Hank Pym was a Biochemist back in his Tales to Astonish days.
Wanna make somethin' of it?
Toni Ho: Engineering
I do indeed. This was all presented in Mighty Avengers. Not only is the reocurring threat occult related, but they reveal his secret history with the occult in the issue where he teams up with Blade and, IIRC, Luke Cage's dad back in the day. I don't remember how many issues that arc was. Magic, however, is not the same as the occult. The word occult involves a lot more stuff than that. That's why I said he's different from Doom.
Ah, you mean the battle the team had with the Deathwalkers/Elementals? Not lost on me is also the fact that Adam knew who/what Shuma Gorath was and called the creature by name without prompting.
But do supernatural encounters, especially the one-off confrontational variety, equate to the same level of expertise that we'd expect from a PhD in the field? I'm not so sure about that. By that definition it would also make Peter Parker an expert on the occult. Ditto with Matt Murdock. It's worth noting in that Mighty Avengers story Molina didn't ask for Adam's aid on the case because Adam had any specific knowledge of the occult per se. She'd worked with Adam on other superhero-type affairs, so he was someone that she thought to call on a flyer. Adam had no clue. Blade and Kaluu were further along in the investigation, but it was actually "The Bear" who was the expert.
Whether we're talking magic or the occult, Adam likely sees it as a distinction without a difference. He doesn't believe in them, not even as fields of inquiry in furtherance of his own understanding of matter, energy and the universe. Could that change later? Maybe. But I think he's just a Man of Marvels who has seen some things. Like a Watcher has seen some things.
Last edited by JudicatorPrime; 08-20-2020 at 10:38 PM.
Reading through the thread really shows Marvel's (in fact, DC as well) have short-changed women. All because of institutionalized misogyny that was rampant during the start of the atomic age, let only white men to be super-scientists. Women could only be the supportive wife/girlfriend. It wasn't until Black Panther that a black man was seen as smart as the top intellects like Richards, Stark, Banner, Xavier and Pym. Thankfully there was Moira MacTaggert, but when Marvel needed a geneticist that specialized in mutation more often than not, Marvel would use Hank or Xavier, because they were the "heroes" while she was just a supporting character.
Even when women like Bobbi who started off as a scientist was created, she hardly ever showed those skills once she became Mockingbird. I can't even remember her doing any super-science stuff in West Coast Avengers, especially with Pym around.
The few female super-scientist Marvel did create never took off, like Monica Rappaccini (MANDOK will always be thought of as the Leader of AIM before her), Maya Hansen (what has she done lately), Doctor Minerva (she could never stand up to villains like Doom, Doc Ock, the Leader, Magneto, the Mad Tinkerer or any of the 60s evil geniuses)
And that's the main problem, the super smart women mainly weren't super heroes or remediable super villains.
Thankfully Marvel now have Valeria Richards, Moon-Girl, Ironheart, and Nadia van Dyne as the next generation of super-scientists (I'm not a fan of Marvel's re-imaging Shuri as her MCU counterpart [making her a younger tech genius] over Coates' griot spiritual powers that set her apart from T'Challa).
I'm also not a fan of the trend of Marvel giving "housewives" the same job as their husbands. In many adaptations, Betty Ross is often made a scientist in the same field as Bruce. In Spectacular Spider-Man, Curt Connors wife was also made a scientist.
It felt like it reinforced the idea that they were defined by their male relationships rather than subvert them.
Agree with this.
Moira X has been given a major shot in the arm (among other things) in Hickman's X-Men run, she's basically the main character of House of X and Powers of X, and she's now elevated as a third figure to rival Xavier and Magneto.
T'Challa was certainly a major step up, the most progressive character created by Kirby-Lee in the classic Marvel era.
Tilda Johnson aka Nightshade and more recently Nighthawk (didn't read the Secret Empire stuff where she took on that mantle) should be mentioned.
Her specialties are given as genetics, cybergenics and physics
Doom is pretty good about securing his robotic creations. Many of the Doombots are cannon fodder (say what you will, not many Latverians get killed in the line of service) and don't have as sophisticated programming as those that can act as a sort of surrogate for Doom. But in his presence, they will revert back to their subservient programming. Odd to say but Doom does have some attachment to some of his Doombots, like the one he keeps in a dungeon in Books of Doom. He's too dangerous to let loose but Doom hasn't destroyed him either. There was also an interesting story about a Doombot in the Gwenpool series. He was going to be Doom's most advanced version but there was an attack on Doom's lab and the nearly complete Doombot escaped. He's like Pinocchio in a way in that when he escaped Doom's lab he was taken in by a kindly old man who gave him a suit of clothes. He worked in the shop with the old man and became the protector of his neighborhood.
Last edited by Iron Maiden; 08-21-2020 at 10:27 AM.
In my opinion...
Reed Richards- He's hard to pin down to just a few things but I think Astrophysics/Cosmology, astronautical engineering, applied mathematics,and theoretical physics are the things that stand out to me.
Tony Stark- Tony is the "universal builder" so this too is hard, so I say mechanical and electric engineering.
Bruce Banner: Nuclear (or theoretical now days I think) Physics and nuclear engineering.
Hank Pym- With him I'd say biophysics, and robotics
Henry McCoy- Beast is often slept on when it comes to super science, but I'd his two would be genetics and biophysics.
Amadeus Cho- I think its pretty clear is specialty is mathematics. Both pure and applied. .
Black Panther- T'challa is my favorite superhero of all time so I been putting a lot of thought into this. I believe his specialties are theoretical physics and applied mathematics. He obviously has an interest in theoretical physics since he has a phd in it, but I think would applied mathematics because it would explain all his other skills(economics, computer science, engineering international relations, strategy). T'challa (in the 616 anyway...) is known for his ability to stay multiple steps ahead of his adversaries. I think an interest/specialty would explain that.
Hank and Reed.jpg
I think Reed sums it up nicely when it comes to on specialties with the super-scientist in the MU
Last edited by Old Owl; 08-24-2020 at 11:25 AM. Reason: Forgot to narrow it down to one or two areas.
Doctor Strange in medical science.
Love is for souls, not bodies.