Marvel Comics has created some super-intelligent geniuses in its comic book line, and often these characters argue over who is really the smartest. The biggest selling point of Marvel Comics when the superhero line started was to create heroes that readers could connect with. However, at the same time, Marvel chose to have some heroes that no one could relate to because they brought in super geniuses, from Reed Richards and Tony Stark to Bruce Banner and Hank Pym. These heroes are so intelligent that they have both made the Marvel Universe a better place and have almost destroyed it, thanks to their arrogance as well.
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From the original Marvel super geniuses to the next generation of Marvel prodigies, here are Marvel Comics most intelligent characters, ranked.
7) Amadeus Cho
Amadeus Cho used to have the gimmick of being one of the smartest characters in the Marvel Universe, even saying for a long time that he was the “7th smartest Man in the World” when he was still a teenager. He has gotten even smarter over the years, and his “power” before becoming Brawn was simply that his mind acted like a hypercomputer, where he could take in a scene and immediately decipher every possible resolution based on decisions he could make. Cho sees patterns better than 99.99% of the people on Earth.
6) Tony Stark
Tony Stark was one of Marvel Comics’ super geniuses alongside Reed Richards and Hank Pym. He proved that he could do just about anything when he created his first suit of armor in a cave with no real tech other than various supplies he could put together. Since that time, Stark has developed suits of armor that can do just about anything imaginable and mastered AI as well. He is a mechanical engineering prodigy and is also known as a futurist, which allows him to determine what the future could hold, and this often pushes his technological advancements. It has also turned Tony Stark into a villain more than once.
5) Doctor Doom
If anyone were to ask Doctor Doom, he would say he is the smartest person in the entire Marvel Universe, and the only person he might consider close is Valeria Richards. However, Doom’s intelligence is often undone by his own arrogance. He does have an interesting mixture of his abilities, as he is a super genius and a powerful sorcerer, but his plans often fail because he never sees a spot where he could have failed, meaning he is often beaten by his own blind spots. He is not as smart as Reed Richards, who is not as intelligent as Valeria or Moon Girl, so his ranking is often easy to pinpoint.
4) Hank Pym
Hank Pym has had some major highs and the lowest of lows, but there is no denying his genius-level intellect. Pym was one of Marvel’s first heroes as Ant-Man, and he also fought as Giant-Man and Yellow Jacket over his career. However, he is, more than anything, a genius-level scientist who has done more than almost anyone else in Marvel, thanks to his Pym Particles. He is one of the world’s greatest biochemists and is an expert in subatomic physics, robotics, and more. He created Ultron, which might be his worst moment. However, he was also once named Earth’s Scientist Supreme, meaning he was deemed the best on Earth.
3) Reed Richards
Reed Richards has always been considered the smartest hero in Marvel Comics and the smartest man on Earth. He has a photographic memory and is a master of several different scientific areas, including biology, engineering, chemistry, and physics. He is also a visionary theoretician, and he has the ability to see what could happen in any situation, which helped him create some of the best inventions in the Marvel Universe. Reed actually financed the Fantastic Four with all the patents he owned, and over time, Reed moved on to become a master in alien civilization science theories as well.
2) Valeria Richards
If there is anyone who knows genius, it is Reed Richards. As one of the smartest men to ever live, he knows what it means to be a genius, and even he said that his daughter, Valeria Richards, eclipses him in intelligence, and he said she did so when she was only three years old. Reed even said in recent comic book issues that Valeria created inventions he never could have come up with, proving her heightened intelligence. By surpassing her own father, she is guaranteed to be near the top of the list of Marvel Comics’ most intelligent characters.
1) Lunella Lafayette
Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur became regulars in the Fantastic Four comics when the family moved to Ben Grimm’s old neighborhood on Yancy Street. One of her most humorous storylines had her and Valeria trying to one-up each other. Valeria said she was smarter and name-dropped her dad. Lunella responded that she tested as smarter than Reed Richards, to which Valiera said she was smarter than her dad, so that wasn’t a big deal. Lunella also said she passed the “Banner Test,” which proves her genius. Eventually, Marvel Comics revealed its own ranking, and Lunella Lafayette topped the list for all of Marvel’s genius-level characters.
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