Avengers: Endgame still isn’t done taking up all of our time because not one day passes by where we don’t get a new update about the biggest film of the century. It is a global phenomenon, and even the smallest, most obscure places are aware of the Avengers. That’s some love that these heroes get from the entire world. The greatest factor that comes into the making of the entire team is the diversified heroes that are a part of it. Diversity doesn’t just come with the race or the sex of the members in the group, it also comes with the kind of abilities, and the skill set that each member brings to the team.
Some heroes aren’t as strong, but some aren’t the smartest. Like Scarlet Witch is the strongest Avenger, she totally isn’t the smartest. When it would come to durability and control on her power, she’d fail where someone like a Thor, or Captain Marvel would thrive. So everyone’s different, but important to the team. Hawkeye is neither the strongest or the smartest, but he is a stealthy ninja who will not think for a second before taking a life. Avengers: Endgame turned him into an Anti-Hero, and the team surely needed one of that.
This is why the Avengers are the greatest mix of heroes. The brains in the team are equal to the brawns, or perhaps even bigger. There are a bunch of extremely smart individuals that belong to the team now. Tony Stark has a gifted intellect that even Thanos knew about. Then there’s Bruce Banner, Doctor Strange and even Peter Parker who really excel in their own fields. T’Challa is no less than anyone on the planet when it comes to brains, but Shuri is even a step ahead. She is the head of Wakandan Scientists. And finally, we have Rocket, who’s aware of all kinds of space tech and other norms. Imagine a conversation involving all of these put into a single room.
But having listed down the names of the smartest individuals in the team, the question that always arises is – “Who is the smartest of them all?” Well, directors, Joe & Anthony Russo had their opinions upon this. The audience really applauded when Joe Russo asked about solving Time Travel. He said:
“Now Banner tried to solve time travel, but he didn’t. Who solved time travel?”
Now to be fair, Smart Hulk didn’t get a long enough shot at solving Time Travel. The concept was already out of his league and he still did manage to do a good job. Tony Stark didn’t solve Time Travel in just one night. Robert Downey Jr. revealed that his suit was made solely for one purpose, i.e. to harness the power of the Infinity Stones and get the job done. It was not meant for Tony to survive. Since Tony already had the suit ready, it means that he was working on Time Travel for a long time and Scott’s emergence helped him solve the one piece of the puzzle he wasn’t able to earlier.
But you’ve gotta argue, that Shuri could have helped the team quite a lot in the last 5 years if she wasn’t snapped out of existence. When people at Comic-Con applauded for Iron Man being the one to solve time travel, Anthony Russo nominated Wakandan princess and inventor Shuri. Even Joe Russo then went on to claim that “Shuri’s the smartest avenger.”
Nothing to take away from Tony Stark, as he might have turned out even smarter if he had access to Vibranium right from the start. Back in 2017, Black Panther producer Nate Moore told ComicBook.com that Shuri’s smartness was even beyond Stark. He said:
“As far as the technologically advanced side, in our mind and in our incarnation, Shuri is the head of the Wakandan design group. So she is, in our mind, the smartest person in the world. Smarter than Tony Stark, but she is a 16 year old girl, which we thought was really interesting. Again, black faces in positions of power, or positions of technological know how, that’s a rarity. So it’s something that a big part of the film.”
So yea, Shuri is the smartest Avenger but Tony Stark solved Time Travel and saved the world giving it everything he had.
