Mister Miracle

Mister Miracle by Tom King
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Scott Free is found bleeding out on the bathroom floor by his wife, Big Barda, in an apparent suicide attempt. It seems there are things that even Mister Miracle, the world's greatest escape artist, can't escape...

On the heels of his run on The Vision, Tom King's Mister Miracle was a no-brainer for me. Since my previous Mister Miracle experience was the Fourth World entries in Who's Who, a handful of issues of Super Powers, and the Giffen era of Justice League International, I was going in fairly cold.

You can't escape yourself seems to be the message of the book. Tom King and Mitch Gerads take a deep dive into the lives of Mister Miracle and his wife, Big Barda, and the eternal conflict between New Genesis and Apokalips.

This could have easily been a 1990s Vertigo book. Scott and Barda discuss remodeling their LA condo while engaging in a bloody war against Darkseid's forces. And the veggie trays. So many veggie trays.

It's not hard to picture Scott as a Christ-like figure at times, especially with the full beard. Highfather and Darkseid exchanged sons to end the war between their worlds. Orion was raised on New Genesis in a loving environment and Scott went to the living hell of Apokalips. To my knowledge, this is the first time the impact of this on Scott's psyche was referenced.

Scott and Barda naming their son Jacob, a reference to Jack Kirby, was heartwarming to me. Scott and Barda's daily life was by far my favorite part of the book. When Scott was faced with the choice of making the same sacrifice Highfather did, the book took an interesting turn.

A lot of the book is left open to interpretation. Did Mister Miracle survive his suicide attempt? Which version, if any, of the DC continuity does this story happen in, if it happened at all? If nothing else, this book his sparked a desire in me to read more Tom King and more of Jack Kirby's Fourth World stuff.

Mister Miracle shows that any character can be a headliner if given the right creative team. Mister Miracle is. 4.5 out of 5 stars.

View all my reviews