Although there are an array of smart Marvel characters such as Peter Parker, Charles Xavier, Doctor Strange, Shiri, and Otto Octavius, we are looking for the best of the best. Think incredible intelligence, enough so that building a time machine would be a breeze. With that in mind, this list will only look at the top ten most intelligent (read smartest) characters in the Marvel universe.
10. Amadeus Cho
This Korean-American teenager would eventually inherit Bruce Banner’s Hulk, but prior to this, he was labelled the 7th smartest person on the planet. This is quite the feat, considering he earned this title at the ripe age of fifteen after winning the Brain Fight competition. From here, he single-handedly ended up tracking down and rescuing the Hulk by hacking into the security network of the Baxter Building. Amadeus also restored She-Hulk’s powers to her after Tony Stark’s S.P.I.N technology took them. This is amongst the other incredible feats he accomplished that led to S.H.I.E.L.D. recognising his intelligence as a huge asset for saving the world. Finally, and most impressively, upon gaining the power of the Hulk, Amadeus remained the same person in both forms.
9. Bruce Banner
When it comes to scientific knowledge, Bruce is the perfect guy for the job. As a brilliant scientist and engineer with genius-level intellect, Bruce Banner is easily one of the smartest characters in the Marvel universe. For example, the gamma radiation he was exposed to that turned him into the Incredible Hulk is from a gamma bomb only he could create. And while he may not be smarter than Doctor Doom, the green giant did manage to outsmart the villain in a battle of wits. And finally, the most impressive feat yet was his ability to create a water purification system in a single day that would eliminate all waterborne diseases. So, of course, Bruce decided an appropriate name for the machine would be ‘Tuesday’.
8. Tony Stark
Now, you may be surprised that the smartest Avenger and the creator of the first Iron Man suit is so low down on this list. However, Tony has the biggest ego of all the characters on this list. Unfortunately, this also happens to be his downfall. However, he still counts as a hero with super-genius intelligence because he could create an armoured suit strong enough to fight the Phoenix Force. This is outside of all the other incredible inventions the billionaire managed to create, the most prominent being his nanotechnology. And the most impressive creation yet is the Dyson Sphere he built around the sun. This was created as a backup plan for colliding planets. Impressive, right?
7. Hank McCoy
In addition to his cool mutant powers, Hank McCoy (better known as Beast) is another of the smartest characters in the Marvel universe. Despite having superhuman strength and abilities, his most impressive ability is his mind. Not only was this genius able to discover and produce the chemical that causes mutations in humans, but he also built a time travel machine within a day and brought the young X-Men back to the present. Hank then built a device that could contain the Phoenix in a single day, figured out a way to communicate with people in the future, and just randomly had access to Pym Particles. In fact, Hank was the only person on this list to get a stern lecture from one of The Beyonders, warning him about his intelligence and the dangers of it.
6. Riri Williams
Riri Williams is another reason why Tony Stark only ranked in at number eight on this list, with this young girl being his spiritual successor. Better known as Ironheart, Riri managed to accomplish Tony’s greatest feat by the young age of sixteen. Keep in mind, when Tony built his first suit, he was a young man and only managed to create a child’s play version of his best Iron Man armour. In comparison, Riri’s first suit, the Ironheart Armor 1, may not have been on par with Tony’s Silver Centurion suit, but it was impressively advanced. In fact, it lived up to the Iron Man Mark 1 suit from the MCU. We have yet to see just how far her intellectual capacity takes her, but there is no doubt that she will be up there amongst the smartest in the Marvel universe.
5. Hank Pym
You may recognise this name from a very popular film series in the MCU starring Paul Rudd. As the creator of the Ant-Man suit, the comic book version of Hank has seen his fair share of playing around with other suits. Outside of creating the suit, he is responsible for creating the Pym Particles and the creation of Ultron. As a founding member of the Avengers, the superhero suffers from bipolar disorder and has taken up the aliases of Giant-Man, Yellowjacket, Goliath, and the Wasp. Most impressively, Hank was named planet Earth’s Scientist Supreme by Eternity. If this is not a testament to the man’s intellectual genius, who knows what? Kudos to this scientist for easily earning a spot in the top five of this list.
4. Victor Von Doom
This is one of the more impressive characters on this list, with his intelligence far surpassing many others. Second only to Reed Richards regarding intelligence, he has some amazing feats under his belt. For one, Doctor Doom was able to separate the Hulk from Bruce Banner, build a time machine, and travel back in time to consort with the original Dark Sorceress, Morgana Le Fey, and master both science and magic. In addition, the man is a force to be reckoned with, further proving his intelligence by making his own Destroyer Armor and building a force field powerful enough so that Magneto’s abilities would not affect him. And it is scary to think that Victor has only made the fourth spot on this list with his impressive intellectual capacity.
3. Reed Richards
The great thing about Reed Richards and his genius is the fact that he is very wise. In fact, his wisdom sets him apart from many of the other geniuses on this list. Better known as Mr Fantastic and the leader of the Fantastic Four, he is the smartest man alive and considers his brain to be more of an asset than his superpowers. In addition, he has created a cosmic cube by himself and granted him and his group superpowers when attempting to study mysterious cosmic rays in space. This is besides the fact that he has managed to outsmart the scarily intelligent Victor Von Doom on multiple occasions and has one of the largest and most advanced laboratories and technology development set-ups in the Baxter Building.
2. Valeria Richards
As the daughter of Reed Richards and Susan Richards, it’s only fitting that Valeria would take up the number two spot on this list. Conceived in the Negative Zone, Valeria had a rough birth, emitting radiation blasts that almost took the lives of both her and Susan. However, she is saved by Doctor Doom’s magic, and he becomes her godfather. So naturally, she reached a very high level of intellect at a young age. At just two years old, she could speak coherently and understand the social dynamics of her family well enough to know that revealing her intellectual capacity would cause tensions between them. Having outsmarted Norman Osborn, Valeria was also enlisted as part of the Future Foundation. Despite being relatively young, she has already unlocked much of her intellectual genius.
1. Lunella Lafayette
Lunella has been compared to even Reed Richards himself despite being such a young girl. And this is outside the fact that she was easily able to solve the Banner Brain Omnicompetence Examiner. This device showed its user a holographic cube that they would need to solve as a means to gauge their intelligence. When Amadeus handed the device to her, she returned it immediately after solving it. This, in turn, made her the smartest person on the entire planet. In fact, this little girl could even defeat the robots Doctor Doom sent to her school upon finding out how intelligent she was. Of course, that is no easy feat, and Lunella managed to do so without breaking a sweat at nine years old. Undoubtedly, Marvel fans are highly excited to see the level of genius she will reach in the future.
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Who do you think are the smartest / most intelligent Marvel characters?
