In general, Superman is so much more than the sum of his powers — but Christopher Reeve's version was the smartest Man of Steel compared to Henry Cavill or Tom Welling. In 1978, Richard Donner's Superman: The Movie brought the world's greatest superhero to movie screens for the first time in a Hollywood blockbuster. Audiences immediately believed a man could fly, as the film's posters advertised. Even today, Reeve's Superman remains the enduringly popular standard by which other versions of the Last Son of Krypton in movies and TV are measured. But along with arguably being the most powerful incarnation of Superman, Reeve's Kal-El was also the most intelligent.
Just about everyone knows the basics of Superman's awesome powers: He can fly, first and foremost. He has Herculean strength and he's invulnerable to almost all forms of physical harm. He has super hearing, with his X-Ray Vision, he can see through almost anything (except lead), and he can emit Heat Vision from his eyes. But besides his suite of godlike powers, the most underrated aspect of Superman is his mind. To perform miraculous feats like catching airplanes falling out of the sky, Superman has to have a thorough understanding of aerodynamics and physics (even as he, himself, defies the laws of physics). As he travels around the world, he has to possess an encyclopedic knowledge of geography, and also astronomy when he ventures into outer space. Superman is actually one of the smartest people in the world — because he has to be, and this was a key aspect of the Man of Steel the late, Julliard-trained Christopher Reeve was charmingly able to convey.
To be able to do everything Superman can do, he needs to have the intellect to back it up. Superman: The Movie went to great lengths to establish just how intelligent the Man of Steel is and where he got the vast amounts of knowledge he possesses. This is a vastly underrated but hugely important aspect of being Superman that other TV and movies about the Last Son of Krypton, like Smallville and Zack Snyder's Man of Steel, have also emulated. However, no Superman's education was as complete as Christopher Reeve's big, blue boy scout's, and here's why his Superman was the smartest of them all.
Superman Spent 12 Years Learning Galactic Knowledge From Jor-El
Christopher Reeve's Superman's brains literally come from his father, Jor-El (Marlon Brando). Immediately after Krypton exploded, baby Kal-El's education began as the ice crystals in his rocket ship began his instruction as he zoomed towards Earth. Clark Kent's adoptive parents in Smallville taught him human decency and restraint, but when Clark was 18, he left Kansas and ventured "north," where he built the Fortress of Solitude and reunited with a hologram of Jor-El. This is where Clark's formal education to become Superman truly began.
For 12 years, Clark studied the collective knowledge and wisdom of "the 28 known galaxies" under the guidance of Jor-El. He learned about the fragility of the human heart, the concepts of immortality, and he broke through his "earthly prison" and visited other star systems, including his long-dead homeworld of Krypton. But along with vast amounts of scientific and historical information, he learned poetry and about literature and the arts. All the while, Jor-El stressed his philosophy on how Superman should use his abilities to help the people of Earth, that he should work to be an inspiration for humans to be "a great people" because "they only lack the light to show them the way." By the time Clark turned 30, he was fully-formed, equipped with his red and blue costume, and ready to introduce the world to Superman.
As much as Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman) despised Superman for the unwavering goodness he represents, the self-professed "greatest criminal mind" in existence still respected his enemy's brainpower. Superman passed Luthor's quiz about what a nuclear detonation would do to the San Andreas Fault with flying colors and it was his knowledge of geography that allowed Superman to repair the fault line before the West Coast could fall into the ocean. Superman's smarts came into play throughout the rest of Reeve's Superman films: Once he knew he couldn't physically beat the three Kryptonian villains, General Zod (Terrence Stamp), Ursa (Sarah Douglas), and Non (Jack O'Halloran), he outwitted them and took away their powers with a red sun generator. In Superman III, the Man of Steel knew how to combat disasters like a chemical fire, a tornado, and an oil spill.
Admittedly, the sequels got dumber as they progressed, and by Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, the Kryptonian was using tricks like "Repair the Great Wall of China Vision" instead of relying on his brains. And, of course, Superman flying around the world to reverse time and save Lois Lane's (Margot Kidder) life is one of the biggest cheats in movie history, although it's certainly unforgettable. Still, Christopher Reeve's Superman regularly displayed that he was, in fact, fiercely intelligent, but he was so humble, he always downplayed how far ahead he was compared to everyone else in order to put people at ease. This carried to over to Brandon Routh's Superman as well, since he inherited the character Reeve played in Superman Returns.
Smallville's 10 Seasons Showed Clark's Superman Education
Smallville was the spiritual successor to Christopher Reeve's movies and the long-running TV series adopted nearly all of the films' iconography, including the crystal Fortress of Solitude and, occasionally, John Williams' unforgettable Superman theme. In addition, the actors from the films guest-starred, including Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder. But Smallville stood on its own as a unique spin on Superman's origin. While many fans grumble that it took ten years for Clark Kent (Tom Welling) to finally fly and become Superman, the show's decade-long time frame is comparable to how long Reeve's Clark spent studying with Jor-El in Superman: The Movie.
Welling's Clark had a lot to learn but, in Smallville, fans got to see every part of Clark's education — including his numerous mistakes and growing pains — and in real-time. Jor-El's education of Reeve's Kal-El was mostly implied and he didn't face any villains until he was an adult, but Smallville's Clark was fighting "meteor freak" villains-of-the-week since he was a teenager, and fans got to see him gradually become more powerful and confident as a hero. After high school, Clark spent copious amounts of time in Metropolis and adopted the crimefighting identity of "The Red and Blue Blur," although his interactions with Jor-El (Terrence Stamp) in the Fortress were usually cryptic challenges that left Clark frustrated. Still, he learned and grew.
Happily, Clark's long, bumpy education paid off. Smallville season 10 gave fans a glimpse of Clark's fully-formed Superman 7 years in the future, and he was comparably heroic to Reeve's Man of Steel. Finally, in the Arrowverse's Crisis On Infinite Earths crossover, Smallville's Clark returned for a final time as a confident family man at peace with himself who wasn't easily intimidated by the Lex Luthor (Jon Cryer) from Earth-38. Tom Welling's Clark may not be quite as brainy as Christopher Reeve's, but he learned by doing, and fans saw it all every step of the way.
Man of Steel Gave Superman A Different Kind Of Education
With Man of Steel, Zack Snyder and David S. Goyer gave their Superman (Henry Cavill) a completely different type of education. Cavill's Kryptonian hero only met Jor-El (Russell Crowe) as an adult, and his birth father's hologram gave Clark a rapid-fire download of info in regards to his Kryptonian heritage. But Cavill's Kent's real education came from his travels around the world after leaving Smallville; this Clark saw the best and worst of humanity as he worked odd jobs and covertly saved people. Cavill's Clark was bullied in ways even Reeve and Welling's Clarks weren't, although they both also had to deal with their share of rude people throughout their lives.
Since Jor-El's time with Cavill's Kal-El was truncated, it's hard to gauge just how intelligent Snyder's Man of Steel is and how vast his knowledge of multiple subjects is compared to Reeve. The key difference between Cavill and Reeve is that Cavill had to learn on the job as Superman and he immediately had to face a full-scale invasion of Kryptonians led by General Zod (Michael Shannon), and his inexperience at handling such a threat led to the devastation suffered by Smallville and Metropolis. But based on his travels before he gained his Super suit, it's safe to say that Cavill's Superman accumulated a great deal of life experience and his education came from the school of hard knocks.