Scientists and Engineers in DC Comics

[hairys]

It's a perennial topic around here. Limiting the discussion to human DC characters in the present day whose brainpower isn't artificially augmented, you've got a number to choose from:

Top Tier
Lex Luthor (always the smartest guy in the room... it's his whole thing)
Mr. Terrific
Dr. Sivana (working definition of mad scientist)

Next Group
(assorted polymaths and near-polymaths)
Batman
Shay Veritas
Ray Palmer
Prof Haley (and maybe June Robbins)
Niles Caulder
Steel
Veronica Cale

And the Rest
(guys who, on a given day, will do something insane with their brain)
Will Magnus
Rip Hunter
Prof. Ivo
TO Morrow

And plenty of others I'm no doubt forgetting.

Has this been changed recently? The way I learned it as a kid was 1. Luthor, 2. Batman, 3. Mr Terrific.

[CosmiComic]

On human scales such as a typical IQ test....it's never mentioned, but they both seem to have had science guild training of some sort.

Ok

I believe so.

Ok

Has this been changed recently? The way I learned it as a kid was 1. Luthor, 2. Batman, 3. Mr Terrific.

So where do Atom, Flash and Cyborg rank?

[hairys]

So where do Atom, Flash and Cyborg rank?

I don't know* (and certainly mean no disrespect to those characters by not having them in the top 3), I'm just asking what current canon is (if it exists). Thanks.

* With Palmer, I do remember him being very high up there, probably top 6.

[CosmiComic]

I don't know* (and certainly mean no disrespect to those characters by not having them in the top 3), I'm just asking what current canon is (if it exists). Thanks.

* With Palmer, I do remember him being very high up there, probably top 6.

Oh no problem. They were the first characters that popped in my head when I think about scientists and engineers in DC

[ducklord]

Has this been changed recently? The way I learned it as a kid was 1. Luthor, 2. Batman, 3. Mr Terrific.

Well, there's nothing *really* canonical about it... we're all just spitballing here.

There does seem to be some fanboy consensus that Luthor should be #1, 'cause that's his schtick. If he's not the biggest brain around, he's severely diminished as Superman's arch-villain.

For a long time Mr. Terrific was definitionally "the third smartest person in the world." Personally, I thought this was a wonderful bit of fan trolling, because it allowed for endless debates about who could be #2 (Batman? Sivana? A genius we've never heard of?) Recently, however, it's been implied (in the Adam Strange series, I think) that Terrific only says that to be polite - so he may actually be #2.

Once you get past the first two or three, I think it's all just silly (but fun) fanboy conjecture.

For my money:
- Ray Palmer is the go-to heroic scientist when you want something explained/figured without a lot of baggage. He's a low-grade Reed Richards, without the skills to reimagine an entire scientific field over lunch.
- John Henry Irons is the guy you go to when you want a machine built that no one has ever built before.
- Niles Caulder is who you consult about insane fringe fields of scientific discovery. And then you cross check all his theories with Palmer, 'cause Caulder arguably insane.
- Will Magnus is who you bring in for robotics. Duh.
- Barbara Gordon is the point person for all things computer (or John Marshall... but everyone's forgotten about him).
- Although Batman is up-to-date on everything (and can cross-check everyone's math), he's mostly wasted in the lab.

[CosmiComic]

- Ray Palmer is the go-to heroic scientist when you want something explained/figured without a lot of baggage. He's a low-grade Reed Richards, without the skills to reimagine an entire scientific field over lunch.

Didn't he precede Richards by a year?