DC Round-Up: Michael Holt’s past comes back to haunt him in MR. TERRIFIC: YEAR ONE #1

THIS WEEK: The world’s third smartest man gets an updated origin story in Mr. Terrific: Year One #1.

Note: the review below contains spoilers. If you want a quick, spoiler-free buy/pass recommendation on the comics in question, check out the bottom of the article for our final verdict.

Mr. Terrific: Year One #1

Writer: Al Letson
Artists: Valentine De Landro (p. 4-20) & Edwin Galmon (p. 1-3)
Colorists: Marissa Louise (p. 4-20) & Edwin Galmon (p. 1-3)
Letterer: Lucas Gattoni
Cover Artists: Valentine De Landro & Marissa Louise

Mr. Terrific has been getting a lot of screentime since the DC All In Initiative began. A central figure in the Justice League Unlimited, Michael Holt has taken on a leadership role in the DC Universe, and even appeared as something of an antagonist in the recently-wrapped Challengers of the Unknown series. With the character set to make his big-screen debut in July’s Superman film, there’s perhaps no better time for a series exploring the character’s origins. Enter Mr. Terrific: Year One, the new miniseries from Al Letson, Valentine De Landro, Edwin Galmon, Marissa Louise, and Lucas Gattoni. This week’s first issue sets the stage for Michael Holt to assume his future heroic mantle, while establishing a previously-unseen foil for his past self.

The issue opens with a teaser to a present-day connection between the recent death of Darkseid to Mr. Terrific’s past before spending a majority of the time in the past, before Michael Holt put a T on his face for the first time. As a hero with no superpowers beyond his naturally gifted mind, there’s no spider bite or lightning strike that kickstarts Michael Holt’s journey to becoming Mr. Terrific. That impetus has to come from within, and writer Al Letson does a fantastic job grounding the story of this first issue in Michael as a person. It’s been two years since the death of Michael’s wife and unborn child, and he’s clearly a man who has become unmoored, having sold his business to the first bidder, a woman named Athena Prescott who’s clearly into some unethical activities, and turned what little attention he has left to helping his friend, Dre, develop a personal training app. There’s a fair amount of exposition in this issue, and Letson delivers it smoothly and organically, establishing well that Michael has a long way to go to turning his life around.

After an opening three-page present-day sequence drawn and colored by Edwin Galmon, artists Valentine De Landro and Marissa Louise provide the lion’s-share of the visuals with the past-set sequence, and they capture the disarray of Michael Holt’s life nicely. De Landro’s linework is stylish, a combination of heavy blacks and fine detail work that come together nicely. The visual storytelling is solid throughout, and Marissa Louise’s colors go a long way towards guiding the reader’s eye, particularly during a chaotic action sequence between multiple groups of similarly-attired masked characters. This book looks great with a very grounded feel to it, and it’s exciting to imagine how the eventual superheroics will fit visually into the world that’s been created here.

Mr. Terrific: Year One #1 is a fantastic start to the series from a creative team with a clear vision for the character and his world. It’s nice to see Mr. Terrific getting a spotlight treatment of such high quality, and it’ll be interesting to see how the past elements of Michael Holt’s life established in this issue come back to play a role in the larger present-day DCU as the series progresses. In the hands of Letson, De Landro, Louise, and co., it should be an entertaining time.

Final Verdict: BUY.

Round-Up

• It’s a big week for former members of The Terrifics, as Metamorpho, The Element Man #6 wraps that miniseries run in fantastic fashion. Al Ewing, Steve Lieber, Lee Loughridge, and Ferran Delgado have put together six issues of wacky Silver Age superheroics, and this final issue pulls out all the stops, tying together disparate threads from the early issues and adding new, absolutely insane elements to the mix. Metamorpho One Million truly destroyed me.
• Meanwhile, in the Absolute Universe, Absolute Martian Manhunter #3 and Absolute Wonder Woman #8 have each book feeling like they’re settling in to their versions of normal, which for the former is John Jones and his otherworldly passenger investigating a series of arsons and for the latter is Diana summoning a temple in the woods outside of Gateway City. These might be the two best Absolute books so to have them both come out in the same week really feels like spoiling us.
• And at the other end of the quality spectrum, Batman #160 continues “H2SH.” We’re halfway through what we now know is “Part 1” of this storyline, and it’s… not great. Jim Lee‘s art is incredibly stiff, and it’s clear Jeph Loeb is treating this as a direct sequel to the original Hush storyline even though there have been two decades of stories and character development between then and now. It’s rough.

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