Superman's Potential For Intellectual Greatness?

When most people think of Superman they think of a big buff man in red and blue tights who solves his problem by using his fists. Superman is a Kryptonian, the problem solving, intelligence, and thought process of Kryptonian's far surpass those of humans. Superman, as an individual, is an intelligent person. He is also the son of the two brightest scientists in all of Krypton. He has a lot of things going for him. Feats such as reading every medical text book ever published in mere moments are very impressive.

If Superman were trained in the art of science and the mind from a young age, do you think he could be an intellectual on par with Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Hank Pym, or Reed Richards? Could he be a great prepper, able to overcome almost any situation by applying his knowledge?

lex already considers him the 2nd greatest mind on earth. after his own.

Wow, really? Do you happen to have the scan by any chance?

He's already really smart. But if he read every book on earth I'm sure he'd be the very smartest person on the planet. His potential is limitless with his superhuman mind. The only question is if he could use it and apply it, and invent or come up with things on his own. That's what real geniuses do.

If he were trained from a young age, he'd likely have surpassed the likes of Banner and Richards. The Tech for DC seems slightly lower-grade, but considering he likely has access to alien tech after obtaining the Fortress of Solitude, he could likely reach Doctor Doom-levels of prep-skill, which would make him about or above the level of Tony or Hank.

In all honesty though, I can't imagine what prep could seriously help him with that he can't handle as-is.

Whatever limit Batman permits.

That's pretty much what I'm thinking. If he were to focus all of his time and abilities on his intellectual prowess could he become a genius like Reed Richards by being able to apply his knowledge and use them to overcome problems and challenges?

@comicuser said:

@mysticmedivh said:

@comicuser said:

lex already considers him the 2nd greatest mind on earth. after his own.

Wow, really? Do you happen to have the scan by any chance?

Impressive, he has a lot of potential. It's a shame we've never seen his mind be put to use in a great prep feat to overcome a situation in which he would normally not have had been able to.

yes. he already has tons of tech in the fortress that he has reverse engenereed and augmented. Like the weapon that barry was instructed by superman to use on kara. superman made that. it was a weapon that was powered by kinetic energy, energy that is basically limitless in the hands of the flash. and it was set specifically to disrupt kryptonian dna. clarks very accomplished.

Another weapon: this time an armor:

@comicuser:

A totally useless armor that got destroyed in, what, 4 pages?

He still had it on in page 24. he took it off and went to the batcave.

Superman is not as intelligent as Brainiac. If he is that 12 level intellect genius he would have solve the bottle city of Kandor problem but until now he can't really save Kandor. It is very sad story. Powerful man but yet cannot save maybe last pieces of his home planet Krypton. It is sad story but also makes Superman relatable

His intelligence should be fleshed out a little more in the books.

I don't think he could be an intellectual on par with Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Hank Pym, or Reed Richards.

Considering he can think faster than all of them combined, yes, he could be smarter. He probably is, too.

@symbioticspider-man: @the_titan_lord : most of the best Superman story involve Strength vs Brain for example story involve Brainiac and Lex Luthor. So if Superman become super genius then nobody can defeat Superman and he become not relatable and interesting. Superman is not as intelligent as Brainiac. If he is that 12 level intellect genius he would have solve the bottle city of Kandor problem but until now he can't really save Kandor. It is very sad story. Powerful man but yet cannot save maybe last pieces of his home planet Krypton. It is sad story but also makes Superman relatable

I didn't say he was smarter than Brainiac, but he should be smarter than Lex, even though I think he's cool. Superman is also a bit inconsistent. If he supposedly is "not smarter than Lex" why does he have better tech, again?

Because he got the tech from all of his battles in space. He probably take them from enemies of other planets because they were far too dangerous.

@symbioticspider-man: well the tech is collection in his battles perhaps with another alien creatures. Kind of The same way Batman got T-rex and Giant Coin on the Batcave

He has the innate ability to be a great scientist as his family is one the house of EL houses the greatest minds on krypton, maybe having that type of scientific mind woulb be overkill for him

he does take the tech from them, but then he reverse engineers them and puts them back together. In some cases, he even modifies them to fit better purposes as I explained in an earlier post.

im about to make a threas asking for some help with calculations. feel free to look for it. anyway:

Well when he reverse engineers he learns from those technologies and then that helps him when he has to modified them but doing those things is not the same as creating them. I didn´t say that Superman wasn´t smart but he isn´t smarter than the most intelligent men.

This from Irredimable a comic book that Mark Waid (a famous superman writer) and in that book the main character has the same powers as Superman (later it is found that he manipulates reality to make those abilities possible). This means that he has the same mental capacity of Superman, and this is Mark´s Waid explanation (actually is from Qubit) on why he is not smarter than the smartest men in his world. I love this explanation, and I think that Waid intended to use that explanation with Superman too.

one way I enjoyed it being put was "Superman's father was the lead scientist on a planet where genius is average" and that gives a good impression of the abilities of his mind

it depends on what being smarter than the most intelligent men means.

Superman isnt show to have the creativity to create like many other comic characters.

What he is shown doing though is being able to reverse engineer super advanced tech from other alien races and make it better to suit his needs.

He's also shown to be able to cram hundreds of thousands(im low balling) of books into his brain in a short amount of time. so that means he has great potential. he makes super computers look like kinder gardeners.

But he will never be written to surpass the likes of brainiac or reed richards or tony or bruce. that would be really boring and overpowered.

as of right now without him studying or reading a ton, your right, hes NOT smarter than the most intelligent men in comics.

@comicuser: Like I said probably most of the best Superman story involve Strength vs Brain for example story involve Brainiac and Lex Luthor. So if Superman become super genius then nobody can defeat Superman and he become not relatable and interesting. Superman is not as intelligent as Brainiac. If he is that 12 level intellect genius he would have solve the bottle city of Kandor problem but until now he can't really save Kandor. It is very sad story. Powerful man but yet cannot save maybe last pieces of his home planet Krypton. It is sad story but also makes Superman relatable

no need to copy paste this stuff for the 3rd time. i read what you said the first time.

@symbioticspider-man: Yes, he has intelligence but does he use it more often than these guys? Besides I doubt if his human he would come close to these guys. He was only able to acquire those knowledge due his powers and daddy's big lab. He didn't acquire anything thru his own effort.

I think that my views are showed in the image I uploaded from Irredimable. The greatest problem that he has is that he lacks curiosity. He could be smarter but he doesn´t have the need to gain knowledge.

i agree

lex is hyperbull do you take what some said as a feat? lol dbz haters have it backwards batman is the greatest mind over thses two and i am sure there is someone over batman too cyborg? he has access to the internet at any time

batman is smarter than superman

@mysticmedivh: If Superman applied his intelligence, his knowledge base and overall understanding wouldn't be comparable with Reed Richards', Tony Stark's, Bruce Banner's, Lex Luthor's, etc.; it would far supersede theirs. Why? Because unlike the aforementioned, Superman has super intelligence.

His raw intelligence is already tenfold theirs. Lex's statement above holds no weight, as he's an egomaniac who thinks he's the best of the best. A reason he hates Superman so much is because, deep down, he knows that the Man of Steel is far more intelligent than he is.

As others have said, the only thing Superman lacks is curiosity, as he has no need for knowledge and understanding (most of the time)... which sucks.