I think you are a bit mistaken in thinking that cho is helpless in a fight... His hypermind would basically be batman's wet dream in terms of prep. Giving Cho a week is giving him the time to counter every possible outcome and ensure his victory.
Open question for anyone who wants to answer: Where abouts would you place Cho with prep, and without prep?
As in, who are his peers, iyo?
He has impressive prep and non prep feats, but in my opinion he's also no Doom or Richards, as he relies on characters like Herc to bail his fat ouf of the fire as well.. And his plans DO go wrong. He's not perfect, and makes mistakes....
didn't he take down a shield heicarrier with little more than a tricked out ipod?
he's also taken down a tank with a pebble, iirc.
Cho would stomp with any amount of prep, given the feats he has throughout the various Hulk arcs he's been a part of.
without prep, I'd still consider Cho good enough to outthink and react faster than Batman for say a 6-7/10 victory.
his "hypermind" calculates velocities, angles, etc to such a phenomenal degree that he'd likely redirect a batarang straight back at Batman, simply by raising an eyebrow (at some bizarre angle).
Doom is on another level to Batman, so I wouldn't use this as an argument in regards to that.
I think all the other "8 smartest people" have hyperminds or similar facilities.
Doom is probably a few notches higher up the totem than Cho, but Cho has years to hone his skills and enhance and broaden his understanding of the universe... he could eventually surpass ... Reed, but not Doom.
stips of the fight was cho gets a year of prep. Also I do think he could surpass Doom he is a lot smarter than Doom was at that age IMO combined with the fact that he has studied at least some magic from Gods as well as apprenticed in tech from some of the best minds in the business. Give him 5-6 years in comic time and even if he remains on a strict tech path which I highly doubt considering his interactions with magic and I think he could surpass Doom.
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cho may not be 'smarter' but he can see things/relationships that these other geniuses cannot. the others have minds that help them prep and can help them in battle to an extent. cho's mind is a WEAPON in combat. imo that's the difference between cho and the others.
as for the thread--cho wins handily, and would likely win in a straight, unprepped fight.