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

[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.