“Did you actually, really escape? I mean, death, right? Did you escape death, Mister Miracle?”
Superheroes have a knack for finding a way out of the darkest situations. This is particularly true for Scott Free, whose power is literally to escape whatever dastardly trap he’s thrown into – but he will soon learn that the mind can be the greatest prison of all. Written by former CIA agent Tom King with art by the award-winning Mitch Gerads, Mister Miracle is an undeniably human tale told on a cosmic scale and DC Comics’ latest masterpiece.
The titular character first appeared in the Fourth World saga by Jack Kirby, co-creator of the Marvel universe – but not a single comic need be read beforehand thanks to a quick recap narrated by the Stan Lee-inspired ‘Funky Flashman’. Straight after this cheery introduction, we’re met with a graphic splash page of Scott Free bleeding out on the bathroom floor following an attempt at suicide – but will the life that follows be worse than the death he narrowly escaped?
Flick through a copy of Mister Miracle and the first thing to grab you will be Gerads’ innovative style, incorporating TV interference into the page layout like a glitch in the matrix. Each page has at least one panel you could hang on your wall – it’s a true work of modern art. Gerads also has a talent for splicing the ordinary with the extraordinary in an amusing way, such as seeing the gods in their garish costumes sat on the sofa eating hummus.
King writes incredibly engaging characters, such as our melancholic protagonist, his war-hungry brother Orion and his long-legged, big-hearted wife Barda. Perhaps you’ll see bits of people you know in these modern myths, and even eerie similarities with yourself. Looming over these characters throughout is Darkseid, the devil himself. While he doesn’t make a physical appearance until the latter half of the book, his presence is felt through repetition of the phrase “Darkseid is”, representing those nagging thoughts and fears in the back of your head that just won’t go away.
Despite the fact that they met in the torturous X-Pit on the planet Apokolips, Scott and Barda’s relationship is believable and compelling. They face the same issues like any couple, giving some much-needed realism to an out-of-this-world adventure. Barda is much taller and stronger than Scott, challenging gendered expectations to give us arguably the best-written couple in the entire superhero genre.
Mister Miracle is an inescapable read – you’ll devour multiple of the book’s 12 chapters in a single sitting as the plot drives Scott towards his inevitable confrontation with Darkseid and you try to figure out how (and if) he’ll escape this one. A number of story beats are lifted from other comics, (particularly Grant Morrison’s take on Mister Miracle in Seven Soldiers) but this is still a distinct work that does things in its own way. The conclusion is especially thought-provoking and will no doubt inspire numerous interpretations from different readers.
This is a smart book, but it’s not convoluted nor is it bogged down in decades of DC history. If you’re interested in superheroes, philosophy, mental health or all three, this is a book you’ll want to read multiple times, even if you’ve never read a comic before. Tom King and Mitch Gerads have used Jack Kirby’s creations to their full potential in Mister Miracle, a graphic novel which will be enjoyed and analysed for years to come.
By Jamie Morris