What do (should) all the Marvel scientists specialize in?

[PCN24454]

One trope that's become really annoying is the "Omnidisciplinary Scientist". Because they're "smart", they're well-versed in pretty much everything. Comics have never been accused of being realistic, and there really are people who seemingly specialize in everything, but it's still pretty jarring. Marvel's a bit better with this now, but it's still bad.

If each genius or scientist in Marvel had one (or two) fields that they specialized in, what would they be?

Reed Richards: Astrophysics

Tony Stark: Robotics

Hank Pym: Particle physics

Hank McCoy: Genetics

Peter Parker: Materials science

T'Challa: Anthropology

Feel free to add anyone else.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

One trope that's become really annoying is the "Omnidisciplinary Scientist". Because they're "smart" they're well-versed in pretty much everything. Comics have never been accused of being realistic, and there really are people who seemingly specialize in everything, but it's still pretty jarring. Marvel's a bit better with this now, but it's still bad.

Agreed.

If each genius or scientist in Marvel had one (or two) fields that they specialized in, what would they be?

Reed Richards -- Physics in all its forms. He's the Einstein-Heisenberg-Feynman of the Marvel Universe.

Tony Stark -- Engineering.

Hank Pym -- Quantum Physics and Nanotechnology. Both are related to the technology of his Ant communicator and Ultron.

Peter Parker -- Chemical Engineering, i.e. designing chemical polymers and synthetic fabrics. I'd also add biology.

Hank McCoy: Genetics.

Good call. I'd also add in Professor Xavier, Moira MacTaggert, Mister Sinister and Magneto there.

T'Challa: Anthropology

That's a social science where you stand back and watch people without interfering. That's not T'Challa's thing at all. I'd say T'Challa is an Engineer like Tony Stark.

In the Marvel Universe since magic is such a big deal...Doctor Stephen Strange would qualify as one of the best scientists and smartest persons in that Universe. Doctor Doom would run a second to him, just as he runs a second to Reed in physics, though he's evenly matched with Tony and T'Challa as an engineer.

[PCN24454]

That's a social science where you stand back and watch people without interfering. That's not T'Challa's thing at all. I'd say T'Challa is an Engineer like Tony Stark.

Social sciences deserve respect too. I felt that T'Challa's interest in other cultures and position as Ruler of Wakanda would make it a good fit for him. Its broad nature also lets it crossover into Shadow Physics. Otherwise, I'd give him Geochemistry with a focus in Vibranium.

[Frontier]

I think Mockingbird is a biologist by specialty and Nadia/Wasp 2 is the same as her father.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Social sciences deserve respect too.

They do, but they don't usually lend itself well to action genre storytelling for the most part. Stuff like Psychology, Anthropology, Philosophy, Humanities, History don't always work as day jobs for derring do. I think Diana in the DCEU works as a museum curator and art restorer and that's as close as it gets.

But most Marvel heroes don't really have jobs or take jobs that go in that field...that's why it's all super-science or super-spies or super-cops, with the exception of Daredevil (a lawyer).

[Noek]

Off the Marvel wiki this is what they have for Maximus "he retains an excellent theoretical and practical knowledge of mechanics, physics, biology. He is particularly gifted at fashioning elaborate machines out of common, simple materials."

[Huntsman Spider]

Wouldn't Hank Pym also be an entomologist, since he was studying ants to communicate with them and the technology he developed was in that vein? That said, I agree with Peter Parker as a biochemical engineer, with a sideline in mechanical and electrical engineering if you take the web-shooters and spider-tracers into consideration. T'Challa as a geophysicist with a focus on vibranium works, too.

[Crimz]

I'm down for almost anything that stops Reed from pulling mcguffins out of his ass...

Let his field be physics with a little engineering. It would also help explain why he struggled to cure Ben all these years, it simply isn't his field of expertise.

[PCN24454]

Wouldn't Hank Pym also be an entomologist, since he was studying ants to communicate with them and the technology he developed was in that vein?

While it's easy to see him as an entomologist, his biggest claim to fame are the "Pym Particles". Insects to Particles feels like a really big leap to me. Of course, nanotechnology can fit in with either of them.

[scribbleMind]

Wouldn't Hank Pym also be an entomologist, since he was studying ants to communicate with them and the technology he developed was in that vein?

It can be added, but I'd never consider it his primary ambition. He has been portrayed as doing other things at the time too. Furthermore his intention wasn't to do it for the benefit of ants, or learning about ants, or improving the ecosystem. It was more about the tech and communication than the ants. Hank, like most of these scientist, is portrayed as someone who does science without a real motive. He just enjoys the discovery of it, and it is his only means of expressing his inventiveness.

Adam Brashear - Physicist & Engineering

Given his secret pseudoscientific misadventures I'd definitely add other things, but I just don't know the proper name for the specific niche. Maybe Occultology (this is a real word. You can literally just add ology to anything) or something in that vein where science and the occult meet because it is really one of the things that sets him apart from most other marvel scientists. I mean, yeah, you have Doom, but Doom is an actual magician so it isn't quite the same.

[Sutekh]

Wouldn't Hank Pym also be an entomologist, since he was studying ants to communicate with them and the technology he developed was in that vein?

He also developed Ultron and became 'the father of AI,' which seems all unrelated, but actually could tie into his ant-communication research from before, if he was working on parallel processing (how ant colonies can handle complex engineering tasks without any one ant truly understanding why they are digging that drainage tunnel or whatever) years before we were using it for computing in the real world. One thing (insect communication) leads logically to another (parallel processing computing) and even could be technobabbled into having some other ties (creating AI by imposing his own mental engrams onto Ultron being analoguous for using his ant-communication helmet to impose his own mental state on the ants he's controlling).

How that all ties into the Pym particle, well, perhaps he got into that research as yet another tangent / spin-off, quixotically questing for some theoretical particle that ants used to communicate with each other as a 'hive-mind' and stumbling onto the Pym particle instead (which wouldn't have anything to do with any sort of theoretical 'ant-telepathy,' since that's not a thing that even exists).

I kind of wondered if the Pym particle was going to have some ties to the Space stone being on Earth, in the MCU, since they have some thematic synergies, and it would have tied things together interestingly (more so than tying Wanda to the Mind stone, IMO).

[Riv86672]

Reed Richards -- Physics in all its forms. He's the Einstein-Heisenberg-Feynman of the Marvel Universe.

Tony Stark -- Engineering.

Hank Pym -- Quantum Physics and Nanotechnology. Both are related to the technology of his Ant communicator and Ultron.

Peter Parker -- Chemical Engineering, i.e. designing chemical polymers and synthetic fabrics. I'd also add biology.

I'd say T'Challa is an Engineer like Tony Stark.

In the Marvel Universe since magic is such a big deal...Doctor Stephen Strange would qualify as one of the best scientists and smartest persons in that Universe. Doctor Doom would run a second to him, just as he runs a second to Reed in physics, though he's evenly matched with Tony and T'Challa as an engineer.

^^^This is really good. Especially the take on Doc Strange.

As was mentioned, The Beast, Xavier, Moira...these guys would be leading the pack in genetics.
And I agree w. Huntsman Spider in that Hank Pym is versed in entomology.

Bruce Banner’s a bit of a dabbler. I’ve read before he has degrees in biology, chemistry, engineering, physiology, and nuclear physics.

[la.forsaken]

Adam Brashear - Physicist & Engineering

[JudicatorPrime]

It really is difficult to categorize many of Marvel's geniuses.

Speaking only of Adam Brashear, I feel his primary specialization should be one of these three: Quantum Mechanics, Quantum Physics or Particle Physics. However, as with other elite intellects, Engineering should be a close second. Good luck pinning him to one specific subdiscipline of engineering. His inventions cover the gamut, whether we're talking about his Kadesh base at the bottom of the sea, or the contraption that he made which gives him analogous Cosmic Awareness.

[PCN24454]

Bruce Banner: Radiobiology, easily.

Leonard Samson: Psychiatry

Kitty Pryde: Information Technology