The nerd community has had many fun debates regarding their favorite Marvel Cinematic Universe characters. We’ve discussed characters that are more or less OP than their comic counterparts, characters that have dark secrets, and characters who are stronger than others. With Avengers: Infinity War coming out soon, these debates have started featuring the big bad Mad Titan himself, Thanos. Fans have had a lot of discussions, because we want our heroes to survive, about which characters could beat Thanos, what other villains are more powerful or less powerful than Thanos, and so on. However, we are neglecting something else that our MCU heroes possess: intelligence.
Intelligence doesn’t have to refer only to IQ. Scientists have posited that there are many types of intelligence. While they don’t all agree definitively on what those types are, there are some trends. We know that some people have higher emotional intelligence, where they can easily recognize the emotions of others and relate to them. Some have tactical intelligence: these are people who are great leaders because they can strategize effectively. We’ve seen MCU characters with all of these types of intelligence. It’s time to discuss brains, not brawn, as we rank the smartest characters in the MCU.
20 IVAN VANKO
If you reach all the way back to the third film in the MCU, you’ll remember Ivan Vanko as one of Iron Man 2’s villains. Vanko was angry at Tony Stark because of bad blood between his father and Tony’s father, Howard. In a plot to get his revenge, Vanko replicated the Iron Man suit with his own twist. While his “Whiplash” costume is the most memorable part of his character, we shouldn’t forget that he was also pretty intelligent.
As established in the film, many countries were pouring money and resources into developing their own Iron Man suit and weren’t successful.
With just his apartment and his trusty bird companion, Vanko was able to successfully make a suit that was similarly as powerful as the Iron Man suit. It’s a pretty solid achievement.
19 HOPE VAN DYNE
With parents as smart as hers, Hope van Dyne was bound for success. Her father, Hank Pym, is a genius scientist while her mother fought using their family’s technology as The Wasp. Hope is headstrong, but she has also proven her worth to wear The Wasp suit after all these years.
Hank was reluctant to give Hope access to the Wasp suit because he feared for her safety. She wouldn’t give up and showed she was capable of manipulating the ants using his tech. She clearly has an understanding of the tech and is adept at chemistry and physics. Unlike her father, her smarts are matched by her business acumen and cunning. She’s able to trick Darren into believing she’s on his side when she was actually siding with Hank.
18 PEGGY CARTER
Peggy Carter is a beloved figure in the MCU, and it’s worth exploring how smart she was. She was accomplished in many ways which is amazing considering the sexism of her time. She even had scientific knowledge, as she showed that she knew enough chemistry to dismantle a bomb.
Beyond scientific knowledge, Peggy Carter was multilingual which is its own form of intelligence.
In her role in the MCU films and her TV show, we see her speak English, German, and Russian. As a spy, she had to be able to manipulate people as well as be good at strategizing and giving orders. Her instincts are good, which we see in her debut in Captain America: The First Avenger. She is intrigued by Steve from the beginning and would not suffer any fools.
17 NICK FURY
We first met Nick Fury at the end of Iron Man, so he has been around for the entirety of the MCU. His original function was as a recruiter for some secret organization, and then we came to learn what S.H.I.E.L.D. was. As the head of S.H.I.E.L.D., Nick Fury spearheaded the Avengers Initiative, which took all different kinds of intelligence.
Nick Fury realizes what his strengths and weaknesses are and is able to delegate as necessary. Rounding up the Avengers was no easy task, and he had to have an expertise in how to approach different kinds of people (and gods). He is an effective leader, though secretive, and his tactical knowledge is beyond anyone else’s in the MCU. He’s able to survive a manhunt for his life because he has the smarts and skills to do so.
16 ABRAHAM ERSKINE
There aren’t a lot of scientists in this world that can say they were wanted by Hitler and escaped, but Abraham Erskine was able to do just that. In Captain America: The First Avenger, Erskine is the one who gets Steve Rogers into the military after he observes Steve telling Bucky that it’s everyone’s duty to serve.
Not only does Erskine have a good judge of character, he also engineered the Super Soldier serum, which is responsible for creating Captain America.
This serum was so sought after that a HYDRA agent killed him and stole the remaining vial of it. When Erskine dies, so does any hope of replicating the serum for mass use. Erskine wasn’t around for long in the film, but his scientific achievement created a beloved Avenger.
15 ROCKET RACCOON
When you think of words to describe Rocket Raccoon, “smart” may not be the first word that comes to mind. Crass, sarcastic, and violent are just a couple of words that come to mind first. However, we shouldn’t forget that Rocket Raccoon is incredibly intelligent. In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1, it is established that Rocket is not from an alien race of sentient raccoons -- he was genetically engineered.
Because of the experiments that led to his sentience, he’s quite smart. With his developed cerebral cortex, he’s able to engineer weapons and tools with little materials. He often asks for ridiculous things (like someone’s eye), but most of the time, it’s for making something to get the gang out of trouble. And, he’s able to communicate with Groot, and who knows how long it took him to learn that language!
14 NATASHA ROMANOFF
Because Natasha is a highly trained spy and assassin, she’s able to infiltrate places without drawing attention to herself. This is hard to do since she’s also absolutely gorgeous. When we first meet her in Iron Man 2, Pepper had hired her to be her assistant. What we don’t think about is Natasha had to do this assistant work and do it well to be believable.
Additionally, Natasha has a high emotional intelligence -- she’s the only one who can connect with Hulk and calm him down.
When it comes to bringing people into the team, Nick Fury knows he can trust Natasha. She’s one of few people who can resist Loki’s attempts at manipulation. Many gods have fallen for Loki’s tricks, but Natasha, a mortal, is able to see right through him.
13 PETER PARKER
Though he’s young, Peter Parker is gifted. He’s enrolled in the Midtown School of Science and Technology, a place for young scientists to thrive (and be awkward around girls). In Spider-Man: Homecoming, he made his own webbing compound to shoot from his hands, which impressed even Tony Stark.
When Tony recruits Peter for the events of Captain America: Civil War, Peter is initially in awe of all of the heroes. But when he decides to get going, he uses his knowledge of physics to defeat those he had admired. He used that gifted brain of his to figure out how to topple over giant Ant-Man. He’s one of those guys who is usually the smartest person in the room, but he’s always curious about stuff works.
12 ERIK SELVIG
Astrophysicist Erik Selvig had an interesting trajectory in the MCU. He initially joins Jane in her research, and it is safe to say that he helped her a lot. In Thor and Thor: The Dark World, it is his insight that drives the plot forward. Whether it’s figuring that Thor actually is the God of Thunder or working on the Tesseract, the MCU wouldn’t have been the same without Erik Selvig’s intelligence.
Unfortunately, after being under Loki’s control in The Avengers, Erik goes a bit mad.
However, even when his brain is addled, he is still able to accurately explain what the Convergence was. His redemption occurs in Thor: The Dark World, where his smarts save Thor’s life towards the end of the film.
11 MAYA HANSEN
Maya Hansen is an MCU character that’s forgotten about. This may be due to her being in Iron Man 3, which is the least popular Iron Man film. But, we cannot ignore how her intelligence affected the Iron Man franchise. When Tony and Maya first meet, Tony is still in his playboy phase. Maya’s work is in genetic engineering, and her goal was to rewrite genetic codes to promote cell regrowth. Tony was, in one night, able to help her fix her formula.
While she wouldn’t have been as successful without Tony’s help, Maya's Extremis had the potential to change the world. Her Extremis designs get into the wrong hands, though, and she’s murdered. However, her research made it so that Pepper Potts got powers and had a killer moment.
10 LOKI
Loki is the unrivaled master of manipulation in the MCU, and it takes someone with high intelligence to do this effectively. He has an expertise in what drives individuals and what buttons to push to get them to do what he wants.
The God of Mischief has to be smart to create the chaos that he does.
Loki is also a gifted sorcerer. He takes after his mother in this way and is able to manipulate people’s minds and what they see. This helps him in battle as well as his overall goal of furthering himself. He knows how to wield magical objects, how to use spells, and for some reason, he’s also able to fly ships. Despite his lack of proper scientific schooling, Loki does just fine with human technology.
9 ARNIM ZOLA
Though Johann Schmidt is a more captivating villainous presence in Captain America: The First Avenger, Arnim Zola is also a capable villain with a huge scientific intelligence. He builds the weapons that harness the Tesseract’s power with Schmidt’s help. While Red Skull has yet to pop up again in the MCU, Zola returned in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
In The Winter Soldier, Zola outdoes himself. We know that he was capable of great scientific achievement because of his work with the Tesseract -- what we didn’t know was that he’d figure out how to transfer his consciousness into a computer. This is something that is featured in a lot of science fiction, but Zola made it real for himself. We’re not entirely sure if his mind was destroyed in The Winter Soldier. But, if anyone could figure that out, it’s Zola.
8 HELEN CHO
You may remember Helen Cho as the woman in Age of Ultron who was thirsty for Thor, but we cannot forget her scientific prowess. She is a world-famous geneticist who lent her skills to the Avengers. Her Cradle machine saved Clint Barton’s life, and the technology involved is pretty complicated. What it boils down to is it’s able to create human tissue.
With her knowledge and technology, Helen, as far as IQ, is at a similar level to Tony Stark or Bruce Banner.
There’s a reason why they ask for her help -- they could not create this technology themselves. In addition, it’s her work that builds a body for Ultron. Not only does Helen have the intelligence and the ability to apply her intelligence to creating amazing technology, she also runs her own business.
7 HOWARD STARK
Tony Stark’s brilliance is, in some part, due to his father, Howard Stark. In his time, Howard Stark was the greatest mechanical engineer (which he says so himself in Captain America: The First Avenger). Howard was present and assisted with Captain America’s creation, and made a name for his family in science and technology before Tony was even born.
Even after his passing, Howard still had lessons to teach his son. In Iron Man 2, Tony struggles to find a replacement for the Palladium that keeps his heart ticking. It turns out, Howard was experimenting with a new element but wasn’t able to finish it because of the limits of the time’s technology. Howard hid instructions for Tony in the Expo map, and Tony is awestruck that his dad was able to “take him to school” even when he’s been dead for decades.
6 JANE FOSTER
Jane Foster was Thor’s love interest in the first two Thor films, but she is first and foremost a woman of science. Jane is a renowned astrophysicist, which is a notoriously difficult scientific field to get into. When Thor falls to Earth, Jane discovers him because she was researching astronomical anomalies. S.H.I.E.L.D. confiscates her equipment, which she built herself, when they were trying to track down Thor and Mjolnir.
Jane is the only mortal who has an understanding of Asgard’s technology, which proves just how smart she is.
After the research she did following the Convergence in Thor: The Dark World, Jane began traveling the world giving lectures on her work. At some point, it’s even said that she should be on her way to getting a Nobel Prize. Who needs the company of an Asgardian with an achievement like that?
5 STEPHEN STRANGE
In school, we all have wished that we had a photographic memory. Imagine how much less time studying would take? However, Stephen Strange used his eidetic memory even more to his advantage and got his M.D. and Ph.D. simultaneously. Before his studying of the mystic arts, Doctor Strange was a renowned neurosurgeon. That’s right, his brain was so powerful he could do surgery on other people’s brains.
Of course, neurosurgeons can be found rather easily in this world, but it’s more difficult to be a skilled sorcerer. Stephen, after having a life-changing car crash, began his study to be a Master of the Mystic Arts. Though new to this field of study, Stephen quickly caught on to complex spells and learned Sanskrit along the way.
4 BRUCE BANNER
Bruce Banner is known for being the Hulk, but before he started transforming into a giant green rage monster, he was a scientist. His work in gamma radiation is what ultimately lead to the Hulk’s creation. In addition to being an expert in gamma radiation, Bruce can also hold his own in engineering.
Bruce Banner is one of few people who can understand Tony Stark when he talks science.
Moreover, Tony seeks out his opinion, which means a lot considering Tony’s own scientific prowess. Unlike Tony, Bruce has seven Ph.D.s. Considering how long it takes the average person to get a Ph.D., this is quite impressive. Bruce also taps into his emotional intelligence when he feels the rage getting to him and calms himself down using meditation.
3 HANK PYM
Hank Pym is a physicist and entomologist, which is a combination that’s difficult to come by. Hank has a particle named after himself -- the Pym Particle -- which was extraordinarily difficult to find and harness. He is the one who discovered that we can travel between dimensions, provided we have the right technology.
Because of his work in nanotechnology, his creations can shrink and expand without harming the wearer. The weapons he created, the Pym Particles disks, can also shrink or expand the target, similar to how the Ant-Man suit can get smaller or bigger. He has also created devices to communicate with ants and has a vast understanding of how to use them effectively. And top it off, he founded his own company, Pym Technologies.
2 TONY STARK
Tony Stark is a playboy billionaire philanthropist, but he is first and foremost a genius. This is seen right away in Iron Man, the film that kicked off the MCU. In Iron Man, while in a cave with limited resources, he’s able to fool his captors into believing he was building something for them. Instead, he was building the first Iron Man suit.
Everyone’s scientific feats are always compared to Tony Stark’s.
While his father was impressive, Tony has surpassed the achievements of Howard Stark. The list of equipment and robotics he has created is too long to go into. We will point out that Tony accidentally created Ultron, the most powerful artificial intelligence the Avengers had to fight. The MCU definitely would not have been the same with Stark’s brain.
1 SHURI
It is canon that Shuri is the smartest person in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, so we must pay our respects to her brilliant mind. In Black Panther, we were introduced to just how much vibranium can do. Our understanding of it before was that it could be used for weapons, but in the hands of a brilliant scientist, it can do so much more.
Shuri’s work in vibranium is used in the daily lives of Wakandans, such as the kimoyo beads. Because of her, healing is easy. She deprograms Bucky and saves Everett Ross’s life. In addition, she created the Black Panther suit which can store and release energy. With her in charge of the scientific outreach group in Oakland, Shuri will change many lives.