Batman is one of the greatest heroes in the history of comics. Completely without superpowers, he's gotten by on a few things—his shrewd detective skills, his billions of dollars and access to the best tech around, years of training and education, and the one thing that makes it all possible: his brains. Batman is one of the smartest people on Earth in the DC Universe and this has made him an invaluable part of the superhero community.
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It helps that he's also one of the most stubborn people as well— he keeps going at a problem until he solves it. Of course, just because Batman is one of the smartest DC heroes, it doesn't mean there aren't heroes smarter than him, especially in other universes.
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10 Iron Man— his engineering acumen does make him smarter than Batmanin at least one place
Honestly, it's debatable that Iron Man is smarter than Batman. On the one hand, Iron Man has created some of the most advanced suits of armor in comics, even if they often fail at their intended purposes. However, he's also been outsmarted by all kinds of villains who weren't super-geniuses and has lost his business because of his bad business skills more than just about any industrialist comic character around.
However, his engineering acumen does make him smarter than Batman in at least one place, so it does count. Batman's intelligence is more well rounded, but Iron Man has him beat in some particular areas.
9 Professor X— Thanks to his years working with the X-Men, his breadth of knowledge is extremely impressive
Professor X isn't usually given a lot of credit for how smart he is, but he should be. While he isn't a genius inventor or scientist, he is an Oxford scholar, and his years working with the X-Men and their super technology has broadened his horizons immensely. He's also a better strategist than he gets credit for, creating the Xavier Protocols in order to take down any mutant he's worked with who goes rogue— which was revealed years before Batman's own plans to take out his fellows were.
As one of the most powerful telepaths on the planet, he can also absorb any knowledge he needs and knows multiple languages. Sure, he's never invented gates to another reality, but his breadth of knowledge is extremely impressive.
8 Doctor Strange— When he's not battling mystical threats, Strange is studying, adding to his knowledge,& becoming ever smarter
Doctor Strange was one of the best neurosurgeons in the world before the accident that messed up his hands. The sheer amount of knowledge he has about the ins and outs of the human nervous system is amazing and his time as the Sorcerer Supreme only added to his knowledge, as he learned every bit of magic he came across.
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He's also proven to be a cunning opponent, able to outsmart ancient demons, dark gods, and all manner of immortal evil. When he's not battling mystical threats, Strange is studying, adding to his knowledge, and becoming ever smarter.
7 Moira MacTaggert— while Moira was smarter than Batman to begin with,the revelation that she had lived ten more lives only adds to her knowledge base
One of the best evolutionary biologists on Earth, Moira MacTaggert has been working with mutants for years, learning everything she could about genetics and things that are related to the mutant genome, including diseases that only target those with a mutant gene. Thought a human for years, it was recently revealed that she was a reincarnating mutant, having ten lives worth of learning and experience.
So, while Moira was smarter than Batman when it was revealed she only had one life, the revelation that she had lived ten more only adds to her knowledge base— in one of those lives, she lived almost a thousand years— making it definite that she's smarter than him.
6 Beast— His time working with other super-intelligent heroes has broadened his knowledge base, making him even more of an asset to mutantkind
Beast is another evolutionary biologist who hangs out with the X-Men. While he's definitely gotten up to shady things in recent years, Beast is one of the smartest X-Men and one of the biggest brains in the Marvel Universe. His time working with other super-intelligent heroes has also broadened his knowledge base, making him even more of an asset to mutantkind.
While he isn't nearly as good a tactician as Batman, he's made some rather glaring mistakes in his recent tenure as head of X-Force, which now acts as the mutant CIA for the Krakoan nation, but he's still smarter than Batman in a lot of ways.
Hulk is the strongest one there is and while most people see him as a monosyllabic smashing machine, Bruce Banner is one of the most intelligent people on the planet. While his gamma bomb didn't exactly have the effect he wanted it to— it was meant to destroy buildings while leaving the people alive, a more humane weapon than conventional nuclear weapons— his knowledge of physics is quite vast.
There have been times when the intelligence of Banner and the power of The Hulk have been combined, making the Jade Giant into an even more dangerous foe. Given enough time, Bruce Banner can figure out most problems, except how to get rid of The Hulk.
4 Moon Girl— She has already proven to be a sponge for information& an excellent problem solver
Moon Girl is a recent addition to the Marvel Universe but she's quickly proven just how smart she is. At her very young age, she's already created some truly impressive inventions and was revealed to have the highest IQ on the planet, making her smarter than intellectual titans like Mr. Fantastic or Doctor Doom.
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While having a high IQ doesn't equate to the number of things one knows, Moon Girl has already proven to be a sponge for information and an excellent problem solver. While she may not currently know more than Batman, she's many magnitudes smarter than him in other ways.
3 Hank Pym— thenumber of scientific disciplines he needed to master to come up withhis inventions is staggering
Hank Pym is easily one of the most intelligent heroes in the Marvel Universe. Not only was he able to create a way for human beings to shrink and grow but he was able to make a helmet that allowed him to communicate with ants, build equipment that would allow Wasp to fly and fire energy blasts, and created a self-aware AI in Ultron. Those achievements were some of his earliest as well.
While he hasn't done a lot of new stuff since then, thenumber of scientific disciplines he needed to master to come up with the things he's created is staggering and Pym is one of the first people called on whenever there's a problem to be solved.
2 Forge— He's built all manner of things for the X-Men& mastered the technology of several races
Forge's mutant powers allow him to create anything and there are some who see this as a cheat. This isn't the case, though, as he doesn't create things magically and not understand them. Forge knows how everything he's ever created works and Forge has made some amazing things in his time with the X-Men.
Forge is easily one of the smartest heroes around that never gets the credit he deserves. He's built all manner of things for the X-Men and mastered the technology of several races. There are few out there who can match the breadth of his knowledge.
1 Mr. Fantastic— he's mastered just about every scientific discipline one needs to be a top tier super-scientist
Reed Richards probably knows more than any person on the face of the Earth. Doctor Doom would probably dispute this and he may have a point but that doesn't change just how extremely intelligent Mr. Fantastic truly is. He puts the poly in polymath, as he's mastered just about every scientific discipline one needs to be a top tier super-scientist.
Mr. Fantastic has created some truly amazing things and while his pursuit of knowledge hasn't always been the best thing for his family, he's used his massive knowledge base to save the Marvel Universe on many occasions.
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