Mister Miracle - The Show Must Go On!

Of all the Fourth World books, Mister Miracle proved to be the most successful. It lasted until its eighteenth issue during its original run but to do that it refocused and paid little attention to its Fourth World roots until the very last. Mister Miracle is Scott Free and he was adept at getting out of traps -- traps of his own invention and traps such as Apokolips the deadly land ruled by Darkseid. His keeper was a hag named Granny Goodness and his mentor was a mysterious Fagin-sort named Himon. He came to Earth and sought a hiding place and found it behind the mask of Theodore Brown the original Mister Miracle who died and passed his stage identity onto this new wunderkind. With the name came Oberon, a loyal assistant who was more powerful than his short stature suggested, and eventually he gained a wife in Barda, "Big Barda" she was called who was gentler, and more loving than her towering stature suggested. He fought the agents of Darkseid such as Virmin Vundabarr, Doctor Bedlam, and Kano the Assassin. And despite these dangers, a time Scott was happy, maybe even free. But all good things come to an end.

When the New Gods returned it was true for most all of them, but it wasn't really true for Mister Miracle because thanks to The Brave and the Bold and the exquisite location known to fans as the "Haneyverse" he was a fixture in its pages. 

Bob Haney and Jim Aparo tapped Mister Miracle three times to assist Batman with his inquiries, before his cancellation, during his hiatus and just after his return. In those stories, self-contained wonders, the grand spectacle of the Fourth World was little mentioned and Mister Miracle was mostly what he seemed to be for the public an escape artist without peer. 

He appeared in the 1st Issue Special which announced the "Return of the New Gods". He was with his wife Barda in New Genesis when the new threat from Darkseid was revealed. But he played little part in that story and that issue is not in this collection. 

Steve Englehart and his partner from Detective Comics Marshall Rogers kick off the new Mister Miracle series with a two-part tale that sees Barda kidnapped by the forces of Apokolips and Scott donning his garb to rescue her from their base on the Moon. In the course of his battle against Granny Goodness and her forces Scott struggles with his identity as a "New God". He is forced to put away the technology of the Mother Box which is infused in his costume and instead finds that aspects of the Mother Box's powers have developed innately in him.

Scott and Oberon head to Apokolips to ultimately rescue Barda. But it is a ferocious Mister Miracle we see who seems intent on proving himself capable of using his own skills and wits to defeat Darkseid's forces. He also wishes to initiate a revolt in the downtrodden denizens of Apokolips by presenting himself as some sort of savior. Englehart seems intent on making Scott Free into an even more direct doppleganger of Christ.

But something must go wrong as it's not Englehart who writes the twenty-second issue, but his alter-ego "John Harkness" whose name appears when Englehart is not happy with the story he's been forced by editorial or circumstances to tell. (Englehart says that he'd told DC he'd only be on the book briefly before heading to Europe, but I'm curious about the "Harkness" credit if that's the case.) Nonetheless, despite his aspirations Mister Miracle does confront Darkseid and his cast off as mostly ineffectual, though there is a notion that his presence has stirred something in the populace.

Darkseid sent Scott spiraling into limbo and Steve Gerber arrives in tandem with artist Michael Golden to find Scott in a spiritual conflict orchestrated by an androgonous being named Ethos.

So Scott rejects Apokolips of course but now he rejects also New Genesis, attempting to find a new way and rejecting the duality which had always resulted in conflict before. He claims he's no longer a "New God" but a "human", whatever that means.

In the last issue of the run Scott and Barda and Oberon are once again on Earth and entertainers, but find themselves battling Granny Goodness once again, this time with her new charge a young woman who knows only pain and becomes something powerful as a result. The series skids to a halt, the next issue still on the drawing boards, the cover finished as the legendary "DC Implosion" takes its toll.

This collection closes out with Mister Miracle's appearance in DC Comics Presents, in  conflict with Superman to see which of them is a more worthy hero for Metropolis. Frankly Scott's personality seems way off in this story capably drawn by Rich Buckler and written by Steve Englehart. I'm much surprised as Scott presented here by Englehart is a very angry man indeed, and I can only wonder if it's a bit of a projection. 

I'm not sure about Mister Miracle this time out. Despite some handsome artwork, Englehart seems desperately to want to divorce the character from the beginning from his mythic context, to transform him into a man who is far needier than the confident fellow Kirby created. I guess he wanted to knock him down to build him up, but it doesn't always make sense. Mister Miracle and Big Barda and Oberon will return to help the other New Gods in their struggle with Darkseid in the pages of the Justice League of America, but that would be a story for another day. 

NOTE: This is a Dojo Revised Classic Post. 

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