James Gunn Drops Mr. Terrific Image on Instagram — Could Strange Adventures Be Coming?

James Gunn took to Instagram today to share an image of Mr. Terrific, a DC superhero who has never had a solo project before. This comes in the context of Gunn both taking charge of DC Studios, and later asking fans what characters they would like to see in their own solo adventures, so fans immediately started speculating as to what it could mean. That’s not surprising, considering the same thing happened last week when Gunn started a Mastodon account and immediately posted an image of Lobo to it. What’s interesting about Mr. Terrific is that fans already know what story Gunn might be interested in telling.

Not long after Gunn posted the Mr. Terrific tease, comic book artist Mitch Gerads replied, with a shot of the character from Strange Adventures, a series he and Doc Shaner drew for writer Tom King. Gerads quipped, “What a strange adventure this could be!” and whether or not he knows anything about Gunn’s plans, the internet started putting the pieces together.

Earlier this year, Gunn posted a photo of the Strange Adventures collected edition, calling it “a masterpiece” and “the best, most complex and yet elegant, ‘superhero’ story I’ve read in years.”

Strange Adventures centered on Adam Strange, a celebrity superhero, as he weaves his way through a book tour for his autobiography, dogged by his past. Mr. Terrific was the second lead in the series. King is no stranger to Hollywood; he was supposed to work on the New Gods movie with Ava DuVernay before Warner Bros. cancelled it. At the time, it was thought that the film might adapt elements of the Mister Miracle series that King and Gerads did. King’s run on The Vision was loosely adapted into WandaVision over at Disney+.

Mr. Terrific, real name Michael Holt, was an Olympic-level athlete and genius inventor who decided to put his considerable talents to use as a superhero. He is usually depicted as a member of the Justice Society, which made its big-screen debut in Black Adam earlier this year, but has also had solo adventures. He was briefly part of a team called The Terrifics, a DC riff on Marvel’s Fantastic Four that also included Metamorpho, Plastic Man, and Phantom Girl.

A version of Michael Holt — renamed Curtis Holt — made his live-action debut on Arrow, becoming a series regular on the show. He was played by Echo Kellum. The Flash showrunner Eric Wallace once wrote a solo Mr. Terrific series, so fans have been wondering whether the character might pop up on the last season of that show later this year.

Strange Adventures was the planned name of a DC anthology series from Arrow executive producer Greg Berlanti. The show was being developed for HBO Max, but was cancelled as part of the broad changes made to the streamer following Discovery’s acquisition of Warner Bros.