Tony may be more intelligent, but that doesn't make him smarter.
__________________ What CDTM believes;
Never let anyone else define you. Don't be a jerk just to be a jerk, but if you are expressing your true inner feelings and beliefs, or at least trying to express that inner child, and everyone gets pissed off about it, never NEVER apologize for it. Let them think what they want, let them define you in their narrow little minds while they suppress every last piece of them just to keep a friend that never liked them for themselves in the first place.
Seems like Namor went from struggling on his old suit, to tearing up his new ones with minimal effort.
__________________ What CDTM believes;
Never let anyone else define you. Don't be a jerk just to be a jerk, but if you are expressing your true inner feelings and beliefs, or at least trying to express that inner child, and everyone gets pissed off about it, never NEVER apologize for it. Let them think what they want, let them define you in their narrow little minds while they suppress every last piece of them just to keep a friend that never liked them for themselves in the first place.
It's hard to define 'smart'. Comics often do it in terms of science, not counting other intellectual accomplishments. That said, Bruce has often been called the second smartest guy in the DCU after Luthor.
Think of it this way ...Bruce can keep up with Tony when it comes to tech. Sure, Tony has a wider variety of suits, but Bruce has shown he can come up with some (very effective) designs. For example, the Justice Buster, capable of matching up to the JLA.
Now, I am however willing to admit that Tony is ‘better’ than Bruce in tech, primarily because that is all that Tony does. Thus, let’s say Tony is smarter IN TECH than Bruce (although one could debate that).
The problem for Tony though is smart is NOT limited to powered suits. There are ALL sorts of smart, and that is where Bruce absolutely murders Tony.
Bruce is not just a polymath in technology, but is a polymath at (literally) everything. Deductive and inductive reasoning, general knowledge, language, arts, fighting systems, predictive analysis (the so-called ‘prep’), botany, zoology (including alien zoology), history, pattern recognition at both the micro and macro level, even bloody magic!
It is simply not a contest ...not in the slightest. The only thing I can say is that Tony MAY claim to be better at is powered suits.
Otherwise, the two are honestly not even in the same zip code.
That’s the thing comic book readers don’t understand about Bruce Wayne. DC made him more hax than Superman, and in many ways he is the true super-man (ubermensch). He is more of an impossibility than someone who can fly and fire lasers from his eyeballs.
Tony Stark on the other hand is simply a really really super-smart genius. He is unfortunately not a god
Batman comes up w. stuff yeah, but WayneTech builds it for him, or he straight up just appropriates already existing tech from his company to suit him.
Not saying Batman’s not smart, you have to be smart to realize you need a positronic bat-woddle and have one made, or put together several pieces of existing tech from your company to make one, but Tony, Tony does it all; he’ll conceive it, he’ll build it. He’ll cobble together existing tech (that he conceived and built) to make something new.
Batman’s not smarter.
I wont beat this horse till its dead though. I know what board i’m on.
Having no Reed in the MCU has resulted in Tony being pushed as the foremost scientist (with the Wakandans giving him some challenge). This dynamic in the MCU has affected the comics MU.
There are many Batmans, whereas Tony is shown more consistently as an uber scientist. Some Batmans are more of the classic detective; other Batmans are more uber in all areas.
I believe the record is inconsistent as to what tech Bruce designed for himself, and what he outsourced. It's also inconsistent on whether Bruce outsourced tech because he lacked the time or the ability.
The reason for this is that being a super scientific genius is not yet, and has not been, a core element of the Batman mythos. It is with Tony.
RiV, which is why I said Tony could claim he is smarter in tech. I could debate otherwise, but it is much easier to show that Tony is smarter in tech (and I could easily concede that Tony is smarter in technology than Bruce).
Then we move outside things that have to do with microchips, and Bruce blows Tony away....
The two are not at the same level.
It is like comparing an iPhone X with the most advanced DSLR Camera.
While the iPhone X can take REALLY good pictures, it cannot compare with the perfect pictures that an advanced DSLR camera can take.
So, in picture quality, the advanced camera beats the iPhone (even though it may be argued that the iPhone can keep up to some extent, but it can be easily conceded that the camera is better).
....but the iPhone can also make phone calls, send email, browse the internet, open business documents, do conference calls, and fit in the breast pocket of a well-cut business suit.
That’s Tony versus Bruce for you.
One is better in one particular area of smartness, and then the other beats him in every other area.
That's not a fair comparisson. By that logic Lex Luthor wouldn't be as smart as Bruce either. The wide breadth of knowledge in multiple fields Bruce has is far wider than the likes of Lex or even Reed, but nobody would call him smarter than THEM. Their field of smarts is nearly exclusively Science/tech too.
Agreed 100% it is not a fair comparison, but that is exactly as it is unfortunately. Those are the vagaries of comic book writing, which is often never linear (nor logical). Characters such as Batman, which get more writing than Lex and Mr Terrific, will have feats across multiple disciplines that over the years will build a resume of Uber-polymathism that is insanely deep and wide. This is why, for example, Bruce is considered the second best escape artist after Mr Miracle. Yet there are others that just focus on that, and should be better, such as that Talon who was an escape specialist.
But because of the LONG record of writing for Batman, Bruce will end up with all sort of stories on (say) escapism. From being able to even go into a Thogal state and appear dead, to having alter-egos that can take over if his mind is damaged. (This is why I honestly prefer not to debate people like Batman, Superman, Flash, Mr Fantastic, Dr Doom and others of that ilk ...there’s a lot of record of them doing crazy things). This is also why I said Tony is a really really super smart super-genius, but that he’s unfortunately not a god. Because that is the hax level DC has made Bruce. That man has had super powers for decades!
Based on actual written feats, Bruce is a character that is a jack-of-all-trades while being a master of them all, including tech, while Tony is shown as primarily a master of tech (and specifically tech, although I loved how the Ultimate Marvel version of Tony was a mutant of sort, with brain tissue all over his body, and was a master of ALL sciences and not just a subset called ‘tech’).
That by the way is a key difference between DC and Marvel. Marvel tends to striate it’s characters ...eg Colossus is super strong/durable and nothing else. Cyclops can shoot energy from his eyes and nothing else. Iceman can make things cold. Quicksilver can run really fast. Professor X can read minds. Kylie Pride can phase through things. Mystique can change her form. Etc etc.
In DC, that’s basically the Martian Manhunter!!!!
DC tends to use a Swiss Army knife approach, while Marvel will (usually, but not always) split powers. Most of the JLA is multi-tooled ...even Aquaman has high level strength, can jump high, can speed blitz, has high level telepathy, is durable, has heightened senses (allegedly from being in the deep), and depending on version even has access to high level magic!!!!!
But I digress.
That’s why Batman, following DC’s multi tool approach, will be an insanely high-level polymath across ALL segments, while Tony, following Marvel’s specificity of powers, will go deep in one!
Which equals ...Batman IS smarter, unless we want to limit this to ‘just’ tech.
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Sep 5th, 2018 01:00 AM
