DC Comics introduced some of the first comic book supervillains. These enemies took a page from the pulp villains of the pre-superhero comic industry, and were often mad scientists. The most dangerous villains of the old DC Universe were mad scientists like the Ultra-Humanite, and other foes using high tech weapons and machines to menace the heroes. Mad scientists became the key villains of superhero comics and DC kept creating villains with super intelligence. They make for good foils against most superheroes; superheroes are usually titans of physicality, so pitting them against enemies whose greatest abilities come from their mind and hard work is a perfect juxtaposition.
Over the years, DC has created super-smart villains of the highest order. Some of these villains have become world-reknowned for their intelligence, creating all manner of technology to give the heroes a run for their money. Some of these villains are the smartest on Earth, but that doesn’t mean much in a place as vast as the DC Multiverse with worlds well beyond our own. There are enemies with intelligence on an unfathomable scale, their intelligence making them a challenge for the greatest heroes. These seven villains are DC’s most intelligent, outsmarting everyone they put their intellect against.
7) The Brain
The Brain was once a mysterious mad scientist, an accident reducing him to a brain in a nutrient jar. He formed the Brotherhood of Evil and became a crimelord of the highest order, eventually giving a gorilla human intelligence, naming him Monsieur Mallah. The two became inseparable from that point forward, and the Brain began his wars against both the Doom Patrol and the New Teen Titans. The Brain was a brilliant strategist and inventor, creating weapons specifically made to menace superpowered heroes. The Brain’s more of a general intelligence than anything else. He’s smart enough to run a successful crime ring and keep a team of supervillains from killing each other, and can pull off some impressive feats of science that few others could. He’s a cunning villain, often times a little too smart for his own good, and his bombastic nature has allowed his enemies to get the best of him many times over the years. However, he’s smarter than he gets credit for.
6) Vandal Savage
Vandal Savage isn’t some a scientist, but that doesn’t make him any less intelligent. Vandal Savage is one of the Justice League’s greatest villains, a Cro-Magnon man that found a meteorite whose radiation made him into a superhuman. Vandal Savage has been able to survive over a hundred thousand years of human history, learning everything he’s needed to be a force of brutality in the world. Vandal Savage has certainly created many pieces of technology over the years — he’s known for taking credit for all kinds of things throughout human history, but it’s hard to know if he’s lying or not. However, Savage is undoubtedly intelligent. He’s been able to survive and build nearly untold resources in his time on Earth. Vandal Savage is a master strategist who knows how to trap heroes in the machinery of his intelligence. He’s proven to be a challenge for the most intelligent and skilled superheroes on the planet, and has even been shown just as powerful in the far off 853rd century. Vandal Savage has a reputation as a brute, but he’s much more cunning foe than he gets credit for being.
5) T.O. Morrow
T.O. Morrow may not seem like he belongs on this list. There are seemingly more intelligent villains out there than a cheesy old Justice League villain, right? Wrong. Morrow is the greatest roboticist on Earth, and there’s no two ways about it. Will Magnus’s Metal Men are great, but they can’t hold a candle to Morrow creations like Red Tornado and Tomorrow Woman. Morrow is best at creating the minds of robots, and there’s something about his methods that allow him to create actual sentient beings. Morrow’s creations are more than just programmed to do a certain thing and have a personality while doing it. Morrow’s creation grow beyond their programming, becoming fully-fledged humans in every way that counts. Every time Morrow designs a robot to fight the Justice League, he ends up doing such a good job of making their minds that they are able to transcend their programming and choose not to follow his orders. That’s amazing, and it makes Morrow one of the most intelligent DC villains ever.
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4) Desaad
The most intelligent New God is Metron, but calling him a hero or villain is beyond him. Metron is sometimes villainous, but it all serves whatever his mysterious purpose is at all times. However, the next smartest New God is the chief torturer of Darkseid, the monster known as Desaad. Desaad’s skills come mostly from vivisection and creating weapons, but there are few beings in the DC Multiverse who can match him. Desaad didn’t always create the technology that he uses, but he always figures out a way to use it in the smartest ways possible. He’s learned to work with Element X, the mysterious element that basically does whatever the New Gods need it to, and is the chief creator of Apokolips’s massive stockpile of powerful weapons. Desaad makes sure parademon armor is as deadly as possible, and is constantly coming up with new ways to hurt anyone who Darkseid wants him to. Desaad is as prone to failure as the rest of Darkseid’s court — any place where the fear of the leader is paramount isn’t going to have the most efficient people around, because they’re serving instead of innovating — but seeing as how he loves to hurt people as much as Darkseid does, he’s mostly proven successful over the years.
3) Lex Luthor
Lex Luthor is the smartest villain on Earth, and one of the most intelligent beings in the entire multiverse. Lex has mastered basically every scientific discipline on the Earth and is a master inventor. He’s the best at creating Kryptonite based technology, all to destroy the Kryptonians he hates so much. Luthor has mastered every piece of alien technology that has come across his desk, all in an effort to prove that humans are the greatest race in the cosmos. Of course, it’s a little more complicated than that. Despite being the greatest mind that humanity has produced, Lex’s arrogance is such that he sees the sum totality of human achievement as his birthright. He is the greatness of humanity and his intelligence proves that he’s the greatest. Lex is at a level where he can create basically anything he needs at any time. If he needs armor that can stand up to Superman, he’ll make it. If he needs to create a new type of laser weapon powered by an exotic alien element, he’ll make it. If he needs to make a few billion dollars, he’ll create some new piece of consumer technology. Lex Luthor can do nearly anything he puts his mind to. On top of that, he’s a cunning strategist, able to come up with multi-faceted plans that take ages to untangle, as well as lead the villains of the Earth in battle against the greatest heroes. Lex’s intelligence allows him to stand even with Superman, which is no small matter. Nobody tell Lex Luthor that he’s the third smartest DC villain, he wouldn’t take it well.
2) Brainiac
Brainiac has changed many times over the years, as the shifting tides of DC continuity have wreaked havoc on Superman. However, one thing stays the same — the villain’s mind. Brainiac is usually some kind of Coluan, a race of aliens known for their intelligence, sometimes a cyborg with organic and technological parts, other times a consciousness inhabiting a mechanical body, traveling the spaceways and stealing entire cities, all in order to take their knowledge. Brainiac is, in many ways, the DC equivalent of Galactus. He’s a cosmic predator, destroying everything in his path, and keeping parts of it so that only he can have the information of entire civilizations. Brainiac’s ship is full of amazing technology that you won’t find anywhere else in the Multiverse. Brainiac is one of the few beings in the entire universe that Superman is scared of, which should rally say it all. Brainiac on other Earths is just as intelligent and frightening, using his 12th level intellect (the highest in the DC Multiverse) to come up with ridiculously powerful weapons and cunning plans that challenge anyone enmeshed in them.
1) Krona
Krona is an interesting character in the history of the DC Multiverse. Krona is a member of the Oan race, after they gained immortality and power over the emotional spectrum, but before they became the diminutive beings they are now. Krona was a scientist who was obsessed with the beginning of the universe, but was held back by the ancient stricture against looking back to the beginning of the universe. Krona decided that rules were for lesser beings and created a machine that could look back to the beginning of the universe. Krona was able to witness the Hand that created the universe, and that breaking of the rules ended up creating the Multiverse. Krona is vastly intelligent. Oan technology was light years ahead of anything in the present day even back then, and Krona was a master of all of it. It’s hard to say that Krona is smarter than someone like Brainiac, because their feats of intellect are so different. However, Brainiac has never created something like Krona has, whereas Krona could definitely create anything that Brainiac did.
Who do you think are DC’s smartest beings? Sound off in the comments below.
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