# Doomsday Clock -- Watchmen Sequel

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doomsday-clock-watchmen-sequel/802613>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [November 24, 2017, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doomsday-clock-watchmen-sequel/802613 "2017-11-24T18:47:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\
**Post date:** [December 29, 2017, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doomsday-clock-watchmen-sequel/802613/21 "2017-12-29T04:27:31Z")

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> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#):
>
> Incidentally, did I miss something with regards to #2?
> 
> Veidt, after a quick library visit, figures that the two smartest locals are Bruce Wayne and Lex Luthor. Now, I’ll grant that Luthor’s brains are common knowledge; he probably touts himself as the world’s smartest man, and he probably has a ton of patents to his name, and whenever his company scores a victory he probably takes all the credit; and that’s why Veidt slips past Luthor’s security to introduce himself as _his_ world’s smartest man, having just found his way from there to here.
> 
> But how would Bruce Wayne be the obvious #2 pick? Wayne smilingly pretends he _isn’t_ the world’s greatest detective. Wayne has, as far as I know, _zero_ patents to his name. Wayne tries very hard, IIRC, to make it look like he’s a playboy who merely owns the inherited business that Lucius Fox expertly runs. It’s like asking who the strongest man around is, and saying _“well, Clark Kent is in the running.”_

Remember when he said that some of the fictional characters in his own world were real people in this new world? He knew how smart Bruce Wayne was because he read comics.

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**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [December 29, 2017, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doomsday-clock-watchmen-sequel/802613/22 "2017-12-29T13:20:58Z")

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That, and consider why Veidt values intelligence in the first place: To him, it’s the way to rack up lots of money, and therefore, having lots of money is a sign of high intelligence. Therefore, since Luther and Wayne are the two richest men in the world (which one is richer, anyway? Is that ever settled?), they must also be the two smartest.

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