The ultimate trap?
Creative Staff:
Story: Tom King
Art: Mitch Gerards
Colors: Mitch Gerards
Letterer: Clayton Cowls
What They Say:
The insanity of war is the insanity of Mister Miracle. Darkseid and Orion’s forces clash violently on the battlefields of New Genesis. Stained with blood and glory, the New Gods fight on. As they move closer to victory, Scott and Barda begin to see that every step forward leads them into a deadly trap. Where do you run when the path ahead is your enemy’s triumph and the path behind is your family’s defeat?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
A book like Mister Miracle is something that you really have to look at in a couple of different ways, especially because of the character at hand. I’ve enjoyed the three issues at hand so far a lot because Tom King does some great scripting and concepts and Mitch Gerards simply excels in general but is such a perfect fit here that it’s hard to imagine anyone else illustrating it. But the thing is that you can’t trust anything. When you have a lead character that’s an escape artist you have to start off with the idea that the whole book may be a trap, at least for a while, where none of it may be real. Well, it’s being experienced by Scott Free but it may not be real beyond that, or some other manipulation. And that leaves me as a reader to be very guarded.
This installment has Scott and Barda back on Earth for a while as they’re on leave from the war, ostensibly because he has to make a living and has a gig lined up for a performance. That’s something that just says a fractured dream is running here and combines with the way events play out that seemingly reinforces that. Scott’s struggling with his part in this war to be sure and doing something normal simply reinforces that. While the phrase “darkseid is” continues to haunt him as to its real meaning, he’s also struggling with what it means to be involved with a sprawling war machine, which has him recounting a story to a sleeping Barda that involves an innocent child that caused the death of himself and his family over several years back during WWII. It’s heartbreaking but has that easy and sad ring of truth about it.
We’ve seen the toll of this war before in this series and having Forager coming to visit to talk more about what his people have sacrificed shows that Orion’s side is close to fracturing as well. The dialogue between the two is strong as Forager is really trying to get through to this broken man but not really succeeding, though he does plant the seeds for a confrontation with Orion about what he’s doing. That in itself turns dark and brutal when it happens as Scott returns to lead his army again but the material with Forager is just critical here in showing the nature of events. When Lightray comes to deal with him as he wasn’t supposed to talk to Scott it’s a kind of quick military justice that plays out, one that makes it clear that Orion’s reign will be similar to the Highfather in a way but is going in a much darker place more quickly. The New Genesis characters have always been intriguing but seeing them stripped down to this kind of clarity is really engaging.
In Summary:
Mister Miracle is that kind of book where as thrilled as I am with the monthly experience I wish I had “discovered” it after it was all done so that I could really enjoy it and just devour the thing. King and Gerards are firing on all cylinders and if I get this kind of series every few years from someone like Tom King similar to The Omega Men and this then I’m going to be a very happy comic book reader for years to come. I’ve really enjoyed what Mitch Gerards does with his style over the last few years and just adore his presentation of these characters, giving us an interpretation of our title character in and out of costume that just begs to be devoured with its look, a kind of bedraggled visage that I want to have as a large and sprawling poster on my wall because of what it can convey at any given time.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 17+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: October 11th, 2017
MSRP: $3.99
