Without a doubt, some of the smartest superheroes of all time can be found in the MCU. Peter Parker, Tony Stark, and Arnim Zola are just a few of the brainiacs who are taking up space and vying for the honor of being the best among the smartest MCU characters, but the entire list is a who’s who of superhero royalty.
Determining which Marvel character is the smartest is no simple task. Do you judge based on wisdom? Street smarts? Or good old-fashioned educational accreditation? Many of the smartest Marvel characters ranked here have some, if not all, of those variables bouncing around in their heads. But which one of them is the smartest? Take a look at their achievements and abilities to get a more precise view of who’s got the biggest brain in the MCU.
9. Peter Parker
He may only be a high school student, but Peter Parker is easily one of the most gifted people in the MCU. As a child, Parker was interested in science, but his infatuation goes far beyond making model volcanoes. Still in his teens, Parker has become one of the foremost experts in physics and engineering.
Not only is Parker a member of the Midtown School of Science and Technology academic decathlon team, but he developed his own web fluid that mimics that of a real spider through everyday materials. His technical acumen has brought forth comparisons to Tony Stark from those who knew him best, earning him insight into top-secret scientific and engineering projects. Once again, this is a teenager doing all of this.
Setting aside his technical prowess, engineering skills, and in-depth understanding of physics, Parker is also brilliant when it comes to hand-to-hand combat. He’s no Drax or Hulk, but Parker’s mental agility and superpowered senses allow him to take on multiple baddies at the same time. It’s important to note he’s not just flailing and hoping for the best. He’s able to deduce someone’s strengths and weaknesses and use those things against them all while cracking wise.
8. Loki
Half Frost Giant, all trickster, Loki isn’t someone to trifle with. Aside from the magical abilities afforded to him by being a god, he has no problem out-thinking and out-maneuvering his combatants. Depending on what he needs from someone, they’ll either be his friend or his enemy on any given day. He’s so much more than just a liar or a sneak, he learns a person’s weakness and uses it to his advantage.
Proof of Loki’s outstanding intellect lies in his ability to pull off long-form schemes that are carried out across time and space. Even when he’s down, he finds a way to make that nadir work to his advantage. For instance, after he was captured by the Avengers, he used his proximity to the group to turn them against one another. Later, he worked with a group of Dark Elves to take over Asgard before faking his own demise, then claiming the throne while under the guise of his adoptive father, Odin.
Loki’s genius lies in his ability to turn supremely awful lemons into truly tasty lemonade.
7. Rocket Raccoon
Not just any old humanoid trash panda, Rocket Raccoon was brought to life as audiences know him when he was cybernetically enhanced to have advanced cognitive abilities far beyond those of a normal person. It’s already amazing that he’s a walking, talking raccoon, but also, he can pilot a ship and take down adversaries with new weapons and a series of complicated maneuvers.
It’s one thing that Rocket is a wise-cracking tough guy, but in Guardians of the Galaxy, he explains he was specifically engineered to pilot different types of starships. Left to his own devices, Rocket has continued to learn and grow. It’s clear that what began as a genius intellect has grown into something else completely.
6. Vision
Vision didn’t begin his life as an all-powerful superbot with knowledge of everything on the planet and in space. He began his life as J.A.R.V.I.S., Tony Stark’s A.I., but he was uploaded into the “perfect” body meant for Ultron. Things didn’t work out for that guy, but with the addition of the Mind Stone, Vision became the cybernetic-humanoid hybrid everyone knows and loves today.
Where do you even start with this guy’s intellect? His intelligence may be artificial, but his thirst for knowledge is as real as it gets. His ability to download data straight into his brain definitely makes him the fastest learner in the MCU, even if someone else is technically “smarter.”
5. Doctor Strange
Doctor Stephen Strange began his career in heroics as a dashing and brilliant neurosurgeon, albeit a complete jerk of a dashing and brilliant neurosurgeon. After suffering a crippling car accident, he traveled to Kamar-Taj where he trained with the Ancient One to heal his hands.
The Ancient One taught Strange the ways of the mystic arts, allowing him to add to his scientific knowledge with that of the unknown. It’s this combination of science and magic that allows Strange to be such a fierce and intelligent hero.
Strange’s intelligence is most apparent when he’s dueling with other magical beings – especially those who not only have more power than Strange but who are barely even physical beings. While going toe-to-toe with Dormammu (figuratively speaking), Strange uses both magic and logic to outsmart the elder being.
4. Shuri
By the time audiences catch up with Shuri in Black Panther, she’s spent her entire life embedded within Wakanda’s techno-industrial society. Sure, she’s a princess, but she’s also responsible for developing the futuristic technology used by T’Challa, including the Panther Habit made of woven Vibranium.
Shuri isn’t just good at working with the technology of her homeland, she can adapt and work with pieces created by Tony Stark and even Hydra. She’s able to safely remove the Mind Stone from Vision’s head, and she was able to deprogram Bucky Barnes.
Her in-depth knowledge of all things technological gives her the edge over scientists and researchers across the globe, but it also makes her an indispensable member of the Avengers extended family.
3. Hank Pym
After making a name for himself through the discovery of Pym Particles, Hank Pym went on to work with S.H.I.E.L.D. as the first version of Ant-Man. After his wife was stuck in the Quantum Realm, he gave up the life of a superhero and founded Pym Technologies, where he made billions in the tech world while burying his research into Pym Particles.
Or at least, that’s what he said he was doing. In Pym’s free time, he continued to research the Quantum Realm, not with a team of scientists, but alone. That kind of solo research is next level, it’s beyond IQ. Like Tony Stark, Pym works best when he’s able to take a germ of an idea and expand on it until he’s explored every permutation and variable.
The thing that’s so impressive about Pym isn’t that he has an amazing handle on theoretical science, can shrink people, and can enter multiple dimensions, it’s that he makes doing it look like a breeze.
2. Bruce Banner
Bruce Banner, or the Hulk if you prefer, is easily the most qualified character in the MCU. He’s an M.D. and a Ph.D., and he’s a well-known research scientist who zapped himself with gamma radiation. That last thing may not have been a smart move, but he found a way to make it work.
Throughout the Avengers films and Thor: Ragnarok, Banner has applied his expertise to items both magical and scientific, although he finds more comfort in working in a lab than in another dimensional plane. Still, it’s this specific understanding that there’s more in the universe than what can be measured in textbooks that makes Banner so intelligent and well-rounded. He’s not just a super genius, he has an open mind that allows him to see every side of a problem.
1. Tony Stark
Tony Stark is not only a bold CEO and unstoppable billionaire industrialist, but he has one of the greatest minds in the MCU. It’s one thing to be in charge of a cutting-edge technology company, but to take the lead on the software and hardware designs is next level.
Stark’s most well-known invention is his Iron Man tech, an armored suit with flight and defense capabilities, but his expertise doesn’t just end at creating an awesome robot suit. In Avengers: Endgame, he creates a time-space GPS that allows the user to accurately travel through time and space.
Audiences already know Stark is a hero, but the guy literally solved the paradox of time travel. If that doesn’t make him a super-brain, then what does?