Marvel Comics has created numerous kinds of characters over the years. There’s the powerhouses, like the Hulk, Thor, Jean Grey, and Silver Surfer. There’s the exemplary heroes like Captain America and Spider-Man. There’s the anti-heroes like Wolverine, Punisher, and Deadpool. There’s an entire ecosystem of characters, each kind playing off the others and one of the most interesting – and important – are the masterminds. These characters may have other powers, but they have been defined by their brainpower. These heroes and villains are able to come up with every kind of idea you can imagine and follow through. Some of them are scientists, some of them are soldiers, and some of them are the worst people you can think of. However, all of them have the kind of planning ability that countries would kill for in real life.
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Now, oftentimes, masterminds fail. Their plans may seem airtight, but once you introduce people into any situation, things can completely fall apart. However, some of these masterminds have more than one plan. They’re ready for everything and have been able to pull off things that no one else could. These five Marvel masterminds are ready for anything and two of them are about to huge MCU stars.
5) Reed Richards
Reed Richards is Marvel’s greatest genius. Sure, he made that one mistake with the cosmic ray shields of the Marvel-1, but since then he’s done a really good job of being ready for anything. Reed’s mind is constantly going, always trying to find the solution to every problem, from the cosmic to the mundane (he created unstable molecules, which interact with superheroes’ powers). One of the best examples of this came during Civil War. He worked with Iron Man’s side and the two of them, along with Hank Pym, made a massive list of ideas to make the world a better place. However, that wasn’t enough for Reed, so he decided to create psychohistory, a branch of mathematics from Isaac Asimov’s Foundation novels. He created a branch of math that allowed him to predict events; that’s really all you need to say. He’s always trying to come up with ways to protect the Earth and learn the secrets of existence and if there’s anyone who is always ready for everything, it’s definitely him.
4) Cyclops
Cyclops is about to premiere in the MCU and from the rumors milling about, he’s going to become a major part of the MCU X-Men in the not too distant future. Scott Summers has always been one of the best planners in the Marvel Universe. He’s been battling evil since he was a teenager, obsessing over training and tactics, and becoming the X-Men’s greatest leader. There’s a line that everyone likes to bring up about Cyclops, when he was talking about not having a plan B, because that implied that he only had 26 plans. This is a person who stays up night and war games everything that can happen the next day. He’s an expert at strategy on the fly, adapting to the situation and coming up with a way to pull a win out of the most impossible situations. He’s walked into the most hopeless missions you can imagine and always found a way to survive, making sure that mutants get to exist for another day.
3) Thanos
Thanos is Marvel’s most beloved nihilist, starring in some excellent stories over the years that have proved just how much of a mastermind that he is. On the one hand, Thanos is powerful enough where the only plan he needs is to show up and kill people; very few people can handle him and we’ve seen him run through every hero on Earth in stories like “Thanos Wins”. He’s capable to destroying everything in front of him, but he sets his sights high. The Mad Titan goes after the most powerful enemies out there, ones who dwarf even his might. He’s had to learn to think of everything and has spent years studying the powers of existence in order to figure out ways to win every conflict. He knows secrets that no one else knows and will use them against enemies who would otherwise defeat him. He makes plans within plans within plans, and he’s ready for everything.
2) Iron Man
Iron Man is, by his very nature, a planner. Tony Stark is the world’s greatest engineer. He’s a man who needs to know everything about the materials he’s working with so he knows what he can expect it to do. He’s taken that approach to his superheroing. Stark is known for making plans, many of which he keeps rather close to the vest, which has bit him and his friends in the past. He’s the person who came up with the idea for the Illuminati, creating a secret society whose entire point is to make plans. That’s the kind of person he is and he’s used that to the advantage of the world many times. You know that somewhere, Stark has a lab where he’s got all kinds of specialized tech hidden, just waiting for the moment that he needs it. Sure, sometimes, his plans do involve hurting his friends, but Tony is just as liable to hurt himself if the situation calls for it. Iron Man has something for everything, which is how he’s survived for so long.
1) Doctor Doom
Doctor Doom is one of Marvel’s most storied villains, battling every major, and minor, hero you can think of. Over the years, the character has grown and changed, revealing more facets to the Latverian monarch. Victor Von Doom is one of the smartest humans ever and has used that intelligence to build himself into one of the most dangerous people imaginable. Doom and Tony Stark have a lot of common beyond cool tech and awesome armor, especially their tendency to plan for everything. Doom’s armor is full of pieces of technology that just have one use, just in case he ever needs it, like an escape teleporter that has allowed him to escape death numerous times. He knows magic, so he can weave protections spells that can handle anything. He’s constantly thinking, always planning, and ready for anything at any given moment. Doom’s biggest problem is that he ends up making the right enemies, ones who can overcome every plan he makes. He has a mind like a steel trap and MCU fans are about to see just what that means on the big screen.
Who’s your favorite Marvel mastermind? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!
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Image Courtesy of Image Comics -
Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics
