Does Superman HAVE TO have super intelligence?

[Tayswift]

That idea of his brain developing radically differently in the alien environment could pretty well explain why he always seems to be able to come up with wildly out-of-left-field solutions to his problems as well as write well, the creative aspect of his brain being the primary part of his intellect that 'survived' and therefore received a much greater deal of development. That definitely fits for certain circumstances. But on the whole, I definitely far prefer him to just generally be a hyper-mind.

creativity is the are of his brain that he used more and developed. this makes sense.

Superman should be smart like peter parker

[The World]

Makes a hell of a lot more sense for beings like Superman and Wonder Woman to have super intelligence than someone like Batman. These are beings that are the product of the workings of higher societies, Bruce is an angry guy who's intelligence is motivated by crime deterrence which is largely based off what goes on in Gotham which is quite a step down from what Clark or Diana go up against.

[raidensix]

But would the intelligence be tied to the yellow sun or his Kryptonian evolution? Should he feel so much dumber after every super flare? Anyway, I prefer it's because of his Kryptonian genes. He's "potentially" more intelligent than most but he needs to develop and apply it. Given the relatively technical backwardness of Earth and minimal time he spends learning Kryptonian and other alien technology, he should be smart but not the smartest.

[magha_regulus]

I COMPLETELY disagree. Kryptonians are supposed to be by nature super intelligent. They are supposed to be more evolved than humanity and have greater mental capacity than our species. It is a thing I think that is core to the concept. Their children were doing calculus when they were toddlers for christ sakes! Bringing back super intelligence among kryptonians is the best thing about the Grant Morrison reboot in my opinion. Sure, let Brainiac and Luthor be smarter than Superman. That makes them elite in the world of villainy and would make them Justice League level threats all by themselves. Let Jor-El be smarter than his son, that makes sense. He was the greatest mind on a world of super geniuses. Jor-El might've found the answer to restoring the Kandorians to their proper size if he were still alive, while the problem vexes Superman, that's fine. My point though is that the Kryptonians are one of the most intelligent species in the DCU. Intelligence was their THING! The smartest humans (outside of geniuses like Luthor) would only be as smart as Kryptonian children that were still developing.

Its bad enough that they altered the story so that the Kryptonians weren't super on Krypton, making the whole race of supermen thing from the original stories obsolete. To take away their super intelligence just completely wipes away their whole point. Why have a super science sci-fi world governed by a Science-Council if the people aren't all super-intelligent? It just doesn't make sense.

Superman is supposed to be mentally and physically superior to human beings. Batman is smart by human standards, but Superman isn't human. Is Superman a detective? No, but he is an investigative reporter. Let Batman be the world's greatest detective, thats fine. He still should be coming to Superman to hook the Batcave up with advanced technology.

I have real issues with how they've been depicting Superman in his youth in Smallville. I think that his super intelligence should be immediately on display. He should be able to master English after hearing it for a few weeks. If they depict his powers like flight and heat vision developing later on, they should definitely still show how abnormally intelligent he is. He's got a photographic memory and the whole lot. He should always remember his brief time on Krypton, his parents, and the trauma of losing them and his world. In fact I think his super intelligence is how he was able to hide his secret while growing up, and it would explain how the Kents weren't ever seriously injured dealing with a super strong and fast child. Superman's super intelligence would help the Kents raise him. He'd be able to really understand their lessons early on which would prepare him to start his career as Superboy at an early age. H should definitely be Superboy by the time he's 10, cementing his role as a superhero with a secret identity from early on in his life.

I feel like I'm on a rant lol. I love this topic. Superman's super intelligence opens up sooo much story potential and adds some genuine nerdiness to the character.

He shouldn't be in the conversation when we are talking about the smartest people in the DCU
Other than that Kryptonians natural intelligence and powers should make him able to think very fast

[magha_regulus]

Makes a hell of a lot more sense for beings like Superman and Wonder Woman to have super intelligence than someone like Batman. These are beings that are the product of the workings of higher societies, Bruce is an angry guy who's intelligence is motivated by crime deterrence which is largely based off what goes on in Gotham which is quite a step down from what Clark or Diana go up against.

Yes to all of this!

[Tayswift]

Makes a hell of a lot more sense for beings like Superman and Wonder Woman to have super intelligence than someone like Batman. These are beings that are the product of the workings of higher societies, Bruce is an angry guy who's intelligence is motivated by crime deterrence which is largely based off what goes on in Gotham which is quite a step down from what Clark or Diana go up against.

disagree completely. it's not like superman was raised as kryptonian, now amazons it depends on the version. on jimenez WW she was a scientist too but mostly of WW post crisis she is a smart woman but not genius or supersmart

[Dispenser Of Truth]

Should he feel so much dumber after every super flare?

I imagine he'd feel like you or I would after staying up all night - all the thoughts are still in his head, but connections that were obvious before jam up as everything gets muddled and slow compared to before. Still smart, maybe even super-smart, but not the same kind of white-hot intuition and cleverness.

disagree completely. it's not like superman was raised as kryptonian

The "learning Calculus at 3" type stuff we see with Kryptonians wouldn't and couldn't be purely a matter of being raised differently. That's different biology in play, and that would stick regardless of circumstances.

[Lightning Rider]

Whenever I see Superman working on Kryptonian technology a la All-Star, I definitely attribute it to his intelligence, but far more so to his already existing abilities and his familiarity with Kryptonian technology. He doesn't need to be a genius to think faster, move faster, mold materials more efficiently, and see things on a level other people can't; neither does he need to be a genius to know, through educating himself in the fortress of solitude, how Kryptonian technology works uniquely. He's a specialist in that area, with incredible powers to execute the science. I think that's enough. He can be very smart without being a genius.

I always thought it made more sense that Superman has a super-intellect, considering his family and the advanced society of Krypton. I know he didn't grow up on Krypton, but it's still part of his heritage in a lot of ways. Sure, it can be hard to write stories about Supes if you factor in his vast array of powers and add in super-intelligence. Though I would add his intelligence into his powers, rather than treating intelligence like a separate power. What I mean by that is have Superman conducting his experiments and exploring the universe but have his studies seem strange to everyone else. They can't understand why he's bothering with something or what his experiments are meant to uncover. Superman can perceive the universe in ways no one else really can. He can see the building blocks of the universe and how everything is connected. So his studies explore more abstract ideas about the universe rather than other things science is trying to tackle. Thus his super-intellect and his super senses are all tied together to help him gain a greater understanding of the universe around him. That's what he could pursue over other more seemingly practical applications of science. There are plenty of scientists already working on those things. He's trying to understand the things that only he can see or experience.

This makes great sense to me.

[Lightning Rider]

Am I missing something with Kryptonians generally being thought of as super-smart? It's one thing to have an advanced society. But I've always seen it framed as simply a society much like that of humans at a later stage of development. Not with a greater biological capacity for learning. Kryptonians without a yellow sun never seemed Super-anything to me, just more advanced.

[ManSinha]

In the simplest of terms - even considering that since he is supplanted on earth - Kal-El's training is not that of his dad - but I would make him as smart as Luthor

[Dispenser Of Truth]

Am I missing something with Kryptonians generally being thought of as super-smart? It's one thing to have an advanced society. But I've always seen it framed as simply a society much like that of humans at a later stage of development. Not with a greater biological capacity for learning. Kryptonians without a yellow sun never seemed Super-anything to me, just more advanced.

Varies a little, but generally speaking. Golden/Silver/Bronze Age sometimes reverted to a scene on Krypton of parents worrying that their kid is in 3rd grade and hasn't mastered calculus yet, but that next year he'll be 5 and should be alright. Byrne's take seemed to show them as a cold race of geniuses. Birthright onwards I guess didn't make a point of showing them as universally super-intelligent (I don't think that was a thing in New Krypton, so we can probably rule it out from 2006-2011), but Morrison reinstated it during his Action run.

[Agniwolf]

I imagine he'd feel like you or I would after staying up all night - all the thoughts are still in his head, but connections that were obvious before jam up as everything gets muddled and slow compared to before. Still smart, maybe even super-smart, but not the same kind of white-hot intuition and cleverness.

just like a night switching from bar to bar drinking and partying. yaeh the cognitive system become hazy n blurry (redundacies XD)

[Johnny Thunders!]

Absolutely Superman should have a Super Intellect. Morally and Physically Superman is to the extreme, why would his intelligence be any less. Especially when you take into account his Super Senses processing information at flash like speeds. He is an evolved being, Not just "Super Strong" Man. He's Superman! Anything a human does, he does to the nth degree.

[Agniwolf]

Absolutely Superman should have a Super Intellect. Morally and Physically Superman is to the extreme, why would his intelligence be any less. Especially when you take into account his Super Senses processing information at flash like speeds. He is an evolved being, Not just "Super Strong" Man. He's Superman! Anything a human does, he does to the nth degree.

because of batman, he must be the brain of everything in dcu, so supes loses his spot to someone with "prepare"

[Johnny Thunders!]

because of batman, he must be the brain of everything in dcu, so supes loses his spot to someone with "prepare"

Here is where I love Marvel: Reed Richards, Hank Pym, T'Challa, Tony Stark, they all get to be Super Geniuses because they are in a sense, Supermen. That old John Byrne rule of, "If it's all you do, you get to be the best at it", is way to narrow.