Looks like a space biker riding three snooker balls
Tell me if you haven’t heard this concept before. A playboy, super-intelligent business man who’s undergone a tragedy in his life, and who then decides to use his wealth and intellect to help others as a masked hero. If light bulbs have flashed over your heads and the worlds “Wayne” or “Stark” come to mind than you’ve obviously been reading comics from at least 1939, or have been to the cinema in the past 5 years. Mister Terrific has been a long standing member of the JSA and who really had his time to shine in the past few years in storylines such as one of my favourites “Axis of Power” where he quite literally changes history. Yet with the new September 52 throwing the JSA back to Earth-2 (undoing the entire reason for crisis on infinite earth in setting stories back on parallel earths rather than one) how dose the status quo for mister Terrific alter? Let’s pick up Mister Terrific #1 to find out.
The issue opens with Michal dodging lazars in London as he’s then hit by a beam and blown through the wall of Dalton Technologies by its C.E.O. Miles Dalton in robot armour. A small chase through London results with a conclusion on the London eye as were then indulged to the origin story of Mister Terrific. We’re then returned to the present day, as Michal concludes his origin tale to a familiar face of our Karen Starr. We then move to a small café in downtown L.A. where a man starts to act out of character. How is he acting? Pick up Mister Terrific #1 to find out.
As far as first impressions and first issues go Mister Terrific #1 has failed to match up to his Terrific standards. It seems as though Eric Wallace has done what Judd Winick has avoided in his Batwing title, and turned this Mister Terrific into a “black batman” with Michal owning a business, possessing a great intellect, money, a tragedy and a duel identity as well as having his own equivalent to the bat cave with his “T-Sanctuary” in the 9 dimension. To try and not to draw the similarities between the two would be difficult, as they’re as subtle as a giant neon light sign. The issue try’s to do three things at once, and fails in doing so, 1) having action, 2) setting up a back story and 3) setting up the plot for the second issue. In reality what we needed for this first issue was an introduction to Mister Terrific himself and not so much Michal Holt. Wallace should have taken those first 5 pages set in London and stretched them out into one action packed first issue that would have utilized Mister Terrific's intelligence, and shown us what it is that he dose and leave the back-story and setup for the next story for the second issue. The whole issue should have wowed us and made us want to read on. Hook us in on the terrificness of the character and then save the depth and layers for future issues. Instead we get a condensed and lack lustre action sceen with a similar back-story and a set up that doesn’t quite meat it’s potential. It also becomes a problem when I’m far more interested in the secondary character than our primary hero. Karen Starr, head of Starr ware industries and an alias used by Power Girl in the pre 52 DCU appears in this issue as a friend?/love interest?/ Confident? to Michal, yet I’m finding myself more interested in her than I am the main protagonist. Instead of asking myself questions about what Michal’s doing I’m asking myself things like “So is this Karen a human business woman, a Kryptonian from a parallel earth or the grand daughter to an ancient warlock of Atlantis? Where dose she tie in to all of this?” That is not a good sign. Out of all the potential JSA characters that Wallace could have used to help boost Mister Terrifics book they chose the one who had a very popular 27 issue series and whose persona overshadows that of the main characters, and whose current status in the new universe is unknown. Bad move. Gianluca Gugliottas art for this issue is the best part of this issue. Yet saying that it dose seem to have some flaws, most notably in the depictions of Michal’s face, which seem to change in proportion slightly in every panel he’s not wearing his T-Mask/paint. Also Karen Starr seams to have a very, elongated neck, not to mention any pupils in a close up to her eyes, or Michal’s. Also, as far as the character redesigned goes I’m wondering why Terrifics no longer sporting his black Fair play jacket anymore? As far as the colouring and inking go, both have been done very well and deserve their praise, so good work Wayne Faucher (Inks) and Mike Atiyeh (colours).
Overall I give Mister Terrific #1 a 2/5. The series, like many others has potential but in trying to tell too much in this first issue has squandered it. Unfortunately I cannot recommend this to either old readers or new readers alike. Terrific is one of my favourite characters from the JSA so maybe I was expecting a bit to much for this issue, but really it’s fans of the JSA who are mostly going to be picking up this issue, and all of us knowing what Terrific can do. This issue doesn’t do justice to that. So my final conclusion is Mister Terrific #1:-
2/5
