Marvel announces the new smartest person in the universe

[lordultimus]

Source: newsarama.com

Marvel Comics has demonstratively pushed to diversify their superhero line the last couple of years - a push that seems to continue to gain steam. Now the publisher is seemingly making a point to call attention what they announced somewhat innocuously at Comic-Con International: San Diego on Sunday - that none of the usual braintrust of Reed Richard (or his daughter Valeria), Tony Stark, Peter Parker, Amadeus Cho, T’Challa, or even Doctor Doom for that matter, are considered the smartest person in the Marvel Universe. Instead, Marvel’s top genius is officially (or at least will be) little Lunella Lafeyette, the nine-year-old hero of Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur.

The announcement of Lunella’s status was made, somewhat off-handedly, in SDCC’s Women of Marvel panel by Marvel’s Director of Content and Character Development Sana Amanat, who may be best known as one of the co-creators of the current Ms. Marvel, Kamala Khan, the character that may have been the flashpoint for Marvel's aggressive diversity push.

"Moon Girl will discover she's the smartest person in the Marvel Universe at only 9 years old," said Amanat Sunday, referring to an upcoming story in the planned relaunch of Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur as part of "Marvel NOW!"



Interestingly and importantly, Lunella isn’t just the smartest person in the Marvel Universe, she’s also black and female – two characteristics not typical for the Marvel’s usual cast of super-geniuses. Female scienctific super-genuises are rare for either of the two major comic book publishers, relatively even more so, in fact, than black super-genuines. The role has been historically filled by males, a product of both major publishers' superhero lines' birth in the late 30s and early 60s, respectively.

Naming the smartest person in the Marvel Universe a nine-year-old black female is definitely grounbreaking, a fact that seems to have subsequently occurred to Marvel over the last couple of days. While not initially promoted by the publisher as a convention announcement, Marvel seems to be pushing the story through more 'mainstream' news outlets such as Buzzfeed and Teen Vogue over the last two days.

It was not made clear how Lunella earns the lofty status of being the smartest person in the Marvel Universe, whether it’s a product of great minds like Reed Richards, Tony Stark, and Bruce Banner potentially being off the table because of the events of Secret Wars or the possible outcome of Civil War II, or if she discovers she's just plain smarter than everyone else.

Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur will relaunch as part of Marvel NOW!, likely with an added emphasis on the pressures of being the smartest person alive.

Comments

[burkeonthesly]

whether it’s a product of great minds like Reed Richards, Tony Stark, and Bruce Banner potentially being off the table

Oh, don't let it be that. Don't let it be, "the white male top tier were out to lunch, so she was the best by default." Let her be brilliant in her own right.

And let's not forget that Devil Dinosaur built one hell of a company back in Nextwave, so he's got to be a decent lab assistant, at least.

[scorntx]

A decent lab assistant until he shoots you in the back! While holding a glass of Chianti the wrong way! In a smoking jacket! And monologuing!
And he probably won't even think of a plausible cover-story for your disappearance! The bastard!

Hey, you trust someone calling themselves "Devil Dinosaur", then your falling victim to his sudden but inevitable betrayal is your own problem.

[thehood]

This is the original Devil Dinosaur, not the Nextwave version.

[tigerkaya]

Okay cool I guess. Should be interesting.

[thanekos]

Intelligence- completely and totally an objectively measurable metric that means something by having a higher point value of it than everyone else.

(Simplified measurements are handy, certainly, but forget to take into account so many things that it doesn't seem like anything more than a " yeah, okay " to define a character.

Plus, if we're arguing at the levels of the characters cited, the difference is probably whole tenths or even ones in points. Riveting.)

[lordultimus]

Why do I see it going something like this:

Tony Stark: This is the Macguffin equation. I, Reed Richards, Hank Pym, and some other smart guys have been working on it for years but we've never been able to-

Lunella: Here you go.

Tony: UH-WHAAAAAAAAAAAAA?????????????

[crinos]

Or better yet:

Tony: The universes are colliding with one another, we have to destroy one to keep the others safe.

Lunella: Or you could not do that. I designed these space time bracers that will keep the universes from colliding. And the best part is, they will naturally degrade over time, and by the time they are gone the universe wont be colliding anymore. Its like Braces, but for the multiverse.

Tony: Oh come on, there's no way that will.... *Looks over the blueprints* Huh, the math actually checks out. I think, its a little dense...

Lunella: You need a calculator Mr. Stark? I have a calculator.

Tony: Um, no no... I can get it.... Excuse me I need to call some people in a hurry.

*Later*
Tony *To the rest of the Illuminati*: Okay guy, I got us a new member for the Illuminati. Now before anyone says anything. I want you to keep an open mind. Also keep in mind she has a pet dinosaur.

Lunella: PARTNER!

Tony: Excuse you?

Lunella: Devil Dinosaur is my PARTNER. NOT A PET.

Tony: My mistake.

Dr. Strange: Why is there a little girl with you?

Lunella: Hi, I'm Moon Girl. Tony asked me to join your group since I helped with that whole universe colliding thing.

Reed: That was you?

Lunella: Anyways my mom made Snickerdoodles. Anyone want any?

*After a few seconds of Silence, Black Bolt raises his hand*

[insolent_one]

We need this in a What If story. At the very least. It's awesome.

[icon_uk]

>>Applause!<<

I want to read this comic!

[junipepper]

"Intelligence- completely and totally an objectively measurable metric that means something by having a higher point value of it than everyone else."

This.

[balbanes]

Not really a fan of having a ranking of intelligent people in Marvel-- or IRL for that matter. They ran this concept with Amadeus Cho back when, and too many plotlines were wasted on the nerd version of chest-thumping.

What I like is having characters with demonstrated areas of expertise: Richards at physics, McCoy at genetics, Pym at bioengineering, etc. And I really like when one of the big brains realizes he's veering into another brain's area and calls for a consult. That's how actual research works: no one has time to become the top expert on *everything*.

So hopefully, Lunella will become the designated expert on some useful STEM-y field. I'd like to see the other brains happily coexisting and deferring to her in that area, without everything devolving into a nerdy pissing match.

[miss_abnormal]

Over at DC, the hero Mr. Terrific (Terry Sloane) was regarded as a genius and pretty much "perfect" in every way, but all that did (according to Johnny Quick) was make Terry "average" in everything: he was "good" at everything, but he wasn't the "best" at everything. Meanwhile, the second Mr. Terrific (Michael Holt) was actually shown with a specific expertise in robotics. He had I-don't-know-how-many PhDs, including in Medicine, but he still always deferred to Doctor Mid-Nite (Pieter Cross) for medical advice. (This is all Pre-Flashpoint, by the way). I liked that sort of dynamic and prefer when Batman is shown not being an absolute genius in everything because he's "Batman".

Anyway, I'm still glad that Lunella will be regarded as a colleague that people can rely on for advice and help. I just hope they write her with respect and creativity.

[thehood]

Kinda like how even Doom defers to Banner on matters of gamma radiation?

[miss_abnormal]

Yeah. A person, no matter how much of a "genius" they are, will never be able to be the best of the best at everything. And this goes beyond the scientific side of knowledge: history, literature, art, philosophy, and so on. I find it more interesting to have characters with different kinds of expertise and relying on each other when needed; they can show that these characters are experts in certain topics, but that they are continually learning about the world and about themselves as they move on in life.

(And, in the case of Doom, probably declare how he has always been the best and he already knows his full potential unlike that naive and foolish Richards and that he does not need "help" but a confirmation of what he already knows so that the weak Richards cannot deny how great he is).

[icon_uk]

Classic "Red Ranger in sentai" approach. He's not the best at anything, but is a natural leader and is the best all rounder, whilst the other members of the team are specialists.

Also, what Batman used to be, which is why he respected other heroes for their own skills and accomplishments.

[bruinsfan]

Richards is probably the biggest polymath of the Marvel Universe (where it's an actual plot point of his background rather than just geneticists also knowing rocket science and high energy particle physics thanks to being in a comic), but they've had him defer to Otto Octavius as being the greater expert at radiation effects on biology. And clearly Doom has more expertise at robotics and time travel technology, Magneto at working with magnetic effects and creating inhibitor technology, etc.

[matrix_dragon]

So, where will she be getting the education needed to take advantage of that genius? Or will it be like what happened with Valeria, where she somehow magically knows most of it beforehand?

[locuatico]

If her comic is anything to go by. not her parents or her school, that's for sure...

[scorntx]

If she was the smartest person in the Marvel Universe (not, frankly, a great title) then first order of business should be getting the hell out of there.

Otherwise she's just going to either be eventually shuffled off to the side, or like all intelligent characters in Marvel, her purported genius will be used to prop up some writer's poorly thought-out storyline.

Y'know, like Reed Richards in Civil War. Or Tony Stark in Civil War. Or Tony Stark in Avengers Vs. X-Men. Or Reed and Tony in Jonathan Hickman's Avengers run.

(Meanwhile, Peter Corbeau sits on his yacht, enjoying the refreshing salty breeze, as he commits acts of impressive science, blissfully unencumbered by being in any comic ever.)

[malitia]

He appeared on a newscast in the last issues of Captain America and the Mighty Avengers to give his expert opinion on the end of the world. (Jay and Miles gave a MetaCorbeau to Al Ewing for remembering he exists.)

[icon_uk]

That's "SUPER DOCTOR ASTRONAUT Peter Corbeausits on his yacht" thank you very much.

[reveen]

With how people act in Marvel you could have shown any 9 year old and it wouldn't actually matter.

[doctor_spanky]

Sure but I wanna see it in action in a comic not read it in a news story. Show don't tell and all that

[lieut_kettch]

I suddenly want a "science bros" montage of her with Valeria Richards. Well, given their ages, more like a "science playdate." With Amadeus Cho as chaperone.

[dr_archeville]

Your ideas intrigue me, and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

[crinos]

Valeria: Come Moon Girl. Let us ride our Quantum Ponies to the fifth dimension, where we will have tea parties.... THROUGHOUT TIME.

Lunella: Works for me.

Amadeus: Eh, I got nothing going on today.

[dr_archeville]

So I'm guessing they'll reveal that this is what Terrigenesis got her.

Which may cause some to say she's not "really" smart b/c she "cheated."

(Forgetting that the Cosmic Rays that made Reed all stretchy also boosted his intellect -- they've shown non-Cosmic'd Reeds from other realities and they were nowhere near as clever as 616!Reed -- so by that logic his intellect's just as much a "cheat.")

[crinos]

I thought her power from the Terrigenesis was that she can mind swap with Devil Dinosaur.

[cainofdreaming]

Isn't that like saying that Reed's warm bloodedness is a result of cosmic rays, since there are alternate Reeds that are lizards? The fact that alternate versions of the character are different only really means that they're different. Drawing conclusions from them without knowing where the divergences happened (dumber Reed's ancestors might have fallen from a tree, on their heads, repeatedly) is kind of folly.

[donnblake]

"I'm the ninth smartest person in the world."

"Who told you that?"

"... Game show sponsored by a soap company."

[deh_tommy]

Having not been following this series (or being unfamiliar with the duo until this series appeared in previews), whatever happened to Moon Boy and why did he and Devil Dinosaur separate?

[scorntx]

Moon Boy hated Devil Dinosaur. Moon Boy had to die. Moon Boy tasted bad and caused Devil Dinosaur considerable rectal distress.

*Not really, but it happened in NEXTWAVE, so it must be true, right?

[icon_uk]

Moon Boy was shown to be badly injured (possibly fatally, I can't recall) during the events of Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #1. He sent Devil Dinosaur to get a plot device thingie back from the villains who had stolen it (and injured him) and the portal Devil wandered through that the thingie generated sent him to Earth.

[silverhammerman]

This reminds me of something which occurred to me years ago, and maybe doesn't stand up to analysis: It seems like the cultural perception of intelligence has shifted over the past 20 years or so to it somehow being an intrinsic thing. Like, the smartest person in the room used to be depicted as some old, learned professor type (almost always a white dude of course) but now the resident supergenius is almost always a young person who seemingly just gets things and is too smart for normal institutions. I always wondered if it said something about the changing views of institutions and the popularity of fantasies of being special and unique, if that makes sense.

I was like, 17, so it probably doesn't hold up, this just reminded me of it.

[deepspaceartist]

I agree with you. That's why the whole 'super genius kid' bit never sits well with me. When I was growing up, being smart was something you earned. Of course one can be born with traits that make it easier, but none of this "I'm nine years old and I instinctively know the secrets of the universe" bullshit. Intelligence has gone from being something anyone can have if they work at it, to something only the chosen few have and anyone born without the gift can never hope to compete. And honestly, I thing that's an incredibly messed up message to send to people.

[remial]

well, being the smartest person in the Marvel universe isn't saying THAT much if everyone else is constantly playing catch with the idiot ball...