Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities Mister Miracle

Another spectacular issue. The thing that jumped out at me the most was when Orion had his reaction to Scott's breakdown. He not only looked shocked, he looked briefly like Orion. It might be that Orion is an agent of Darkseid. It could also be that he is simply overwhelmed with a role he can't handle, and the artificial face of bravado he is projecting temporarily cracked.

I've gone from wondering about the significance of the placement of "Darkseid is" panels to wondering about the placement of the "broadcast static" panels. Is there a pattern as to which question/answers got the effect?

"You then accused the Highfather of being similarly affected. True or false?" "True."

"The Highfather is an agent of Darkseid. True or false?" "I don't know."

"I am an agent of Darkseid. True or false?" "True."

"You hate your childhood. True or false?" "True."

Could these be lies? Answers influenced by the anti-life equation? Random effects? Putting them in the list like that, I see that all but one of them are about Orion being an agent of Darkseid. And we have already seen that Scott's feelings about his childhood are more complicated than hate.

I'm pleased that it looks like the next issue will be a Barda spotlight. Although I know better than to trust the narrator completely.

And one final thought: is it possible that rather than freaking out, Scott simply had that iOS auto correct bug that replaces the letter I with As?

ETA: I lied, I can't stop thinking of further things to add. I talked about how Orion looked like himself after the attack. I just went back and looked at the end of that scene again. When he sentenced Scott, he looks sad or guilty or something. In the next panel, he had his hard cold face back on, and he was holding up his mother box like he does when he's transforming between his bestial and human looking faces. Are those literally his two faces in this version of the comic, or is it simply a metaphor?

Orion's face metaphor certainly carries over from the last page of the previous issue where his face went from human to bestial and then haywire. But I think there's a larger face/mask thing that's going to be key to all of this as it plays out. It clicked for me when Scott wore his mask to the trial. Why does he do that? When he met Orion before, both formally and not, he didn't wear his mask. In fact he only seems to wear it when performing or in combat. It's not even a formal thing, because his costume isn't even from New Genesis. I'll have to pull up the Granny issue to see if he wore it there.

Other face bits:

- Barda's eyes seem to change colour early on.
- The distortions change Scott's mask colour (similar to Dr. Impossible or the Death of New Gods version of Scott - neither of which I hope are truly referenced again).
- Barda messes up Lightray's face and he's no longer the chipper lackey, but sour and bitter.
- We never see Forager's face

I'll have to look back for others (though maybe I'm overthinking it).

Issue #5 follows Barda and Scott through their last day before the execution. They try and do all the things Scott likes, and build a perfect day, but it's obviously tense and heartbreaking, as neither of them can really hold it together. There is a crazy amount to unpack in this issue, that you could write panel-by-panel dissections of the art and story and be here forever. I liked the Kirby tribute, as well as bringing Funky Flashman back to a straight up Stan Lee parody. I loved the Messianc Bondage Sex which makes perfect sense of your husband's a God and an Escape Artist. I liked the counterpoint of the more loving and emotional lovemaking at the end. And really I just loved the way Barda and Scott were together this issue. Despite all their issues, this was a great show of love and being a couple.

There was also a discussion on Descartes and the Natrue of God, that looks like it will have crazy ramifications to the plot of the rest of the series. (How often to you say that about a comic?)

It's a rare thing in comics when you're reading something as it comes out and you know it's a masterpiece. That's definitely the feeling here.

The ending of the latest issue felt both inevitable and like a shocking twist in direction. Despite the fact that it happened an issue early, this felt like the midpoint of the series. Man, do I wish I could love his Batman this much.

So... that happened. What happens next?

My LCS didn't get any (damaged). They are on back order, expected in a couple of weeks. Why couldn't have been Suicide Squad or another book?

I'm glad I was so vague, then. We'll wait to discuss.

I saw this recently and it looked cool. I really liked the interplay between Scott and Barda. Also, it was gory and cartoony at the same time. I liked the art. I will wait for the trade unless my comics shop has all the issues.

There's an online magazine, PanelxPanel, which devoted issue #4 (October 2017) to Mister Miracle. Some very interesting reading and only $2.50.

New Amalgam Comics idea: Mister ‘Merica

I read the series this evening, and I'm glad I read it in one sitting. There's a sense of dislocation the series leaves you with. The current traumas mix with past ones, all built firmly on the concepts Kirby provided in the original series. Something else else I always enjoy seeing is characters treat people differently depending on their relationship with them. This underpins a lot of this series, as they have very different experiences with each other. The despondency, and almost callous acceptance of roles and masks is offset by the Free's evolving home life. Some things that surprised and disappointed me early on have further meaning late in the series, so credit to King for that.

It reminds me of the early Vertigo titles, and just before them, where mature themes were explored but based squarely on the DC characters we knew. Mister Miracle might have made an early appearance in Sandman, actually. This series would have made a worthy addition to those titles.

Waiting patiently for the trade I've got preordered...

Before I forget, I should say that King intensively mines the source (or should that be Source) material for both this and Omega Men. There's a lot of things in both series that were already in the originals. I did think that King had the advantage of being able to refine a lot of earlier concepts into a more concise framework of arcs and limited series. For all the good things in this series, I'd still recommend the Kirby originals every time.

I need to reread it in a tighter timeframe to really appreciate it. And to try to answer some questions. Early on I was convinced there was some meaning to the timing of the static effects; if there was I missed it.

I do think a reading of the original material is essential to a deep understanding of the material in a way Omega Men didn’t require. People acting contrary to their previous portrayal can be either a plot point or a key to understanding King’s take on their character.

On the static effects, I think having seen Jacob's Ladder helped. There's even a Jacob's Ladder mentioned directly as a way out of the X-Pit. Also the name of his son combines this with Jack Kirby and the trigger event of the series.

Do you have a theory as to the placement of the static effects? Like, why they show up exactly where they do? My original theory was that they marked the points the anti-life equation overrode Scott’s free will, but I’m not sure that meshes with the ending. While there’s a lot of ways to interpret the final issue, I think they show that Scott has free will in at least most possible interpretations.

In other news, I’ve decided to read the original Fourth World saga before rereading this series.

I've not forgotten your post BFOB. It's just that was reading someone else's books (I'm avoiding saying floppies as it sounds wrong ) and I've not visited since my read through.

So, I'm going by my rusty, tottering memory cell...

I remember there being a lot of them in the first issue. There's a TV effect early on. It links with the last issue. It has Scott saying he can always escape (really meaning this reality) with the Darkseid Is text averting its authority over the reality he's trapped in. The effects are the divergence from the DCU reality he's supposed to escape to and the one probably created by the Anti Life equation that he finds himself in.

In the end he chooses not to escape this universe. His early struggles to do this are shown in the Oberon Illusion (a good name for a story); Barda's eyes (he says he can't escape the world he's trapped in, she hits him, he recovers and her eyes have changed.); the chat show where he's confronting the moment of the divergence; The face of Orion and when he confronts what he believes from Orion's questioning. Memory cell can't think of others, but there are probably loads of them.

In the end, he's as free as he is trapped. The war reaches a conclusion (it's foretellings all payed out) and he's free from the endless reboots of the DCU to live a life with his wife and kids. It's heaven and its hell. But it's his to choose a path in. There's hints that he's really the one shaping it too. He says he can escape if he wants to. But why would he want to?

It's been a few months because I wanted to ruminate on this. Yesterday I reread the entire thing and have come to the same conclusion: it is brilliantly written, but deeply upsetting.

I get that not everything needs a happy ending, but I found the message the series is promoting extremely problematic. What follows is heavily spoiler filled, but if you're this deep into the thread, I'll assume you are up to speed

Scott hits a low and commits suicide, is then presented with this alternate world, presumably by Metron, possibly through his own divinity, in which he can work out his issues, and then escape back to the "real" world. Except he doesn't. He embraces his new reality, and refuses to leave, presumably living this life in the time it takes him to bleed out.

What about the real Barda? What about his responsibilities to the real world? What about Scott himself? His decision is selfish and deeply unheroic.

It's a shocking turn of events, because until this point, I found King actually "got" Scott, and was dealing well with the issue of depression, and dealt brilliantly with the dual metaphors of "escape", and the shared abuse Barda and Scott build their relationship on. But to turn it on it's head like this is disturbing not just for the fictional DCU, but the message King is sending: that escape through abandonment is not only permisable, but an optimal solution.

Now I'm not saying that someone is going to read this comic and harm themselves, or that succumbing to suicide isn't a valid subject to explore, but I do wonder what it says about the societal zeitgeist that produces this kind of story.

...so apparently this book was supposed to be about family?

There are elements of that in there, yes, just as there was in Kirby's work. But there are other subjects being covered too, again just as there were in Kirby's work.

Due to this thread I read the trade in-between customers at work today and I really enjoyed it!

Yay!