Comics / Comic Reviews / DC Comics

Mister Terrific #1

By Hervé St-Louis
September 17, 2011 - 13:14

One of the smartest men on Earth, Michael Holt is Mister Terrific, a polymath who has tons of postgraduate university degrees, tons of patents, money, fame, Olympic medals and much more. But the smartest man on Earth is looking for more and to put his will and skills to the better of mankind. But can a surging super smart villain stop him from achieving this goal? And what about Mister Terrific’s own secret agenda?

I don’t believe that there has ever been a Mister Terrific comic book published. Fans of the Justice Society of America have been begging for one for years. This is a great character that was a relatively late entry to the former DC Comics universe but took people’s interest by storm. He’s that good of a character. The super smart black man seems to be an archetypes in comics and even animation. There’s Doc in Galaxy Rangers, there’s IQ in Bionic Six, there’s Doc in G.I.Joes, there’s. Then there are the heavy weights like the Black Panther and finally Mister Terrific. One main point of contention I have had with how DC Comics has chosen to portray Mister Terrific is as only the third-smartest man in the world. Who are the other ones? This issue asks the question lightly as an inside joke, but the question remains that strong intelligent black men do annoy sensibilities. This series may not survive on the merits alone of featuring a super smart black guy.

Black men are usually better portrayed as athletic figures because their physical attributes are not contested. Some of the biggest black male names in entertainment are athletes. Smart black guys like Bill Cosby annoy because they are uplifting figures that challenge stereotypes and stand apart from the physical and almost animal attributes celebrated in black men. Black men are great athletes and great in bed. Some would even fight you if you even suggested that they were not following this rule. As an animal, the black man is easy to understand. When he turns into angry black man, he scares us, but we also expect no better from him.

Mister Terrific offers the opportunity of challenging all of that cultural crap, but does it really? The series updates his origin a bit removing the direct intervention of a very white man, the Spectre in our hero’s origin. I like that already. Now, Mister Terrific becomes a super hero because of his own darn motivations, although his wife is still the crucial element of his turn around as a hero. The issue by introducing Karen Starr, formerly known as Power Girl as a potential love interest for Mister Terrific also deals with another taboo in black culture, that of the successful black man dating a white woman instead of an equivalent black woman. I like this series already. But what is even better, is that Karen Starr is also breaking the moulds of stereotypes here, by being a very beautiful blond woman, with a brain and a very successful business. She’s more than an equal for Mister Terrific, whether she has her Power Girl powers or not. I can’t wait to see how she will be reintroduced in the new DC Comics continuity. For the first time, Power Girl is really a power girl, and it’s not because of her oversized breasts – which were on display, or her powers. It’s because she is a powerful woman.

The series starts with a mystery and enough motivation to fill two years’ worth of stories. However, visually, it’s a hit and misses. Some pages are gorgeous, others are hideous. This series will need much better art to survive the 52.

Rating: 8 /10

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12