Each year for Black History Month, we at DC celebrate the very best in the DC Universe’s large Black hero community. And in that community, many of the most popular heroes are highly educated, supremely intelligent crimefighters who apply both their powers and their wits to save the day. From a brilliant scientist who found greater purpose after a horrific tragedy, to a courageous engineer who stepped up at his city’s direst moment, to a living computer who has the world’s collective intelligence at his fingertips, there’s no shortage of Black minds helping to shape the direction of the DCU and ensure it remains on the right side of history. Let’s look at five of the very best.
 

Cyborg was trained to be a living computer before becoming one

The half-man, half-machine hero of the Titans and the Justice League, Cyborg has long been known for his ingrained mastery of computers and engineering thanks to his robotic brain. But his human brain was prepared long before the accident that forced his transformation occurred.

The son of geniuses Silas and Elinore Stone, young Victor Stone had been primed since childhood to maximize the full potential of his mind, ensuring he received an education like no other. This made Vic a genius student, but also occasionally resulted in his feeling like an outcast in his own home as he yearned to play with other kids and explore new things. In high school, Vic participated in sports and worked hard to earn a college scholarship, pursuing Olympic-level athleticism. Soon afterward, he suffered a tragic accident that took his mother’s life and ruined his body, prompting his father to save his life by merging what remained of his body with cybernetics. Unfortunately, it also shut the door on any chance Vic might have of a normal life.

Seen as an outcast, it wasn’t until Vic met and joined the Teen Titans that he was able to not only put his newfound strength, but also his strong intellect, to worthy use. More than anything, Vic found new friends and family with the Titans, who loved all sides of the young man that had spent his life seeking approval.
 

Out of a terrible accident, something Terrific rises

Of all the super-geniuses in the DCU, few rate as high in pure brainpower than the third-smartest man in the world. Michael Holt’s intelligence is the product of no mere lab accident or even childhood upbringing, he was simply born super-smart. A young prodigy of theoretical physics, he quickly earned Ph.Ds in physics and engineering, with several doctorates in other disciplines such as math and computer science. All this brilliance led him down a path of financial success, earning him millions when he formed a tech company that he later sold to WayneTech.

Michael’s life was set, but he wasn’t happy until he met his wife, Paula. With her, the future looked brighter than ever…until she died in a car accident on her way to church. Religion was the one aspect of her life that Paula and Michael disagreed on, leaving Michael wracked with guilt and looking to end it all before he was visited by God’s Wrath in the form of the Spectre.

Saving him from a gang of muggers, the Spectre told Michael about a former crimefighter who went by the name Mr. Terrific. A motto of that older hero was “Fair Play,” and this stuck with Michael. Using his fortune to develop new crimefighting technology, including his famous T-Spheres, Michael donned a black T-shaped mask over his face and would become the second—and vastly better known—Mr. Terrific.
 

John Henry Irons innovates by day and battles crime at night

For years Metropolis had been guarded by Superman, and Superman alone. In response to this, super-criminals were becoming more sophisticated in their approach to maintaining power. In the wake of Superman’s death at the hands of Doomsday, crime skyrocketed with new weapons hitting the streets, as gang violence bled into every neighborhood. When Dr. John Henry Irons, technician and engineer, realized that his inventions were being used as weapons for gang warfare, he took action. Wearing a super-powered suit of armor of his own design, wielding a high-tech sledge hammer, and donning a red cape in memory of the man who once saved his life, John Henry became the Man of Steel—later known as simply Steel.

As part of Metropolis’s new wave of heroes, Steel waged war on the gangs and eventually any and every super-villain who menaced his city. When Superman was revived, the two men would go on to have numerous adventures together before John Henry founded Steelworks, a tech outfit run by himself and his teenage niece Natasha. This would coincide with his being inducted into the Justice League, on the endorsement of not only Superman, but Batman, who vouched for John Henry’s wizard-like mind in technology.
 

Tanya Spears imbues the Power Girl mantle with more brains than brawn

When we first meet Tanya Spears, she’s on a different Earth than our own! Young Tanya was working as an intern at Starr Industries, the company owned by the Power Girl of Earth-2. A postdoctoral fellow of MIT at age sixteen, Tanya was putting her genius to use at her world’s biggest technological hotspot—which is unfortunately where the forces of Darkseid struck.

An explosion transported Tanya to our world, where she was mysteriously endowed with super strength and invulnerability. Sadly, the attack by Darkseid had taken the life of her mother, prompting Tanya to don the Power Girl mantle and dedicate her mind and new gifts to fight crime. This led her to the Teen Titans, where she would gain friendship with other teen heroes, particularly Robin, who would connect with her over a shared interest in experimental technology.
 

Natasha Irons is as brilliant as her uncle, if a little headstrong

Throughout all of John Henry Irons’ adventures as Steel, the one person by his side was his niece, Natasha. The daughter of his criminal younger brother Clay, Natasha knew of her uncle’s superhero identity well before the rest of the world and stuck with him through thick and thin.

Between moving from Washington to New Jersey to Metropolis, Natasha would not only display an interest in John Henry’s heroism, but also a yearning to become like him someday. The young girl had her own interest in engineering and technology, and soon would learn how to operate the vast armor and weaponry they would develop at Steelworks. When the Imperiex War left Steel nearly dead and unable to pilot his armor anymore, Natasha discovered that his high-tech sledgehammer had been patterned to her DNA, granting her access to his entire armory. She jumped into action as the new Steel, just in time to help save Superman from the villain Byakko.

John Henry was proud, but as his strength to operate as Steel returned, he grew more critical of his niece’s preoccupation with her superhero life, neglecting her studies in favor of furthering her skills as Steel. Their relationship was threatened further when Lex Luthor offered her a spot on his new super-team, Infinity Inc. Unsurprisingly, the offer was a plot, with Luthor going so far as to poison John Henry to distract him from Natasha. In time, the family duo would defeat Luthor, and to this day they both operate at Steelworks and share the mantle of Steel.
 

Donovan Morgan Grant writes about comics, graphic novels and superhero history for DC.com. Follow him on Bluesky at @donomark and X at @donoDMG1.