These 5 Marvel Scientists Can Outsmart Reed Richards and Doctor Doom (& One Needs an MCU Debut)

Reed Richards and Doctor Doom are Marvel Comics‘ smartest humans. Both of them have been able to create amazing things, each of them challenging the powers of the universe with their intellects. They’ve unlocked the secrets of interdimensional and time travel and revolutionized the lives of people across the world with their inventions. Doom is a master of magic and Richards has charted other worlds, both of them surviving the kind of dangers that only the truly intelligent could find. The two of them are the tippy-top of a pyramid of super-intelligent heroes and villains, geniuses who have created the greatest weapons and technologies in comics, standing far above the rest.

Richards and Doom are, in a lot of ways, equals and this has kept their battles lively and interesting. While they can usually outsmart and outbuild the other geniuses of the Marvel Universe, there are some who are smart and skilled enough to actually challenge them. While they wouldn’t outsmart them per say, they’d be able to challenge these two titans of the mind. These five Marvel scientists could challenge the likes of Richards and Doom, proving that they belong among the smartest out there.

5) The Leader

The Hulk faces supremely powerful foes, but his most dangerous enemy is also physically his weakest. Samuel Sterns was a man with learning disabilities who worked as a janitor at Gamma Base. He cleaned up after the big wigs and felt like a small but important part of something that would change history. However, he was exposed to gamma radiation over the course of his job. He started to get smarter and smarter, skin changing into a sickly green, and his skull distending to fit his massive new brain. Samuel Sterns died and was reborn as the Leader.

The Leader is one of the smartest people ever. It feels like his powers are sort of the inverse of the Hulk’s; one’s the strongest on there is and one is the smartest. Much like the Jade Giant, he’s gotten smarter and more powerful, gaining mental powers over the years as well. He also knows the One Below All is the source of his power and how to get even more power when he needs it. Richards and Doom have created better tech than him, but his mind can go in directions that theirs can’t.

4) Forge

Forge is a character who seems like he wouldn’t belong on this list, but he definitely does. The Cheyenne is an Omega-level mutant and his power is one of the best you can imagine. He can create anything he can imagine and can master a technology moments after picking it up. Here’s how it works – Forge needs to create a machine that does something that right now is physically (as in physics) possible. He gets to work. He makes it or something that would do something also seemingly impossible that could do the same thing. He wouldn’t understand the science of it, but it would work.

Forge has spent years expanding his knowledge. All of his brains don’t just come from his powers, but he’s not exactly on the Richards/Doom level. However, his mutant powers would allow him to create weapons and tech that could overcome them. He could one hundred percent create a way to take away Reed’s powers and turn off Doom’s armor. They’d be able to win in the end most of the time, but Forge could still make life very difficult for them.

3) Bruce Banner

The Hulk is the strongest one there is and Bruce Banner is one of the smartest. From a young age, Bruce showed signs of super-intellect. His mother doted on him and his father got insanely jealous, abusing his son physically and mentally while calling him a mutant, wanting to believe anything but that his son was just smart and lovable. Bruce continued to get more intelligent as he got older, although he almost didn’t survive that long; his father killed his mother and was coming for him next. He threw himself into his studies to escape the pain of his past, becoming one of the greatest physicists of his generation.

Banner is on the same level as Tony Stark and Hank Pym (and, arguably, Beast, who is way smarter than he was lately). Currently, he’s without the Hulk and is working to stop the Green Goliath under the control of the eldritch entity the Eldest. Banner has always been one of the smartest people on the Earth; the main reason he doesn’t have the accolades is the Hulk. He could take Richards and Doom on a ride, but they could make things that he couldn’t match if it came down to it.

2) Moon Girl

Lunella Lafayate was a young super-genius in the making when the Terrigen Mist clouds were released. She did her best to stay away from them, all while learning more and more. Eventually, she couldn’t escape and gained her bond with Devil Dinosaur through Terrigenesis. However, even before then, she was one of the smartest people on Earth. After, she was tested and scored higher than Stark, Banner, and Richards. Since Doom is the equivalent to them, that means she scores higher than he would as well.

Moon Girl was called “the smartest person on Earth” for a while, her IQ higher than any other. However, she’s a not even a teenager yet. She has the potential to be smarter than Richards and Doom, but it’s just potential at this point. She can definitely challenge the two of them, but they know more than her and could handle most of what she threw at them.

1) Iron Man

Iron Man has become Marvel’s greatest legend, but one thing that he’s always been is one of the smartest people on the planet. Tony Stark was a child prodigy, joining his father’s company and working with the greatest minds of the day. All of the money was in weapons, so he created the best and became a billionaire. We all know what happened next – injured by his own weapons, he had to build his armor to save his life and fight for his freedom, becoming Iron Man to undo the damage his creations have done.

Since then, he’s been on the forefront of technology and the world-saving business, racking up consistent successes in both. He’s one of the greatest engineers that ever lived and has vied with both Richards and Doom. He’s been able to outsmart both of them in the past and with the way that his horizons has expanded lately, he’d still be able to. They are both smarter than him, but he knows a trick or two to use against either of them.

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