Smartest People in Comics

maxx · October 30, 2007, 1:09am

the way he’s always described they’ve always put him on par wit people like doc connors and reed. i’m not saying he’s smarter than reed but he’s always been written as if his smarts were on par with them.

he’s almost like a child prodigy who didn’t make it. Because of his living situation…lets not kid ourselves…kid is from the white ghetto. he got scholorships and grants and such for college…so just cause he didnt skip grades, i still think he is still one of the smartest guys in marvel. and he’s written as such.

i think captain america alluded to this when he signed him to the avengers…can someone confirm or deny this?

box · October 30, 2007, 1:17am

Parker is smart but I don’t think he’s ever been written as if his smarts were on par with Reed Richards. I believe his intelligence rating in the Marvel Encyclopedia has him at level 4 (gifted) while Reed is at level 6 (super genius) and Dr connors is at level 5 (genius).

Whenever somebody has a problem, they don’t go to Peter Parker. They go to Reed Richards if it’s science based. They go to Tony Stark if it’s technological. They go to Hank Mccoy if it’s genetics. Peter Parker is gifted… but he’s never been written as on par with the other top-tier intellects in the Marvel Universe.

Cap America signed him to the Avengers cause he just happened to be on the Raft fighting the prisoners that day. It was “fate”. I don’t think he mentioned anything about Peter’s intellect.

_PFH_Lake · October 30, 2007, 1:19am

Parker is smart but that smart he had to get help from Reed and Dr. Curt Connors a few times

System_1 · October 30, 2007, 1:21am

Parker is nowhere near Richard’s level, but I’d put him on par with Stark.

box · October 30, 2007, 1:21am

If he were smart he would have realized how to use his organic web-shooters off the get-go instead of wasting all that money buying materials for web-fluid.

Steve_F · October 30, 2007, 1:25am

What are you talking about? That is from a totally different version, Ultimate or the movie, but not the original spider-man we are talking about.

box · October 30, 2007, 1:29am

Believe me, it hurts everytime I say this, but the original spider-man has organic web-shooters now.

Sano · October 30, 2007, 1:30am

I think he’s just joking since Peter Parker did gain organic webshooters in 616 eventually and he has them now.

EDIT: Ah box beat me to it…

goodm0urning · October 30, 2007, 2:43am

I think you need to get more sleep.

maxx · October 30, 2007, 6:16am

ok, but he defintly written as if his smarts are way above that of a normal scientist/bioengineer. can we at least agree on this?

Zephyranthes · October 30, 2007, 6:22am

What do you mean by “normal”? There are lots of random SHIELD/AIM/HYDRA scientists who have created tons of science fiction stuff. Or do you mean “normal” compared to real life… In which case, he would be in the running for the title of the Smartest Person of All Time.

Spidey’s super smart, for sure. I just don’t understand how he can be in the top ten Smartest People in Marvel, let alone in all of comics. If we’re just talking about Smart People In Comics, he’d belong. But then we’d be slightly off topic, and sano would be forced to close the thread and ban us all for life.

maxx · October 30, 2007, 6:24am

oh i didnt say or at least mean he’s top 10 in all of comics…but defintly in the top ten for at least marvel.

DS · October 30, 2007, 6:48am

No, just no. Peter is smart, but he still gets schooled by Reed in a crossover. Come on, even Amadeus Cho can school Peter Parker.

maxx · October 30, 2007, 7:35am

i think i backed out of pete being as smart as reed. whos amadeus cho?

edit: just googled him…well it says reed puts him at 7th smartest in marvel universe…ya he’s smart, cuz its a power apparently.

Steve_F · October 30, 2007, 7:40am

So what, his web shooters just magically sprouted out of his wrists? His body was like, well, these mechanical ones I made are so useful, why don’t I just grow some of my own? Wow, Marvel, good work guys. Really.

Zephyranthes · October 30, 2007, 7:42am

He’s that wunderkind in the Hulk comics. Some Asian supergenius who thinks he can help Hulk get his revenge, or something to that effect.

maxx · October 30, 2007, 7:44am

they tried to assimilate the movie cause they realized a whole new crowd was joining. hence why when they created the ultimate universe it was meant to be more streamlined and new user friendly…hence alot of the ultimate stuff matches similar to the movies. they also did this with the 616 universe but a bit later. peter essentially evolved in the 616 universe.

Sano · October 30, 2007, 7:56am

IMHO with Spidey it depends on who is writing him.

It’s not just webshooters, on the regular he would go home and invent something to defeat villains he fought all the time. As a matter of fact that’s how he came up with the Spider Tracer in the first place. He would whip up a gizmo to ground Volture, some toy to help him stop Doc Ock, a chemical solution to stop a robot, you name it. He’s not written that way anymore though. JMS did try to bring science back into the book but he used real science and not the old Marvel make believe science (radiation and gamma rays will kill your ass lol) so no new gizmos there. Course long ago he didn’t have Marvel buddies to make stuff for him either… Maybe JJJ was right all along and Parker is just lazy. “STOP FLIRTING WITH BETTY BRANT AND GO TAKE SOME PICTURES OF THAT SPIDER MENACE!” Lol he had to tell him that two separate times in issue 12 of Amazing.

I say he’s smart but him being in top ten for Marvel is a maaaaaybe, again, depending on who is writing him and even then he might be number ten. Top seven is a flat out no.

box · October 30, 2007, 9:26am

The thing is, Peter Parker is supposed to be considered the “everyman”. Stan Lee wanted to create someone everyone could relate to. He’s smart, yes, but he only has a bachelor’s degree in physics.

He created web-shooters when he was 15… but they’re nothing more then a souped-up version of a watergun.

If you compare Spider-man’s scientific achivements with say… Tony Stark… well I think the achievements speak for themselves.

The armor has evolved from a bulky iron suit to a molecularly aligned matrix of crystallized iron enhanced by magnetic fields over layers of other metals like titanium, creating a shell that is pliable, yet capable of great resilience and protection. The suit grants him superhuman strength and flight capabilities, and is powered by a combination of solar converters, electrical batteries and an on-board generator that uses beta particle absorption as a fuel source. The suit is also able to convert nearby energy sources, such as heat or kinetic energy into electricity, or even drain electrical energy directly into the batteries for recharge. Tony also adds jet skates that are now so powerful Iron Man could skate forward towing an entire train behind him. Miniature panes can protect Iron Man’s eyes when needed. In addition, the suit can be completely sealed for operations in vacuum or underwater, providing its own life support, and is shielded against radiation.

The onboard systems of the armor are controlled by Tony Stark’s brain patterns, read from a cybernetic interface in his helmet. Sophisticated computers with an artificially intelligent operating system of Stark’s own design provide tactical information as well as constant feedback on the suit’s status, using internal and external sensors. As noted above, Stark has tried to put safeguards in to make sure that the systems do not actually achieve sentience, although these were once circumvented.

…

After being critically injured during a battle with the Extremis-enhanced Mallen, Stark injects his nervous system with a modified techno-organic virus (the extremis process) that not only saves his life, but also fuses Stark’s armor to his body. This allows him to store the inner layers of the Iron Man armor in the hollows of his bones as well as control it through direct brain impulses. Stark can control the layer of the armor underneath his skin and make it emerge from numerous exit points around his limbs as a gold-colored neural interface under-sheath. While in this form, Stark can control the armor cyberpathically and suit up at any time, even if the armor is 100 miles away. Furthermore, the Extremis process has increased his body’s recuperative and healing abilities. He is also able to remotely connect to external communications systems such as satellites, cellular phones, and computers throughout the world. Because the armor’s operating system is now directly connected to Stark’s nervous system, its response time has been significantly improved.

Last but not least… Tony Stark managed to harness Peter Parker’s Spider-Sense and figure out a way to neutralize Peter Parker’s own spider-sense. Now that’s intelligent.

goodm0urning · October 30, 2007, 9:36am

I would actually credit Ditko with Pete’s early everymanitude. (Yeah. Everymanitude. It’s a word now.) Ditko wanted him to be the archetypal self-sacrificing hero figure, and it was when Ditko left the book that stupid shit started to happen, like Peter getting chased by two or three girls at a time. Being a dork in the Marvel universe is apparently a lot cooler than being a dork in real life.