Who is the smartest person in the DC Universe?

[lemonpeace]

oh if we're going full universal/cosmic then I'd say Darkseid and Metron interchangeably due to different skill sets, followed by Brainiac. I don't put superman up there, that one like Batman feels unnecessary (but more belieble than Batman at least) to the character; it's like a hat on a hat. crisis on infinite hats.

[T'Challa Bruce Von Doom]

oh if we're going full universal/cosmic then I'd say Darkseid and Metron interchangeably due to different skill sets, followed by Brainiac.

People usually say "Universe" to specify which comic book company they're talking about, but people should really say "smartest person on earth in DC," or "on DC Earth" for short. Because "universe" covers a lot of ground, and in that case, humans shouldn't even be mentioned. (Of course, humans created these fictional settings to be read by humans, so...)

[Jon Clark]

[QUOTE=Ascended;4554868With Barry.....there's this thing in tabletop rpg's (Dungeons and Dragons) called "taking 20." It means that, whatever you're doing, you take your time, triple check every little thing. For players, it takes forever to do this. Imagine searching every single inch of a large room, literally using a magnifying glass and poking and prodding each individual brick for traps or hidden doors, inspecting every thread of every piece of clothing for evidence, testing every piece of furniture for hidden pockets. It would take forever right? This is how players ensure they get the highest possible result on the task they're doing. Well, taking 20 is what Barry does, but he's the Flash, so he does it in seconds instead of hours. [/QUOTE]

One of my bits with intelligence has to do with how you get an answer to a question.

Lex & Terrific get the answer more intuitively. They can go from "Problem A" to "Solution Z" without needing to touch every letter from B to Y in-between. But they can get sidetracked at points following an unrelated path,

Barry & Clark while not being idiots are more likely to succeed just because their powers let them work as fast as they can think. If a fully focused Lex takes half a dozen tries to solve a problem, Superman in that same time has considered hundreds of possible solutions and discarded most of those. The main difference between Barry and Clark is that Barry's mind doesn't recall as much detail as Clark of those hundred failed options.

Bruce is more a matter of focus. Lex has a dozen scenarios in his head totally unconnected at any given time. Barry is running through the same idea multiple times but maybe not always looking at steps he can skip in the process. Bruce is training his attention on one topic with laser focus. "What seems out of place", "What could logically cause this effect" and so he doesn't get lost following unrelated paths to fruition while also being able to somehow connect a memory of a seemingly unconnected topic that fits perfectly.

[Osiris-Rex]

Brainiac. He literally has brain in his name.

[kingaliencracker]

Brainiac. He literally has brain in his name.

Any other answer is so wrong that it doesn't even deserve to be acknowledged.

[Jim Kelly]

I see your Brainiac and raise you Grax.

[Sutekh]

Any other answer is so wrong that it doesn't even deserve to be acknowledged.

Yeah, Brainiac. Then alien superhumanly smart folk like Metron or Brainiac 5 or whomever.

Luthor, Ze Brain, Batman, Mr. Terrific, etc. are some of the smartest humans, sure, but that's like saying that this termite is the smartest termite.

"They're so cute when they measure their tiny meat-brains." thinks Brainiac.

Back in the Silver Age, Kryptonians had a '5th level effector intelligence,' and humans, only a 3, with each number being a full order of magnitude higher than the previous, so a 4 was 10x as smart as a 3, and a 5 was 10x as smart as a 4. Therefore Superman was a hundred times smarter than Batman could possibly be!

Kal-El had also been info-dumped various Kryptonian science and knowledge, could create robots and vehicles with power levels rivaling his own, and super-serums that did crazy things *and* could think and process information / do math / etc. *at the speed of light.* It was super-funny to then see games like DC Heroes rate Batman as smarter than Superman.

[Dark-Jacket]

And we have to remember Superman was not raised to his maximal potential.

[Jim Kelly]

[stargazer01]

All Star Superman really seems a lot smarter than Batman at his best. His speed and Kryptonian genes make him super at many things. But for some reason DC doesn't want us to think of Superman as really smart just very strong and very kind.

[Adekis]

I've never heard of this character, but I am blown away.

Hm, I think Superman should be in that top five smartest people list, in fact. And certainly, in terms of raw processing power, he and Kara are smarter than Bruce Wayne. I do like the Silver Age idea that Superman's not very creative. I mean, he's a very creative problem solver, but he just doesn't have a very active imagination - maybe because he never needed one to experience the fantastical.

Kara of course is an artist, rather than a scientist. I integrated that from Supergirl the Movie and it won't leave my headcanon.

[Jim Kelly]

I've never heard of this character, but I am blown away.

The four-armed, blue-skinned Grax was an alien villain of 20th level intelligence that butted heads with Brainiac (who was only 12th level) and later took on the Super Friends in their comic book from the 1970s and 1980s. I don't think he ever got to be in the Legion of Doom, however.

[adrikito]

In the EARTH this man:

Screen Shot 934.jpg

In the universe maybe METRON or BRAINIAC..

[Shadowcat]

Well, according to Doomsday Clock it's either Bats or Lex, which makes sense, IMHO.

I hate Bruce being the best of everything.

[lemonpeace]

Well, according to Doomsday Clock it's either Bats or Lex, which makes sense, IMHO.

eh, I wouldn't take a Google search by a mad scientist from a different world, with no frame of reference for the universe he's in, as gospel. plus, I barely count Doomsday Clock as canon anymore anyway. *shrugs*