I liked the Doc Savage book series (they did one movie but didn't follow through with more) because he was just plain smart and developed his brain, his sense of smell, his sense of taste. It was all about "smart" and "trained" and that has an appeal that goes beyond superheros. The first movie I remember watching where the hero was actually doing smart things instead of stupid things was "3 days of the Condor". Actually that might have been the last one as well as the first one... :)