TOP 10 Most Intelligent Marvel Heroes according to Marvel

[useridgoeshere]

I'd say Kitty is a narrow kind of genius. Peter Parker is a genius. This list is the super-ridiculous magic-level geniuses, plus Hank McCoy for whatever reason.

[XPac]

Marvel had T'Challa at graded at a 6 on the intelligence meter for the longest. I never took their rankings seriously because what is depicted in the page has told a different story.

6 out o what? 6 out of 10, that's not to great. But 6 out of 7 is pretty darn good.

[Frontier]

Not one adult woman. One teen and two girls under ten. Interesting.

The only adult women I could think of who would place on the list are Mockingbird, Toni Ho, June Covington, along with a few women on the X-Men (someone's already mentioned Kitty Pryde).

I'm probably missing some people.

[lilyinblue]

Not one adult woman. One teen and two girls under ten. Interesting.

It is unfortunate. It took Marvel a very, very, very long time to cook up a female character who fell into the 'crazy super genius' category. It is also odd that they still don't have an actual adult woman in this club... and again, unfortunate. Valeria, Riri and Moon Girl are all awesome... but their youth gives them a different role in the grand Marvel heroic community. So, they aren't participating in quite the same way as T'Challa, Tony, Reed, etc. These super brainy dudes have this tendency to also become leaders... and for good reason. This is one of the big reasons why I find the lack of adult women on this list a problem. Those three girls all show great POTENTIAL, but even the most intelligent girl needs time to develop the experience and maturity to take on the kind of roles these men have had.

The only adult women I could think of who would place on the list are Mockingbird, Toni Ho, June Covington, along with a few women on the X-Men (someone's already mentioned Kitty Pryde).

I'm probably missing some people.

Bobbi Morse is probably my 2nd favorite Marvel character... so I say this as a huge fan of hers: she doesn't belong on this list. She's obviously an exceedingly intelligent woman, but she's never really been depicted in the same way as these guys. IE - she's probably sitting in the top percentile of 'normal human intelligence'. Everybody on this list is displaying a more superhuman level of intelligence. We've never really seen that from Bobbi... or too many other women in the Marvel Universe in general.

... but it would be nice if we would. Like I said above, there's no women on the list... just girls. I'd love to see Marvel take some characters like Bobbi or Kitty who have demonstrated great intelligence and maybe take them up a notch - let them be the shapers of the world now, rather than only telling stories about the people who can shape the world when they eventually grow up.

(This is one of the reasons I adored Chelsea Cain's tragically brief run on Mockingbird. The story emphasized her intelligence over her ability to kick your ass. It was a wonderful, yet all-too-rare gem.)

[Tiamatty]

6 out o what? 6 out of 10, that's not to great. But 6 out of 7 is pretty darn good.

Marvel's Power Rankings were always out of 7. With Intelligence, 6 was basically the highest any mortal being was capable of. Reed and Doom were both 6s.

[mace11]

Marvel Power Grid-Intelligence
http://marvel.wikia.com/wiki/Power_Grid


Category:Intelligence | Marvel Database
http://marvel.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Intelligence

[mugiwara]

Not one adult woman. One teen and two girls under ten. Interesting.

I guess it's because the new inspirational characters are mostly kids.

There is one adult woman who should definitely be in the top 10, but she's not a super heroin: Alyssa Moy. There are other civilians like Anna Maria Marconi.
Monica Rapuccini is just not smart enough, and Murderbird even less, no matter how much she rants about not being noticed by Reed or Hank.
Maybe Iron Patriot could make it, but 1), she's not part of Marvel Little Darlings (Miles, Kamala, Luna, etc) and 2) even Ewing never implied that she would be top 10 worthy, unlike Blue Marvel.

[SpiderClops]

A few things I'd like to say:

1. Marvel's "official" lists/rankings of any kind (intelligence, strength, speed, etc.) are always inconsistent. This shouldn't be taken so seriously.
2. Intelligence can't be ranked like that.
3. Mathematics and science and computers aren't the only kind of intelligence. Top level musicians, artists, etc. are also geniuses.
4. Moon Girl sounds like the very definition of Mary Sue.
5. Interesting observation Colossus1980.
6. I'm going to ignore my above first three points and let my inner fanboy out. Do you guys think Peter Parker would be in a top 20 list?

[Iron Maiden]

The only adult women I could think of who would place on the list are Mockingbird, Toni Ho, June Covington, along with a few women on the X-Men (someone's already mentioned Kitty Pryde).

I'm probably missing some people.

If she were still alive, Alyssa Moy. She was at Empire State university along with Reed and was introduced by Chris Claremont as a former girl friend before Sue. She and her husband Ted Castle worked on the Nu World project during the Millary/Hitch run.

[Tiamatty]

4. Moon Girl sounds like the very definition of Mary Sue.

She's not. But, of course, being a competent female in a lead role, and one who doesn't rely on any men around her, there was never a question she would be hit with that charge. Because female characters always have to deal with accusations of being Mary Sues, unless they're shown as colossal screw-ups who can't get their shit together. Meanwhile, male characters actually can be the best at everything, but never get that Mary Sue charge.

Can we just, like, end the entire Mary Sue thing? Just kill the whole concept with fire? Seriously, can we, as consumers of fiction, please all agree to stop saying characters are Mary Sues? Setting aside the fact that the term has drifted immensely from its original usage, it's just a really stupid, condescending idea. Like, the original Mary Sue was a joke, parodying certain types of fanfic characters. But fanfic is written mostly by young people - especially young women - who are just learning how to write. And mocking them is a really goddamn shitty thing to do. And when it comes to mainstream fiction, "Mary Sue" really just means "female character I don't like," rendering it especially meaningless.

Moon Girl's not a Mary Sue, and Mary Sue is a term that needs to die.

[DurararaFTW]

She solved an unsolvable puzzle. Some additional accomplishments: Built a private lab out of things she was able to find, including building a computer capable of tracking the movements of the Terrigen Cloud, and also creating an arsenal out of toys. She also built a mechanical, flame-throwing triceratops out of Lego. Reminder that she's done this while only getting a public school education, and with parents who both seem to have normal intelligence, so she's having to figure all this science out on her own.

Just for the record: Intelligence is not just about knowledge or accomplishments. When Moon Girl is declared the Smartest There Is, it means that she has the most powerful brain of the bunch. Her problem-solving abilities, creative thinking, logic, understanding, memory, and more. Does she know as much as someone like Black Panther? Or even Amadeus Cho? No. Not yet. But give them new concepts to grasp? She'll figure them out the quickest.

Intelligence. Is. Not. Just. Knowing. Shit. Knowing shit is arguably the least important measure of intelligence. Any idiot can read a book. Intelligence is about knowing how to figure shit out. And hey! Not all geniuses actually accomplish much! There are janitors with more raw intelligence than most scientists. They just never applied that intelligence, whether by choice or, more likely, lack of opportunity.

So can people please stop bitching about Moon Girl being the smartest? "Smart" doesn't mean what you clearly think it means, so recognize that you use the word differently than Marvel does, and move on.

How do you think all those people came to know shit, because OBVIOUSLY they too had a massive capacity for figuring things out. They didn't create time machines, Pym particles, interdimensional doorways, new elements, articifial intelligence, (anti-)gravity devices and so on by reading things. Where Earth is concerned these guys are the one made the science available for people to find. Moon Girl debuted in 2016, do not tell me she was on her own unlike anyone else. She had the internet in a world where it was chuck full with solutions to how to break every law of physics. She lives in goddamn Manhattan, it's very much all available to her. Stephen Strange was a world reknown brain surgeon in his let's say 30s, lost the ability to do his job, then switches career paths and from nothing becomes the most accomplished practitioner of magic in Universe 616. But I guess you'd devalue the capacity to understand and adapt to new concepts this displays because books were involved.

[SpiderClops]

She's not. But, of course, being a competent female in a lead role, and one who doesn't rely on any men around her, there was never a question she would be hit with that charge. Because female characters always have to deal with accusations of being Mary Sues, unless they're shown as colossal screw-ups who can't get their shit together. Meanwhile, male characters actually can be the best at everything, but never get that Mary Sue charge.

Can we just, like, end the entire Mary Sue thing? Just kill the whole concept with fire? Seriously, can we, as consumers of fiction, please all agree to stop saying characters are Mary Sues? Setting aside the fact that the term has drifted immensely from its original usage, it's just a really stupid, condescending idea. Like, the original Mary Sue was a joke, parodying certain types of fanfic characters. But fanfic is written mostly by young people - especially young women - who are just learning how to write. And mocking them is a really goddamn shitty thing to do. And when it comes to mainstream fiction, "Mary Sue" really just means "female character I don't like," rendering it especially meaningless.

Moon Girl's not a Mary Sue, and Mary Sue is a term that needs to die.

I didn't say she was a Mary Sue. I said she sounds like one. I don't read her book, so I can't say that with confidence.

By the way, I didn't criticize Riri, the other smart young black female character who don't rely on men.

[itspopularnowitsucks]

Ok back to topic of adult female, I just looked through the Wikia site for Super Genius category (that site may not be a complete list, and may contain wrong info):

(1) Nox/Nyx from Doctor Strange Sorcerer Supreme (1991): who the hell is she?

(2) Geiger of Avengers Initiative from Doc Samson (1996): she only has a BS degree, not sure what other info put her in this catgory

(3) Maya Hansen of the Extremis fame: not a hero, just a scientist

(4) Alyssa Moy: mentioned in this thread already

(5) Nightshade from the recent Nighthawk: used to be a villain mostly

(6) Athena: literally th Goddess of Wisdom

(7) Sage from X-Men

I agree Toni Ho should be a viable adult super genius female. After all her father was supposed to be a super genius on par with Tony Stark.

[Baseman]

She's not. But, of course, being a competent female in a lead role, and one who doesn't rely on any men around her, there was never a question she would be hit with that charge. Because female characters always have to deal with accusations of being Mary Sues, unless they're shown as colossal screw-ups who can't get their shit together. Meanwhile, male characters actually can be the best at everything, but never get that Mary Sue charge.

Can we just, like, end the entire Mary Sue thing? Just kill the whole concept with fire? Seriously, can we, as consumers of fiction, please all agree to stop saying characters are Mary Sues? Setting aside the fact that the term has drifted immensely from its original usage, it's just a really stupid, condescending idea. Like, the original Mary Sue was a joke, parodying certain types of fanfic characters. But fanfic is written mostly by young people - especially young women - who are just learning how to write. And mocking them is a really goddamn shitty thing to do. And when it comes to mainstream fiction, "Mary Sue" really just means "female character I don't like," rendering it especially meaningless.

Moon Girl's not a Mary Sue, and Mary Sue is a term that needs to die.

Meh,One of the things you'll have to learn to deal with as a writer is that no matter how good or bad your work is someone will think it's shit and mock it mercilessly.

Its honestly better to learn that early.

Also Gray Sue ( or Marty stu or whatever you want to call the male counterpart to the Mary sue title)does exist you know.Male characters do get called out for being unreasonably good at everything.

[hedgehogvampire]

They posted the video on Facebook.

10. Black Panther
9. Amadeus Cho
8. Hank McCoy
7. Riri Williams
6. Hank Pym
5. Valeria Richards
4. Bruce Banner
3. Tony Stark
2. Reed Richards
1. Moon Girl

Thoughts?

No real serprises here. For the most part its pretty much who I thought they would be. I haven't read enough comics with Amadeus or Riri yet So I can't really comment on them. And its good to see that two Fantastic Four characters made the list, Val and Reed haven't been seen in a while so its good that Marvel remembers them. It still feels odd that Moon Girl is number one. I have no problem that she's on the list but it does seem a little odd that she out smarts T'challa, Reed, Tony, and Bruce. Ack, whatever. That being said I do still think its cool that she and Val made the list even though they are little kids.