The 10 Smartest Dc Comics Characters, Ranked

There are plenty of intelligent characters in the pages of DC Comics, where stories often find heroes flexing their brain cells as well as their muscles to win battles.

Naturally, the Golden Age of comics threw up plenty of scientists: some mad, some benign, and some both. Supervillain Lex Luthor developed from a scientist to a fascinating polymath before the Modern Age of comics, while Superman’s intelligence was suppressed as the Silver Age departed. 

The number of characters who factor in intelligence is vast, and many of those wouldn’t take kindly to being left off this list. There’s master tactician Deathstroke, who can access far more of his brain power than regular humans. There’s also Riddler, who’s constantly failed to prove he’s cleverer than Batman. It’s no surprise who beats him to a place on this list. Others that sound like they should be on this list don’t make the grade. Several villains have taken the name Thinker, but only one is credited with a superintelligence — he lent his distinctive looks to the sociopathic variant seen in The Suicide Squad.

It’s a tough list to piece together, but we’ve rubbed together the gray cells to bring you the top 10 smartest characters in DC Comics.

10. Brain

Brain, founder of the Brotherhood of Evil, mainly pits himself against Doom Patrol and their Chief, his sworn enemy Niles Caulder. He’s more than a cerebrum preserved in a jar. He dedicates his genius-level IQ to perfect crimes, with a heavy emphasis on domination, aided by his mastery of psychology to manipulate and persuade others to perpetrate evil on his behalf. 

By DC Rebirth, Brain increased his IQ by tapping into hundreds of thousands of people’s vacant thoughts, achieving mental divinity.

9. Ray Palmer 

Ray Palmer isn’t just DC’s master of the quantum realm, but is probably the most traveled human ever. Palmer’s background as a physicist led to his extraordinary achievements that arguably no other DC scientist could have achieved. The young scientist used a mass of white dwarf star matter to create a shrinking lens and test the frontiers of reality like no other. 

In the New 52 era, Palmer was the scientific advisor of SHADE, enabling the superhuman defense team to operate a microscopic HQ. His protege and successor Ryan Choi has a similar genius-level intellect.