Despite being the smartest individuals in the Marvel universe, some heroes' egos get the best of them, blinding them from calamity down the road.
The Marvel Universe is full of some of the smartest minds in comics. Bringing brilliant tragedies and solutions to every problem, they've made incredible discoveries and achieved impressive success. Without these great minds, some world-ending events that struck the Marvel Universe might have gone terribly wrong.
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However, there have been multiple occasions where the biggest brains in the Marvel Universe were outsmarted and caught off-guard by their adversaries or the consequences of their own actions. These unexpected problems proved out of reach for even the smartest heroes, and usually led to dire consequences.
The Illuminati were a group of the world's smartest and influential heroes, formed in secret by Tony Stark and commissioned as a proactive defense force for their planet. With the likes of Dr. Reed Richards, the Black Panther, Dr. Strange, Professor Charles Xavier, the Inhuman king Black Bolt, and Namor, the Illuminati possessed a wealth of power, intelligence, and resources to do considerable good in the world.
However, despite all their intelligence, the Illuminati were outflanked by the Skrull Empire in the aftermath of the Kree-Skrull War. After being detained and experimented on by the Skrulls for a period of time, the Illuminati involuntarily gave the Skrulls enough information to prepare their long-term assault plan on Earth. Never anticipating their actions could come back to haunt them, they realized their error when things came to fruition in the Secret Invasion event.
In the Ultimate Universe of Earth-1610, Dr. Reed Richards was one of the foremost scientists on the planet. Richards experienced great loss and pain after his breakup with Sue Storm and the disbanding of the Fantastic Four. Years later, Reed faked his own death and launched a full-scale attack on the world, now going by the name, The Maker.
Using his superior intellect, Richards arranged attacks on many of the Ultimate Universe's heroes. He even attacked Washington, D.C., killing the President of the United States. Richards' plans went largely undetected by Nick Fury, the Ultimates, and all of S.H.I.E.L.D. Likewise, the rest of the intellectual elite were left bamboozled by Richards' superior intellect.
Hank Pym has defended the Earth as Ant-Man, Giant-Man, Yellowjacket, and plenty of other monikers. A founding member of the Avengers, Pym has always been right at the center of Earth's Mightiest Heroes, but his legacy as an Avenger has been stained with a handful of infamous moments. One that's constantly haunted Pym is the sentient A.I., Ultron.
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During the Rage of Ultron, Ultron faced off the Avengers once more. The Vision and Hank Pym — Ultron's son and father, respectively — formulated a plan to destroy Ultron once and for all. However, they were both thwarted by Ultron after he tricked Hank into merging with him. Effectively killing Hank Pym, Ultron's perfect plan shocked the Avengers to their core.
Another mistake made by the Illuminati started in the Planet Hulk storyline, when the think-tank decided to shoot Bruce Banner into space, exiling him to a far-away planet. Attempting to give Bruce peace on a different world and rid the Earth of the Hulk's unstoppable rage, the Illuminati believed they had made a difficult, but necessary decision.
What they didn't expect was for the Hulk to return to Earth. The Hulk came back stronger than he had ever been, known now as "the World Breaker." Hulk destroyed New York City and took out his personal vengeance on the Illuminati in the World War Hulk event. Because they never planned for his return, the Hulk easily outsmarted the Illuminati.
After learning about the incursions, the Illuminati assembled the Infinity Gauntlet, led by Captain America, to stop the coming doomsday. The attempt failed, and the Illuminati agreed to wipe Captain America's memories, and went on with their work in secret.
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However, the Illuminati were completely shocked when Captain America regained his memories of the incident after Uatu the Watcher died. His memories retored, Captain America enlisted the Avengers to hunt down the Illuminati in the Time Runs Out event, making them fugitives from the law.
In the wake of the Avengers Vs X-Men event, Scott Summers established a "mutant revolution," and some of the strongest X-Men joined his ranks, including Magneto, Emma Frost, and Magik. Adopting a more radical rhetoric, Scott Summers was set in his ways, and no amount of convincing from his former allies would change his mind.
Shocked by his former teammates' actions, Beast did something completely unexpected: he travelled back in the time stream, and brought a past version of Scott Summers — along with the rest of the original X-Men — to the present. Beast's hope was to show the present Scott how far he had fallen. This development had a profound effect not only on the time stream, but on the Young X-Men and the present-day X-Men at large.
During the Avengers: Disassembled event, the Avengers experienced the worst day in their history. Avengers Hawkeye, Vision, and Scott Lang were all killed, and Avengers Mansion was destroyed. The event proved so traumatic that it caused the eventual disbanding of the Avengers.
Making things even worse, the Avengers learned Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch and a long-time Avenger, had caused all the events leading to Avengers' disbanding. Despite knowing the vast amount of power Wanda wielded, the Avengers never prepared for a full scale attack like this. After losing control of her reality-altering powers, the Scarlet Witch lashed out and altered reality, destroying the Avengers' world in the process.
Brian Michael Bendis' Civil War 2 event in 2015 sought to split the heroes of the Marvel Universe down the middle. An incredibly powerful Inhuman known as Ulysses came forward claiming he had the power to predict the future, especially future threats to the world. With this power, Ulysses could anticipate world-ending events before they happened.
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While Captain Marvel wanted to use Ulysses as a primary source in predicting and preventing dangerous events, Iron Man objected because nobody truly knew how Ulysses' powers worked. Because he hadn't been wrong yet, no one on Captain Marvel's side entertained the notion that Ulysses could give an inaccurate vision. It wasn't until much later that everyone learned Ulysses was seeing possible futures, not absolute guarantees.
The Hulk has been one of the most famous Marvel heroes for decades since his original appearance in 1962. Bruce Banner, wrecked with guilt over the actions of his green alter-ego, has sought every single resource across the world and galaxy trying to cure himself. On occasion, Bruce has successfully controlled his alter-ego, turning into the Hulk only when he wills it.
Fully committed to his cause, Banner has sought the help of some of the greatest minds in the Marvel Universe. The likes of Reed Richards, Doc Samson, and even Doctor Doom have helped provide short-term solutions, but the Hulk determination never fails to surprise everyone, even Bruce Banner himself.
When Moira MacTaggert brought Magneto and Professor X together to create the mutant nation of Krakoa, she succeeded in creating a mutant haven. However, Moira forced Magneto and Xavier to agree to never resurrect the mutant pre-cog Destiny, ensuring Moira's plans wouldn't be thwarted.
However, despite Moira's best efforts, Destiny's lover, Mystique, stopped at nothing to resurrect her. Magneto and Professor X made several attempts to delay Mystique, but she outsmarted all of Krakoa's leaders. Despite knowing how devious Mystique could be, Xavier and Magneto failed to keep a close eye on her and were completely blindsided in the end.
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My name is RaguVarman Raguparan. I am a List Writer for CBR, as well as an undergraduate at Concordia University in Montreal.
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