Is superman smarter than batman?

Lex Luthor is the smartest human in the DC Universe if you ask most people. And I believe Clark chose to be a C student so as to not draw undue attention to himself. If he wanted, he could have more than likely been a straight-A Honor Student with perfect attendance while captaining the football team, but that comes with a lot of people in your face and a lot of digging. None of which an alien needs or wants.

And the Kryptonians were stupid for not believing what would happen. That's not a lack of intelligence really though, but more prideful to a fault. Jor-El told them.

And Superman isn't here to do for humanity what humanity can do for themselves. He and The League are there to make sure Darkseid doesn't turn Earth into a galactic parking lot in his bid for Anti-Life Equation.

The people that should be "saving billions of lives" are Lex Luthor, Oliver Queen, Bruce Wayne, Michael Holt, Ra's Al Ghul, etc. The humans with the resources to bring Earth into a golden age. If you thought the Kryptonians were stupid for not seeing what was happening to our planet, Earth has people just as smart that are all too petty to put their difference aside for the betterment of humankind. Just as stupid then, as The Kryptonians, but understandable as well, in that all of these men are way too prideful for that. Most of the time.

When he was a kid, he did not know he was different nor that he was an alien...So there was no need for him to hide his intelligence....And I don't think being smart would be a sign of an alien for most people.....I meant that when the villains had endangered millions of people,most of the time he acts very stupidly to neutralize the threat and Supergirl was a drop out or something like that so it doesn't matter....A man alone can do nothing in the earth the way we have made it today...Bruce Wayne is nothing and can't do anything without the support of the board of directors so how do you expect him to change the world...?? He is already trying to do that...Lex is also doing that in his own twisted way but superman did lock him up in a prison sometime ago and now he is a superhero.....I remember reading Red Son in which AFTER Lex had killed Superman, he created new inventions which made Earth turn into the next Super-technologized Krypton....

Here's the thing, Superman thinks fast. But think fast is nothing but to have a "longer amount of time" to think. Think of it this way, if you give a retarded person the ability to think fast. Maybe for example, 100 times faster than a normal human being. If it would take a person to invent a phone in a year, do you think the retarded person can invent a phone just because he had 100 years to invent it? No. But thankfully, Superman is a really smart person even without his super thinking.

And here's the other thing, Batman is suppose to be the "brain" of the league. The writers are still human, they still have limits. If they are to give a brilliant thing for Superman to do, it is really hard for them to think of anything even SMARTER to do, therefore they often make Superman less intelligent than his own comic when they're together. Superman did do smarter thing in his own comic, but if the question is if Superman meant to be smarter than Batman? Then no, Superman is not smarter than Batman.

I feel that it depends highly on the version and era. There have been some really interesting versions of Kal throughout the years, and certain variations and time periods have painted him in a different light. It also depends on who is writing him at the time.

For example: Did we know that Kal was a scientist/inventor/engineer? If you have read comics in the Silver Age you would know this and understand why there was an explosion of characters created after his "model" (and expanded upon, obviously) including: Supreme (image / and many others), Samaritan (from Astro City), Mister Majestic (wildstorm),and Icon (milestone) ?

Kal has been portrayed as a dunce and a genius alike. let's look at the total history and understand who, exactly we are referring to before we make any type of accusations or final answers. BAM!

As an informed attribute, yes.

In the New 52, I don't think so. In the older versions, probably. It's highly dependant on the version, but current Batman is probably smarter. He's probably even smarter than Lex Luthor to be honest. This scan probably proves that Clark isn't smarter than Bruce:

From this scan we see that Clark admits that Bruce might even be smarter than Lex. Now, he does use the word "man" here, so it's not really 100% confirmed, but I'm pretty sure that means that Bats is smarter than Supes currently.

As someone explained above, superman can think faster. He can process information thousands of times faster than batman, and while he is himslef a great brain, he is not = batman.

Can a smart person do in one month what a genius can do in one hour? not necessarily, depends upon job.

No.

The rate at which Superman can process info, he should be. But he isn't for some reason. I mean realistically he could read every book/ document ever written in a reasonable amount of time...

@the-seeffiss17: like in early n52 when he read a book on surgery, memorized it in seconds. The.mn successfully performed the surgery on spot using his powers. Shame DC never expanded on that.

Yes, but Batman applies his intelligence better.

Yes but most writers usually ignore it for the idea that Superman is too powerful or perfect already. They're always trying to minimize him in some way then toss out a feat bone every now and again to say they're not.

@nite_nite: I actually had that exact moment in mind when I put my comment, haha.

Batman is probably smarter because superman rarely uses smarts (from what I've seen) but even with prep batman cannot beat Superman without krpytonite

This is conflicting considering that Superman is supposed to have a mind of a Super computer. That said they're both very intelligent but I would give the nod to Batman.

There are different dimensions to intelligence.

Superman has faster processing power but Batman has better deduction skills.

yes superman is smatter

Superman is smarter than batman, it just isn't portrayed. Let's put it this way, lex Luther is smarter than batman and superman outsmarts him on what seems like a daily bases. Superman outsmarts brainiac every single time and batman gets bested by a clown. Superman processes information at light speed so everything batman knows superman could read in seconds and millions more. You have no idea how much smarter superman is than batman. I'd even argue that superman is the smartest in the justice league. I'd like to see batman pilot a kryptonian ship like superman has (although why would he need the ship) learn the kryptonian language in only a couple hours, learn the kryptonian martial arts that are too complex for humans and lastly outsmart lex luthor or brainiac

IMO they have ''different kind of intelligence'' .

Raw intellect = Superman

Street smarts/cunning = Batman

Superman should be smarter overall(or most categories), but writers don't want many league members (Cyborg,Superman,Flash)being too intelligent,as that would remove Batman's point in being there.

Not at all. I'd consider Batman a bat-genius (I'm replacing super with Bat, fight me (please don't)) he's outed superman before with his bat-schemes and he'd do it again. Although, Superman should be able to think faster sometimes he just doesn't, like being able to be hit by Parasite. Maybe this means Superman is a super-retard (I'm not changing that to bat because then I'd be ruining a beautiful pun). Maybe it doesn't as in the comic book "Invasion!" when the Daxamites begin to receive their powers in the middle of a conversation they didn't begin processing information at super-speed instead they were alerted of their power through the feeling that they could fly and that they had increased strength. But, all in all, what this probably means is that superman has to intentionally increase his thinking speed but that doesn't make him smarter instead it makes him think faster. If you gave Guglielmo Marconi 40 years and a random person with an IQ of 100 from the same era as Marconi 400 years to create two machines that would allow communication between each other all the way across the world without giving knowledge to the latter of Marconi's invention, Marconi would be able to invent one while the other guy most likely wouldn't.

Do you have a scan proving this out of curiosity?

@watcher5000: No, no I don't. I have scans of his brain operating faster than light.

@krleavenger:

No, no I don't.

Ok

I have scans of his brain operating faster than light.

Seriously?

@watcher5000: You never saw Superman's brain operating at light speed?

@krleavenger: lol for whatever reason I thought you were referring to batman with what you had said.

@watcher5000: Hehe.

@zetsumoto said:

Pretty much the best possible way to describe it.

Honestly I think writers need to just stop claiming Clark has super-intelligence. He's more interesting and relatable when he has a normal human's intelligence anyway.

Yes and No. It's complicated.

Yes and no. I honestly think Kal El could do more as a scientist than as a superhero. I mean he could come out occasionally to stop a Doomsday or Brainiac attack but he could end world hunger, poverty and bring life back to Mars with a few months work and the Fortress of Solitudes help

Super charged brain activity doesn't count as real intelligence. First of all, that isn't even natural ability he just gets that power from yellow sun radiation, not his own intellect. Secondly, even it was due to his one intelligence it doesn't make him inherently smarter, it just means he can process and profile information faster. It's to solve problems quickly and preform sugary when when you can think trillions of times faster than a human is easy, but what happens when you take away that ability. To be fare supes is still pretty smart without it, but no where near Batman level.

No.

Individually, he should be.

When they're in the same room and everyone else's IQ goes down 200 points because that's apparently required when Batman's around, no.

This is hilariously true.

Like people have said, there is intelligence and being able to think faster. Superman thinks faster thank Lex though I doubt anybody would say he is smarter than him. Same premise with Bruce.

no

C'mon no one is smarter than the almighty Bat God.

Superman is a supercomputer with no apps; Batman is a regular computer with Google. Better than each other in different areas.

Yes he is. He just likes to play yet behind the ears. He even fooled batsy. (+)

No

Honestly,the only times superman's intelligence is overlooked is during crossover comics with Batman,in order for both of them to shine.

In his own run,Clark's ability to process information is just so ludicrously above Bruce that he should outclass him even in areas where Bruce specialises in.

Again,the reason that's not the case in crossover titles is because it undermines the abilities of other major characters

• His ability to rabidly process and obtain information is bar far Superior to Batmans ability to do the same.
• But in terms of analyzing and interpreting that Information, Batman has him beat by a wide margin.

Superman is like a searche engine, Batman is like the internet. Superman can think faster that doesn't make him more intelligent. Batman is a polymath and is able to solve any problem.

^^^^

Cliche answer: There are different types of intelligence. Superman has the superhuman capacity to actually think faster. But Batman has the capacity to conceive of strategies and concepts that would never even cross Clark's mind, no matter how much time he had to think. Clark just isn't cunning or manipulative enough to, say, discover obscure psychological weaknesses in his opponents and then turn those into battle winning strategies. He also isn't as obsessed or singleminded as Bruce is (few people are), which is an advantage in of itself. Bruce can devote his entire being to solving a problem because he's nuts, just sit alone in a dark cave, no fun, no humanity, not even a life, just making himself into a tool or a weapon. Clark can do that in certain situations if it's important enough because he has the will power, but Bruce can do it all the time and effortlessly.

Kyle Rayner thinks so.