10 Things Everyone Always Gets Wrong About Superman

6. He Doesn't Have Super Intelligence (I.E. He's Just As Smart As A Normal Human)

To be fair, this is a pseudo-criteria his own creators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, introduced when they conceived his first villain the Ultra-Humanite; a crippled man who was meant to be just as smart as Superman was strong. The idea was this guy would be the polar-opposite of Superman, thus making him a genius. Later Superman villains Lex Luthor and Brainiac added to this misconception since they were extremely intelligent beings (the latter a 12th level intellect) who posed a dangerous problem to Metropolis. More contemporary audiences may have gotten this idea from the television series Smallville, where fictional character Chloe Sullivan was designated as the go-to character for all the problems involving threats and alien tech (though strangely, the series hinted at his super intellect in the pilot where Clark solved Martha's math calculations easily in his head). This is a mistaken belief that's lead to many absurd claims, such as Batman being able to easily outsmart the Kryptonian. Really, the greatest example of Superman's heightened intellect is his ability to think while moving at lightning speeds. Whether he's racing Flash or fighting Doomsday, his thoughts and perceptions always match his velocity. Alongside that, you have the fact that he's mastered the applications of Kryptonian technology, evidenced with its use at Sue Dibny's house during Identity Crisis. There are even times when he's built robots to care for the Fortress of Solitude, "Ned" being the most known since he was put in charge of Krypto after Superman grounded him. In the New 52, one of the more famous scenes fans may recall is when Superman, in the span of 5 minutes, reads every medical textbook in existence and completes a surgery on Lois Lane in seconds that would normally have taken hours.