Superheroes Who Don't Seem As Smart As They Should Be

CBR

By Brian Cronin

Published May 11, 2019

In their latest look at recurring plot points, CSBG spotlights superheroes who don't seem as smart as they should be.

In Drawing Crazy Patterns, I spotlight at least five scenes/moments from within comic book stories that fit under a specific theme (basically, stuff that happens frequently in comics). Note that these lists are inherently not exhaustive. They are a list of five examples (occasionally I'll be nice and toss in a sixth). So no instance is "missing" if it is not listed. It's just not one of the five examples that I chose.

Today, we look at five heroes who are often not depicted as intelligent as they really should be.

WONDER MAN

Simon Williams has an advanced degree in electrical engineering. You would never know that if you followed the adventures of Wonder Man as a member of the West Coast Avengers in the mid-1980s. He decided to become an actor and then promptly lost most of his brain cells...

Seriously, dude started acting really dumb...

Later on, during his own ongoing series, there was a bit about how Simon actually acted dumb because he was dealing with such low self esteem that he thought that that was the only way to fit in with the Avengers.

KILOWOG

Here's a weird one where it seems like a cosmic continuity change actually made a character dumber. When Kilowog was introduced, he was a renowned scientist. Even after he stopped being a Green Lantern in the late 1980s, he then went to work for the Justice League as their handyman where he continued to show off his genius. This was despite a retcon establishing that he was also the Green Lantern drill instructor.

In recent years, however, the drill instructor has been focused on to the point where his scientist background is barely mentioned at all...

CAPTAIN BRITAIN

Brian Braddock has a PhD in physics. BRIAN BRADDOCK, PEOPLE!

He's all, "I can't understand these readings"...

and he has just been, in general, used as a generic sort of super-strong hero...

SHANNA THE SHE-DEVIL

Shanna is tricky, in the sense that it is not like people make her out to be DUMB, exactly, but nor do most of her comic book appearances don't seem to exactly highlight her intelligence either...

BLACK KNIGHT

Black Knight was originally a villain and then his nephew, Dane Whitman, took over. During his first stint with the Avengers, Dane's scientist background was spotlighted. However, during his second tenure on the team, he was bit more of a "bad ass" guy. At the same time, even during Bob Harras, Steve Epting and Tom Palmer's run on Avengers, Dane was still a scientist.

In the times since then, though, the magical side of the Black Knight have been spotlighted a lot more than his scientist side...