Who's the Smartest Dude in the Marvel Universe?

[Warhammer]

Who's the smartest dude between Tony Stark, Hank Pym, T'Challa, Bruce Banner, Victor Von Doom, and Reed Richards? I figured I keep this simple and not include cosmics, etc.

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

You missed the one guy that's smarter than all those characters...

Stan "The MAN" Lee. He's the smartest guy for creating the MARVEL UNIVERSE as we have come to know and love it, true believer!!

"EXCELSIOR!!!!!!!"

 

[Sexy Magician]

I'd probably say Reed, but I think The Leader beats everyone on that list.

 

[KevanG]

Most people have their specifics but I think Reed is considered the worlds leading multidisciplinary scientist with only Doom behind him (Don't mention that part to Doom). Everyone else has their own specialty in various fields. Banner does radiation, Stark and T'Challa do Robotics and tech, Both Hanks (Pym and McCoy) are Biochemists, The Leader mostly does Gamma Radiation with some robotics and biochemistry.

When people want to steal science crap from anyone they always want Richards tech.

 

[Thanos]

Cosmic - Thanos
Earth only - T'Challa

 

[Themanofbat]

Peter Parker.

 

[BLACKVULCAN]

I will go with Reed!
Hell! everybody's freaking uniform is made from the %^&* he invented!if not for him everybody would be fighting crime NAKED!!( which wouldnt be bad for MS. MARVEL or SHULKIE!) That dude is the smartest apple on the tree of Knowledge!

Stan "The MAN" Lee. He's the smartest guy for creating the MARVEL UNIVERSE as we have come to know and love it, true believer!!

oh and i agree! him and JACK" THE KING" KIRBY baby!

 

[hippie_hunter]

Marvel pretty much has them already ranked:

1. Reed Richards
2. Victor von Doom
3. Tony Stark
4. Bruce Banner
5. Hank McCoy
6. T'Challa
7. Hank Pym
8. Amadeus Cho

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I've always considered Dr. Doom smarter than Reed. His character flaws prevent him from outdoing Reed more often than not.

Also, how the hell is Hank McCoy higher than Hank Pym? Pym's a master of like 3 different fields; McCoy couldn't even cure the Legacy Virus, which is smack-dab in his field of genetics/biology. And Mr. Sinister and his own evil clone are better in that field than he is.

 

[Kirk Langstrom]

Marvel pretty much has them already ranked:

1. Reed Richards
2. Victor von Doom
3. Tony Stark
4. Bruce Banner
5. Hank McCoy
6. T'Challa
7. Hank Pym
8. Amadeus Cho

I'd bump Hank Pym up to #3. I don't think Banner, McCoy, and certainly not T'Challa or Cho are anywhere NEAR him. Pym has discovered another dimension and created artificial intelligence. What have those others done that's comparable?

 

[OriginalMiles]

Why is Peter Parker not in this poll? Wasn't he part of some meeting of all the smart guys one time?

 

[bored]

Doop

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Why is Peter Parker not in this poll? Wasn't he part of some meeting of all the smart guys one time?

It seems to be generally accepted that Peter's got the potential to be a super-genius, but he hasn't been able to develop that potential due to his Spider-Man activities hogging so much of his time.

 

[Silicon Surfer]

The '90's Master Edition Handbook listed Modok and the Leader as having superhuman intelligence above the level of Richards and Doom who were merely "Extraordinary Genius". The Extraordinary Genius category also included Xavier, Magneto and the Mandarin. Pym, Stark and Banner were a category below along with Parker. T'Challa was ranked "above average". Hank McCoy wasn't even ranked as a genius. With the exception of Parker and McCoy, who I thought should have ranked higher, I have always thought that it was accurate.

 

[The Endless]

If you wanna actually go on feats in the comics and not silly handbooks though, Reed and Doom are clearly superior to MODOK and Leader. I'd even say the likes of Stark and Pym are, going by what they've actually accomplished. Creating Ultron alone puts Pym above MODOK and Leader.

 

[Silicon Surfer]

Considering that Ultron was the worst screw-up of his career, I wouldn't count Ultron as an achievement of any sort. If anything I count it against him. What Utron developed into was not his intention. Much of Modok and the Leader's achievements are not featured much in the stories and they appear much less often so of course the good guys will have more good showings.

 

[KevanG]

The '90's Master Edition Handbook listed Modok and the Leader as having superhuman intelligence above the level of Richards and Doom who were merely "Extraordinary Genius". The Extraordinary Genius category also included Xavier, Magneto and the Mandarin. Pym, Stark and Banner were a category below along with Parker. T'Challa was ranked "above average". Hank McCoy wasn't even ranked as a genius. With the exception of Parker and McCoy, who I thought should have ranked higher, I have always thought that it was accurate.

There's been a dozen or so MODOKs all of which have varied in intelligence so I don't think they could count unless one did something outstanding for a long time. Like I said, the Leader is more about Gamma Radiation and its effects but he also works on biochemistry and robotics.

As for the others, Peter is smart but constantly limits himself to small scale projects and can never bring himself to work on anything big for any length of time so besides a few times where he's worked with the FF or Stark on things we've never really seen how far he can go.

Pym is a multidisciplinary genius as he works with robotics, biochemistry, biology, mechanics, altering and tinkering with various levels of realities including opening doorways to alternate ones, so I'd put him in the top 5 easily. While Ultron was a very very bad mistake it's still amazing. He made a basic level AI which was able to not only think for itself but also to focus upon improvement, survival and procreation of offspring. It's also been able to gather resources and outsmart humans dozens of times. That's a heck of a thing to do.

Don't know much about the Mandarin but for Xavier and Magneto they're both geniuses in their own fields. Magneto spent decades studying his power and (I think) holds doctorates, or their equivalents, for multiple fields but it's all relating to his powers. Xavier is a biologist/biochemist with a focus on mutations and I'm pretty sure he has a doctorate or something in psychiatry.

As it is I'd rate them

1) Richards
2) Doom
3) Pym
4) Banner
5) Tied for a few people.

 

[hippie_hunter]

I'd bump Hank Pym up to #3. I don't think Banner, McCoy, and certainly not T'Challa or Cho are anywhere NEAR him. Pym has discovered another dimension and created artificial intelligence. What have those others done that's comparable?

Banner, Pym, and Cho have been specifically ranked at #4, #7, and #8. When Pym became Scientist Supreme it was even stated that even though there are others such as Richards and Stark who are smarter, Pym's imaginative ability to think outside of the box allowed him to obtain the title.

McCoy and T'Challa have also been specifically stated to be in the Top 8.

 

[Silicon Surfer]

Mandy's Makluan based technology is the most advanced on the planet, beyond even that of Richards or Doom. Magneto has extensive knowledge of many fields such as physics, electronics, engineering and mutation. Xavier also has extensive knowledge of most if not all fields of science.

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

The '90's Master Edition Handbook listed Modok and the Leader as having superhuman intelligence above the level of Richards and Doom who were merely "Extraordinary Genius". The Extraordinary Genius category also included Xavier, Magneto and the Mandarin. Pym, Stark and Banner were a category below along with Parker. T'Challa was ranked "above average". Hank McCoy wasn't even ranked as a genius. With the exception of Parker and McCoy, who I thought should have ranked higher, I have always thought that it was accurate.

Sorry but I can't take any publication seriously that suggest Black Panther only has an above average intelligence.

He could easily discuss science and technology with great minds like Tony Stark and Hank Pym.

 

[Silicon Surfer]

People think that because he uses advanced technology from his country he must create it, He had lots of scientists and engineers to do that some of them have been shown on on panel explaining some device or other to him. Coming from a rich country he undoubtedly does have some training in the sciences but that does make him a scientist or engineer. I don't know what they have been writing about him lately but for the first 40+ years or so of his existence as a character he showed nothing more in the way of intelligence than "above average"..

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

Well Black Panther is one of the smartest people in Wakanda.

You'd have to be a genius to be one of the smartest people of an advanced nation.

Black Panther's wiki page (under powers and abilities) claims he's one of the eight smartest people on the planet.

 

[KevanG]

That top 8 is getting to be a really crowded list.

 

[jonathancrane]

Reed.

 

[Silicon Surfer]

That top 8 is getting to be a really crowded list.

Yeah, that top 8 has about 15 or 20 people in it.