Lucas Blogs About Mister Miracle

For once, that glare is present in the artwork itself and not due to the lighting in my room.

Mister Miracle is a book about #fourthworldproblems (sorry, couldn't resist). So, before we really get into it, I'll give you a little background on just who Mister Miracle is (the comic book also starts off by doing this).

The cataclysm that destroyed the Old Gods left behind two new planets: New Genesis, a paradise ruled by the wise and benevolent Highfather, and Apokolips, a dystopian hellscape under the iron fist of Darkseid. A hundred year war between these worlds was ended when Highfather and Darkseid exchanged their infant sons. Highfather named Darkseid's son Orion and raised him as his own, but Darkseid abandoned Highfather's son into the X-Pit under the cruel tutelage of Granny Goodness. Due to his constant escape attempts, Highfather's son was given the mocking moniker of Scott Free. Eventually, Orion would learn of a prophecy that Darkseid would be killed by his own son, and became devoted to ending his father's reign of terror. Meanwhile, Scott escaped Apokolips and made his way to Earth, where he became the apprentice of an escape artist named Mister Miracle, eventually taking up the mantle himself, using advanced technology from his homeworld and his own abilities as one of the New Gods to perform daring and dangerous escapes. Oh, and also he married Big Barda, the former leader of Darkseid's Female Furies and the two have made a comfortable life together on Earth. Maybe not so much as conscientious objectors but more like two people who've unsubscribed from their family's toxic bullshit. And so the two lived happliy ever after. Until Scott slits his wrists.

That's right, this book starts with the most upbeat of Kirby's New Gods attempting to commit suicide. Then, once he's released from the hospital, he's visited by his (sort of) brother, Orion, who beats him repeatedly in order to teach a lesson.  This is an ongoing dichotomy of the series. Issues focus both on Scott and Barda's domestic life and on the recently rekindled conflict between Apokolips and New Genesis. And whatever big plot developments come along in the latter story: Highfather's death, Orion's descent into paranoia, Darkseid's acquisition of the Anti-Life Equation; Scott and Barda defiantly continue to live their lives. Scott recovers, Barda gets pregnant, all while they find themselves drawn deeper and deeper into a conflict they'd spent the earlier part of their lives escaping.

This is something of a shift from the way that Kirby portrayed the characters. In the original Mister Miracle, Scott and Barda are more than happy to put the experiences in the X-Pit behind them and generally separate themselves from the mythic drama of their past. What the new comic suggests is that you while they can't escape from their past traumas, they can survive them. And this isn't so out of step with Kirby's version as I might have made it out to be. After all, the shift away from the Apokolips/New Genesis conflict was partly due to the cancellation of the other other Fourth World comics, and in Kirby's final issue of Mister Miracle not only do Scott and Barda get married, they go with High Father to New Genesis.

This is the part where Hypothetical Reader would normally pop in to say that I'm focusing too much on comparing this book to what came before, and they would be right, so let's talk about this Mister Miracle.

It's good. It's a good comic book. Okay, so it's better than good. The New Gods are a little out there, and while writer Tom King isn't afraid to lean into their eccentricities, he's also able to ground them with real, believable emotions. One of the places this shines through is when the Female Furies come to visit Scott and Barda at the hospital. In spite of the absurdity of seeing characters like Stompa, Mad Harriet, Lashina, and Bernadeth in a hospital waiting room, King believably conveys their fellow feeling for a former comrade. Granted he does this by having Bernadeth offer Scott a knife forged from a god's bones to cut the baby out of Barda, but still, the scene plays as true.

Meanwhile artist Mitch Gerads does a great job of turning some of Kirby's more stylized and out there designs into something a bit more realistic. And that's not to mention the way he takes advantage of the comic's strict nine panel layouts to stage incredible, elaborate action set pieces like the one in which Scott and Barda navigate their way through the defenses of a fortress on New Genesis while discussing their home remodel. Oh hey, that's another example of some good writing by Tom King. Sure the conversation is banal, but juxtaposing it with the action is funny and ultimately leads up to the reveal that Barda is expecting. So, you know, it's one of those things where the medium allows the creative team to deliver both a fun action sequence and an important plot beat together. And speaking of the creative team, I'm not sure whose choice it was to have Kalibak wear reading glasses, but I must say, I lol'd.

So, while  Mister Miracle might not have anything new to say about suicide or war or marriage or parenthood or trauma or work-life balance or any of that. It does use Scott and Barda and their over-the-top, mythic baggage, to explore those issues in realistic and grounded ways. It's good.

Mister Miracle written by Tom King drawn by Mitch Gerads, DC Comics trade paperback edition, 2019, 300 pages, pairs well with Bonewine (don't ask)

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Both Tom King and Mitch Gerads won Eisner Awards for their work on Mister Miracle (though I should note that King was also nominated for all the other writing work he did on other books as well).