Who are the smartest heroes

General GTG Sentinel Comics Lore
1
Which heroes do you think are the smartest?  Which are the dumbest?
 
I tried to rank them, and break them into rough tiers, and I ended up with this:
 
Tier 1: the big brains
  • Wager Master (immortal master of games)
  • Gloomweaver (extra-dimensional spirit of magic)
  • Tachyon (genius scientist and inventor)
  • Baron Blade (mad genius, probably right at Tachyon's level or above)
  • Grand Warlord Voss (alien scientist)
  • Parse (data analyst with upgraded mental abilities)
  • Omnitron-X (advanced AI)
  • Omnitron (same as Omnitron-X, really)
  • Wraith (brilliant CEO and inventor)
  • Chairman (brilliant CEO and inventor)
Tier 2: geniuses and prodigies in their fields
  • Unity (natural inventor)
  • Writhe (inventor)
  • Deadline (endling scientist and mystic)
  • Zhu Long (ancient mystic, possibly non-human)
  • Biomancer (ancient wizard)
  • Nightmist (detective and magic prodigy)
  • Anubis (ancient divine judge and master of magic)
  • Bunker (tactical prodigy)
  • Tempest (ambassador and scientist)
  • Ra (a wonder in his field)
Tier 3: gifted and talented
  • Operative (intelligent enough to get the Chairman's attention)
  • Friction (one of Tachyon's interns, but whose inventions don't actually work)
  • Haka (undying mystic, teacher; very well read) [edit: adjusted as per Foote's comment]
  • Ermine (greatest thief in the world)
  • Naturalist (successful businessman)
  • Atum (tomb raider, leader of Ennead)
  • Shu (Ennead mystic)
  • Osiris (Ennead mystic)
  • Isis (Ennead mystic)
  • Set (Ennead mystic)
  • Dr. Medico (med school)
  • Captain Cosmic (law school)
  • Visionary (psychic training, high academic test scores)
  • Dreamer (same intelligence as Visionary, really)
  • Ambuscade (gadget based villain, but not an inventor)
  • Scholar (lots of folk wisdom and mystic knowledge)
  • Chokepoint (talks to machine, seems to have some sort of mind-expanding experience)
Tier 4: bright
  • Blood Countess Bathory (old and probably well-read)
  • Sky-Scraper (freedom fighter and saboteur)
  • Legacy (natural leader and tactician)
  • Iron Legacy (same as Legacy, really)
  • Nuit (guardian spirit of the Ennead)
  • La Capitan (smart enough to navigate a time ship)
  • Citizen Dawn (natural leader; careful planning)
  • Miss Information (administrative assistant with in depth knowledge of the heroes)
  • Absolute Zero (college graduate turned janitor)
  • Benchmark (no idea yet, but if his head is partly computer, he probably has brain enhancements)
  • Young Legacy (expert tutelage)
  • Kaargra Warfang (no real idea how smart she is, but she does run a colloseum, so probably not dumb)
  • Nephthys (healer and destoyer)
Tier 5: maybe not book smart, but good at what they do
  • K.N.Y.F.E. (highly trained agent)
  • Mr. Fixer (skilled mechanic)
  • Chrono-Ranger (old west sherrif)
  • Greazer Clutch ("above average" alien bounty hunter)
  • Expatriette (cunning tactition)
  • Sergeant Steel (dangerous F.I.L.T.E.R. agent)
  • Proletariat (exemplary soldier)
  • Fright Train (skilled soldier)
  • Tefnut (warrior of the Ennead)
  • Kismet (thief; likes playing mind games)
  • Infinitor (was a police officer before going mad from cosmic energy)
  • Apostate (Fanatic's dark mirrior; seems slightly more devious)
  • Fanatic (stubborn and pious)
  • Citizen Hammer (seems cocky and brash, but is based on a wizard archetype)
  • Citizen Anvil (careful and elusive, but based on a paladin archetype)
  • Argent Adept (musician and bartender)
  • Matriarch (goth poet)
  • Idealist (middle schooler with psychic powers and a wild imagination)
Tier 6: average or low intelligence
  • Mainstay ("meat-head football player," but smart enough to finish college)
  • Guise (Guise)
  • Setback (lovable loser)
  • Geb (known for raw destructive power)
  • Bugbear (hired muscle turned primitive monster)
  • Spite (drug addled serial killer)
  • Progeny (alien force of nature that never speaks)
  • Akash'Bhuta (raw force of nature, none of her cards quote her actually saying anything)
  • Plague Rat (somewhat above animal intelligence)
     
    What do you guys think?  
    (I expect to be told that I'm way off on some of these, and how)  ;-)
    2

    I think I'm still giggling just from reading, "might actually be kind of dumb."

    3

    Manstay hold a Ph.D in metalurgy and a patent on durasteel.  

    Setback is a master social manipulator, taking on a loveable attitude to help offset the negatives of his powers.

    Guise's mind has been opened to the realities of the Multiverse.  Now that he knows he is merely ink on cards, he has given up on taking life seriously.

     

    - Note, I don't know the truth of any of this, but it makes a great narrative.

    4

    I agree with this.   He certainly isn't super intelligent but he would have a vast amount of knowledge no one else would.  

    Mainstay also got to and through college which can't put as that dumb.   I  feel you should just have a normal or average intellect tier. 

    5

    Not sure the Idealist would be up in that tier, I recall something in the bio saying that she had most of her memory wiped and was left like a toddler.

    6

    She is listed at Tier 5 for me which seems appropriate with her history.  

    7

    She regressed, but she regained her mind quickly (though without her memories)

    8

    Because I did some edits, it looks like the list is showing Idealist as Tier 3 on mobile, and Tier 5 on PC.

    I'm assuming that Idealist is actually pretty smart (her mom was some sort of mad scientist, and she has psychic powers) but her brain is still developing.  So, I'd rank her as a 5 as a kid, and by the time she hits adulthood, she's probably be up in tier 2 or 3.

    9

    I picture Haka far smarter than whats given credit. He probably reads more than most. You would have to put him at the very least at the same level as cosmic who you put on the teir by virtue of a law degree. I know a lot of really dumb people with law degrees haha

    10

    That's a fair point.  

    11

    Don't forget Luminary in Tier 1!  He may be Chaotic Evil, but he's still a super genius.

    12

    It appears you are editing your list.   Once you feel it's finished I'd recommend adding a new post in this thread with your updated list.  

    13

    I updated the list to include villains.  A lot of the villains were more shot-in-the-dark guesses, since the villains have shorter biographies and fewer appearances.

    14

    Thank you :slight_smile:

    15

    If memory serves correctly, each Virtuoso of the Void's instrument gives knowledge/wisdom/memories(?) of it's previous users to the current Virtuoso. With that, I'd say AA might be needing a bit of a higher spot on the list.

    16

    Apostate is a master manipulator and versed in magic that summons demons. I figure him the long-term schemer and con artist type, which I would rank on a higher tier.

     

    Honestly, that is part of the problem, how do you rank "clever" versus "Intellignet" vs "Battlefield Tactics"

     

    Expat is the strategist and tactical support for Dark Watch as I understand it, but Fixer has much more expeirence in combat (he was a vigilante for decades and had at least one run in the the Endlings in that time) and Nightmist is a magical scholar and detective.

     

    Parses ability to analyze information is literally superhuman, Recompile shows her completely re-analyzing an entire battlefield, in real time, in the time it took her to say that is was going to take a second to re-analyze it all.

     

    Also, O-X has to be signifigantly smarter than Omnitron. Omnitron is a system that learns and grows according to what it has expeirenced. O-X is the 10th version of Omnitron, and came back in time after what I think was nearly a century of battling hereos. His databanks may not be viable as he changes the timeline, but he has immense stores of knowledge that can be accessed and analyzed.

     

    I would also rank Zhu Long higher, as he seems to be a reference to Ra's A-Ghul, and probably is another long-term planner type villain. Someone who has been around for centuries and plans and thinks in those terms would have to be brilliant.

    17

    Maybe.  I had considered him more "good at lying" than "good at figuring things out."  But as someone who summons demons and makes enchanted relics - that should probably be ranked higher.

    I was thinking about this in RPG type terms (who has the highest Intelligence score?), since smart is harder to define, and how 

    I'm pretty happy with Nightmist in the genius tier, but not the super-genius tier. I guess it comes down to: is she smarter than Wraith?

    Expatriate and Mr Fixer have very specific skills (like Expat's tactical knowledge and Fixer's mechanical skills and battle experience) any neither seem dumb, but also neither one seems hyper intelligent either.

    That's why I've got her in the top tier.  The ony reason she isn't the top of the list entirely is because her intelligence is so focused on one area.

    That's a very good point.

    Zhu seems like a solid second tier mind.  He's not one of the hyper-brains, but he seems to be damn smart.  Is he smarter than Wraith?

    18

    I get using the Wraith as a basis for comparison, and she is wicked smart, but I'm not sure how smart we should be treating her.

     

    We've little real information to go on, she graduates from everything ealry, getting a doctorate in Mechanical Egineering by 22. This is incredibly impressive, but not something I would be shocked to hear on the Evening News. She comes across to me (to not use the Batman or other comic book people as an example) as a mix between a decently skilled hacker and Macgyver. Very smart, capable of thinking on her feet, but is she always the smartest person in the room?

     

    As individuals the Wraith would combat, and being signifigantly older and villainous, I feel like the Chairman and Zhu Long have to both be smarter than the Wraith. She can still figure out their schemes, but they would be able to pull the wool over her occassionally. They aren't threatening as master-mind type villains if they aren't capable of getting one over on her.

     

    Edit: And also, The Chairman has to go to Zhu Long and give his right hand lady to him for a period of time. I'd say Zhu Long is easily a bigger brain than Pike, as Pike is perfectly willing to play ball with the old dragon instead of trying to double cross him. I wouldn't be shocked if the Chairman had a bit of a fear of Zhu Long, not being able to figure out the wizards plans or motivations, but knowing that he is not someone he wants to tangle with unless he's got no other choice.

     

    End Edit

     

    As for Nightmist, different areas of expertise obviously apply here. The Wraith uses Science and Technology, Nightmist uses magic. However, we've got a massive plus that shoots Nightmist up the charts in my mind, and that is "The Gate". While as an excerise of pure power it is utterly insane to open a gate to every dimension simultaneously, the mental effort of crafting such a spell and executing it had to be immense as well. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Nightmist wasn't just casting a spell she found, she was actively altering the magic to create something no one had ever done before. While I have no idea how Sentinels magic works, one general rule of thumb  for teleportation/portal magic is the ability to picture where you are going, otherwise you play roullette with the universe. She was able to open a portal to everywhere at the same time, it is probably her most impressive feat ever, and was likely enhanced with magical drugs beyond the cupid potion we see in the ARG story bit, but still would have required someone truly impressive on the mental scale to actually pull off.

     

    So, maybe not top tier for either of them, but definetly above Writhe (who while an inventor was a failed inventor until the shadow tech actually worked... and he decided robbing a bank was the best possible test for it. Void Guard Writhe is probably way smarter, but base Writhe I wouldn't put so high up in the rankings, smart but clueless)

    19

    It doesn't take greater intelligence to conceal things from others and surprise them at times.  Assuch, the Chairman and Zhu Long don't have to be smarter than the Wraith.  The just need the power to get others to do what they want and keep things on the down-low.

    20

    Since it's at least half canon, I'd rank America's Cleverest Legacy as tier 1 or 2 :)