A lot of superheroes have nerdy alter egos to throw people off from their secret identity. I'm looking at you, Clark Kent. It is completely disingenuous and frankly insulting to real nerds everywhere. I think we need to stop supporting all these cool dude superheroes and only support the nerdy ones. Here are badass nerdy superheroes.
Beast
Beast's large frame and agility come from his mutant power, but his appearance comes from a science accident turned awesome. He is often seen in a lab coat and glasses as he tends to spend most of his free time doing science stuff. When he isn't doing awesome science stuff, he goes around ripping the heads off of boring robots.
Quailman
Quailman is pretty much completely socially unaware. He wears his underwear on the outside and a belt on his head. That doesn't stop him from being a badass. If it weren't for him, who would protect the world from Dr. Klotzenstein? I don't know that he's autistic for sure, but I bet you could throw a jar full of Skittles in the air and he'd have them counted before they hit the ground.
Donatello
Donatello doesn't get the respect that he deserves. Everyone loves the other turtles for their leadership, attitude, and love of partying. Sometimes Donatello gets forgotten. I think he is the most inspirational of them all. He lives in a sewer yet still managed to learn advanced robotics in addition to being a badass ninja. I think Lifetime should make a movie of the week about him.
Doctor Manhatten
Despite being a pretty much god-like being that has infinite power at his will, he still takes time to do do physics research and create new technology to help mankind. Seriously though, is it too much to ask him to put on a pair of pants every once in a while?
Spider-Man
Spider-Man's whole thing is that he's a huge nerd. When he was created, one of the problems that Stan Lee had with superheroes was that they would be two different people when they had the costume on or off. Peter Parker is always a huge dorkwad whether he's wearing his mask or not. You can pretty much thank him for everyone on this list and also ultimately why nerds became cool and why you have a girlfriend. Spider-Man did that.
Hulk
Hulk isn't always the overpowered lumbering beast that we all know and love. There are times when he has the intelligence of Bruce Banner giving him the affectionate nickname "Nerd Hulk." Despite Banner's intelligence, it's probably still pretty hard for him to do delicate experiments. That's why I'm starting a Kickstarter to fund a giant laboratory so we can finally get Hulk in there to solve all of the world's problems.
Red Robin
You know that you must be something really special if you're considered to be the "smart one" in the Batman family. For a while, Tim Drake didn't even go out in the field to fight crime. He just stayed at home and fought crime on the internet. It's good to go where you're needed I guess. It doesn't really make for that compelling of a story though. I definitely prefer him to kick ass the old fashioned way with all sorts of sweet gadgets.
The Ghostbusters
You all know the Ghostbusters. They are a team of scientists who protect New York City from ghosts, demons, and giant marshmallow men. They formed their ghost fighting team because they lost their funding to study parapsychology. So they're basically are superheroes as their day job just so they can continue their scientific research. That's about as nerdy as you can get.
Forge
Forge's mutant power is that he is a super nerd. It allows him to fix anything and build pretty much any technology you could conceive of from scratch. He's the one repsonsible for a lot of the coolest X-Men storylines because of the time travel machine that he builds in the future. Now if he could only build me a robot girlfriend then everything in my life would be perfect.
Captain Planet
Captain Planet is the nerdiest super hero on this list. Just look at him. Not convinced? Listen to him say anything. If I were a millionaire, I would totally make the feature length version of Captain Planet starring Don Cheadle.
Which nerdy superhero do you think is the most badass? Let me know on twitter @zachlunch or in the comments below!
