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Which Comic Character Is the Greatest Engineer?
ptorrone writes "From Bruce Wayne to Lex Luthor to Tony Stark — the most popular comic heroes are more than just beefy guys in skin tight suits, they're also business persons, titans of industry and brilliant engineers. While there will always be a lot of debate on who is the strongest or fastest, MAKE has an overview of their 14 top comic book engineers, scientists and hackers."
Also missing from the list is Retardo. Hes the guy who makes up all the stupid internet Top 10 type of lists.
Wiley Coyote... Super Genius.
Though, his reliance on ACME for equipment, should be reconsidered.
Some days I get the sinking feeling Orwell was an optimist.
Since when did Lex Luthor become a hero?
BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
DILBERT!!!
Forge
Just saying,
There are days i envy Dilbert, his company is better run than some I have worked at.
It's probably Alice. Although Wally is my personal hero.
I know this sounds weird, but one of the first "geeky" comics character I was blown away by was Dilton Doiley, part of Archie's crew, in the Strange Science editions.
It was short, it was funny, and he was a geek who got the girl. All these other guys are great, but they had supernatural powers or wealth, or other things going for them. Dilton just... conducted home experiments! Of course, he had his own lab, but still, as a regular kid, you could aspire to be him.
The other character I remember from childhood, of course, was Tom Swift. Amazingly inspirational -- although, not a lot of comics of him out there (I've seen a few, but not many).
Which Comic Character Is The Greatest Engineer?
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Along with a couple of posters at the linked site, I thought of him first before starting to read the article....
Mandark.
signature is pants
Gyro Gearloose and Ludwig Von Drake
and of course Rodney Copperbottom
Girl Genius.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Professor Butts...a name probably not as well known as his creator.
Momentarily, the need for the construction of new light will no longer exist.
Stone De Croze, the Original Guernseyman. The rest had the benefit of education, textbooks and suppliers. Stone De Croze invented stuff before inventing had been invented.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Star Trek has been a comic franchise since the 70's. It is only fair that Scotty should be on that list.
Now, if only MacGyver had a comic book...
Slow Down Cowboy! It's been 1 hour, 47 minutes since you last successfully posted a comment
My vote would have been for Alice. She's the top engineer in her company, she's developed patents that earned her company 2 billion dollars in revenue, and her fist-of-death is legendary. All this after she overcame the handicap of being a woman....
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
Its amazing the work that kid could do. Building the most advanced machines by seemingly only ever tightening a bolt with a spanner
. .
But Dexter from Dexter's Lab is a contender.
I vote for calvin and hobbes - more specifically hobbes. His ideas when playing calvin ball are excellent.
Doc Savage in the library with a pipe wrench, WINNING!
Comics have the fine tradition of using fictional technological invention as a little more than a convenient plot device. This makes it little more than a magic item replacement for the technological age.
Since when was this the sole domain of the comic books?
Sonic Screwdriver anyone?
. .
With stats like that, our next Republican President will be attacking Latveria before the bible is put away.
Bulma from Dragon Ball/Dragon Ball Z!
The only woman Vegeta fears...
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
Come on, can't forget Donatello!
.... Doctor Impossible.
Have gnu, will travel.
Gadget Hackwrench
http://rangerwiki.net/images/e/e9/Gadget_extra_parts.jpg
Yes, there is a Chip & Dale's Rescue Ranger's wiki site. God bless you, Intertoobs.
At least if you ask Grant Morrison.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Professor Hawk.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
I was going to say they left out Dr. Manhattan, but then they included Ozymandias.
(galactically huge spoilers here)
Hard choice there. They say Ozymandias out-smarted Manhattan, but really he merely got him out of the way long enough to succeed at his plan. And failed to kill him, which was part of his original plan. If Manhattan had known of the plan, and it had become a battle of wits, it's no question who'd win. But since by the time Manhattan knew of it it had already occurred, Manhattan merely had to accept it as logical. Which, in fact, he might have done anyway if Ozymandias had merely included him in on it. Manhattan wasn't emotional about humanity and didn't become concerned about humanity until Ozymandias displaced him, giving Laurie a reason to think Manhattan had to be convinced to come home.
So Ozymandias probably chose the wrong strategy with Manhattan. And not remembering that Manhattan was capable of reforming his intrinsic field was a massive joke.
Yup. Manhattan. If it's a matter of engineering, and not sneaky politics, he wins this whole thing without lifting a finger.
to bad macgyver is not a Comic Character as he would top all of the people listed hear.
Everyone in the Marvel Universe gets their cool stuff from him, even Tony Stark...
And what about Victor Von Doom/Dr Doom?
Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
What other engineer can take a cardboard box, turn it into a transmorgifier, then make it into a time travel machine and then make it into a duplicator? Not to mention that, when he added an ethicator to his duplicator, he built in a moral compromise spectral release phantasmatron. Sheer genius!
http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2011/04/05/
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
How could it possably be anyone else?
nuff said.
A ten years old kid that has built with his own hands a secret lab, a super computer with the most adavanced IA, tons of robots and a freakin three story tall super robot should be the ONLY canditate here.
Specifically, his webbing, which is entirely Peter Parker's creation (regardless of what the movie suggested). I mean, that and all his playing around with advanced physics and chemistry.
I am officially gone from
Anyway enough mancrushing..., lets look at the competitors.
- A genius top be sure, but not so much a maker. He is much better at manipulating people....his powersuits and such don't often accomplish their goals....
- A drunk with access to nice toys. That's it.
- Impressive, but always just makes whats needed in the nick of time, doesn't compare to Batman.
- Access to 1000 years of technological progress, and should be disregarded.
- Not really an engineer, someone who benefited from advanced technology.
- No Idea
- No Idea.
- No Idea
- Not really an engineer at all...nothing he made was particular impressive...unless you count the whole squid plan....
- No Idea
- No Idea
- Relies on powers and political power more than engineering anything, at the most at reed's level.
Batman wins.
If you ignore ACs because they are anonymous - you're an idiot.
There are other aliens on his list, so this is fair game. First they created an army of super robots to enforce justice in the form of the Manhunters. Then they created the ultimate weapons and power sources in the Green Lantern rings and power batteries. And never underestimate the social engineering skill it takes in building an organization made up of hundreds of races, genders and species in the Green Lantern Corps.
Or maybe it should be Penny...
The best way to predict the future is to invent it.
Ash from Army of Darkness. The dude invents a working artificial hand in just a few days, using midevil engineering supplies.
God spoke to me.
Missing from the list [...] Ray Palmer (The Ant) [...] I think maybe Professor X could make it in, but 14 was quite a bit
Ray Palmer is the Atom.
Professor X has little to no technical expertise. The Danger Room was made by his space alien girlfriend.
Ozymandias didn't do most of the work for his "engineering", he just set up a pyramid scheme of scientists and engineers (including Dr. M), and put it all together.
Forge makes stuff all the time. He's constantly whipping up new crap that he dismantles later.
Reed Richards? He regularly invents "Science!" stuff, and a lot of it becomes mainstream in the Marvel universe (like the water breathing pills and unstable molecule suits). All the superheros come to _him_ whenever they have an issue.
Best of all: Dr. Doom. He's invented devices in less than a day that steal Silver Surfer's Cosmic Power, The Cosmic Cube's power, and The Effing Beyonder's powers.
What about Washu? Isn't she the universes greatest scientist?
Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
Didn't even get to the title of the article, which is "Which Comic Book Character Is The Greatest Maker Of All Time?", eh?
;)
Alice is a character in a comic "strip", not in a comic "book".
Technicalities *do* matter when one is dealing with geeks debating about which imaginary character is superior.
http://dresdencodak.com/
'When the Going gets Weird, the Weird turn Pro.' - Hunter S. Thompson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AT1GdI0Rbo
I think Skuld would beat most of the wimps on his stupid list. Heck, Urd would probably be a lot better choice than his Marvell list of idiots.
Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
Didn't even get to the title of the article, which is "Which Comic Book Character Is The Greatest Maker Of All Time?", eh?
Alice is a character in a comic "strip", not in a comic "book".
Technicalities *do* matter when one is dealing with geeks debating about which imaginary character is superior. ;)
Heh. I like how the offensive part of my post wasn't referring to being a woman as a handicap.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
The unnamed "Evil Scientist" should get an honorable mention. Also the inventor of the portable hole.
Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
Shouldn't this be tagged as idle and thus be filtered out (for me)?
I think I've found an editor worse than Samzempus and Roblimo.
All that engineering talent and still Reed Richards is Still Useless.
And he's also Earth-616's Scientist Supreme. http://marvel.wikia.com/Scientist_Supreme So says Eternity. http://www.comicvine.com/hank-pym/29-2247/since-pyms-been-recognized-as-the-scientist-supreme-by-eternity/92-532715/
But I hear Eternity gave Hank the title under duress (Dr. Pym threatened to rape Eternity).
Dr. Jonas Venture was pretty awesome. Shame that Dr. Thaddeus "Rusty" Venture tried to use those coat tails to make a name for himself. Albino computer scientist Pete White and hydrocephalic "boy genius" Master Billy Quizboy have more raw talent than "Rusty".
"He's lost in a 'floyd hole"
He's a super genius engineer, and also technically a supervillain. Right now he is building a giant underground lair under Greg Dean's apartment. Other inventions have been time machines, spacecraft, supercomputers, you name it.
Occasionally living proof of the Ballmer peak.
Have a look at the other side of the Ocean: Professor Cuthbert Calculus: Realistic moon rocket in the mid-1950s, color TV, mini submarine, ...
Another that comes to mind is professor Farnsworth from Futurama. He invented XXX century's robots, built a spaceship that moves the entire universe, and got laid, several times.
Mexico: 100% conservative's America now!
I can't believe nobody on /. mentioned, Linus "Microchip" Lieberman, of Punisher fame! Though I guess he wasn't THE hero of those series.
That is all.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
Missing:
Elroy Jetson
Tinker from Speed Buggy (He build a frigging sentient dune buggy)
Rhinox from Transformer: Beast Wars
loose: not fitting closely or tightly != lose: to suffer the deprivation of
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyro_Gearloose I remember his from Donald Duck magazine. Made many wonder machines and just plain and boring spaceships to travel distant planets.
I think Pat and Mat win this one. Look at some of the animated short stories below and check some more about them on wiki.
http://www.patmat.cz/?lang=e
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_%26_Mat
If programs would be read like poetry, most programmers would be Vogons.
Leonard from Quirm appears in a kind of comic book. "The last hero" by Prattchet, I mean.
Now that's an engineer. Too bad Terry did not include bloody stupid Johnson in this story.
My first thought was 'no DIlbert?' but that one is already mentioned in comments. Another 'greatest engineer' would be Grunf from Alan Ford. and my fav: Gaston Lagaffe http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a6/Gastonpied.gif
Exactly what I was about to post! He is a character that is foremost an engineer. Professor Calculus is from the Tintin series by Herge (in the French language originals he is named Tournesol), and the character is supposedly based on the great real-life inventor and explorer Auguste Piccard (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auguste_Piccard ) On the other hand, most of the characters in the article were unknown to me (a Finn), so continentalocentrism cuts both ways.
Rocket motors sputtering out all of the time, detonators failing, wings collapsing, etc. and ad nauseam....I second that.
I also cast my vote for Wiley Coyote without reservation.
I also would like to propose the creation of a 'Wiley Coyote' award to be used for those that show exceptional ability to single-mindedly pursue a single goal...no matter what happens.
Dedication to the mission, perseverance, and willing to bounce right back into it, no matter what.
Maybe set it up like the Nobel awards work, with a committee to vote on the winner from a pool of candidates.
The candidates would be selected by ?....Profit!!!
I would like to get my foot in the door and suggest for the voting committee:
1. Scott Adams
2. Gary Larson
3. Frank Zappa
4. scratch #3, he's dead, Jim.
5. George Carlin...dammit, see #4
6. The Gong Show crew
7. *continue list here*
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
Obviously, it's Gaston Lagaffe!
/.Mattsson - My native language is not English, so please don't whine over linguistic errors. (That's lame anyway...)
...and Little Helper. NN
Not from Muppet Labs, but from ExTechOp (a subsidiary of SHIELD) in the Elektra graphic novel. His work on the revivification of Arthur Perry was incredible, even if ultimately flawed.
Sean Ellis
Follow OfQuack's antics on Twitter.
The bottomless bank account.
For strict engineering cred, my vote goes to Peter Parker. Sure, he had super powers, but he also engineered some pretty spiffy tech on a shoe-string budget.
Handy Smurf beats them all.
Lex Luther makes Isambard Kingdom Brunel look inadequate. But I think Tony Stark has some "uber skillz". But the engineer from TF2 could take them all on...NOPE.AVI.
Most of the engineers on the list have the best labs that money can buy and virtually unlimited bank accounts to buy the most exotic of materials.
Meanwhile, Peter Parker gets by on a photojournalist's salary and tinkers in his spare time.
Calvin of Calvin and Hobbes fame. The ethicator, with the moral compromise spectral release phantasmatron. The transmogrifier. The time machine. The cerebral enhance-o-tron. The duplicator. The invisible cretinizer. Oh, and the bed-making robot (although that one did fail). Need I list more?
-- I am the Monkey Guru.
I mean heck any smuck can manipulate existing matter and energy, but to create the aforementioned items, plus creating all the rules behind it, AND knowing all the nifty ways the rules can play out? That's well beyond anyone here no?
True, he started out in a bunch of books, but he then appeared in every media know to man, so I think god still counts.
The Tick is a cartoon, not a comic book, but Mother-of-Invention would have to be my favorite scientist villain. Probably not the best (I think he would even admit that) but using a time-machine (which was already invented) to go back through time to kidnap inventors so that he could then invent their inventions! Genius.
Doc Savage, who else ?
Admit it you always wanted to be like BOFH. He's da man!
There are two rules for success:
1. Never tell everything you know.
Hands down, the brightest was Tony Stark, creating himself a mini emp device that generated enough electricity to power a small city, but also with enough mg force to stop that metal splinter from slipping into his heart, then you have all the suits over the years he worked on, of which war machine was the most prominent.
Sure, you can build bombs or this or that...but when you travel a multitude of different types of creations....of which from what I saw in the movie even included captain americas shield if that was just a preview, although we know stark was not responsible for it in the comics.
Heh. I like how the offensive part of my post wasn't referring to being a woman as a handicap.
Well, I think we all know women personally...
Women are still upset that they make about as much less as men as the amount less time they spend in the office. If that's not a handicap I don't know what is. The being upset, I mean.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I second the vote for Wally. The best piece of wisdom I've ever seen in the entire run of the strip came from him: "I've found that if you wait long enough, most problems take care of themselves." (Said to Dilbert after he busted his butt to meet a deadline on a project that was subsequently cancelled). I call it "Wally's Rule".
Gune should get an honorable mention:
"Does this look familiar? Do you know what it is? Neither do I. I made it last night in my sleep. Apparently I used Gindrogac. Highly unstable. I put a button on it. Yes. I wish to press it, but I'm not sure what will happen if I do..."
Caffeine is my anti-drug!
Duranin - A NWN2 Roleplaying Persistent World
He's got a Phd and has extra arms to build stuff with!
Toyman probably fits the Maker profile... literally...
I know off the top of my head I first thought of: Forge, Lex, Brainaic, and Mr. Fantastic which are all on the list.
Though if you want to get into the ridiculously overpowered comic book folks, like Apocalypse, DarkSeid, and Thantos and the Infinity Gauntlet where they can pretty much just manipulate the universe to their will including their own molecular makeup, they are really only limited by their imagination.
I guess that would also make Galactus the un-maker? Maybe the Anti-Monitor...
The Invader. Alternately, his super-rival Dib.
Never argue with a man carrying a water buffalo
Of course!
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Comment removed based on user account deletion
Here's a late vote for a web-only entry: Kevyn Andreyasn of Schlock Mercenary.
Inventor of the Teraport transportation system, he started a galaxy spanning war, successfully used a wormhole for time travel, and embeds antimatter into his Officer rank epaulets so that he can use them as antitank rounds/13.75 kiloton bombs as necessary.
Perhaps he's not as prolific as Tony Stark or Bruce Wayne, but he thinks big =)
"Space Exploration is not endless circles in low earth orbit." -Buzz Aldrin
::applause::
She's all the more impressive since her comic is limited by real-world physics which the author tries very hard to get right.
William
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
Known Space has no comic form.
I have nothing to lose but my bindings.