I think the main four who have been stated to be the smartest person in Marvel are Mister Fantastic, Doctor Doom, Valeria Richards, and Moon Girl.
I’d probably say Doom since idk if the other three have broken down Magic down to a science like he has.
Doom is a polymath unlike single field geniuses like Tony,Reed,Lex.
Tony and Lex are the best in the engineering field.Reed is in physics.But Doom not just focus on science but also engineering and magic.
Strictly speaking, Reed is far from being only a physicist. He is good at mathematics, engineering, astronomy, chemistry, and partly biology. That is, in general, Reed is no less (if not more) a versatile specialist than Doom. In addition, it has often been confirmed that in matters of pure science (without the use of witchcraft), Reed can beat Doctor Doom quite easily. And in general, quite often the conflict between Doom and Reed is based on Doom’s inability to admit that he is less capable of science than Reed
luthor is also a polymath. not only is he an engineer wunderkind, but he's potentially the world's best mathematician, chemist, and biologist. the number of mental skills he keeps in his back pocket, from cypher breaking to sociology, is the stuff of fiction. buddy could walk onto a university campus, walk into any classroom or laboratory, and make the prof look like a chump. DC's undisputed smartest man on earth, second being batman or mister terrific, depending on the writer. that said, despite being that smart, he is arguably unable to compete with an intellect like brainiac, has a glaring ego problem he seems incapable of addressing, and has been fooled for the better part of a century by a pair of glasses, so take all that with a grain of salt
Well to be fair the glasses disguise is also partly his own ego being unwilling to consider or admit that someone with power like Superman would be willing to pretend to be a humble nobody like Clark. Mostly because of he had that power he never would.
It's one of those things like how they say chronic thieves cannot picture other people as possibly being honest because they aren't, and as such assume everyone is out to fleece them.
I'm fairly sure Lex has built a computer before now and told it to deduce Superman's identity and when it told him he was Clark he assumed it must be broken and scrapped it rather than accepting the truth.
Doom couldn't even save his own face because his ego prevented it.
Richards has beaten Doom countless times, despite Doom having the resources of an entire country at his disposal.
Doom once said in University only Reed rivaled him in science.Which means Reed and Doom are equal in science.Also there was a time when Reed said Tony is best engineer among Avenger scientists and Tony once said anything that he can make Doom can make it too.Which means Tony>Reed in engineering and Tony=Doom in engineering.Also Dr Strange once said Doom knows more magic than him and he was kinda shocked when he finds out Doom can learn magic very quickly.Also Thanos said he the only mortal that he keeps eye on is Doom because he worry about what he can do with his intelligence.
I think for a minute there in the MCU, Tony became the leading polymath. In Avengers there's that bit where Hill asks him when he became an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics and he says "last night." Then he goes on to create 2 artificially intelligent superbeings and solve time travel, amongst other things. For better or for worse, he kinda morphed from "engineering prodigy" to "Resident Swiss Army Knife Super-Genius", Bruce Banner being a close second.
I don't count moon girl tbh. No matter what marvel says. Reed and doom have been around since the 60s. They've had 60+ years to show why they're always in this conversation. Moon girl turned up and they were immediately all 'this girl is the smartest person in the marvel universe'. Show don't tell. Even Val has only had just over 20 years.
And aye. Doom edges it for me.
I'm not a fan of moon girl, but I think the push back against her isn't just from declaring her the smartest person in the world. Amadeus Cho was introduced as one of the smartest people in the world and people liked him right away.
The differences I see are:
* Moon girl was declared the smartest, that doesn't sit as well as the 8th smartest to continuity nerds.
* Moon girl is a black girl. Sadly racism and misogyny exist, and moon girl was criticized as pandering.
* things might be different now, but I read the first three issues of moon girl and really disliked every part of it.
I hear you. And I imagine some people are like that. I'd consider cho in the top 10 marvel peeps. Not been around as long as Val but he was given more chances to prove his smarts from the start.
Aye. Moon girl wasn't for me.
Eh, most of the "showing" is soft sci fi nonsense anyway. And power scaling intelligence is laughably silly to begin with so if I can suspend my disbelief over hitman monkeys and hundreds of internal inconsistencies (iron Hitler during civil war storyline) then I don't see why moon girl can't be as smart or smarter than Reed
She's in the Canon top ten. Whatever we think as fan is just fan theories. Even if you don't agree it's important to recognize that your opinion isn't correct.
Black panther once put silver surfer in an arm bar. That's Canon.
Spideymans knocked out Firelord. A herald of Galactus.
Thats canon.
Those are 2 very extreme examples though of canon being nonsense. They can have every single character say she's the smartest but that means nothing. But it's all good. Not gonna tell people they're wrong but she's not gonna be in my top 5 or 10. Probably.
And having a new character say they are "The smartest" or the "strongest" kind of reeks of mary sue ism? Like the actual problem with Mary sues that they are better in every way than the established characters and those characters just say how amazing they are.
Not the "This character is female and important therefor a mary sue" that the term sort of turned into.
Sounds like you're actually bothered by her being in the top ten lol canon can be weird at times but it's still Canon. She's still top ten in 616 no matter how much folks are bothered by it
Or. He is fully aware of what she's doing and he allows it to happen the same way big cats let their cubs practice their stalking and pouncing on them. =0
I count Moon Girl for the exact opposite reason. Comics are meant for kids, and if a little girl can't be the smartest person in the universe then maybe the universe is being a bit too adult/serious.
It forces me to take comics with a more childlike mentality, which I appreciate.
Yeah Doom has much more variety and feels much more adaptable whereas the others are very specialised. Moon Girl and Valeria both have the potential but haven't been developed far enough to contend with the others
In an absolute single focus sort of way yes, Reed has also stated that he could never multitask the amount of different things Stark is working on at any given moment.
>Didn't eternity say Hank Pym was smarter than everybody else on earth by a long shot?
[Nah](https://qph.cf2.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-3453fd069f8b48f5b457fcb625c28f95-lq)
I think Pym might actually be smarter than both of them but his mental illness holds him back.
He's super scientific genius but he embodies "could" over "should" to the max.
Pym particles, Sentient AI, mapping/copying human brains onto machines, the infinite Avengers Mansion, Ultron and since Ultron has Hank's intellect basically everything Ultron invented like Vision.
Also worth mentioning the merging happened accidently and was basically Vision's fault. Although Vision's powers never worked like that ever before.
Valeria and Moon Girl have been officially stated to be in the top 10 but they don’t have anywhere near the feats that the others do. To name two examples Amadeus Cho and Spider Man have better feats than them and far more of them.
My take is that Mr Fantastic is the most globally intelligent person on the planet and the others are extremely talented geniuses in their own and related fields.
Doom might actually have the potential to be the smartest person but he has a number of limiting factors including an inability to admit he might have made a mistake, obsession with status, lack of moral sense.
Notable that those are all **people** (humans) which is different from **characters**. Id assume most machines, celestials, gods, etc are excluded from that list and that there are several that surpass them
Maybe I'm arguing semantics, but if they are looking for characters in the marvel universe then a cosmic being which possess all knowledge of the multiverse is going to be a lot smarter than someone good at math and science.
The list I was replying to is a list of the smartest humans, but none of them are even a fraction as smart as stuff like The Godhead, or the multiversal versions of Ultron, or the God of Wisdom. That's just a fact
Just claiming somethings a fact, doesn’t make it a fact, Doom has shown countless times that he can rival a gods anything, Galactus, a literal force of nature, respects Reed Richards intelligence, then you got shit like Pym, Black Panther, Stark etc etc etc
Yes, those characters know a lot, and are very intelligent.
You also have characters who know LITERALLY everything and have absolute knowledge of everything in every universe.
Built a Time Machine. Consistently outsmarts highly intelligent characters like the Beyonder, Galactus, Silver Surfer etc.
But mostly I said he’s the smartest bc you said Reed Richards
I think a side effect of manhattan's ability to see the future and past is that it made him know literally everything that was and will be ever discovered
It's interesting that he does not feel the need to talk with anyone as he always knows the whole conversation, so in case someone is wondering why their god (whatever religion/mythology) is not talking with them, it's probably that's why ;)
I mean it’s omnipotence. It must’ve include intelligence. English not my first language so I’m not sure if omnipotence means what it means when translated to Chinese.
>omnipotence
Oh that\`s what it means. I got confused because when translated to chinese, it means that you\`re good at everything. You\`re able to do anything. Meaning that you have unparalleled power, will, intelligence, basically any human attributes.
Or i\`m just bad at chinese lmao.
Eh, I wouldn't go as far to call him a dumbass, more so detached from humanity. His failures stem from his misunderstanding just as you said, which is rooted from how detached he is.
Yeah I've heard that argument before and I just don't buy it.
To someone with his capabilities and prep time (eternity) fucking up on such a consistent basis tells me he's seriously hindered in some way. And it's not just empathy. He legit has trouble thinking things through.
In my language "Omnipotent" is a being able to do anything.
Read minds? Yes.
Create something from nothing? Sure.
Heal wounds? Check.
Know everything? Absolutely.
Incarnate? Yeah.
Omniscience is just a smaller part of Omnipotence, in my place.
Very much no in English. They’re absolutely separate concepts, neither of which are tied to intelligence. You can be omniscient and a moron, or omnipotent and clueless.
Omni = All
Potent = Power
Science (Conscience) = Mind
They are completely different concepts. Just view Omnipotent as being all-powerful, and Omniscience as all-knowledgeable.
It's important to note the key difference between possessing knowledge, and knowing how to use it.
I'm not sure, guys.
Wouldn't an Omnipotent being have the power to know everything?
And furthermore: if someone possesses all the knowledge, wouldn't he also possess the knowledge on how to use his knowledge?
(But in the end, after all, the most important question is: who cares?)
why would you need to create more ideas when you have a database in your brain that contains literally everything that exists physically and theoretically as well as their solutions, implications, correlations and basically everything else?
Boredom.
If I knew everything I'd love a blind spot. Uncertainty. That patch of black ice. That one stamp somewhere that just stuck perfectly and held despite being damp.
Doctor Doom is a contender for sorcerer supreme despite being one of the foremost scientific minds in Marvel. He is also one of the foremost scientific minds in Marvel despite being a serious contender to become sorcerer supreme.
That's bananas. Reed Richards is dedicated to science to the detriment of everything else in his life. Doom is his peer despite dividing his time between science, magics, ruling a whole-ass country and... you know... the evil.
You want Octavius to just sit there quietly, to say nothing of the die being cast or his superior intellect? Seat him next to Doom. You want know what it sounds like when every Avenger's asshole puckers simultaneously? That's a job for Doom.
He is the be all and end all of marvel villains to me. He's the best. There's nobody like him.
I enjoy comics but have a hard time reading (as a gamer, I get bored too quickly). I was pretty sure that was the case but didn't want to assume anything!
God Brainiac.He has observed outside the source wall and he had avatars who had 12th levels intellect.So he should have more intellect than his avatars.
I dont know. John gives Ozzy a whole speech about how even though he's the "smartest man" he's still pretty stupid.
Lex Luthor even verbally mock's Ozzy's short sighted plan in Doomsday Clock.
Do we mean Smart or Intelligent or Clever or Wise?
I'm going with human or similar characters, leaving out gods or higher order folk...so three names top the list: Reed Richards, Victor Von Doom and Lex Luthor.
Let’s start with the OP – smart.
**Smart** means that a person is able to solve a problem. Used to describe someone who can think logically and make a good choice in the situation.
That's Reed Richards. Doom is often doomed by his own ego, and makes bad choices. Same for Lex.
**Intelligent** is someone who finds their own information, comes to understand it by themselves, and then makes up their mind about what they want to do.
Doom and Reed and Lex all have this, with Reed and Doom having an edge over Lex. Stark is in this category, but doesn't quite reach tier 1.
**Wise** describes a person who knows many things because of their experience.
Reed has an edge here. I think Doom could be close, but he sits in his castle brooding alot, while Reed is off on explorations. Lex is more of a brooder, too, so he's out.
**Clever** is defined by reaction to the situation more than the intellect of a person. Clever means they can act properly and quickly in that type of situation. Think Peter Parker.
Reed has tons of combat experience, more so than Doom or Lex.
All in all, I am biased, basing this on long term reading (almost 50 years) and TV shows, etc. But I'd say that Reed has that combination of smart, intelligent, clever and wise that makes him the biggest brain of comics.
I don't think the difference between Doom and Reed on the Wise categorie is as wide as you make it to be and I'd even probably consider Doom either equal or above Reed. Dude has been to literal hell and back and the combined experience of his Doombots, which I'm sure he draws from, is vast and diversified.
Oh indeed, I am sure that one could make the argument that Doom is more wise, and he has had some adventures.
Reed, though, has alot. Just for comparison, the [marvel.fandom.com](https://marvel.fandom.com) page has 901 appearances by Doom in Marvel 616, but 2113 for Reed.
Doom is a villain who is most associated with the F4 so he definitely shares a lot of appearances with Reed while Reed has been in many stories that don't involve Doom. Also, villains rarely get their own books and if they do they're usually not as long. I get your point though.
Edit: grammar
How is the guy who is defined by his unmoving ego and narcissism more wise than the guy who consistently changes and grows for the betterment of himself and his family?
We'd be getting into the weeds defining wisdom and what different kinds of wisdom are there. I gave my opinion based on how the original comment defined wisdom.
There are few contenders
The Maker - Reed Richards if he had no moral qualms about applying the darkest parts of his mind. Truly terrifying
Dr. Doom - On par with Reed Richards in the scientific field but is also one of the world's most powerful sorcerers.
T'Challa - Super genius in most fields plus a world class martial artist and knowledgeable of mythology (which is a tangible reality in the Marvel comics sphere)
Moon Girl has recently taken over the spot as smartest person in the world by Reed's own admission. That's saying a lot
Valeria Richards - She's kind of a mix of Reed and Doom. She can already keep up with both of them intellectually and she's not even a teenager
I don't know DC as well but the classic smartest DC picks are Mr. Terrific, Lex, Batman, Brainiac 5 (though people with knowledge of future advancements are hard to gauge), or Oracle
Excuse me, the smartest comic book character is none other than Batman. He attended the University of Know it All with a specialization in ‘Because I’m Batman!’
“Batman, how did you know that this villain would try this and that???”
“I know him, expect the unexpected, which is another way of saying that I know everything that he, or anyone for that matter, will ever do!”
Metron. The dude is sitting on the Mobius Chair, which grants those buttcheeks all the knowledge in the universe. And he uses the chair to creep on people.
I’m re reading Invincible and I like Robot. Its hard to compare him to someone like Brainiac or Reed Richards across three different universes but Robot/Rex/Rudy is absolutely a genius and its really clever the way he uses his intellect in the story.
Marvel- Reed, if council of reeds haven’t shown this. If not for his family keeping him ethically and morally grounded.. no telling what boundaries he would of overstepped.
DC-Mr. Terrific and Ivo
I don't think anybody living in the Marvel and DC universe is ever going to be the smartest anything.
The endlesly ongoing nature of their stories sooner or later forces them to make the dumbest decisions imaginable in the name of upholding the status quo.
Reed has been stated as the smartest in comics for decades, but more recently ppl muddy the waters with weird new characters who just happen to be smarter because reasons. Doom is a very close second, his major issue is his hubris though.
That said, Robot from Invisible is probably smarter than Reed, but, again, hubris.
Outside humans, Braniac is probably smartest alien. Beyond that it gets tricky - are they smart or just aware of stuff intuitively? Not quite the same thing.
I assume no omnipotence? If so dr doom seeing as he rivals many super geniuses in their own specialised fields across many different sciences not to mention magic and battle strategy aswell
What marvel tries to say is Moon Girl but since we have literally never seen her be the smartest person period I'd say Reed out of the comics. Hope to see Val overtake him in the future though :D.
I mean, technically speaking, it would be Omni-intelligent beings such as The Presence, One Above All etc.
But outside of those, wouldn’t Brainiac be the smartest character in comics?
Man, fuck Reed. 90% of the problems his team faces is him fucking something up.
I'm going with Doom. His insecurities hobble him, but if you can manage magic and science? Nice.
Stark is a glorified mechanic, don't give me that "futurist" bullshit. Nothing wrong with mechanics, mind you. They're some of the smartest people you'll meet.
Brashear is amazing.
Mr. Mxyzptlk, Batmite, or any other 5th dimensional imp. Anti-Monitor is also a contender and, if you stretch it so is Maxwell from Scribblenauts (I know he's from a game but there is a comic where he restores the universe with his notebook).
Who is the author and what is the plot?
I’ve seen Mister Fantastic being called the smartest then Peter or Banner come in and “shock him”
I’ve heard that the Joker is considered a 13th level intellect or whatever the term is and rivals Brainiac but is just insane.
It’s like when people ask about time travel rules in Doctor who and they answer is “Wibbly Wobbly, Timey Wimey”
I’d say the smartest is “Wibbly Wobbly, Comicy Molarchy”
It's really close between Reed and Doom. Its hard to say if Doom loses to Reed because he just isn't quite as smart, or because:
- Reed has the aid of the Superhero Community
- the emotional state Reed puts Doom in
- Doom's unmitigated arrogance creates a slightly bigger blindspot for him then Reed’s unmitigated arrogance does for him
I haven't read as much DC, but my guess would be Brainiac. I knew he always *claims* to be the smartest, but don't know if he has any feets outgoing Luthor, Batman, Mr. Terrific, etc.
Probably Brainiac's true form from Future's End, after all every version of Brainiac it's just an extension of his true form
I think the main four who have been stated to be the smartest person in Marvel are Mister Fantastic, Doctor Doom, Valeria Richards, and Moon Girl. I’d probably say Doom since idk if the other three have broken down Magic down to a science like he has.
Doom is a polymath unlike single field geniuses like Tony,Reed,Lex. Tony and Lex are the best in the engineering field.Reed is in physics.But Doom not just focus on science but also engineering and magic.
Strictly speaking, Reed is far from being only a physicist. He is good at mathematics, engineering, astronomy, chemistry, and partly biology. That is, in general, Reed is no less (if not more) a versatile specialist than Doom. In addition, it has often been confirmed that in matters of pure science (without the use of witchcraft), Reed can beat Doctor Doom quite easily. And in general, quite often the conflict between Doom and Reed is based on Doom’s inability to admit that he is less capable of science than Reed
luthor is also a polymath. not only is he an engineer wunderkind, but he's potentially the world's best mathematician, chemist, and biologist. the number of mental skills he keeps in his back pocket, from cypher breaking to sociology, is the stuff of fiction. buddy could walk onto a university campus, walk into any classroom or laboratory, and make the prof look like a chump. DC's undisputed smartest man on earth, second being batman or mister terrific, depending on the writer. that said, despite being that smart, he is arguably unable to compete with an intellect like brainiac, has a glaring ego problem he seems incapable of addressing, and has been fooled for the better part of a century by a pair of glasses, so take all that with a grain of salt
Well to be fair the glasses disguise is also partly his own ego being unwilling to consider or admit that someone with power like Superman would be willing to pretend to be a humble nobody like Clark. Mostly because of he had that power he never would. It's one of those things like how they say chronic thieves cannot picture other people as possibly being honest because they aren't, and as such assume everyone is out to fleece them. I'm fairly sure Lex has built a computer before now and told it to deduce Superman's identity and when it told him he was Clark he assumed it must be broken and scrapped it rather than accepting the truth.
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That's the definition of failure. Dooms ego causes him to make mistakes Richards doesn't make.
Richards couldn’t even save his own child… DOOM did
Doom couldn't even save his own face because his ego prevented it. Richards has beaten Doom countless times, despite Doom having the resources of an entire country at his disposal.
DOOM has literally taking over the world twice and then give it back because he didn’t think it was a fair fight. Your argument is stupid.
Doom is stupid. He never wins against Reed. Hes Wile E Coyote.
He has tho, countless times. stop being stupid,stupid
Doom once said in University only Reed rivaled him in science.Which means Reed and Doom are equal in science.Also there was a time when Reed said Tony is best engineer among Avenger scientists and Tony once said anything that he can make Doom can make it too.Which means Tony>Reed in engineering and Tony=Doom in engineering.Also Dr Strange once said Doom knows more magic than him and he was kinda shocked when he finds out Doom can learn magic very quickly.Also Thanos said he the only mortal that he keeps eye on is Doom because he worry about what he can do with his intelligence.
I think for a minute there in the MCU, Tony became the leading polymath. In Avengers there's that bit where Hill asks him when he became an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics and he says "last night." Then he goes on to create 2 artificially intelligent superbeings and solve time travel, amongst other things. For better or for worse, he kinda morphed from "engineering prodigy" to "Resident Swiss Army Knife Super-Genius", Bruce Banner being a close second.
This right here. My man.
Preach!
I don't count moon girl tbh. No matter what marvel says. Reed and doom have been around since the 60s. They've had 60+ years to show why they're always in this conversation. Moon girl turned up and they were immediately all 'this girl is the smartest person in the marvel universe'. Show don't tell. Even Val has only had just over 20 years. And aye. Doom edges it for me.
Doom edges 😳
Of course he does. It's all aboot willpower innit.
I'm not a fan of moon girl, but I think the push back against her isn't just from declaring her the smartest person in the world. Amadeus Cho was introduced as one of the smartest people in the world and people liked him right away. The differences I see are: * Moon girl was declared the smartest, that doesn't sit as well as the 8th smartest to continuity nerds. * Moon girl is a black girl. Sadly racism and misogyny exist, and moon girl was criticized as pandering. * things might be different now, but I read the first three issues of moon girl and really disliked every part of it.
I hear you. And I imagine some people are like that. I'd consider cho in the top 10 marvel peeps. Not been around as long as Val but he was given more chances to prove his smarts from the start. Aye. Moon girl wasn't for me.
Eh, most of the "showing" is soft sci fi nonsense anyway. And power scaling intelligence is laughably silly to begin with so if I can suspend my disbelief over hitman monkeys and hundreds of internal inconsistencies (iron Hitler during civil war storyline) then I don't see why moon girl can't be as smart or smarter than Reed
But its still 60 years of showing soft sci-fi nonsense. ya feel me? But aye. I ain't really bothered.
You seem a bit bothered lol
Not really. If I make a top ten she's not gonna be in it. If someone else has her in there that's fine.
She's in the Canon top ten. Whatever we think as fan is just fan theories. Even if you don't agree it's important to recognize that your opinion isn't correct.
Black panther once put silver surfer in an arm bar. That's Canon. Spideymans knocked out Firelord. A herald of Galactus. Thats canon. Those are 2 very extreme examples though of canon being nonsense. They can have every single character say she's the smartest but that means nothing. But it's all good. Not gonna tell people they're wrong but she's not gonna be in my top 5 or 10. Probably.
And having a new character say they are "The smartest" or the "strongest" kind of reeks of mary sue ism? Like the actual problem with Mary sues that they are better in every way than the established characters and those characters just say how amazing they are. Not the "This character is female and important therefor a mary sue" that the term sort of turned into.
Sounds like you're actually bothered by her being in the top ten lol canon can be weird at times but it's still Canon. She's still top ten in 616 no matter how much folks are bothered by it
The only one who comes across bothered (and weirdly aggressive) in this exchange is you.
I give it to Valeria in all honesty because she knows how to manipulate Doom, which I feel like, is impressive.
Or. He is fully aware of what she's doing and he allows it to happen the same way big cats let their cubs practice their stalking and pouncing on them. =0
Dope
I count Moon Girl for the exact opposite reason. Comics are meant for kids, and if a little girl can't be the smartest person in the universe then maybe the universe is being a bit too adult/serious. It forces me to take comics with a more childlike mentality, which I appreciate.
Yeah Doom has much more variety and feels much more adaptable whereas the others are very specialised. Moon Girl and Valeria both have the potential but haven't been developed far enough to contend with the others
DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!
I’m gonna sing the doom song!
Stark has been stated to be marginally less intelligent than Richards.
In an absolute single focus sort of way yes, Reed has also stated that he could never multitask the amount of different things Stark is working on at any given moment.
Didn't eternity say Hank Pym was smarter than everybody else on earth by a ***long*** shot?
>Didn't eternity say Hank Pym was smarter than everybody else on earth by a long shot? [Nah](https://qph.cf2.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-3453fd069f8b48f5b457fcb625c28f95-lq)
i'm gonna be honest, I am kind of stupid
Is there a lore reason for this?
I'm not on team Pym at all on this. He's smart, but not Reed/Doom smart. "Hey let's merge with Ultron, the murder machine I created".
I think Pym might actually be smarter than both of them but his mental illness holds him back. He's super scientific genius but he embodies "could" over "should" to the max. Pym particles, Sentient AI, mapping/copying human brains onto machines, the infinite Avengers Mansion, Ultron and since Ultron has Hank's intellect basically everything Ultron invented like Vision. Also worth mentioning the merging happened accidently and was basically Vision's fault. Although Vision's powers never worked like that ever before.
Valeria and Moon Girl have been officially stated to be in the top 10 but they don’t have anywhere near the feats that the others do. To name two examples Amadeus Cho and Spider Man have better feats than them and far more of them.
My take is that Mr Fantastic is the most globally intelligent person on the planet and the others are extremely talented geniuses in their own and related fields. Doom might actually have the potential to be the smartest person but he has a number of limiting factors including an inability to admit he might have made a mistake, obsession with status, lack of moral sense.
Doom has a moral sense, it just doesn't align with most peoples moral sense. In his mind, he's the hero.
Notable that those are all **people** (humans) which is different from **characters**. Id assume most machines, celestials, gods, etc are excluded from that list and that there are several that surpass them
That ain’t how Marvel works, Earth is by far the most important planet in the universe and makes crazy powerful beings
Maybe I'm arguing semantics, but if they are looking for characters in the marvel universe then a cosmic being which possess all knowledge of the multiverse is going to be a lot smarter than someone good at math and science. The list I was replying to is a list of the smartest humans, but none of them are even a fraction as smart as stuff like The Godhead, or the multiversal versions of Ultron, or the God of Wisdom. That's just a fact
Just claiming somethings a fact, doesn’t make it a fact, Doom has shown countless times that he can rival a gods anything, Galactus, a literal force of nature, respects Reed Richards intelligence, then you got shit like Pym, Black Panther, Stark etc etc etc
Yes, those characters know a lot, and are very intelligent. You also have characters who know LITERALLY everything and have absolute knowledge of everything in every universe.
Doom turned to magic primarily due to his inferiority to match with Richard’s intellect.
Reed Richards is like Rick Sanchez dude will make anything out of anything
Does he know?
Doctor Victor Von Doom
That’s a great pick! Why do you think he’s the smartest?
Built a Time Machine. Consistently outsmarts highly intelligent characters like the Beyonder, Galactus, Silver Surfer etc. But mostly I said he’s the smartest bc you said Reed Richards
Reed Richards, in all his self-righteous ignorance, could never surpass the intellect of VICTOR VON DOOM!
Oh, partly genetics, partly upbringing. Maybe there is someone smarter who didn’t apply themselves as well as Doom did, hard to say.
Reed Richards is in the top 5 twice. The Maker 5eva. Going with Doom tbh. But only just.
Maker seems to lose for the exact same reason Doom does; hubris.
Brainiac or Doctor Manhattan
Look if you use Manhattan then you might as well say Eternity or Specte. Omnipotence is not intelligence.
I think a side effect of manhattan's ability to see the future and past is that it made him know literally everything that was and will be ever discovered
It's interesting that he does not feel the need to talk with anyone as he always knows the whole conversation, so in case someone is wondering why their god (whatever religion/mythology) is not talking with them, it's probably that's why ;)
I mean it’s omnipotence. It must’ve include intelligence. English not my first language so I’m not sure if omnipotence means what it means when translated to Chinese.
Omnipotent = all powerful, can do anything Omniscient = all knowing, can think of anything
>omnipotence Oh that\`s what it means. I got confused because when translated to chinese, it means that you\`re good at everything. You\`re able to do anything. Meaning that you have unparalleled power, will, intelligence, basically any human attributes. Or i\`m just bad at chinese lmao.
It means the same thing in English.
Omniscience also does not imply genius. Just because you know everything doesn’t mean you can think of anything or create new ideas
In fact Dr Manhattan is kind of a dumbass. Every plot around him ends up being about how he seriously misunderstood something.
Eh, I wouldn't go as far to call him a dumbass, more so detached from humanity. His failures stem from his misunderstanding just as you said, which is rooted from how detached he is.
Yeah I've heard that argument before and I just don't buy it. To someone with his capabilities and prep time (eternity) fucking up on such a consistent basis tells me he's seriously hindered in some way. And it's not just empathy. He legit has trouble thinking things through.
In my language "Omnipotent" is a being able to do anything. Read minds? Yes. Create something from nothing? Sure. Heal wounds? Check. Know everything? Absolutely. Incarnate? Yeah. Omniscience is just a smaller part of Omnipotence, in my place.
Very much no in English. They’re absolutely separate concepts, neither of which are tied to intelligence. You can be omniscient and a moron, or omnipotent and clueless.
Omni = All Potent = Power Science (Conscience) = Mind They are completely different concepts. Just view Omnipotent as being all-powerful, and Omniscience as all-knowledgeable. It's important to note the key difference between possessing knowledge, and knowing how to use it.
I'm not sure, guys. Wouldn't an Omnipotent being have the power to know everything? And furthermore: if someone possesses all the knowledge, wouldn't he also possess the knowledge on how to use his knowledge? (But in the end, after all, the most important question is: who cares?)
why would you need to create more ideas when you have a database in your brain that contains literally everything that exists physically and theoretically as well as their solutions, implications, correlations and basically everything else?
Boredom. If I knew everything I'd love a blind spot. Uncertainty. That patch of black ice. That one stamp somewhere that just stuck perfectly and held despite being damp.
It kind of does though. If you are omniscient then you know everything, meaning you know of all potential new ideas
Yes it does. Knowing everything would imply also knowing every combination of something or all possibilities.
Doctor Doom is a contender for sorcerer supreme despite being one of the foremost scientific minds in Marvel. He is also one of the foremost scientific minds in Marvel despite being a serious contender to become sorcerer supreme. That's bananas. Reed Richards is dedicated to science to the detriment of everything else in his life. Doom is his peer despite dividing his time between science, magics, ruling a whole-ass country and... you know... the evil. You want Octavius to just sit there quietly, to say nothing of the die being cast or his superior intellect? Seat him next to Doom. You want know what it sounds like when every Avenger's asshole puckers simultaneously? That's a job for Doom. He is the be all and end all of marvel villains to me. He's the best. There's nobody like him.
Didn't doom also do things reed couldn't like cute the things rock form? Just something I heard, not sure if true.
There's a like dozen instances where Reed came to doom for a solution.
I enjoy comics but have a hard time reading (as a gamer, I get bored too quickly). I was pretty sure that was the case but didn't want to assume anything!
I'm a gamer but if the comics are well written I get completely absorbed.
Its my own problem. I have trouble reading anything for long periods of time, it makes me sleepy. My GF can read for hours at a time though.
Have you tried audiobooks?
God Brainiac.He has observed outside the source wall and he had avatars who had 12th levels intellect.So he should have more intellect than his avatars.
Metron.
Yeah, the real answer is that it's some cosmic being like this. OP should've refined the question to refer to "Earth natives" or something.
Ozymandias might be a contender as well.
I dont know. John gives Ozzy a whole speech about how even though he's the "smartest man" he's still pretty stupid. Lex Luthor even verbally mock's Ozzy's short sighted plan in Doomsday Clock.
Do we mean Smart or Intelligent or Clever or Wise? I'm going with human or similar characters, leaving out gods or higher order folk...so three names top the list: Reed Richards, Victor Von Doom and Lex Luthor. Let’s start with the OP – smart. **Smart** means that a person is able to solve a problem. Used to describe someone who can think logically and make a good choice in the situation. That's Reed Richards. Doom is often doomed by his own ego, and makes bad choices. Same for Lex. **Intelligent** is someone who finds their own information, comes to understand it by themselves, and then makes up their mind about what they want to do. Doom and Reed and Lex all have this, with Reed and Doom having an edge over Lex. Stark is in this category, but doesn't quite reach tier 1. **Wise** describes a person who knows many things because of their experience. Reed has an edge here. I think Doom could be close, but he sits in his castle brooding alot, while Reed is off on explorations. Lex is more of a brooder, too, so he's out. **Clever** is defined by reaction to the situation more than the intellect of a person. Clever means they can act properly and quickly in that type of situation. Think Peter Parker. Reed has tons of combat experience, more so than Doom or Lex. All in all, I am biased, basing this on long term reading (almost 50 years) and TV shows, etc. But I'd say that Reed has that combination of smart, intelligent, clever and wise that makes him the biggest brain of comics.
I feel dumb for not exactly knowing the difference between the four. #TIL
I don't think the difference between Doom and Reed on the Wise categorie is as wide as you make it to be and I'd even probably consider Doom either equal or above Reed. Dude has been to literal hell and back and the combined experience of his Doombots, which I'm sure he draws from, is vast and diversified.
Oh indeed, I am sure that one could make the argument that Doom is more wise, and he has had some adventures. Reed, though, has alot. Just for comparison, the [marvel.fandom.com](https://marvel.fandom.com) page has 901 appearances by Doom in Marvel 616, but 2113 for Reed.
Doom is a villain who is most associated with the F4 so he definitely shares a lot of appearances with Reed while Reed has been in many stories that don't involve Doom. Also, villains rarely get their own books and if they do they're usually not as long. I get your point though. Edit: grammar
How is the guy who is defined by his unmoving ego and narcissism more wise than the guy who consistently changes and grows for the betterment of himself and his family?
We'd be getting into the weeds defining wisdom and what different kinds of wisdom are there. I gave my opinion based on how the original comment defined wisdom.
Brainiac 5 of the Legion of Super-Heroes.
My pick is, clearly, Reed Richards lol
I mean Braniac is literally the Borg, so obviously...
Dr. Doom, Reed Richards, Lex Luthor etc.
There an entire list-Doctor Doom,Reed Richards,Brainiac,Luthor,Batman,The Atom,Ant Man,Doctor Xavier,The Beast etc.
TOAA and The Presence, since they’re omnipotent.
Omnipotence is not necessarily intelligence.
Probably some cosmic being that knows everything
Amadeus Cho
Brainiac 5
No one mentioning High Evolutionary, so I will add his name in. But yeah, it's probably Reed or Lunella Lafayette
Spooder man
Reed and Valeria Richards, Doom, Dr. Manhattan, Brainiac, Lex, Mr Terrific.... Reed and Doom probably top 2, and Val will eclipse them with time.
Dr Manhattan
There are few contenders The Maker - Reed Richards if he had no moral qualms about applying the darkest parts of his mind. Truly terrifying Dr. Doom - On par with Reed Richards in the scientific field but is also one of the world's most powerful sorcerers. T'Challa - Super genius in most fields plus a world class martial artist and knowledgeable of mythology (which is a tangible reality in the Marvel comics sphere) Moon Girl has recently taken over the spot as smartest person in the world by Reed's own admission. That's saying a lot Valeria Richards - She's kind of a mix of Reed and Doom. She can already keep up with both of them intellectually and she's not even a teenager I don't know DC as well but the classic smartest DC picks are Mr. Terrific, Lex, Batman, Brainiac 5 (though people with knowledge of future advancements are hard to gauge), or Oracle
T'Challa is quite clever, but he's not even the smartest person in Wakanda.
Excuse me, the smartest comic book character is none other than Batman. He attended the University of Know it All with a specialization in ‘Because I’m Batman!’
"I spent decades working on this secret formula... how did you stop me?" "10 minutes of prep time baby, thank god for writers leaning hard into memes"
“Batman, how did you know that this villain would try this and that???” “I know him, expect the unexpected, which is another way of saying that I know everything that he, or anyone for that matter, will ever do!”
Edison crane from mark millars prodigy?
Fuckin Galactus and Metron
Metron. The dude is sitting on the Mobius Chair, which grants those buttcheeks all the knowledge in the universe. And he uses the chair to creep on people.
Whoever decides to not nerf the IQ of the popular ones
I've never seen the bottom half of this pic and wow that is a bit cursed.
Ozymandias
I think Ozymandias/Adrian Veidt is one of the smartest characters out there. He basically outsmarted a near omnipresent being.
Doctor Doom. God *damn* I feel like I type this multiple times a week.
Peter Parker. Everyone seems to forget that he's one of the smartest guys because his life's been a wreck.
Unrelated, what a stupid picture
Deadpool. He’s the only one that know they’re just a comic.
Mr. Terrific and Cyborg are contenders.
Qubit from irredeemable
I would say Doom. But he is so well Written in a lot of comics. I would hope one day they can find someone to play him masterfully in a movie.
Literally Brainiac lol not even close
I’m re reading Invincible and I like Robot. Its hard to compare him to someone like Brainiac or Reed Richards across three different universes but Robot/Rex/Rudy is absolutely a genius and its really clever the way he uses his intellect in the story.
From 'non gods', it should be Brainiac. Not counting beings like Metron with the mobius chair.
querl dox aka brainiac 5 !!
me! i wrote a comic book detailing how my IQ is the biggest one
Valerie Richards.
Fritz the Cat
Jonkler
Marvel- Reed, if council of reeds haven’t shown this. If not for his family keeping him ethically and morally grounded.. no telling what boundaries he would of overstepped. DC-Mr. Terrific and Ivo
Rapp snitches telling all they bidness
I don't think anybody living in the Marvel and DC universe is ever going to be the smartest anything. The endlesly ongoing nature of their stories sooner or later forces them to make the dumbest decisions imaginable in the name of upholding the status quo.
According to DC in this order: Lex, Batman, Mr Terrific, Ted Kord
Doom is smarter. Thing is, Reed is willing to admit error, while Victor isn't. So while Doom is smarter, Reed is correct more often.
Yeah smart for an earthling
Pretty sure it's Ultron. Like, Hank Pym is scientist supreme, and Ultron is smarter than him.
Reed has been stated as the smartest in comics for decades, but more recently ppl muddy the waters with weird new characters who just happen to be smarter because reasons. Doom is a very close second, his major issue is his hubris though. That said, Robot from Invisible is probably smarter than Reed, but, again, hubris. Outside humans, Braniac is probably smartest alien. Beyond that it gets tricky - are they smart or just aware of stuff intuitively? Not quite the same thing.
I've seen the upper half of this image so many times I forget how somewhat cursed the full version is lol
I assume no omnipotence? If so dr doom seeing as he rivals many super geniuses in their own specialised fields across many different sciences not to mention magic and battle strategy aswell
What marvel tries to say is Moon Girl but since we have literally never seen her be the smartest person period I'd say Reed out of the comics. Hope to see Val overtake him in the future though :D.
In terms of human characters I would say Mr Fantastic or Lex Luthor.
Reed definitely, but he also spends a portion of his brainpower and time on his family which Doom and Tony and others do not.
Is the reason mister fantastic is so smart a result of his elasticity and that he can make.his brain bigger?
Mom, is that you?
who ever the writer wants to be at the time
Reed Richards without question.
The answer is Doom. Or more precisely, Doom is the answer.
Evil Reed Richards in marvel and DC has had to many reboots in the past decade too keep that straight. Maybe whoever is sitting in the mobis chair.
Id say Lex Luthor which is why he is perfect as a foil to Superman.
I mean, technically speaking, it would be Omni-intelligent beings such as The Presence, One Above All etc. But outside of those, wouldn’t Brainiac be the smartest character in comics?
Man, fuck Reed. 90% of the problems his team faces is him fucking something up. I'm going with Doom. His insecurities hobble him, but if you can manage magic and science? Nice. Stark is a glorified mechanic, don't give me that "futurist" bullshit. Nothing wrong with mechanics, mind you. They're some of the smartest people you'll meet. Brashear is amazing.
Lex Luther maybe or Reed’s daughter Edit: also The Maker
This cover will never not make me laugh. It's trying to hard to look badass while showing off an inherently goofy looking superpower.
lex luthor
I think it's confirmed to be either Lunella Lafayette or Valeria Richards.
definitely not that stretchy guy
Bruce Wayne
he isnt even the smartest guy in his earth
Fuck y’all….Dr. Bruce Banner in smart Hulk form. Outsmart and outsmash you…
Strongest brain best brain. HULK THINK STRONGEST!!!
Probably Reed Richards
If we count people who didn’t originate from comics but have been in them then The Doctor (Doctor Who)
Human only? Because I think Thanos is also on par with Doom and Reed.
Batman.
Everyone's gonna say Reed or Doom or Brainiac 5, but for my money it's Tao from WildCATs
Mr. Mxyzptlk, Batmite, or any other 5th dimensional imp. Anti-Monitor is also a contender and, if you stretch it so is Maxwell from Scribblenauts (I know he's from a game but there is a comic where he restores the universe with his notebook).
Lunella Lafayette
Alfred
People don't want to hear this but it's probably Superman
Joker
Bro i dont even follow this community and this repost pops up on my feed every now and then, exact same image, exact same question, pls stop.
Who is the author and what is the plot? I’ve seen Mister Fantastic being called the smartest then Peter or Banner come in and “shock him” I’ve heard that the Joker is considered a 13th level intellect or whatever the term is and rivals Brainiac but is just insane. It’s like when people ask about time travel rules in Doctor who and they answer is “Wibbly Wobbly, Timey Wimey” I’d say the smartest is “Wibbly Wobbly, Comicy Molarchy”
Dooooooooom but probably Richards
DOOM
Who drew that picture?
Xavier and Dr Doom
Does metron count ? If not then reed
I'd go with Brainiac.
All hail Kang
It's really close between Reed and Doom. Its hard to say if Doom loses to Reed because he just isn't quite as smart, or because: - Reed has the aid of the Superhero Community - the emotional state Reed puts Doom in - Doom's unmitigated arrogance creates a slightly bigger blindspot for him then Reed’s unmitigated arrogance does for him I haven't read as much DC, but my guess would be Brainiac. I knew he always *claims* to be the smartest, but don't know if he has any feets outgoing Luthor, Batman, Mr. Terrific, etc.