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Topic: A Villain that’s SMARTER than the hero? Post Reply | Post New Topic
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Tim Cousar
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Joined: 12 May 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 1660
Posted: 25 April 2018 at 9:34am | IP Logged | 1 post reply

Doctor Octopus over Spider-Man?
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Adam Schulman
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Joined: 22 July 2017
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Posted: 25 April 2018 at 12:39pm | IP Logged | 2 post reply


Doctor Octopus over Spider-Man?

***

That's a tough one. Peter created web-fluid and web-shooters.

Is Ra's Al Ghul smarter than Batman? Not sure about that one. 

Hector Hammond is smarter than any of the Earth-born Green Lanterns.
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Peter Martin
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Joined: 17 March 2008
Location: Canada
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Posted: 25 April 2018 at 12:48pm | IP Logged | 3 post reply

Dr Octopus is a specialist. His expertise in his field is almost second-to none. On top of that, his age means he's more educated and more accomplished in terms of proving the worth of his intellect than Peter. 

In terms of raw smarts, I think Peter Parker is at least his equal though. And Doc Ock doesn't think as straight as he once did...
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Jean-Francois Joutel
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Joined: 06 November 2008
Location: Canada
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Posted: 25 April 2018 at 4:11pm | IP Logged | 4 post reply

Dr. Sivana is smarter than Captain Marvel.

------------------------------------------------------

hmmm. I guess that depends on whether you consider wisdom a kind of intelligence.

Cap can't make the complex machinations of Sivana, but the "Big Red Cheese" has outsmarted Sivana at almost every turn.
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Phil Kreisel
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Joined: 03 February 2006
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Posted: 25 April 2018 at 4:52pm | IP Logged | 5 post reply

It depends on the match-up.  

For example, Dr. Doom is smarter than Luke Cage.
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Brian Hague
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Joined: 14 November 2006
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Posted: 25 April 2018 at 4:56pm | IP Logged | 6 post reply

Superman was handcrafting back-up squads of robots back when he was Superboy. He also created the Mind-Prober Ray as a kid to intensify his memories of Krypton and a host of other devices over his career. He was able to calculate the correct mathematical formulas necessary to travel through time and support the tremendous weights he was carrying.

Superman used to be quite intelligent back in the day. Later, not so much so...

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Wallace Sellars
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Joined: 01 May 2004
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Posted: 25 April 2018 at 5:14pm | IP Logged | 7 post reply

Doctor Octopus over Spider-Man?

—

Yes.

—————

It depends on the match-up.

For example, Dr. Doom is smarter than Luke Cage.

—

What a curious example…
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Greg McPhee
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Joined: 25 August 2004
Location: United Kingdom
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Posted: 26 April 2018 at 4:40am | IP Logged | 8 post reply

Vandal Savage was clearly more intelligent than Wally West when the clashed in "The Flash". There were at least two occasions where his intelligence got the better of Wally, and forced Wally to think differently on how he fought him.
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Greg McPhee
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Joined: 25 August 2004
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Posted: 26 April 2018 at 4:45am | IP Logged | 9 post reply

In Quasar #'s 19 - 25 Mark Gruenwald showed that Maelstrom was far more intellignet than Quasar.
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Drew Spence
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Joined: 19 February 2014
Location: United States
Posts: 225
Posted: 26 April 2018 at 5:31am | IP Logged | 10 post reply

Are we including AGE as a possible equalizer?
What do we think about that?
Some good ideas and Peter is always (was always) portrayed as a teen.
So it's really someone youthful and inexperienced against a seasoned evil.

Now, I ask, why not ADULT good guys verse young evils?
Is that too taboo?
Young Mutants, and I understand that puberty was a huge catalyst (very clever for the reader base) but overseas, like Europe - they had many, many older heroes and Eastern goes very, very young.
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Michael Penn
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Joined: 12 April 2006
Location: United States
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Posted: 26 April 2018 at 5:39am | IP Logged | 11 post reply

Doctor Octopus over Spider-Man?

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Yes.

***

I agree. It's no knock against Peter's prodigious brainpower to acknowledge bluntly that Doctor Octopus is far more learned and experienced.

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John Byrne

Grumpy Old Guy

Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 132135
Posted: 26 April 2018 at 7:03am | IP Logged | 12 post reply

There's an element of "Batman could beat Galactus" in this. The need of some that their favorite character be the best.

But there's no shame in the villains being bigger, stonger, tougher, smarter than the heroes. If anything, this makes the win for the hero even more impressive!

(I'm remembering when I was working on X-MEN. There was a pattern, with most stories taking two parts. In the first, the heroes would be beaten, in the second they would rise up and seize victory from the jaws of defeat. This would prompt a common response from many readers. Their reaction to the first part would be disgust that the X-Men were so "easily" beaten. "I thought they were TOUGH!" But the next issue would prompt an alternate derision. "I guess that bad guy isn't as tough as I thought!")

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