand when he decided that instead of gently placing a piece of chicken onto a hot pan of boiling grease, he'd toss it in instead. NOT KIDDING).

Batman has a detective-mind, and can piece together by logical thinking, and strict facts. He also has uncanny street-smarts and is terrific at reading people's characters. You can't pull one on the Dark Knight.

Superman is idealistic, and way too nice for his own good. He has 'book smarts,'--things that have ultimate truth like math and science. He can do complicated math in his head, and read and memorize books with little difficulty. So can Rainman. That doesn't make Superman a detective, but it does make him a genius in that regards.

Does that makes sense at all?

makes perfect sense to me

and Superman can be a detective as good as Batman, he was one way back in the old days, that's why when the WF comics started coming around one of the biggest crimes against the Man of Steel is that he became all brawns as Batman took over the brains dept, which is so unfair

Superman is smart, as smart as they come, but his own trusting nature goes against his better judgement oftentimes, thus making him appear "dumber" than the Lex or Batman.

 

[Steelsheen]

Question: How many languages does he speak, anyway? Anyone know?

well... there's English and Kryptonian

i dont know what's the official count, but i bet he can speak every language on the planet and half this sector of the universe if he puts his mind to it

 

[TrailerCues]

Does that mean he has super humor as well

I am reminded of an Seinfeld Episode

 

[knightofistari]

I'm stil going to argue that being a genius doesn't mean you can't be naive and also fall for traps. I mean...

...who doesn't know a nerd--really smart, well educated--that has fallen for a bully prank, or has gotten their head dunked in the toilet (or something to that effect)? From what I've seen, intellectuals are many times the butt of jokes and the most gullible people on the planet.

All I'm saying is that, when it comes to certain things like science, math, languages, and theories, Superman can understand those quite easily. It's applying those "truths" to real life that seems to be his difficulty.

Question: How many languages does he speak, anyway? Anyone know?

Not for cetain since he can speak any language he wants to, plus alien languages and/or dead languages. He has a super fast brain AND super memory....so this guy can learn any language similiar to how John Travolta did in "Phenomenom" except 10 times faster. Unless its a language that involves certain vocal sounds that his Kryptonian vcal cords are unable to produce similiar to how Han Solo can understand Wookie but could never speak it as he was never evolved too.

 

[ChrisBaleBatman]

So, can he read and understand an entire book reading it at super speed?

 

[Spare-Flair]

Superman is a genius - in the comics he can learn new languages almost instaneously and he can indeed speak every language on earth and understand all technology, etc. Yes he can read at Superspeed therefore his ability to accept and process information is faster than any other being on earth. He calculates the trajectories of bullets in his head, he hears everything around him and then filters them all one by one and understands them all one by one and knows all the information about what made the sound, how far away, and why.

Of course, this movie doesn't show that at all in any way since Superman is depicted of not having the forethought of staying for a few months to see if he got Lois pregnant and just left without the proper prudence that a more intelligent, thoughtful, and responsible individual of his reputation should possess.