The 10 smartest characters in Marvel Comics

The Marvel Universe is known for its ever-expanding roster of super-powered characters. Whether it be powers of strength, magic, flight, or speed, many of these characters have qualities that make them unique. Some of them also have high levels of intelligence with a few of them exhibiting genius or super-genius level intellects. Pair this quality with their already-impressive powers, and you’ve got a force to be reckoned with.

Let’s take a look at the ten smartest characters in Marvel Comics, made up of both heroes and villains, in no particular order. 

T’Challa

T’Challa, the Black Panther, is one of the most intelligent people in the Marvel Universe. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in Fantastic Four #52 in April 1966, T’Challa is the hero of the fictional African nation, Wakanda. T’Challa is one of many characters who have a specialty when it comes to practicing his intelligence, like Bruce Banner or Hank McCoy. T’Challa created a new field of science called Shadow Physics, which allowed him to track Vibranium and find out its weaknesses.

T’Challa became the leader of Wakanda, and he has done so usually without bringing many wars to the country, leaving it prosperous in both wealth and technology. He is also one of the only members of the Illuminati to appear on this list. At first, while he was not an official member, he did provide Wakanda as a mutual meeting point for the Illuminati and was usually the voice of reason thereafter.

Riri Williams

Riri Williams, the girl who built herself a suit of armor also known as Ironheart, first appeared in Invincible Iron Man Vol. 3 #7, and she was created by Brian Michael Bendis and Mike Deodato. As a member of The Champions, she proved herself multiple times to be one of the smartest on the team. 

Riri was classified as a super-genius at the age of five years old, and she was accepted into M.I.T. while she was still a child and subsequently reverse-engineered the Iron Man armor. In fact, if Riri was not introduced in the Marvel Universe, Tony Stark probably would have made this list. Like Tony, she also created her own AI, called N.A.T.A.L.I.E., which took the form of her dead best friend.

Peter Parker

Over the years certain writers have taken to writing Peter Parker a little denser than he actually is, but he is one of the smartest people in the Marvel Universe. Peter Parker — who is also known as Spider-Man — first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15, created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. 

After Peter was bitten by the spider that gave him his extraordinary abilities, he developed the web fluid which allowed him to web up enemies and swing around New York. While only a teenager he used his keen scientific genius to develop not only the fluid or his Spider-Tracers — as he often used science to take down his enemies who were sometimes scientists themselves, like Doctor Octopus or the Lizard — he also used his intellect for the greater good while he was Peter Parker as well as Spider-Man, as he was a teacher for multiple years. 

Amadeus Cho

Amadeus Cho first appeared in Amazing Fantasy Vol. 2 #15 in 2005, years before he would turn into the Totally Awesome Hulk. The character was created by Greg Pak and Takeshi Miyazawa and he was canonically one of the eight smartest people on Earth at one time. Cho was a genius, earning his spot on the list, as he absorbed the Hulk from Bruce Banner for a time. 

Again, like Riri, if Amadeus Cho was never introduced in the comic books, Banner would probably be on this list. You have to remember that Marvel Comics has over eighty years of history and many legacy characters that creators have to outdo. With that being said, Amadeus definitely showed more than once that he was smart in his own right. 

Hank Pym

Hank Pym is easily one of the most brilliant characters in the Marvel Universe. Hank Pym was created by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, and Jack Kirby in Tales to Astonish #27 in 1962. Over the years Pym has taken many different names while acting as a superhero (or villain) but he is primarily known as Ant-Man. In the Marvel Universe, unlike the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Hank Pym created the homicidal android known as Ultron.

In addition to creating Ultron, Hank Pym discovered the Pym Particles, the particles that fuel Pym’s serum. Pym’s serum allows for its user to increase and decrease in size, and has been used by a few different characters across the Marvel Universe, like The Wasp and Goliath. Even though he is one of the Marvel Universe’s greatest minds, he walked the line of morality in the comics and was known to beat his wife, Janet Van Dyne.

Valeria Richards

The daughter of Susan Storm and Reed Richards, Valeria Richards is one of the smartest characters in the Marvel Universe. Valeria’s origin is one of the more interesting on this list, having been miscarried by Sue Storm only to be recreated in an embryonic form by her brother Franklin years later. Her first appearance was in Fantastic Four Vol. 3 #54 in 2002, and she was created by Rafael Marin and Tom Grummett. She is also known as Brainstorm.

Coming from two members of the Fantastic Four meant that she absorbed the cosmic mutation that they received which gave them their powers. Her mutation gave her a super-genius level intelligence, and she might be or might end up being smarter than her father, Reed. While her brother Franklin is also smart, he does not quite reach the heights of intelligence that his sister has been able to reach. 

Moon Girl

Lunella Lafayette, also known as Moon Girl, is among the most intelligent characters in the Marvel Universe. Created by Brandon Montclare, Amy Reeder, and Natacha Bustos, Lunella first appeared in Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #1, in 2015. Lunella was often called Moon Girl mockingly by her fellow students because she would often space out and think of new gadgets she could invent.

After Lunella was exposed to the Terrigen Bomb, her latent Inhuman abilities were unlocked. Her power was that she could transfer her consciousness between Devil Dinosaur and herself. She was always smart so her unlocked Inhuman abilities had no bearing on her level of intelligence. In the comics, she solved a puzzle designed to test the intelligence of its user, called the Banner Brain Omnicompetence Examiner. Nicknamed the Banner B.O.X., its inventor Bruce Banner was not capable of solving it, and therefore Amadeus Cho labeled her the smartest person in the world. However, the device would not be infallible as its inventor is not the smartest person in the Marvel Universe either. 

The High Evolutionary

The High Evolutionary, whose original name was Herbert Wyndham, was created in Thor #134 in 1966 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Wyndham was an ordinary man and a skilled geneticist before he turned into The High Evolutionary. 

Essentially, after dealing with heroes and villains, Wyndham journeyed into space where he evolved himself into something greater. Eventually, as The High Evolutionary, he unlocked the potential of his brain, evolving to become the smartest human on Earth, even though he is something above human. 

Victor Von Doom

Victor Von Doom, often known as Doctor Doom, and the ruler of the fictional country Latveria, is perhaps the smartest villain of the Marvel Universe. Doom was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and first appeared in Fantastic Four #5, in 1962. Doom is advanced in many different areas, including the area of magic. 

Victor’s intelligence is proven in multiple ways, more than some of the others on this list. The main rival of Reed Richards, Doom went up against him and the Fantastic Four and came out on top more than once. He was able to revert Ben Grimm to his human form and created Doombots, artificially intelligent disposable replicas of himself, who he was able to send in his place to do his bidding. He is also one of the smartest rulers of the world and is essentially either schooled or knowledgeable in every type of science, technology, and politics known to the Marvel Universe. 

Reed Richards

Reed Richards, who is also known as Mister Fantastic of the Fantastic Four, debuted in 1961 in Fantastic Four #1, and they were created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Like his nemesis Doom, Reed is a polymath. An expert in time and space travel, Reed has money to throw at all of his inventions and scientific theories because his inventions and patents earn him so much money. Through these Reed can fund the Baxter Building and any adventures the Fantastic Four find themselves in.

In fact, it isn’t just Universe 616’s Reed, enough versions of Reed Richards were brilliant geniuses that they established The Council of Reeds, an organization made up of Reed Richards from different universes. Though their formation was intended to help the Multiverse, a few of them turned evil.

Of course, this was only the top ten, there are many other characters with brilliant minds in the Marvel Universe, including Tony Stark, Hank McCoy, Nathaniel Essex, Samuel Sterns, Bruce Banner, Franklin Richards, Shuri, and even Thanos. If only some of these geniuses with ‘Doctor’ at the front of their name took their jobs a little more seriously, maybe the Marvel Universe would be a much more peaceful place to live.