SPOILER WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #47, by Brandon Montclare, Alitha E. Martinez, Tamara Bonvillain and VC’s Travis Lanham, on sale now.
Reed Richards is widely regarded as the most intelligent man in the Marvel universe. The main challenger for the title was his college rival turned foe, Doctor Doom. But Doctor Doom’s ultimate downfall was his ego. With Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #47, it certainly looks like Reed will finally have some much needed competition in the brain department.
Moon Girl Is Smarter Than Reed Richards?
Moon Girl challenges Reed to a contest after she is fed up with the Fantastic Four’s interference in her business. (Or maybe she could have used the strongest weapon in the Marvel Universe to get rid of the Fantastic 4? Just a thought!) The contest will help decide who is the smartest person in the world. While Reed does object at first, thinking the contest frivolous, but he ultimately acquiesces to his own ego’s need for validation.
The first challenge is to solve Bruce Banner’s Brain Omnicompetence Examiner. Moon Girl is able to solve it within a minute but Reed fails to even complete the task. As expected, Reed disregards the results and says that Banner is just a physician who, moreover is hindered by his Hulk problem. So Reed designs his very own series of challenges for him and Moon Girl to compete with. He loses in there too.
But Reed doesn’t admit defeat even when by the issue’s end when it is clear that Moon Girl outdoes him in almost every conceivable mental metric. Reed over thinks the situation way too much, even when it comes to defeating a rogue Doombot. He opts for developing a multi stage plan whereas Moon Girl just lets her trusty Devil Dinosaur on the automaton.
Why Does Reed Richards Fail?
Moon Girl does succeed in identifying Reed’s problem- he thinks too much. This statement has been historically true as well. Just like it was Doom’s ego which often proved to be his undoing in his battle of wits with Reed. This time it was Reed’s ego which made his contest with Moon Girl that hard. At the end, simplicity could very well be the secret ingredient to genius when it comes to being smart in the Marvel Universe. Maybe that will help the Marvel Universe from coming to an end too soon!
