Back Where It All Began — Reviewing ‘Mr. Terrific: Year One’ #1

Just in time to grace the screens for a blockbuster theater debut, Mr. T has his own comic series again. No, not that Mr. T. The other one.

That would, of course, be the genius inventor, former Olympian, Justice Society of America member, creator of the T-Spheres and the Justice League’s Man in the sky Mr. Terrific. The only way to begin is by beginning, and that’s why Al Letson, Valentine De Landro, Edwin Galmon, Marissa Louise, and Lucas Gattoni are doing just that.

The creative team turns back the clock as Mr. Terrific: Year One provides a retelling and expansion of the character’s origins.

Origin stories are a dime a dozen in comic books. Many characters get theirs told over and over again, as the decades pass. Some get their origins told, then only referenced, rarely retold for new audiences. So, it’s a delight to see Mr. Terrific, a Black superhero, get that treatment right now. Because, well, the character freaking rocks.

This is Letson’s first full-length comics work. If I didn’t pick up that nugget of information from the various news pieces, I would have been on the hunt for any other work. This doesn’t feel like a first full comic book story. Granted, he’s a very accomplished writer (award-winning journalist & screenwriter), but different mediums do come with learning curves. Letson blew right past it.

We get so much in this first issue as Michael Holt deals with lingering depression and trauma from the wife and child he lost. At the same time, a vile corporate figure uses out of this world tech and the company Holt sold to do harm to others for their bottom line. It tackles all of the stuff with tenacity, focus, and depth.

I’m invested because I love the character, but I stick around because this is beyond solid writing. Characters coming to actual life on the page is always the goal and that goal line was passed easily.

Opening stories like this with present-day framing is pretty common. In this case it makes the story even grander. Terrific is at the center of one of the biggest moments and issues lingering for the DC Universe; the attack and death of Darkseid that happened in the League Watchtower. Since Darkseid has ties to Holt’s own tragic origin story, it makes perfect connective sense.

Galmon steps in to draw and color those first framing pages. It’s just such a gorgeous art style with such depth and tangible aspects, giving us some rock-solid montage pages about Holt’s heroic history as well as just a tremendous spread of the aforementioned Darkseid moment. Vivid but tampered down colors lead the way as the whole few pages really deliver.

That leaves the rest of the issue to De Landro and Louise, who absolutely kill it.

Just the right amount of rough harder textures is always present in De Landro’s work, giving the characters and their world that little something extra. There’s some weight and power behind everything in some respects.

A bit of exaggeration, a touch of whimsy, and attention to detail in the moment. All of that is true of this work and always makes the stories shine. At the same time, there are plenty of panels where De Landro knows what is best is to pull back, even blur things, because the overall moment means more than the actual content focus, creating a foundational expansive space for this world to begin and grow organically from over time.

A toned-down saturated color palette, with flashes of vibrancy, compliments the artwork quite well, especially with the use of the gutter and white space to frame each panel. There is a contrast created there with the light openness playing against the heavier closed off feeling the art is meant to evoke. Holt’s future is bright, but his past was heavy and seemingly dark, to his mind at least. Louise captures that and spreads it through the pages.

She goes lighter or heavier on the background tones depending on the page and aspect, thus allowing the different spaces to have their own distinctive feel.

Love to see Gattoni’s name attacked to a project. He’s one of those letterers who makes it all work and happen with what they bring to the page. He finds the ways to mine all the right emotional or powerful energies from words on the page, displaying them in the right way to maximize those aspects to the reader. As we begin to piece together and hear the exact voices play out in the mind as if we were there in the story world.

Mr. Terrific: Year One #1 is now available from DC Comics.