David Corenswet’s Man of Steel may be “the most powerful being on planet Earth,” says Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor in Superman, but Edi Gathegi’s Mister Terrific is the smartest. An inventive genius, Olympic-level athlete, technological guru, and creator of a cyberwear company in the comics, Michael Holt is — in a word — terrific. As part of the corporate-sponsored team of metahumans tentatively known as the “Justice Gang” alongside the winged warrior Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced) and ring-wielding Green Lantern Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion), Mister Terrific is one of the Metropolis-based superheroes whose raison d’être can be summed up in two words: “Fair Play.”
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Trailers have shown hot-tempered Guy butting heads with “Big Blue.” So what is the relationship like between Superman and Mister Terrific?
“Superman thinks that Mister Terrific is his BFF. That’s not true. [Mister Terrific] thinks he’s a herb,” the actor told ComicBook during a visit to the Superman set. “They are brothers in fighting crime. They’re brothers in being heroes. But they don’t have a lot in common.”
Referencing Superman’s moniker as the Big Blue Boyscout, Gathegi called the idealistic superhero “the embodiment of good” in contrast to his cantankerous Mister Terrific.
“Our version of Mister Terrific is a little more complex in the sense that he’s battling other demons that pepper out. So he’s a little grumpy in this film,” Gathegi teased. (Example: in the latest trailer, Mister Terrific can be seen shouting at an exhausted Superman amidst a climactic fight. “Quit messing around,” he yells. Superman, looking worse for wear, replies he’s “doing important stuff.”)
It appears that Superman and Mister Terrific — along with intrepid Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan) — join forces in the fight against Lex Luthor and his allies, which include the masked Ultraman and the nanotech-wielding Engineer (María Gabriela de Faría). Should we expect to see super-geniuses Mister Terrific and Lex Luthor go toe-to-toe — or brain-to-brain?
“In a sense, there is a battle of the brains. He’s a genius,” Gathegi said. “And if you want to know who wins this battle, you have to watch the film.”
The Michael Holt version of Mister Terrific first appeared in 1997’s The Spectre #54. The issue saw the widower contemplate suicide after his wife’s death in a freak car accident, only to adopt the mantle of Mister Terrific and the concept of “Fair Play” from Golden Age crime-fighter Terry Sloane.
Superman stars David Corenswet as Clark Kent/Superman, Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, and Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor. The cast includes Edi Gathegi as Mister Terrific, Anthony Carrigan as Metamorpho, Nathan Fillion as Green Lantern Guy Gardner, Isabela Merced as Hawkgirl, Skyler Gisondo as Jimmy Olsen, Sara Sampaio as Eve Teschmacher, María Gabriela de Faría as Angela Spica/the Engineer, Wendell Pierce as Perry White, Alan Tudyk as Superman Robot #4, Neva Howell as Ma Kent, Pruitt Taylor Vince as Pa Kent, Sean Gunn as Maxwell Lord, and Frank Grillo as Rick Flag Sr. The DC Studios movie flies into theaters July 11.
