Review: Mr. Terrific Vol. 1- Mind Games

Quick Summary

Pros: The stories told here are typically entertaining. Mr. Terrific’s approach to problems usually leads to some unique moments.

Cons: The background narrative is unappealing and underdeveloped. This makes the book’s finale feel pretty pointless and underwhelming. The artwork isn’t that great.

Overall: This book works well as a collection of short stories but is a disappointment in anything beyond this. Mr. Terrific proves to be a unique and interesting character who goes on some entertaining adventures. However, these adventures are short and isolated, significantly damaging the book’s overarching narrative. Pick this book up if you want to see Mr. Terrific beat up some bad guys but don’t go into it expecting anything more significant.

Story

Mr. Terrific Vol. 1: Mind Games, by Eric Wallace, succeeds in telling a few isolated adventures staring Mr. Terrific but fails in establishing any sort of greater or more meaningful narrative. The book is comprised of several quick stories that follow Michael Holt’s fight against random enemies. Though these are typically entertaining, they are so chaotically structured that they really only work on their own and not as a part of something larger. This essentially kills the background story and significantly weakens the collection’s ending. Overall, this is an average collection if you only care about seeing Mr. Terrific battle a few enemies but a poor one if you are looking for anything more.

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The bulk of this book is focused exclusively on Mr. Terrific and the relatively short adventures he goes on. These adventures can range from fighting a supervillain in downtown L.A. or being captured by space slavers and staging a prison riot. For the most part, these provide brief, but decently entertaining, bursts of action and adventure. They are also remarkably varied, so readers get a diverse range of stories in a single volume.

In addition, these adventures are also enhanced by the appeal of Mr. Terrific himself. His reliance on intellect and his use of the T-Spheres make him a character that stands out among other comic book heroes. They also make his stories a bit more appealing, since readers know he won’t simply be punching his way out of a tough situation.

Alongside all of this, the book tries to develop an overarching narrative surrounding Mr. Terrific’s company, Holt Industries, and the people he works with. However, the main storyline eclipses this background narrative so completely that it feels almost completely pointless. There is even a point in the book where Michael goes to another dimension for a while and this background story is completely left out to dry. This leaves the story feeling incredibly shallow and leaves side characters woefully underdeveloped.

This problem wouldn’t be nearly as significant if it didn’t have such a large effect on the collection’s ending. The final chapter sees numerous elements from the background narrative come together at once. However, Mr. Terrific is able to take care of all of this with the same ease he has approached every problem in this book. The lack of fanfare and significance around the ending makes all of the lackluster build-up feel even more pointless.

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Art

Like the story, the artwork in Mind Games jumps around a bit throughout. Sometimes, Gianluca Gugliotta’s pencils and Wayne Faucher’s inks look alright. This is especially noticeable when Mr. Terrific is hurtling through space with his T-Spheres or large, inanimate objects are being depicted. However, there are many other places where the opposite is true and things just look strange. This is especially noticeable in scenes where the characters themselves are the focus. In addition, the other artists in this collection maintain a similar level of quality, which doesn’t help the work as a whole. Overall, this book ranges from average to below average visually.

Continuity

Mr. Terrific Vol. 1: Mind Games starts the Mr. Terrific New 52 series. This means that this is the first volume in a brand new continuity, so there are not many references to previous books or Mr. Terrific’s history.

The Mr. Terrific series ends with this volume, so there is no book that directly continues the overall story. However, Mr. Terrific’s specific story is continued in Earth 2 Vol. 1: The Gathering (Review). In addition, the mystery behind Karen Starr is revealed in Worlds’ Finest Vol. 1: Lost Daughters of Earth 2.