Off My Mind: Should Brainy Heroes Fight Crime or Solve Problems?

When you think of superheroes, the powers that come to mind are often of a physical nature. Heroes have super strength, they can fly, they can shoot power beams from some part of their body, etc. There are some heroes who's biggest strength is their mind. What if these heroes used their intelligence for other purposes?

they should be heroes but also help mankind like reed because they show a future full of possibilities for braniacs and some times nerds 

depends, create something but put in out privately, never let the government take control of it, find a balance between wisdom and just doing everything for someone for total control

No! Superheroes should NOT try to solve all problems of mankind ... they should not try to change things for ordinary people ... they have to do it themselves. Heroes should be idols for people to take action ... and they should act when crime or threats occur. But not trying to change the whole system for a higher justice.
 
WHY NOT? Because then they get involved in politics, they are no more heroes ... they force their point of views to others. Or they go totally insane?
 
Like Reed Richards when he invented psychohistory in Civil War and thought he could forecast the futute for sure. Then he cloned Thor and created the Negative Zone prison to imprison his friends - for a higer goal, that seemed so  desirable.
Or Tony Stark ... and Batman ...
 
No, superheroes are some kind of guardians and watchdogs ... they should prevent disasters, bring villains to justice (even hunt them down - not just wait till they act - like in "Cry for Justice"). But not get control or try to solve all troubles by changing the system or doing whatever they are able to do. It would end in dictatorship ... and ethical corruption ... and the story is already told (and can't be told better!): Wildstorm's The Authority once did it ... and The Authority are real bad ass, but are they still heroes. 

Heroes help humanity by solving problems and fighting crime, often simultaneously.  However, they are not to be considered the be all and end all for humanity.  Humanity has to be able to help themselves and not rely on superhumans to accomplish/overcome their troubles. 

"No! Superheroes should NOT try to solve all problems of mankind. "

"Well if all they did was solve problems that would make for an extremly dull comic book. Oh look theres Reed drawing at the chalkboard again.. Ten panels later more of the same....ten pages later more of the same. Yea that sure would be an thrilling issue to have.  Now having these big brains do this off panel is just fine. We get that all the time with Brainiac 5, Reed Richards, and others. Hey look what Reed made, great. Ok lets move on with the story. So its better to have them out doing things than it is to have them solving things simply for us the reader. "

Did Ted Knight ever get that far with his research? I remember him making an enormous version of the cosmic rod, but that was about it, supposedly his research was going be responsible for furthering space travel or something.

Intelligence isn't really depending on how you define it, that key a factor in solving many of the worlds actual problems. The ability to make people agree and listen to each other is. Thats of course much easier if you make them listen and much harder if you give them freedom. Dr Doom solved most of the worlds problems, when he was in control. Of course he was lazy and took shortcuts. You know, most people were under his control when he deemed it necessary.  
 
As valid a question, is should characters in high positions of power and influence, read books and educate themselves to the level of the smartest guys around and see if they can do better? Though the problems one might suggest they have (Cap can't read a book and become as smart as Reed) might differ in nature to Reed's they are sort of the same in practical terms. 

" Didn't Reed, Tony & Hank Pym's desire to fix the world's problems lead to Civil War? "

" Didn't Reed, Tony & Hank Pym's desire to fix the world's problems lead to Civil War? "

Well the smarter heroes tend to invent things that will benefit them in fighting crime.  Its entirely possible that crime fighting is their muse, and without it they wouldn't have the same drive and wouldn't be better inventors.  Or maybe the would accidentally invent something that destroys the world and that would be bad.  

Depend on their purpose and intention....

They should be working on healing cancer or AIDS, not on the frontlines where they could die.

I think many of the brainier characters DO spend more proportionate time being brainy than they do actually playing hero. 
And as many have said, a lot of times when these "geniuses" do actually sit down and let their brains work overtime.  Ultron, one of the most powerful villains in the Marvel universe, was actually physically CREATED by one of these geniuses (Hank Pym). 
That's only an example, but it is an interesting thought.

Smart heroes should, but they to work on making us our freakin' HOVERBOARDS!!

Super heroes as depicted in their comics are unrealistic. 
 
Reed richards and tony stark are useless. Ton of billions of cash, genius and hyper technology, gods and power beyond imagination, and they even can't solve few social problem ?  
 
If you think it really, in Marvel you could think that humanity could be the equal in term of power as the Shi'ar empire, and beginning a space colonisation, curing AIDS and solve world famine.  
 
But no, Tony Stark, Hank Pym, and the other keep their technology for them, and don't share their genius to improve the rest of humanity. 
 
And don't make me begin with the argument "They want humanity to solve her problem on her own!" They are part of humanity, they have no excuse in their inaction.   

In that, they're no better than Doctor Doom or Lex Luthor.  

I think that a possible answer about heroes - especially super-smart heroes- doing too much has already been explored in Mark Gruenwald's classic Squadron Supreme 12 issue series.
 
For those who missed it (shame on you) the basic idea was to take a group of Justice League expies in a world gone to hell and gave them the chance to be really proactive. The Squadron introduced new technologies, like individual force fields for personal protection, pacifier gas gun for arresting violent criminals, a Behaviour Modifier machine to allow violent criminals to reddem themselves, they even come close to found the universal cure for all the diseases.
But there was a big problem, as Nighthawk (the local Batman) explained, everything was fine as long as the Squadron was around to act as the world's conscience, but what if someone else was in charge. An army equipped with individual force fields will be unstoppable, the pacifier gas can be used to keep entire coutries sedated, not to mention all the possible implications of the B-Mod machine.
 
Technology and morality are two fields that tend to advance at different speeds, as long as morality didn't catch up with technology I think that it's better to keep certain tech under control.

This remind me of some priciples I learned while studing business at a mildly prestigous university in Pennsylvania (Not Penn State)
 
If we look at it from an economic perspective, every individuals ultimate goal is to maximize their use to the economy. When we are posed with economically different activities, we should then select the one that brings the greatest benefit to the economy.  
 
To give an example, we can all agree that Jim Lee is an excellent artist. But Jim Lee in his spare time enjoys another economically beneficial activity, say medicine or mowing his lawn. From the afformentioned perspective, Jim Lee would create loss in the economy because by practicing medicine or mowing his lawn he is not achieving his highest level of value to the economy.  
  
Therefore if the highest possibility for that brainy super hero is to do research they will be better of doing research, even if they enjoy fighting crime as a hobby. The reverse is also true, if that super hero is not great at research but can fight crime better than anyone, then that would maximize their value to the economy.

" "Reed Richards is another example. As the leader of the Fantastic Four, he has invented several pieces of technology that he has shared, not only with his team but others as well. At one point he decided to try to solve everything but it would have cost him his family. "
 
What exactly do you mean by solve everything? He could have fixed every problem in modern society, and he didn't because of his family?  What a selfish prick! "

Can't they do both?

And on another note,  when did Reed start looking like Chris Redfield?

" @xerox-kitty: But should they solve the world's problems or stop the local crazy costumed villain? Dressing up as a hero and running around takes them away from doing the heavy research. "

" I think that a possible answer about heroes - especially super-smart heroes- doing too much has already been explored in Mark Gruenwald's classic Squadron Supreme 12 issue series.  For those who missed it (shame on you) the basic idea was to take a group of Justice League expies in a world gone to hell and gave them the chance to be really proactive. The Squadron introduced new technologies, like individual force fields for personal protection, pacifier gas gun for arresting violent criminals, a Behaviour Modifier machine to allow violent criminals to reddem themselves, they even come close to found the universal cure for all the diseases.But there was a big problem, as Nighthawk (the local Batman) explained, everything was fine as long as the Squadron was around to act as the world's conscience, but what if someone else was in charge. An army equipped with individual force fields will be unstoppable, the pacifier gas can be used to keep entire coutries sedated, not to mention all the possible implications of the B-Mod machine.  Technology and morality are two fields that tend to advance at different speeds, as long as morality didn't catch up with technology I think that it's better to keep certain tech under control. "

There always needs to be someone on the street level keeping chaos in order or else the smart ones wouldn't live in a world where they could do research and make their toys because everything would be in complete chaos. However, I have always thought that intelligence was always the greatest super power, and when ever anyone would ask me what super power I wish I could have I would always say super intelligence. If you have that, you can just make every other super power. 
 
As for what you said, it all comes down to super hero logic. In the real world, if we had people as super intelligent as Mr. Fantastic, Peter Parker, Dr. Doom, Doc Oc, and Tony Stark we would be living in a perpetual paradise because it would only take a bunch of them to sit in a big room together and form a brain trust that just made a big list of all the worlds problems. Then they would just go down the list and fix everything one at a time, or break off into groups and each tackle a problem that has a solution specific to their talents.
 
What I never understood, is why in these universes doesn't Earth have a space fleet that goes out and explores the galaxy like in Star Trek? Pretty much every other hero has some means of going from planet to planet, why hasn't some company bought/stolen/copied this technology and sold it to governments yet?  The human race could be exploring the galaxy in these comic worlds with all the technology they have laying around. Hell, magic exists in these worlds. I'm sure someone could mass market some kind of magic spell that lets people go to other worlds. 
 
There is like an alien invasion every other week in these worlds, so why isn't there a huge organization of people on earth dedicated to exploring and finding these alien races? If aliens showed up here on earth once or twice, let alone hundreds of times, I think there would be a couple billionaires forming companies dedicated to finding more aliens.

"Can't they do both?"

I think what most super smart heroes (and villains) have accepted is the universal truth that the only way to truely "fix" all of humanities problems is to mind control us all because there is too much varied opinion as to what constitutes a problem.

The problem with the brainy types is that they eventually think they can solve all the universes problems... and that's probably their ego talkin'. 
 
If they are kept grounded and have an even mix of build a whatchamawidget here, and punch the face of a villain there, and ALSO have some time for R&R... I think they'll do more good in the long run with a more balanced philosophy.

" @xerox-kitty: But should they solve the world's problems or stop the local crazy costumed villain? Dressing up as a hero and running around takes them away from doing the heavy research. "

" "Reed Richards is another example. As the leader of the Fantastic Four, he has invented several pieces of technology that he has shared, not only with his team but others as well. At one point he decided to try to solve everything but it would have cost him his family. "
 
What exactly do you mean by solve everything? He could have fixed every problem in modern society, and he didn't because of his family?  What a selfish prick! "  

Being a super hero is probably easier, you can hide behind a secret identity (unless you've chosen to expose it to everyone).  There are too many problems in the world to solve, besides, chicks did the costumes, lol.

Last time I checked, a smart-ass hero 'destroyed' NEW YORK CITY in order to prevent tensions between the UNITED STATES and SOVIET RUSSIA.

Fight and Solve problems just because they're smart doesn't mean they can't kick a**

" Last time I checked, a smart-ass hero 'destroyed' NEW YORK CITY in order to prevent tensions between the UNITED STATES and SOVIET RUSSIA.

"

Batman sorta answers this. It takes all Bruce's resources and intellect to keep steps ahead of the criminal element so that he can do his plans as Batman and it is the exposure to the crazy stuff AS Batman that helps him come up with all the crazy stuff to keep ahead of them.

" @G-Man said:

" @xerox-kitty: But should they solve the world's problems or stop the local crazy costumed villain? Dressing up as a hero and running around takes them away from doing the heavy research. "

There's no way to solve the worlds problems, G-Man. They should do exactly what they're doing. Help the most people possible. E