Who's smarter?

[Missy]

Who's smarter, Bruce Wayne or Lex Luthor?

[Darque Edge]

Who's smarter, Bruce Wayne or Lex Luthor?

Bruce Wayne.

However, Luthor is far less scrupulous, and far more dangerous.

[James D.]

Bruce Wayne. He is the world's greatest detective, after all.

I'd rather see who everyone thinks is more skilled at manipulating people--Wayne or Luthor. Because we all know they've each done their fair share of manipulating people. Just for different reasons.

[Ricky Paradise]

Bruce Wayne is much more smarter, as evidenced in the JLA: World War III story arc.

[TheSteve]

I would say Lex Luthor, but hear me out on it.

The two of them play a game of chess, I would probably not be willing to place a bet. But really, both of them are in similar situations, both ultra-rich and the head of powerful companies. Yet one of them goes out an periodically finds himself in some serious peril, and the other one hires people to do the same for him.

Typical Day of Fighting Crime for Batman

Go out beat up thugs, possibly encounter some form of kingpin, get shot at a lot, probably kicked and punched a few times.

Go home, take a shower, find some bandaids, stitch up that nasty gash he got, put an icepack on the bruise on his arm.

Sleep, wake up and pretend that you did nothing all night but sleep while being chipper and running a huge business.

Typical Day of being a Criminal for Lex

Roll into work around 8am after having a full nights sleep. Make some phone calls from a comfortable leather chair sitting behind a large desk with a TV nearby to keep an eye on current events.

Around 10am have a cup of coffee... brought to him.

Sign a few papers here and there, oversee a few "Kill Superman Zap-O-Ray Gun" projects.

Take a late lunch and have sushi from no doubt one of the better cooks in the area. Recieve a phone call informing you that one of your insideous plans is functioning just as predicted. Recieve a phone call informing you that Superman broke one of your toys again, luckily insurance covers it.

At the end of the day go home to a nice large house that you actually inhabit. Watch some news and does his best Mr. Burns impersonation as he comes up with another idea which he makes a phone call about in order to put it into action, then goes to bed with his favorite teddy bear.

The most dangerous situation Lex puts himself in each day is shaving that crome dome he sports. On a bad day he might get caught in traffic. A bad day for Batman involves a Robin getting killed. I think Lex wins this competition.

[TheRetreater]

ouch Steve, got many bones to pick with you

1. Shaving his Chrome Dome is by far NOT the most dangerous thing he does... he doesn't have to shave it. It is that way without the assistance of a razor.

2. I'm pretty sure he doesn't get a full nights rest all the time. He seems to have been locked into thinker mode at night, often times opting out of sleep to help advance his plots or techno-gizmos.

And 3. Have you seen his supervillian costume. Anyone wearing that atrocity absolutely cannot be in the run for smartest man. the only saving grace is that it is mostly green. mostly.

Gawd, what is wrong with you.

which brings me to point 4. Yeah, it's Lex.

amusing anecdotes aside, Lex is the Doom of DC. If Lex took over the world we would prolly be better off. He would do a phenomal job as leader, scientific advancement would boom, worldwide problems would be solved. It is what he does. They are completely different kinds of smart, Batman and Luthor. But Batman is smalltime compared to Luthor. As a citizen you would be faced with the Watchman dilemma once Luthor took over, yeah he's vile, yeah he used underhanded methods, but ummm, the world is better off for it.

Before Superman: Red Son came out I had this vision of Luthor (which paralleled my vision of Von Doom) that if he beat Superman, Batman, and whoever else lines up against him, world citizens would ultimately be more content than ever once he starts his reign. Philosophically, this contentness is the most important thing for me so I would give the smarter man title to the one I feel is most capable of using his brain to give that to the world.

Batman has a moral compass that Luthor doesn't have, which is an advantage to Luthor in this arguement. But even if Batman didn't have that guide, I don't think he would be able to accomplish what Luthor could.