How would you factor in Superman's Super Intelligence?

If I were writing I would say that he can use it to process information faster but it causes him headaches. It would explain how he can still be caught off guard and doesn't know always have a solution to a problem. The reason it would cause him headaches is that after years of no usage it's rusty. He will eventually get better at it.

i would have it that he can absorb that information but after awhile it starts to "leak"out and he forgets that information and the only way to regain it is too read it all over again.

I like that. But I also like the developed mega genius in All Star. But comics, if for nothing else, are for giving us diversified takes on our favorite characters :)

I just think people tend to think of Superman as a god, but I see him as a human with kryptonian powers. He was raised by us and grew up with us. Giving him something like super intelligence makes him seem like a god and is the reason people think he will always win, when clearly that isnt and should not be the case. He should have flaws just like any of us, Super or not.

@saint_wildcard:

I agree to a certain extent. I like your idea for current Superman, but eventually I would prefer him to develop into All Star superman. My view of superman is slightly different from yours as I view him as a kansas farmboy with common sense, mid-american values who happens to have:

So I like the idea of him becoming the omega level hero he was in All Star. Should he always win? No. That only means that his adversaries should grow as well.

@pperspectiveandreality said:

@saint_wildcard:

I agree to a certain extent. I like your idea for current Superman, but eventually I would prefer him to develop into All Star superman. My view of superman is slightly different from yours as I view him as a kansas farmboy with common sense, mid-american values who happens to have:

Don't really see a difference. You just specified that he's a farm boy with small town values and amazing powers. I said he was human with kryptonian powers, the only real difference is that you want him to become All Star.... unless that's what you meant.

@saint_wildcard:

What I meant was that I didn't think Super intelligence made him a "god" because he had it in All Star and he still seemed perfectly personable and approachable in that story. I don't see how him being super intelligent makes him any less human.

I would just make it so that he's a sponge and just remembers everything he reads. He would be extremely knowledgeable but sometimes it would take him time to recall facts he read before.

But I wouldn't make him a great tactician or make his mind innovative or make him a great inventor. Just knowledgeable about things you can find in books.

God doesn't always mean unrelatable and arrogant, I just mean it makes him too perfect. I think he should struggle in making the right decisions and sometimes let his emotions get in the way.. He will grow older and wiser,maybe not have full control of everything till he's in his 40's.

Then I must have misinterpreted you because I totally agree with this.

Thanks, sometimes I feel like I ramble and make no sense.

I read in one of the comics of the 75 anniversary for superman book that at grade 3 kryptonians should be able to know calculus.

Seeing as how he's the son of the smartest man of a race of aliens millennia ahead of Earth, I would like him to be portrayed as the genius he actually is.

Only Lex (human) should be able to outsmart him because that's what Lex was created to do.

I think that his sun-powered brain should work as computer: easily processing and memorizing raw data, such as numbers, laws of physics, mechanics, blue prints, basically everything what can be described through precise information and mathematical patterns. Then he freely can operate such information for scientific purposes, creating some of his tools, etc. Still he should be limited in making breakthrough discoveries (which requires completely out-of-box thinking) and predicting and manipulating human behavior (yes, we, humans, could be really irrational).

P.S. Superman been caught off-guard is not matter of his intelligence, but more about faulty use of his super senses IMO.

Why does Superman have to be super smart and always step into everyone else's domain. I think Superman should be an average intellect. Super smarts are batman's super power.

I am going to go out and say it. Giving superman super-intelligence is just a bad idea. Should he be clever, yes, reasonably smart yes. There should never be a scene where we facepalm and think "what an idiot". But he should never have any super intelligence. This is the providence of Batman, Luthor, Doctor Fate etc. Characters that are cerebral by nature. Giving superman every super power just makes for bad writing that devalues people he teams up with. He's not a cosmic hero that lives outside the realms of other beings he's an earth based hero.