The original Mr Terrific had the worst costume I can remember.  On his chest was his motto.  Not a symbol like a bat or an S.  Not even an initial.  He had his slogan.  And it’s not a macho slogan either.  It’s not ‘go get ‘em’  or ‘kill ‘em all’ or ‘fight’.  It was ‘Fair Play’. How sad.  He was fight crime so that kids wouldn’t cheat each other at Monopoly. Not vengeance, ‘fair play’.

Luckily it is the latest incarnation of the character that has this book.Michael Dalton is the 3rd smartest man in the DC universe.  And to the writers credit, I feel that it is deserved.  He has a lab in the 9th dimension and he comes up with neat inventions.

I’m not sure what to make of the writing.  I’m not sure if I just don’t “get it” or if it is bad.  I like the plot in general.  The flashback story about his origin is done well and with a lot of heart.  But there were some dialogue that made me cringe.  1) There was a scene in London where the onlooker thought he saw ‘a space biker riding three snooker balls’.  I guess it’s funny, but it just took me right out of the action.  How could the onlooker know what ‘snooker balls’ were?  2) There is a later scene where someone asks MR T his name and he responds with ‘Actually, a simple ‘thanks black guy’ for saving us ….’ .  Why’s he got to bring race into it?  Nobody mentioned his race, nobody had an issue with his race, from what was shown nobody noticed his race.  It was a non-issue.  So by bringing it up, is the writer telling us the character is uber-sensitive about race? Or does he think that is what a typical crowd member would be thinking?  It just seemed so out of place.  London is pretty diverse and I doubt anyone would have an issue.  3) The racial conflict between the two women at the party.  Again, do these kinds of conversations take place?  I must be very sheltered, but I would be shocked if someone brought up these issues.  4) The bad guy wants to kill the senator so he unleashes a prototype device to bring the building down.  Has he never seen a gun? or poison?  Why go to such huge lengths to kill someone, when much less effort will do the job?  I guess villains are crazy.

The art is solid and tells the story well.  There are some moments of greatness here and there (the action scene at the beginning) but he needs work on some facial features and emotions.

I liked the character.   B-   —-  Don

Mister Terrific is an awesome character in his usual context of being a member of a team. As a solo character, he’s interesting enough, but all too often can come off as a more science-driven and less brooding Batman. The modern version of the character has a neat twist with his origins being connected to the supernatural while maintaining his own strict scientific outlook. I’m not sure why I’d rather be reading about the “third smartest man in the DCU” rather than number one (Luthor? Batman?), but I actually enjoyed this comic more than I expected.

I still prefer the previous costume details with the black “T-mask” rather than red, and I’d like to see a lot more examples of how Mr. Terrific is “good at everything” (maybe artistically like Marvel’s Taskmaster is portrayed when he is duplicating another characters signature moves) rather than the kind of story that any Batman-level hero can be written into, but this has the makings of a solid book.

B-  —- Ed (wow, I seem to agree with Don even more than I thought I would…)