Marvel has subtly confirmed that Ant-Man‘s Hank Pym is the greatest genius in the MCU. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has no shortage of geniuses. Tony Stark famously built his prototype Iron Man suit in a cave with a box of scraps, and went on to conquer time travel. Bruce Banner transformed himself into what Stark described as “an enormous green rage monster.” Looking away from the superheroes, characters like Jane Foster and Erik Selvig shouldn’t be underestimated either.

Naturally, there’s been intense debate among fans over just who is the MCU’s greatest scientific mind. For their part, Marvel Studios has tended to insist the smartest of them all is actually Shuri. Those claims began in January 2017, when Black Panther director Ryan Coogler first claimed Shuri is “on par with Tony Stark,” and her reputation has only grown from there. A year after Coogler’s first comment, Black Panther producer Nate Moor suggested Shuri should be considered “the smartest person in the world, smarter than Tony Stark.”

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And yet, it seems he was wrong. Marvel has recently published The Wakanda Files, a collection of in-universe technical records collected by Shuri as she attempts to create new super-soldiers. They certainly demonstrate her genius, and she effortlessly understands Tony Stark’s designs – and is even a little irritated at them. “Moving parts mean mechanical failure,” she criticizes. “What is the first thing Stark does to Fury’s giant airborne Titanics when he gets ahold of the plans? Replaces the moving parts. He must see the same flaws in his own designs, yet he refuses to address them.” She’s rather more impressed with Hank Pym, though, and when considering his Quantum Pod – seen in Ant-Man & the Wasp – she admits she can’t understand how he came up with it.

“There are no words to express the envy I feel toward Lang and Pym for their time in the Quantum Realm. Pym’s quantum mechanics research is exciting. The possibilities for transportation improvement…

How did Pym get his hands on an EM-drive that works outside of a vacuum chamber? We have been attempted to create a Mach-effect thrust without a reactionary force for months, maybe years. It defies the laws of physics. Unless the Quantum Realm acts as a vacuum chamber? That would prove Heisenberg’s principle of a quantum vacuum. So many questions. We must talk with Pym. Immediately.”

 

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Hank Pym has achieved something even the greatest scientists of Wakanda cannot. In the rest of The Wakanda Files, Shuri is calm and analytical; here, she is breathless and overawed, feeling almost like a fangirl blown away by her idol’s greatest performance. Her incomprehension is all the more impressive given she’s actually studying the plans for the Quantum Pod, successfully retrieved by Wakanda’s War Dogs. She can’t figure out how Hank Pym’s technology works, even when she’s literally reading the schematics.

In the comics, Hank Pym once considered himself Marvel’s “Scientist Supreme.” It looks as though he can stake a claim to that title in the MCU as well, accomplishing feats beyond Shuri and the Wakandan Design Group. It will be fascinating to see his next breakthroughs in Ant-Man 3.

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Key Release Dates
  • Black Widow (2021)Release date: Jul 09, 2021
  • Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)Release date: Sep 03, 2021
  • Eternals (2021)Release date: Nov 05, 2021
  • Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)Release date: Jul 08, 2022
  • Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)Release date: May 06, 2022
  • Black Panther: Wakanda Forever/Black Panther 2 (2022)Release date: Nov 11, 2022
  • The Marvels/Captain Marvel 2 (2023)Release date: Feb 17, 2023
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Thomas Bacon
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Tom Bacon is one of Screen Rant’s staff writers, as well as a Peer Mentor for new writers and a member of the Care Team, offering support and a listening ear to members of the Comics group. A lifelong fan of major franchises including Star Wars, Doctor Who, and Marvel, Tom is delighted his childhood is back – and this time it’s cool. You can find him on Twitter @TomABacon.

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A graduate of Edge Hill University, Tom remains strongly connected with his alma mater as a volunteer chaplain. He’s heavily involved with his local church, and anyone who checks him out on Twitter will swiftly learn he’s into British politics too.

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