Filed under: Comic Reviews, DC Comics | Tags: DCNew52, EricWallace, GianlucaGugliotta, MisterTerrific
Like many of the other new DC books, this one starts with an explosive struggle and ends with a reveal. Standard stuff for someone who calls himself Terrific.
The artwork is lively and easy to follow. The story starts with a chase scene in London, but it don’t look like the London I know. A bit more Central City with a few distinctive landscape features – Big Ben, the London Eye and the Thames, kinda. The colours are odd – the world is bathed in a red- or green-tinged glow, toning with Mr Terrific’s outfit. As a result, buildings are pink and the river is very, very green.
The character himself is an overachiever, with (according to Wikipedia) degrees, doctorates and five black belts of the martial arts variety. He’s also black – did I mention that before? No? Well if you couldn’t tell already Mr. T will be quick to make it clear.
The main threat in the issue is some sort of mind control, which turns an average Joe into the kind of asshole he’d probably be after a few cans of Tennents Special on a Friday night anyway, resulting in a weepy waitress and a beaten-up down-and-out, albeit with added neck-snapping (I think – although it would have been better with a sound effect, y’know, ‘crrrrak’ or thereabouts).
Plausibility is not something I often question in the DCU but I can’t buy into the little ‘T’ balls that help Mr Terrific fly. I would hazard a guess that he designed those himself, whereas the other far-fetched items in DC tend to be alien and/or from the future. They’re just a little too like Marty McFly’s hoverboard, and most of us are pretty sure that even the brightest human minds won’t cook up a working device like that. (We live in hope.) When he’s not flying, they float about the air like fleas on a manky cat. It’s not just the balls, I’m not keen on the ‘dimensional portal to access my own private sanctum’ either.
Between the colour co-ordination, monogrammed balls and elaborate and very public saves, I was tired of the self-indulgence in just one issue. *Sigh* I suppose with a name like Mr. Terrific… a touch of narcissism is to be expected.
Gillian @surelyshine
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Comics Anonymous 
[…] After a mere glance at previews for the DC new 52 I’d already planned for those I’d follow regardless (Supergirl & the Legion), those that I’d give a go (Green Lantern & I, Vampire) those I’d only read to complete all 52 (Frankenstein, Firestorm). I had Firestorm in the same category as Static Shock and Mister Terrific. All equally vibrant on the front, and all equally unknown to me. After the disappointment of both Mr T and Static, I didn’t hold out much hope for Firestorm. Turned out I was wrong to judge by the cover, what a great read! Sure, Simone’s name on the cover should have been a hint, but I couldn’t have predicted I’d be calling myself a fan after just one issue. The issue of race was handled far better in this title than in Mister Terrific, which was vulgar at best, as I previously pointed out. […]
Pingback by THE FURY OF FIRESTORM #1 « Comics Anonymous October 8, 2011 @ 6:35 pm[…] 52. Mister Terrific – 3.0/10 […]
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