At last, the world has discovered Mr. Terrific.

Thanks to James Gunn and actor Edi Gathegi, Mr. Terrific has emerged as the scene-stealer of the big blockbuster Superman.

A character who was at best a C-lister has now joined the A-ranks of DC’s pantheon – at least for the moment.

But what a moment it is.

Across social media, fans have cheered as Mr. Terrific saves the day and proves to be Superman’s most effective ally against Lex Luthor.

Someone best known for his time in the Justice Society comics – and for mostly standing around in the “Justice League Unlimited” cartoons – has emerged as a powerhouse.

As someone who has been a fan of this character since his debut in “Spectre” no. 54 in 1997, this time is, well, strange.

Mr. Terrific is my favorite super-hero, as you might guess from just a few entries over the years, like here in this post on his origin or that time he formed his own team or his hilarious first encounter with Batman.

Now I have company.

For star Gathegi, the break-out role is all the more delicious because it’s redemption in the super-hero genre, one that treated him poorly his first bite around.

His big break was supposed to be the 2011 film “X-Men: First Class,” in which he played the mutant Darwin, with the power of regeneration.

Darwin was killed off absurdly in the first half of the film, and despite his own power base and studio promises, he was never resurrected for subsequent films.

Gathegi was understandably reluctant about jumping back into the superhero genre, but the chance of working with Gunn was too much to pass up.

“The pendulum has swung in the complete opposite direction,” Gathegi told The Hollywood Reporter. “With ‘X-Men: First Class,’ the message that I received as an actor and as a man of color in this world is you can be the most powerful mutant in the world and they’ll never let you reach your full potential. Whereas with Mister Terrific in ‘Superman,’ the message that I’m receiving is you can be one of the most intelligent characters in the universe, and you can help save the world. It’s a different level of conversation.”

Now he’s beyond thrilled with how his character has been received. Gathegi signed a multi-year deal to play Terrific across the DCU, and there’s talk of him even helming his own TV series.

DC Comics is giving Mr. Terrific a push. He’s been a supporting player in the Superman comics for the last year, as a background ally, which puzzled me, but now I understand his presence. The DC creatives knew Mr. Terrific would be a big part of the film and so wanted to capitalize on it and make it comfortable for longtime readers who would go to the theater.

Mr. Terrific is also starring in his own eponymous 12-issue limited series exploring his origin and his place in the DC Universe, and he’s set to lead the Terrific Ten later this year in the Mark Waid-scripted comic Justice League Unlimited. Suddenly he’s everywhere.

And if DC is determined to ride Mr. Terrific’s success forward, there’s one thing they must stop doing right now:

Stop referring to him as “the third-smartest person in the world.”

Think about it for a moment. Think about how that description is really a back-handed compliment.

Your thoughts immediately go to wondering, okay, so if Mr. Terrific is the third-smartest person in the world, who are the first two?

You’ve already moved beyond Terrific, and you haven’t even seen him in action yet.

Imagine if Superman had been launched in 1938 as the Third Strongest Superhero.

You’d immediately wonder who the first two are, put down the comic, and go seek them out.

Your time and your money are valuable. Why would you waste them on a third-rate character?

Name one other hero who is ranked.

I’ll wait.

By ranking him, you diminish him.

For decades, Mr. Terrific has been saddled with this tag, and blame alas must fall at the steps of Geoff Johns, the longtime JSA scribe who brought Terrific into the JSA and developed him from his rocky inception.

Mr. Terrific is a gold-medal winning Olympic decathlete, holder of more than a dozen PhDs and six black belts in the martial arts, and the creator of the nanotech that powers the T-spheres. He’s not third place in anything. Acknowledge him as the world’s greatest tech genius and call it a day.

Ironically, the best spin to Mr. Terrific’s sad descriptor came from an episode from the little seen “Justice League Action” series. (I highly recommend snatching up the DVDs.)

In “The Brain Buster,” which aired Oct. 17, 2017, a mysterious yet ultimately familiar villain kidnaps Terrific, Batman, Lex Luthor, the Brain and the Calculator for a fiendish competition to determine who truly is the smartest in the world.

Through cheating, naturally, Luthor seems to win the day – and almost lose his life – until Terrific (a great Hannibal Buress) foils the bad guy.

“You surprise me, Mr. Terrific. I didn’t expect you to be victorious,” the villain snits. “After all, you’re only the third on the smartest person list.”

“Well, I prefer not to draw too much attention to myself,” Terrific smiles. “Who do you think wrote that list?”

Now that’s truly the mark of the smartest person in the world. I wish the rest of DC would get the message.