Meet Mister Terrific, the little-known hero who ‘has a big part’ in James Gunn’s Superman

James Gunn is excited to bring one particular DC Comics character to the big screen in Superman, and it’s someone who might surprise even well-read comics fans. The director has told folks, from journalists to his social media followers, that he’s a big fan of Mister Terrific. Created by writer John Ostrander and artist Tom Mandrake in 1997’s Spectre #54, the supergenius inventor can be seen in the first trailer for the 2025 blockbuster, with his T-shaped facepaint and black and white costume.

There are a lot of supporting superheroes in Superman, from the mid-list (Hawkgirl and a Green Lantern) to deep cuts (Metamorpho and the Engineer). But Gunn called his Mister Terrific, played by Edi Gathegi (X-Men: First Class), “the main character of those characters,” telling Comic Book Resources that “he actually has a big part of the plot.” 

Who is Mister Terrific? 

While deep in grief after the death of his pregnant wife, Michael Holt was inspired to take up the name of the first, WWII era Mister Terrific, and adopt his motto: “Fair play.” 

Michael has been granted the oddly specific laurel of being the third smartest man alive in the DC Universe (who are the first two? That’s left to our imaginations, and forum arguments, but writer Geoff Johns has at least tweeted that it’s Batman and Lex Luthor). He’s your classic super-genius, like Lex Luthor, but he also maintains peak human physicality, à la Batman. He’s also got a signature gadget, T-Spheres, floating robotic balls of his own invention that can do basically anything a comic book narrative requires of them. He’s adventured along with the Justice League and other teams in the pursuit of scientific discovery and justice. 

What books inspired James Gunn’s version of Mister Terrific? 

Gunn hasn’t actually said how he came to be so enamored of Mister Terrific, so this is purely speculation. But if there’s a standard superhero adventure story featuring Mister Terrific that Gunn has likely poked his head into, it could be 2018’s The Terrifics. (Gunn has previously tweeted at least one cover from the series.) Written by Sweet Tooth creator Jeff Lemire and drawn by Ivan Reis and others, The Terrifics featured Mister Terrific as the leader of a superhero team lost in the multiverse. That team includes the aforementioned Metamorpho, who’ll also appear in Superman. 

However! Mister Terrific has also starred in a higher-profile book, 2020’s Strange Adventures, written by Gunn’s Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow and Lanterns collaborator Tom King, and drawn by Mitch Gerads and Doc Shaner. 

Strange Adventures is a heady book about war and who has the privilege of being believed. In this story, the Justice League calls on Mister Terrific to investigate one of their most beloved members when he’s accused of murder and war crimes. Terrific’s intelligence, reputation for fair play, and the fact that he’s never been a consistent member of the Justice League make him the right impartial party to both find the truth and make the case to the public. 

And it’s easy to see him playing the same role in a movie where Superman is a new, unknown quantity to the world, if Gunn wants to go in that direction with Superman. We’ll find out when it hits theaters this July.