The greatest weapon a man can wield is his mind. The greatest weakness a man has is also his mind. It takes a special kind of effort to mold your mind into becoming so sharp that it can help you achieve miracles. In the MCU, there is a dime a dozen brilliant personalities. But only a few manage actually to stand out from the rest of the smart crowd. Presenting – 15 Greatest Scientists of the MCU – Ranked!!
15. The Tinkerer
The Tinkerer’s real name is Phineas Mason, a brilliant mechanic that is part of The Vulture’s Crew. Using stolen Chitauri technology left over after the Battle of New York, the Tinkerer has created several unique weapons like the vulture suit, anti-gravity guns, and the Shocker’s Gauntlets. No one has managed to unlock so many secrets of the Chitauri, a race of far superior technology compared to any other alien race in the whole universe than Phineas has. He deserves a place on this list.
14. Arnim Zola
The Swiss scientist Arnim Zola is an engineering Da Vinci. His depth of knowledge when it comes to computers is also staggering! It was on Zola’s inventions that Hydra became a terrorizing force to be reckoned with in World War Two. After the war ended, Zola sided with the Americans after the latter found him too valuable an asset to let go. He even managed to cheat death by transferring his mind into a machine, essentially becoming immortal.
13. Samuel Sterns
Under the alias Mister Blue, Samuel Sterns regularly conversed with Bruce Banner aka the Hulk to try and find out a cure for Bruce. Sterns managed to succeed where Bruce, one of Marvel’s top minds, failed – finding a temporary cure for Banner! The process somewhat worked until Blonsky became the Abomination and Bruce had to turn back into the Jade Giant. A drop of Hulk blood also fell into Sterns’ wound on his head, mutating his brain and turning him into the Leader.
12. Doctor List
After Hydra was almost wiped out after The Winter Soldier, what remained of it came under the leadership of Von Strucker – the last leader of Hydra. Strucker had one invaluable talent though – Doctor List. List was a firm believer in human enhancement and used the Tesseract to turn Wanda Maximoff and Pietro Maximoff into superhumans. He managed to harness the power of an infinity Stone!!
11. Ivan Vanko
In Iron Man 2, we come to see how shrewdly business-minded the Starks were. Anton Vanko worked with Howard Stark to create the arc reactor, but only Stark got credit for it, who stole the invention for himself and monetized it, jumpstarting Stark Industries. Ivan Vanko also recreated the same arc reactor technology that powers Iron Man’s suit, using nothing but the most basic of materials and a similar hostile environment as Tony Stark was in Iron Man when he first created an Arc Reactor inside a cave.
10. Helen Cho
She has had only one appearance in the MCU. As the lead medical professional tending to the Avengers after they come back from their missions and their primary technical architect, Helen Cho was not just a pretty face. Her most valuable contribution would be creating Vision, the android superhero that became an integral part of the Avengers later.
9. Erik Selvig
Erik Selvig was part of Jane Foster’s team that researched space-time anomalies. In Thor 1 and Thor 2, Erik Selvig turned out to be instrumental in using his vast knowledge of portals and Infinity Stones to aid the good guys. In The Avengers of 2012, Selvig had the sense to install a fail-safe into the portal generator powered by the Sceptre even when he was being mind-controlled.
8. Abraham Erskine
Doctor Abraham Erskine is the guy who gave us the first ever Avenger. First working in Germany as a scientist, Erskine was forced to come under the supervision of the Red Skull, where he worked under the Nazi Super Soldier project. The Red skull got an unfinished version of the Serum. Erskine soon escaped to America where he perfected the serum and used it on Steve Rogers, who then became Captain America. Erskine’s super-soldier formula is so complex that several veteran geniuses like Bruce Banner and Tony Stark have tried and failed miserably while trying to replicate it.
7. Rocket Raccoon
This guy deserves all the credit he can get. Without him, the Guardians of the Galaxy would just fall apart. Despite a loud mouth and a wise-cracking attitude, Rocket Raccoon’s intelligence is multiple times higher than the average human being. He is a damn good weapons inventor and technician. His greatest invention in perhaps the Hadron Enforcer – a weapon he claims to be capable of blowing up the moon.
6. Howard Stark
The father of Tony Stark was truly a man ahead of his time. He was involved in countless scientific experiments that would later shape the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He worked with the SSR along with Dr. Abraham Erskine in Project Rebirth, the American Super Soldier Project that created Captain America. He also co-invented the Arc Reactor technology along with Ivan Vanko. He helped the allies do some critically valuable research on the Tesseract and even laid down the blueprints for his son to discover a whole new element!
5. Mar-Vell
The Kree scientist has, despite her short tenure in the MCU, had the most important hand in the creation of the MCU’s strongest Superhero – Captain Marvel. She studied the Tesseract for years and developed the light speed engine that would help the Skrulls escape the Kree Empire. She was the reason Captain Marvel became a force of nature. That alone warrants a place for her on this list.
4. Bruce Banner
He is the world’s leading authority on Gamma Radiation. He has seven, I repeat, seven PHD’s. He is the world’s foremost expert on nuclear physics and biochemical sciences. It was Bruce Banner’s experiment for trying to replicate the Super Soldier Serum that turned him into the enormous green monster called the Hulk. Banner helped Tony Stark develop the Hulkbuster armor and the Ultron A.I itself.
3. Hank Pym
In the comics, it is not Bruce Banner or Tony Stark that is the smartest Avenger. It is Hank Pym. In the movies though, his mental prowess makes him the 4th most sought after minds in the MCU. Hank Pym discovered the size manipulating Pym Particles, developed a suit that could harness those particles and created a multi-billion dollar company from scratch. He has extensive knowledge of the Quantum Realm, a nexus of space-time continuum which is the key to bringing back the fallen heroes in Endgame.
2. Tony Stark
The man of the hour, the genius/billionaire/playboy/philanthropist has a mind that is a hundred times better than anything the MCU has to offer. Using his knowledge of technology and his scientific prowess, Tony Stark has become a force of nature. His greatest accomplishment is the Iron Man suit, a miracle of technology. Other inventions of notice include the arc reactor technology and the JARVIS A.i. He also helped create the Ultron A.I as well.
1. Shuri
That’s right! It is Shuri that is the most intelligent person in the MCU. Marvel Directors – the Russo Brothers, as well as several cast members and production crew members have gone on record to claim Shuri is the smartest person of the MCU. She has helped develop the infrastructure of an entire country, and she is not even 20! Shuri’s knowledge of Vibranium is also irreplaceable. She is the smartest being there is, and the Avengers could actually use her help in defeating Thanos, provided she comes back from the dead before it is too late that is.
The Last Marvel movie to be released under the Disney banner is Captain Marvel. The movie is currently in theatres. The official film synopsis for the movie reads:
Captain Marvel is an extraterrestrial Kree warrior who finds herself caught in the middle of an intergalactic battle between her people and the Skrulls. Living on Earth in 1995, she keeps having recurring memories of another life as U.S. Air Force pilot Carol Danvers. With help from Nick Fury, Captain Marvel tries to uncover the secrets of her past while harnessing her special superpowers to end the war with the evil Skrulls.
