Sensation Comics #1 (1942)
by Charles Reizenstein & Everett E. Hibbard
In the same book that sees the debut of the first Wonder Woman series, we also have the first Mr. Terrific. Will he actually be terrific?
Our protagonis is Terry Sloan, who like Star-Spangled Kid starts out as a boy genius. Who is both smart enough to design aircrafts for the military…
…and fights equally well. He’s so beyond his years that he already has a receding hairline when he’s just eleven!
He is SO smart that everything is way too easy for him.
You could easily play this montage for laughs, but it’s very effective at showing how hollow anything sounds when it’s way too easy.
The complete lack of any challenge is so great that he contemplates killing himself!!!
But he gets a new perspective when he prevents a woman from killing herself.
The reason why she wants to kill herself is that her kid brother (who she’s raising because their parents died) has turned to crime.
And that’s what he needed to turn his life around, coming up with a costume and beating up criminals to show kids there is another way.
Yeah because that’s what kids would respect. Math.
He doesn’t even come up with his own codename: the kids call him Mr. Terrific.
Am I too cynic for thinkging they’re less impressed by his math skills than by the fact he gives them money?
And if you’re thinking the woman ends up being Mr. Terrific’s regular love interest… congratulations for having read at least one Golden Age comic before.
Although to be fair, the fact that she knows his secret identity IS unusual (but not unprecedented) for the times.
So how terrific WAS this story?
Historical significance
The original is not particularly significant on his own, but he does have a legacy.
Silver Age-ness
Way too much suicide, plus not a whole lot of weirdness.
Does it stand the test of time?
Ironically the best part is BEFORE he becomes Mister Terrific: the montage of him growing up, at first excited by his triumphs but progressively more depressed, holds up remarkably well.
Once we get to the superhero stuff it’s incredibly basic, not helped by being a 8 page story.
How close is this to the modern character?
Mister Terrific was the backup feature of Sensation Comics all the way up to #63 in 1947, but he never make it to the cover.
His claim to fame was All-Star Comics #24 in 1946 when he joined the Justice Society with Wildcat, with them replacing Starman and the Spectre.
Yes.
Two guys who could just punch really well replaced Super-Science Guy and Literally-Powered-By-God Man.
I blame his lack of success to the lack of a catchy gimmick, because “the guy who is good at everything” is not very impressive considering all Golden Age heroes are already impressive in their own field, and “rich guy becoming a hero to fight boredom” is already WAY too common as an origin.
Then there’s his looks. I actually rather like his costume, but I have a really hard time taking seriously a guy with the slogan “Fair Play” displayed on his clothes.
He shows up in the Silver Age, together with his fellow JSA members, in Justice League Of America #37.
Nothing really important was done with him until he dies in battle in 1979, on Justice League Of America #171.
Aside from a few appearances in flashbacks (and as a ghost), his influence would be almost non-existent for many years.
In 2001 we were introduced to his villanous grand-niece Roulette, granddaughter of Mister Terrific’s brother and of ANOTHER super-villainess (also named Roulette).
She’s had a bunch of appearances both in comics and in adaptations.
But before that, in 1997 the new Mister Terrific was introduced.
The modern Mister Terrific (who has met the original through time travel at some point, because comics) definitely has a WAY bigger impact on DC Comics.
He fulfills a specific role that DC was surprisingly lacking when compared to Marvel: the heroic omni-scientist.
Before he showed up, the only DC hero who was regularly contacted as a science consultant by other heroes about basically anything was the Atom. And considering Brainiac 5 is typically stuck in the future, there weren’t a lot of science heroes that are supposed to be good at anything scientific.
It also helps that, unlike the original, the new Mister Terrific has a personality.
Also the “Fair Play” motto is better incorporated in the costume… but he still has the weird design choice of a huge T plastered all over his face.
I don’t care if they’re nanites that he can remove when he wants… it’s still ridiculous.
It’s fair to say that the new Mister Terrific has gone way beyond what you could have expected from the original.
I’m reasonably sure the original is never coming back… at this point what could he possibly add to the DC Universe?
