I'm not too familiar with the Marvel geniuses. I know Thanos is extremely intelligent, and I wanted to ask, is Doctor Doom anywhere around his level? Especially in terms of strategy and planning.

Doom is smarter than Thanos.Period

@perethorn: Can you expand a little please? Is Doom a better strategist? If so, how much better?

Doom is a master of prep. Using his mind and resources has been capable of doing things such as stealing Beyonder Powers or creating some serious threatening stuff, like robots

You have to draw a distinct line between earthly and cosmic intelligence.

Thanos is smart, but Dr. Doom is probably in Marvel's top three geniuses.

This made me laugh. Going from stealing universal power to creating robots. Whew. Thanks

thanos usually uses brute force. not big on using what lies between the ears.

I think I may start using "like robots" to end most of my arguments.

I'd have to say Thanos for sure. While Doom is a master strategist and seems to have incredible knowledge and intuition when it comes to siphoning power, Thanos has shown the same abilities (or doesn't need the power siphon because he is already way more powerful than Doom).

Thanos has been a universal and multiversal threat in his pursuits. He has vast technological and mystic knowledge as well, just on a universal level. As well as being a major threat, he has also saved the universe as well with his planning during the Infinity War, the Infinity Crusade, the Infinity Abyss (although that was his fault) and the invasion of the Hunger.

Doom and Reed are the smartest on Earth. Thanos is on another level.

Thanos and Doctor Doom would both give each other a run for their money. I think they're fairly even in terms of intelligence, cunning and strategy. Doom has shown himself capable of going toe to toe with cosmic entities before. This is the man who once stole the Silver Surfer's power cosmic. And Thanos isn't just a brawler. He created the Infinity Gauntlet and deduced the true nature of the infinity gems.

A Doom vs. Thanos war would be very interesting thing, like robots.

Thanos is weirdly addicting to simply killing things. He doesn't seem to have many personal vendettas (there are none that I know of). He's definitely psychotic.

Doom is also psychotic, but in a far different way. Thanos can have streaks where he wants to torture, but Doom will always have a blast squeezing the life out of you slowly.

These things being said, I think Doom is smarter. He's always a more immediate threat than Thanos, being that he has his own little nation in Europe. Having a nation and stuff is a pretty big thing to have, so there's a great level of intelligence in his part.

I think the main difference between the two as far as intelligence is concerned is that Thanos has a large scale, philosophical sort of intelligence, as is fitting for a gigantic cosmic villain. Doom has a more strategic, short term sort of intelligence. His drive to keep what's his and destroy a lot of little of things for a lot of reasons makes him scarier.

I vote Doom!

@stevencarver_: @jloneblackheart: @impossibilly: @risingbean: @mk111: @warlock360: @perethorn:

So let's say each of them is leading an army (both armies are pretty equal).

Each army (and leader of course) get a prep time of, say, 2 weeks. After that, it's a fight to the death between the armies (in a city that none of them actually knows). The leaders (Doom and Thanos) don't take part in the fight, they stay at the back and give their armies real-time orders (neither Doom nor Thanos can be harmed during the fight). Who would win?

Based on your scenario, still Thanos, because with the prep time he could devise better tech for his army and this give them the win. Based on strictly military tactics, I would assume Doom may fair better as he is the head of his own country, but neither has had any real showings in this area. Doom would just use robots programmed with a certain strategy in mind. Typically Doom would head the efforts himself to gain an advantage. If he isn't allowed to act, then Thanos' army would probably be better equipped.

Dr Doom has a PHD...not sure if Thanos has any degrees... Lol but seriously doom is more intelligent than Thanos. He's made alot of invention like his doom locks as for strategy I'm not sure there maybe ill give it to Thanos.

@jloneblackheart: OK, and if it's not armies but small teams (like 15 people) of known characters, that can only use their typical equipment (so no super-galactic-cosmic weapons designed by Thanos for people like Hawkeye for example). Same terms (two weeks prep, city they don't know, leaders give orders without taking part). Oh, and no Doom-Bots and stuff. The leaders are only there to plan their way to victory and command the teams.

wow... Just wow.. Read "The Thanos Quest" and you tell me who is smarter...
Thanos outsmarts universal entities. With a single thought, Thanos wiped out half the universe when he made the infinity gauntlet. And then when the other half came to fight him.... he killed 99 percent of them. He is the most feared thing in the universe.

Im sorry to say that you people have no clue about Thanos.

This is a question you will never find a complete answer to.

As per the battle thread in comicvine, its prudent to assume Dr. Doom is smarter because he has more and better prep feats.

Thanos was meant to be a greater threat than Dr. Doom, hard to deny that, but on the same time Thanos is normally very underused.

As per "thanos usually uses brute force. not big on using what lies between the ears." thats an outright lie. Thanos is a master manipulator, has always been thus, and has manipulated the elders, Mephisto, Lord Marvel and his unkillable army, Magus, Nebula and a whole lot more.

While Thanos was orginally, in his first issue potrayed as just a very powerful guy with big ambition, his intelligence and manipulation started being highlighted from his very second story: Magus saga which later connects to a Thanos story arc called The Final Threat.

So does Thanos' team stand a chance against Doom's in this scenario? (assuming the two teams are balanced in overall power and ability):

@the_red_viper: On further consideration, I would choose Thanos. He may not act as frequently, but I think he has an understanding of relationships and manipulation that Doom can't hope to emulate. It sounds to me as if Thanos simply thinks more often than Doom does, and like I said, Thanos has a large-scale sense of things, unlike Doom. I still think Doom has more strategic intelligence, so I think he'd win this theoretical war, but not by a large degree. He would suffer intense losses before winning.

But yeah, I'd like to change my vote to Thanos for intelligence over all.

@the_red_viper: Of course. There has been 2 direct comparision of prep feat between Dr. Doom and Thanos, one was during Infinity Wars, where up until Magus gained infinity gauntlet Dr. Doom was a huge factor but since stop being consequential after the Infinity gauntlet was came into being. The issue was clearly that their only hope = Thanos.

Marvel Universe: The End, is where Thanos has to save Dr. Doom.

Second instance Thanos was destined to get HOTI, and both were written by Starlin though.

@the_red_viper: @impossibilly: If you do start ending your sentences that way, you win by default.

As per the fight. It seems Doom works on a smaller scale and is defeated by his foes. Thanos defeats himself.

I vote for Thanos.