DC’s pretty much got a lock on having THE greatest detective, but who at Marvel have some kick butt detective chops?
What mysteries have they solved?
DC’s pretty much got a lock on having THE greatest detective, but who at Marvel have some kick butt detective chops?
What mysteries have they solved?
Ya ask the hard questions, don'tcha?!
Moonknight: He helped solved the mystery of who was following/abducting/attacking Defenders ally Jack Norriss.
Ghost Rider: He would meet different people on his travels and figure out when they were missing, etc, but more by happenings than being a true detective.
Captain American has gone undercover and played detective on many occasions.
I think Nick Fury and Misty Knight
Old school...Dakota North...has she even been seen lately?
Jessica Jones without question is the best detective in Marvel comics, though that's not saying much.
In general, Marvel heroes aren't detectives and there are few Marvel stories that revolve around a detective solving a crime by finding and ferreting out clues. The big Marvel mysteries are usually heroes and others being lost in the dark, while in the background people cackle in mischief until they reveal themselves. /
--In Spider-Man you have the original Green Goblin mystery, and the Hobgoblin mystery and Spider-Man never really solved either case, he just waited and hung around until the bad guys revealed themselves.
-- No one in The Illuminati nor in SHIELD, or Fantastic Four, or Avengers figured out who Rabum Alal was.
-- The X-Men didn't solve the mystery of Xorn in time.
-- The Avengers didn't solve the mystery of the Crimson Cowl until the Cowl told them who he was and explained his backstory with Hank Pym.
Marvel comics are all about suspense, waiting for the shoe to drop and then everyone punches each other out.
Last edited by Revolutionary_Jack; 07-18-2020 at 05:11 PM.
Tony Stark, even if the answer is usually The Mandarin.
Great stuff, thanks guys.
Also, a Dakota North/Jessica Jones team up would kick butt.
Daredevil isn't a detective, but as far as solving street crime he's probably the best character to fill that niche.
Moon Knight could as well, but that character is all over the place.
Jessica is probably the most high profile detective, though she doesn't have the powers or resources to really shine at least compared to some other characters.
My choice would be...
Hannibal King
This is a great question. Overall, when it comes to mysteries, Marvel has always tended to follow Raymond Chandler more than Agatha Christie.
My instant reaction is Daredevil, but he typically relies more on his supersenses than working out the problem. Spider-Man's the same.
Phoenixx9 makes a great point about Captain America. People get so hung up on him as a swashbuckler, leader and symbol, we forget how smart this dude is.
The Shroud comes to mind, but he's more an undercover operator than a detective.
Ant-Man (Hank Pym) is an underappreciated sleuth. In his Tales To Astonish feature he identified and exposed an extortionist on pure deduction. But that was really a one-off. He normally got the answers thru his powers or his science.
Ultimately, I think the Jessicas own this. Jessica Jones has been addressed, but Jessica Drew ran a PI firm in San Francisco when she lost her Spider powers for a time.
Howard the Duck. What he lacks in skill (compared to greater investigative minds anyway) he more than makes up for in a very Dirk Gently "fate will provide the answer" kind of way.
There's Terror, Inc...but nah.
I think the real answer is Jamie Madrox aka Multiple Man, and if you posted this in the X-Men forum it would have come up already.
Jessica Jones by default.
Since Marvel owns rights to CrossGen characters, can we count Simon Archard from Mark Waid's Ruse?