Fourth World - Super Escapism!

Mister Miracle of all the "Fourth World" books proved to be the most economical viable, so when Jack Kirby was given the word from on high that the grand sprawling saga of the war between New Genesis and Apokolips was to be pushed into the background and later still when two of those books (New Gods and  The Forever People) were outright cancelled, only Mister Miracle was left to carry the torch. The reason was pretty obvious as Mister Miracle was the most like a traditional superhero comic with a mysterious masked hero who battled different villains month in and month out. I was a bit cool to the book when I first read it so many decades ago because I felt many of the traps Scott Free ecaped from were done literally by means of "deus ex machina", some heretofore hidden gimmick that Scott revealed to the reader after the fact. Seemed a cheat at the time but I've mellowed on this odd point of contention. 

We meet Scott Free, the "new god" who will become Mister Miracle in the very first issue when the original Mister Miracle, a veteran named Thaddeus Brown is looking for a comeback because of a careless wager with a "Steel Hand", a boss of the Inter-Gang. Brown is killed and Scott takes his place and with the help of his carpet bag of tricks and the assistance of the noble Oberon succeeds where Brown had failed and ends the threat of Steel Hand. 

We get a glimpse of Scott's early days when "Granny Goodness" shows up to threaten him with her weapon dubbed the X-Pit. Granny Goodness is one of the best of the Apokolips villains, a hag who runs the most heinous orphanage imaginable. Scott Free had lived up to his name (a name given him by Darkseid himself we'll later learn) when he skipped out of Apokolips. 

The next baddie from Apokolips to arrive is "Doctor Bedlam", who it turns out is just sentient energy who can inhabit an endless array of "animates" -- robots purpose built for that reason. Bedlam attacks the mind and to do get at Scott Free he infects an entire skyscraper of humans with his "paranoid pill", turning them into beserker killing machines and then challenging Mister Miracle to escape. It takes two issues and the assistance of the bodacious Big Barda to defeat Bedlam, but it's a harrowing and memorable experience. 

Big Barda joins the team alongside Scott and Oberon and she makes the book a must buy. Kirby hit a homerun when he concocted the muscular beauty Barda, a warrior woman who brooked no nonsense and had more than enough moxie and muscle to back up her attitudes. Scott must survive "Virman Vundabar's" "Murder Machine" in this issue which to my thinking uses the concept of super-escape artist to its best effect. 

The sixth issue of Mister Miracle is in many ways the most controversial of the "Fourth World" books because in this one we meet "Funky Flashman" and his toady "Houseroy". In a searing satire Kirby mauls Stan Lee and to a lesser extent Roy Thomas and Marvel Comics in general with this self-important, self-serving, and  morally bankrupt character who talks fast and lives off the talents and skills of others. What I'd never grokked before is that Kirby might've been actually goaded into creating this rough and tumble version of Stan by a character then running in Captain America, a gruff police officer name Muldoon who looks remarkably like Jack Kirby. While one could argue that Muldoon is a less pungent creation, the truth is that eventually he becomes an outright villain in the series not unlike Flashman was from the start. The obligatory enemies of this issue are the Female Furies. 

Mister Miracle and Big Barda take the battle back to Apokolips in a wild two-issue adventure that gives us all a better look at the rough and tumble environment that gave birth to our heroes. It's first a battle against the oddly noble assassin Kanto and then into the clutches of Granny Goodness and a battle of the Id. This is one of Scott Free's most ferocious conflicts, one inside the mind against an enemy that can change to make the struggle ever more dangerous. Of course in the end our heroes alongside some new allies in the Female Furies are able to get away. 

With the ninth issue of Mister Miracle we get something truly special. Kirby had been running a back-up feature called "Young Scott Free" in many of the issues showing how Scott was to come in contact with Metron and develop his own Mother Box. In this issue we meet "Himon", a genius inventor who takes the battle against the forces of Darkseid right to his home front. Scott is one of Himon's proteges and we see how he became adept at super escapes. This is a follow up story to "The Pact" from New Gods which detailed the origins of the war between New Genesis and Apokolips. In this story we see how that arrangement was broken with Scott Free's escape. 

When Scott Free and Barda return to Earth from Apokolips they are not alone. They bring with them the Female Furies. The book begins its turn away from exclusively Darkseid related stories and the villains this time are a high-tech outfit located at something called "Latitude Zero". This head man of this bunch of thugs is literally just that, a brain inside a bio-engineered head in a box. But after much derring and do, Mister Miracle is able to turn the tables on this gang and the group leave Latitude Zero intact and ready for more adventures. The Female Furies consist of Mad Harriet, Lashina, Stompa and Bernadeth - Desaad's sister. Despite their villainous roots they are looking apparently to turn over a new leaf. 

Those adventures continue in the very next issue when the Female Furies (minus Mad Harriet for some reason) are incorporated into the Mister Miracle act. At the same time Dr. Bedlam returns for one more volley from the forces of Apokolips. 

The Mister Miracle act keeps on keeping on when a gentleman criminal named Darby unleashes his powerful weapon named "Mystivac". Turns out Mystivac is presumed to be an ancient idol that can walk and talk and take control of people's minds. There's more to the secrets of this thing which has the same powers attributed to the "Anti-Life Equation" though that term is never used in this story. 

The Female Furies are all but disappeared without explanation as the Mister Miracle act is now down to its original team of Scott Free, Big Barda (now in skirts) and the always faithful Oberon. The son of Thaddeus Brown had shown up a few issues before and had begun acting as agent for the show and in this issue we find out what happened to him all those years before when he was thought dead. He had run across a former Nazi who had tamed some Abominable Snowman and used advanced tech to make himself into "Dafura". 

The next issue has Mister Miracle and Oberon run afoul of a weird gang using supernatural disguises to hide their spy operations. It features a dandy and wacky villain named "Madame Evil Eyes" who can stun you with her glance. Also on hand in a cameo are Lashina and Stompa, the final bow for the Female Furies. 

Then Mister Miracle meets young Shilo Norman, a youngster who is a witness against the criminal "Mister Fez" and his killer cronies. The police want to use Mister Miracle and crew to protect Shilo form the hoods but Shilo has other plans and goes to avenger his brother who was killed by the gang. When it's all said and done Scott Free has an apprentice. Clearly this is yet one more step to move the series away from its Apokoliptian roots and into a fresh format with a skew to youth. 

In  the sixteenth issue of Mister Miracle Shilo takes center stage as he finds himself in a microscopic world of bio-engineered bug-men and their evil master named "Professor Egg". When this one turns out to be a dream we were all relieved. The cast is shown on the cover, but Ted Brown is limited to a few panels and Barda is now dressing in skirts eschewing her bathing suits and armor. More's the pity. 

The penulimate Kirby issue of Mister Miracle is a bit of a throwaway with Barda, Scott and Shilo finding their way into a hotel designed to kill its occupants. This is a place run by thugs to kill other thugs for the mob. Our trio is mistaken for a trio of criminals named "Mad Merkin", "Della the Dinosaur" and "Little Bullets".  The series is now far far removed from its original intentions and it's not for the better alas. 

And that's shown because the eighteenth issue is the last one in the Kirby era. But it's an improvement in many ways because denied an opportunity to bring his epic to a fitting end, Kirby does give it a coda of sorts when Scott Free and Barda get married by Highfather. Orion, Lightray and Metron are on hand as a bevy of villains serving Darkseid try to bring the affair to a screaming halt. And it's Darkseid who gets the last laugh literally as the New Gods ascend into the ether and master villain exalts in his ability to clear the field. And that's it -- the Fourth World stumbles to an disappointing end...for a time. 

More next week when Orion comes to Earth and fights for us all. 

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