Comics / Comic Reviews / DC Comics

Mister Terrific #6

By Hervé St-Louis
March 20, 2012 - 14:24

Mister Terrific is in Iceland helping an old flame set up a new clean energy speed train system while they are attacked by a new French villain, the Tomorrow Thief. Unknown to the Tomorrow Thief, Michael Holt which he tosses out of the train is also Mister Terrific. The do battle in the cold landscape of Iceland. But only one of them will come out alive. Which one will it be?

As the series’ cancellation has been announced several months ago, it really does not matter what I write about this series which I really tried to support because Mister Terrific is just that kind of a good character. This story doesn’t do much to help the faltering series because the artwork is mainly atrocious. I didn’t think they could come up with someone worse than the regular artist. They did. Oliver Nome’s work is not ready at all and feels like something dredged up from the bad portfolio of a 1990s artist. It has all the inspiration of the Image Comics gang, but without the subtleties. Nome’s posing is forced and unnatural. It’s a bad case of ugly portfolio rage. Yes, the characters are raging. They even grit their teeth once in a while. My worse criticism is reserved for Tomorrow Thief’s costume. It’s a variant of Mister Terrific, including scheme and colours. But he’s never heard of Mister Terrific before...

Maybe the problem with Walace’s scripts is that he’s been plagued with so so artists. Maybe with a better illustrator covering his work, it would all feel much better. Yeah right. It’s a short story filled mumble jumble pseudo science, as much of this series has been, but little to make it feel realistic. Here, I’ll compare it with another series that has done quite well in covering science and technology in a believable way. The Incredible Iron Man series by matt Fraction which I enjoy to criticize so much has one thing going for it even if it covers technology which I feel is old tech by the time it appears in print. It actually make it all sound plausible and the suspense of disbelief works to some extent. That’s partly because the artist Salvador Larroca illustrates all the widgets with taste and panache. It’s not just a big piece of crap that looks like tech being passed on. It feels real because it actually interacts with the world around it. How Fraction explains the use of technology within the confines of the comic book also works because he’s done decent research and integrates it well enough with the narrative. With Wallace, technology is just some gadget he pulls out of his bag of trick to be used when necessary.

Rating: 6 /10

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12