We've had this discussion before (on the old, old board), but this time I would like to take it beyond the Kirby series. Here is a brief summary of what has been discussed so far.
ISSUE #1: Mister Miracle, the escape artist Thadeus Brown, is preparing to make a comeback. He is practicing in a field with his dwarf assitant, Oberon, while a young man nearby looks on. When Oberon binds Mister Miracle, locks him in a cabinet and sets it afire with a flame thrower, the young man intercedes. But Mister Miracle doesn't need any help. He escapes on his own and the young man introduces himself as "Scott Free." Thadeus Brown has made a bet with a criminal named Steel Hand of Intergang. Steel Hand has wagered $10,000 that Brown will not be able to escape from his "inescapable trap," but now Steel Hand is starting to get cold feet and has sent a few of his thugs around to intimidate Brown. Scott Free, Oberon and Thadeus himself make short work of the thugs, and Mister Miracle invites Scott Free to stay at his house for a few days.
Thadeus tells Scott about his own son, lost in the war, and reminisces about his days as "The Great Thadeus." Scott offers to show him some new tricks using "gadgets," one of which he demonstrates by escaping from a set of chains. The next day, while Mister Miracle is practicing his act, a sniper takes him out with a rifle. Scott uses a box attached to his arm to ease Brown's pain ans he peacefully passes away. Later, "Mister Miracle" (actually Scott Free in disguise) confronts Steel Hand in his hideout. Scott is subdued, strapped to an Integang missile and shot into space. Somehow, Scott manages to free himself and captures Steel Hand. Oberon offers to become Scott Free's assistant, and Scott replies, "Done, Oberon! From now on, we're both part of Mister Miracle--Super Escape Artist!"
ISSUE #2: Overlord - Followers - The X-Pit - Granny Goodness - Mother Box - Boom Tube - sonic flyer - aero-discs - Darkseid
ISSUE #3: The Paranoid Pill - Dr. Bedlam - Apokolips - "animates"
ISSUE #4: Big Barda
ISSUE #5: Professor Virman Vundabar
ISSUE #6: Funky Flashman - The Female Furies (Mad Harriet, Stompa, Lashina & Burnadeth)
ISSUE #7-8: Return to Apokolips: Kanto, Harrassers, Para-Demons, Gullotina Lump of "Section Zero"
ISSUE #9: (Flashback to origin): Himon, Wonderful Willik, Auralie
ISSUE #10: Mr. Miracle and Big Barda return from Apokolips with the Female furies in tow (for some reason). they soon blunder into "X-Latitude" where they find the "Head," the world's first brain transplant into a "pseudo-tissue skull." The Head is the leader of the World Protective League, a terrorist organization which runs a "protection racket" on a global scale. Their current project is the Obital Plague Bomb. Mr/ Miracle, Big Barda and the Furies ally themselves with Muike McKraken of the All Nations Agency.
Back in the house of Thadeus Brown in the suburbs, Oberon greets a guest: Ted Brown. Ted Brown, Thadeus's son, was mentioned in issue #1 as having died in the Korean War, but Oberon has apparently tracked him down somehow. He is a failed public relations man who has never found the right act to manage. Just then, Scott Free and the gang return, having defeated the Head.
ISSUE #11: It was in the midst of producing this issue that Jack Kirby received word that DC was cancelling all of the "Fourth World" books, except Mr. Miracle which it neutered. I have heard many reasons why the bean-counters might have cancelled those titles, but the one I put the most credence in has to do with the books' "sell-through" rate. Oftne the reason is attributed to "low sales," but I don't think that's it. If you compare the annual sales figures to second tier books such as Green Lantern or Flash, you will find that New Gods and Forever People had similar circulation. But Carmine Infantino had perhaps oversold Kirby to the suits in order to get him to come to DC, and they started publishing the "Fourth World" titles at Superman levels before they had found an audience, and books were returnable in those days of newsstand distribution. Just to make up some figures, let's say DC published 500,000 copies of New Gods and sold half of them; that's 250,000 copies or a sell-through rate of 50%. But Green Lantern printed 250,000 copies a month and sold all of them; a sell-through rate of 100%. So Kirby's series were selling in good numbers, they just weren't selling through (their print runs). As soon as Jeanette Kahn took over and got a look at the sales figures, she reinstated the titles, but by that time it was too late; Kirby had returned to Marvel.
Issue #11 featured the return of Dr. Bedlam, and was really the last "Fourth World" issue of Mr. Miracle. Mr. Miracle had been selling slightly better than New Gods and Forever People, so it was spared the ax, but Kirby was forced to make him just an escape artist rather than a New God. C'est dommage.
ISSUE #12: Colonel Darby and Mystivac
ISSUE #13: Albert von Killowitz (a.k.a. "King Komodo"), a Nazi war criminal who is actually Ted's enemy.
ISSUE #14: Madame Evil Eyes runs a fake Satanic cult to cover a hijacking ring.
ISSUE #15: Shilo Norman and Mr. Fez. Like Mystivac and King Komodo and Madame Evil Eyes, Mr. Fez is one of Kirby least-inspired villains. Shilo Norman, OTOH, eventually becomes the new Mister Miracle (at least on Earth), a position he still held last time I checked. I tend to associate him with the post-Fourth World era, and sometimes forget he appeared in only four (Kirby) issues.
ISSUE #16: Professor Egg and his "insecto-sapiens" (actually Professor Exe, Master of Illusion).
ISSUE #17: "Murder Lodge" featuring Peppi Lamoko and Mungo. They run a refuge for fugitives, but sell them out to whoever is looking for them. they mistake Mister Miracle, Big Barda and Shilo for the "Ticky Trio," Mad Merkin, Della the Dinosaur and Little Bullets. It is also in this issue that Shilo gets a costume for the act, not dissimilar to the one once worn by Sandy the Golden Boy.
ISSUE #18: "Wild, Wild Wedding Guests." Mr. Miracle and Big Barda get married, and Jack Kirby trots out his "Fourth World" characters for one final lap aropund the track. From Apokolips we have Virman Vundabar, Granny Goodness, Kanto and Doctor Bedlam; from New Genesis, Orion, Lightray, Highfather and Metron; and of course Darkseid. Darkseid philosophizes that, although he wasn't able to stop the wedding, he did spoil it. "It had deep sentiment--yet little joy. But--life at best is bittersweet."
Jack Kirby gets the final word:
THE 'MISTER MIRACLE' SERIES WILL NOT BE CONTINUED... ITS NEW AND THRILLING SUCCESSOR WILL SOON BE ON SALE! LOOK FOR IT!
Thank you, Jack Kirby
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MISTER MIRACLE #25:
This issue picks up exactly where #24 left off, with Mister Miracle ascending from the gorge of the Colorado River at Hoover Dam. He begins to deliver a sermon ("As I was constrined by links forged of metal--there are forces in the universe which seek to bind you! As I was sealed alive in a casket--there are forces which seek to suffocate you! But escape is possible!") but is attacked by Darkseid's Photon Patrol. (I would like to point out, as much as I admire Michael Golden, his Darkseid is way too "soft.") As he evades and defeats Darkseid's troops, he evaluates his "ministry." I'm not going to transcribe the entire internal monologue, but he does admit that his "messianic impulses are strictly secular." That night, "in the penthouse suite of an opulent Las Vegas hotel," he discusses how he pulled off the escape.
Elsewhere, in the Glendale, California, Rex and Ida Hubbard discuss their 15-year-old daughter, Alianna (the one who allowed herself to be bitten by a rattlesnake last issue). Rex is weak, and Ida is the stereotypal mother living out her own fantasies through her daughter. Ali was in an accident when she was five years old, which left her in a state of constant pain, but she somehow learned to overcome it with her mind and train her body to perfection despite the prognosis that she would never walk again. Ida's wish is for Ali to become a super-hero so that Ida can live her live vicariously through her daughter. Then Granny Goodness arrives.
The next day, Scott Free and company arrive in L.A. and are met by a real estate agent who quickly sells them a house in Laurel Canyon for $75,000. (A quick internet search reveals that the median listing home price in Laurel Canyon was $2.5M in October 2023, trending up 22.3% year-over-year.) Oberon is still not happy that Scott sold his home of 30 years, but even he likes it. Suddenly, Alianna Hubbard appears and attacks Mister Miracle (and let me just add that there's no way this is a 15-year-old kid!). She defeats him but cannot bring herself to kill him. Granny Goodness appears but Alianna maintains she agreed only to a trial of her competency in a combat situation. Granny had promised to "patch things up between her parents" but, now that Alianna has determined she does not enjoy violence, Granny reveals that her parents are dead, having "lost their lives... when it became apparent that [she] had failed." Ali was at first disappointed that Granny refused to train her any further, then Granny attempted to kill her, painlessly, unfortunately, because Ali cannot feel pain. Mister Miracle saves Ali's life by punching Granny in the gut, and that's the last we ever see of Alianna Hubbard to the best of my knowledge.
It doesn't make sense (to some) that Scot Free wouldn't have "god powers," but that also lessens the effect of his escapes (for others) if that's what he uses to make his escapes.
You've kinda landed on my longstanding ambivalence towards Mister Miracle.
For the record, New Gods was my favorite Fourth World title. In fact, it was the only one I actively liked. Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen did not star the character I had grown up with, but instead featured a confident, ultra-competent guy who was a borderline superhero. I didn't know who this guy calling himself Jimmy Olsen was, but he wasn't my Jimmy Olsen. And I found Forever People super-cringey, since Kirby (like most comics creators from the '40s) couldn't write Age of Aquarius dialogue (or concepts) to save his life.
Then there was Mister Miracle who ... escapes traps. Whee.
Maybe that would actually be exciting if I was at a live performance, and I didn't know how the performer did it. Maybe. Probably not, since I would know going in that it's all gimmicked and heavily rehearsed. Because, you know, it's an act. You applaud how well it's done, but is there really any doubt that the performer will survive?
The same is true of Mister Miracle, except it's not a live performance -- and he had New Genesis technology! His escapes weren't even clever! Once he escaped, the explanation was always something like "I pulled the Nego-Thrust-Gizmo out of my belt and it saved me!" There was zero suspense in any of this, or cleverness, or even charm. It was just techno-babble.
Besides, as you noted, Jeff, escaping was his thing. But again and again we see him put into a trap and breathless captions tell us how serious this is, or it's a cliffhanger and "Will he survive?!??" and so forth. Of course he'll escape. He doesn't just have plot armor, it's his raison d'etre! They would spend pages and pages on a trap, issue after issue, and it would end the same way every time. Were we really supposed to be amazed? Thrilled? If so, it didn't work on me.
So, um, maybe he has some New Genesis powers that are interesting? Nope. And when he does, or acknowledges his New Genesis origin, he tries to give it away. No, Scott, no! Try to be interesting! Please!
And he wants to be a messiah. Well, you don't have to read Dune, or peruse through real history, to know that's usually a really bad idea. But, OK, if that's what he wants, he should go to Armagetto and live there full time, escaping everything and showing the Hunger Dogs that Darkseid can't kill him. Create a Resistance, blow up Apokalips stuff, inspire a revolution, overthrow the Ancien Regime, etc. Use World War II as a blueprint. That would be exciting!
But that would change Kirby's established status quo, so I guess that's a no-no.
So he stays on Earth, duping us gullible Earthlings (It's not hard!) to achieve ... something. Not sure what, really. I mean, we all live under some constraints as part of the social contract to live in a society. Just getting angry and rejecting all "bonds" is how you get hermits and sociopaths. So I don't really know what Scott's endgame was, but I can't imagine a good one. Not that it matters, since it was never going to happen. (See: Status quo, above.)
So, to me, Mister Miracle was a bunch of wheels spinning to no purpose, and not very interesting wheels at that. Heck, they couldn't even decide what to do with Shilo Norman. (Hint: Let him be Mister Miracle on Earth, and rely strictly on plausible and maybe suspenseful and clever Earth tricks to escape, and send Scott back to New Genesis to do something productive.) The only part of Mister Miracle I really enjoyed was Big Barda's attitude. Sadly, she wasn't the star, even though her personality, powers and story utility far overshadowed Scott's. (They had the same problem in 1960s Aquaman, where Mera was waaaaay more powerful than the Sea King, so part of every story was finding some way to sideline her.)
Like most people, I loved Tom King's Mister Miracle. Which had no faux death traps. Which featured Barda prominently. Which gave Scott Free an actual personality, even if it was only clinical depression. And it had a brilliant gimmick, with the glitches and all, which led to a surprising and satisfying conclusion.
Mister Miracle the comic book had far less to recommend it. Yes, I bought and read them all. But I suffer from Completist Disease. Had I been sane, Mister Miracle is not a book I would have ever bought.
I don't say all this to rain on anyone's parade. But if someone could explain to me what part of Mister Miracle I was supposed to find entertaining, I'd genuinely appreciate it!
Last thought: I snatched up that final issue with joy, because it looked like a Russ Heath cover. It turns out to be a Michael Golden cover with Heath inking. Still, close enough for me.
For the record, New Gods was my favorite Fourth World title.
I am genuinely surprised to hear that you liked any of them at all, you have been so critical of them in the past. for me, it's like asking who is my favorite Beatle? I cycle through them (Beatles and "Fourth World" series) one at a time so they all get a turn... although I don't think I've ever choses Jimmy Olsen.
But, OK, if [being a messiah] what he wants, he should go to Armagetto and live there full time, escaping everything and showing the Hunger Dogs that Darkseid can't kill him.
Just to play devil's advocate, that pretty much what he did in #21-22 (excpet for the "full time" part. It would have been interesting (to me) to see where Gerber/Golden would have taken the series if it hadn't've been cancelled.
Heck, they couldn't even decide what to do with Shilo Norman. (Hint: Let him be Mister Miracle on Earth...)
Did you read the 2021 Source of Freedom mini-series? I did not, but that one features Shilo Norman as Mister Miracle.
The only part of Mister Miracle I really enjoyed was Big Barda's attitude.
I like Scott and Barda's releationship.
Like most people, I loved Tom King's Mister Miracle.
You've found me out! I recently stared at the beginning with a character (Supergirl) and ended with a Tom King series, and I'm working on doing the same with another charater (Adam Strange) now. this is my third (although I will get to the King material long before I do with Adam Strange). I don't plan to cover every appearance of Mister Miracle in this discussion; I'm already champing at the bit to get to the 2017 series.
I don't say all this to rain on anyone's parade.
Not at all! I'm just happy to have elicited such a well-thought-out response.
MISTER MIRACLE #26:
Okay, there was no "Mister Miracle #26," but if there had been, this would have been the cover. The title was cancelled in the "DC Implosion" of 1978 and eventually turned up in the second volume of Cancelled Comics Cavalcade (a two-issue series that collected inventory stories and covers from the large number of books that DC cancelled between 1977 and 1978.) Only 35 copies of each volume were produced, none of which were ever intended to be sold. the artwork was published for the first time in 2020's Mister Miracle by Steve Englehart and Steve Gerber HC collection.
Kind of odd how unceremoniously Shilo Norman was put aside.
In any case, before the 2021 "Source of Freedom" series Jeff mentions above he did turn up again in 1990-1991 issues of the second "Mister Miracle" series by Doug Moench, and later as the title character in the "Mister Miracle" series that was part of the "Seven Soldiers of Victory" story by Grant Morrison in 2005-2006, which eventually converged into Final Crisis.
I haven't read any of that, but seems to have been fairly respectful treatment of the character.
Then there was Mister Miracle who ... escapes traps. Whee.
My sister is a big fan of professional big ice skating. Years ago I was visiting at her house and we were watching ice skating on TV. My brother-in-law opined that the announcers were really making a big deal out of of some of the moves. Essentially (he said) ice skating consists of three moves: 1) the skater can jump up and spin around, 2) she can spin around twice, or 3) she can spin around three times. Then the announcers get all excited when the skaters land. My sister was obviously not enjoying this commentary, so of course I joined in. I likened it to a baseball game in which the announcers would get all excited and exclaim, "HE HIT THE BALL!" She finally got us to shut up. Then, during the next commercial break, there was adeodorant ad which depicted people in various forms of vigorous physical activity. When they showed a baseball player in slow motion, my brother and I both exclaimed simultaneously, "HE HIT THE BALL!" and my sister ran out of the room in tears. Good times.
DC COMICS PRESENTS #12:
Steve Englehart returns to Mister Miracle (along with Rich Buckler and Dick Giordano), but that's where the good news ends. This story gets off to a bad start and gets progressively worse. Even the cover (which could have been a Silver Age-style "springboard") is not all that interesting. The issue starts with Mirster Miracle "handcuffed, blindfolded, and triple-locked inside a solid steel coffin, which is now hanging two hundred feet above the Las Vegas desert." What's it hanging from? Good question. Nothing is either said nor shown. It's like, what is Spider-Man swinging from in the end credits of the 1967 cartoon series? Next, "two pilotless drone planes are zeroing in on him at 1,000 miles per hour." One of them hit's the steel coffin. If a jet plane travelling at 1000 mph hit a steel coffin (or even the chain suspending a steel coffin) in mid-air, there is no way that plane would be landing. (Only the coffin is shown to hit the ground.) Also, the jets have Air Force marking on them, so how much did this stunt cost taxpayers? And what's the second plane for? After one of the planes lands, Mister Miracle emerges from it, so maybe the first plane crashed and he was in the second all along. That would be a good trick, but it's not really shown to have happened that way.
Better to skip the first three pages and begin reading on page four. Except on that page Mister Miracle exhibits envy of Superman because Galaxy Broadcasting is airing a Superman documentary opposite his stunt so his ratings tanked. He spots Carolyn Doyle, "the Intetrgang chieftan who escaped jail yesterday," and follows her to an Intergang hideout for a demonstration of their new "Mentropy Machine," whixch can control minds within a 50-foot radius. One of their members, Curry, has decided to talk to the feds, but apparently wasn't given adequate protection, because they're going to test the Mentropy Machine on him. It works, but that would be an easy thing for Curry to fake. Before Mister Miracle can break through the skylight and apprehend them, however, they use the maching to "ride [their] thought-waves out of here!" Do you see what I mean about this story getting worse as it goes along? If not, keep reading.
Mister Miracle overhears that Intergang plans to use the machine to destroy Superman, so he decides to give Clark Kent a call to pass along a warning. The only thing is, Mister Miracle himself was within 50 feet of the Mentropy Machine when it was used on Curry and he can't communicate Intetrgang's plan in any way. So instead, he decides to goad Superman into a contest by becoming the new champion of Metropolis. Surprisingly, this method works, and Superman accepts Mister Miracle's challenge. Basically, they are to race from Las Vegas to "a chunk of Nevada desert that's permanently uninhabitable by humans, due to underground nuclear tests!" there are "no rules" but the situations is said to be "rife with pregnant possibilities."
It is this desert when Intergang panned to ambush Superman, although how they intended to lure him there without Mister Miracle's intervention isn't clear. Or maybe they just took advantage of the circumstances, I don't really know (and don't really care). Superman and Mister Miracle trade a few blows, then Scott changes himself into flowers (which is a new trick!) and tricks Superman into taking the wrong direction back to Las Vegas in a way that is so impausible that I cannot even bring myself to repeat it here. Why anyone would even attempt to trick Superman into losing his way to Las Vegas from the Nevada desert is beyond me. The man can navigate space, for Rao's sake! But writer's fiat demands that Superman be out of the picture for a few minutes while Mister Miracle deals with Intergang.
Steve Englehart doesn't even mention this story on his website. I can see why.
MISTER MIRACLE SPECIAL (1987):
It should come as no surprise that any post-Kirby "Fourth World" book is not as good as Kirby's. (You may disagree, but I think that that assertion holds true whether you like Jack Kirby's Fourth World or not.) This is one of the better ones. It is written by Mark Evanier, Kirby's long-time assistant and biographer, and drawn by Steve Rude, whose style evokes Kirby without copying him outright. The plot is simple and straighforward, and I would love to see it reprinted on better quality paper stock.
One thing I think is true of any long-running comic book series (Superman, Spider-Man) is this: there are the seminal stories and there are the current stories. Seminal for you might be Seigel and Shuster or it might be John Byrne. For Spider-Man is might be Lee/Ditko or Lee/Romita. Every franchise, every universe, periodically restarts (Crisis on Infinite Earths, The Death of Superman, Knightfall, Emerald Night, Sins Past, One More Day, Flashpoint, Convergence, Rebirth, etc.) These series may seem to go on due to the nature of periodic storytelling, but you can't tell the that the "pre-" and the "post-" versions of any of these "events" are the same. With Kirby's unfinished magnum opus, it's easier: there's Kirby, and there's everybody else. Gerry Conway gets a chance, John Byrne gets a chance, Walt Simonson gets a chance, Jim Starlin gets a chance, even Jack Kirby himself got a chance... but these are all sequels to the seminal "Fourth World" series with little in cammon between or among them.
Around the ame time as Mister Miracle Special #1, Scott Free and Big Barda also appeared in Action Comics #592-593, ELSEWHERE on this board and need not rehash them again here. PLEASE.
Also in 1987, Mister Miracle joined the newly-reorganized Justice League.
In 1989, he spun-off into his own solo series, the early issues of which I found to be unreadable (as supported by the fact that I've had them for 34 years and have still not read them). The series got better with #6, however, with a different artist and stories which hewed closer to his characterization in Justice League. The series really started to get good with Justice League International Special #1 (which kicked off the "Mister Miracle 1990 World Tour") and led directly into #13. Doug Moench joined with #14, and remained series writer (the third following J.M. DeMatteis and Len Wein) throughout the remainder of the run.
Shilo Norman was reintroduced in #21 and became the new Mister Miracle, Scott Free's successor, in #22. He spoke entirely in non-sequitors (a somewhat annying affectation), and reamained Scott Free's protege until he took over the role of Mister Miracle (on Earth) in the final issue, which featured not only Big Barda's mother for the first time (Big Breeda), but also Scott's return to New Genesis and his ascention to Godhood.
MISTER MIRACLE (1995):
This series is forgettable (as supported by the fact that I have forgotten it). It is also a good example of what I posted on Sunday about post-Kirby "Fourth World" series often not being as good as Kirby's. Other readers must have agreed with me because this version lasted only seven issues.
MISTER MIRACLE (2005):
This series was pretty good, but it's about the Shilo Norman version of Mr. Miracle. At least, I think it was good, but it's written by Grant Morrison, so who knows? This version was part of a series of interlocking mini-series bookended between two Seven Soldiers of Victory specials. In addition to Mr. Miracle, the other soldiers were Shining Knight, Guardian, Zatanna, Klarion the Witch Boy, Bulleteer and Frankenstein. I didn't read any of these at the time, but I later went back and collected two (Mister Miracle and Frankenstein) as backissues. As incomprehensible as Grant Morrison comics can often be, imaging reading these out of the context of the larger "Seven Soldiers" tapestry, with no beginning and no end, just a middle. Someday (perhaps someday soon) I may go back and lead a discussion of just the Shilo Norman Mr. Miracle. (I'll leave it to someone else to do GM's Seven Soldiers.)
JACK KIRBY'S FOURTH WORLD #12 (1998):
A lot has happened since Scott Free ascended to Godhood: the worlds of Apokolips and New Genesis have merged (then split apart), Highfather has died, and Mr. Miracle has ascended to the throne (but first he gave up his Godhood to do so). This story deals with primarily with Oberon's previously-unknown wife and daughter, and the less-than-honorable way he abandoned them.
ORION #25 (2002):
Orion is Walt Simonson's successor to John Byrne's Jack Kirby's Fourth World. A lot more has happened since John Byrne's series, but I'm not sure how much (if any) of it has stuck* (again, I I discussed on Sunday). This is the last issue of the series, featuring Orion and Mr. Miracle. There's no reason the two should be close (nor, if fact, have they been, historically), but Orion was raised by Highfather and Scott Free is his son, so there's story potential there, which Walt Simonson taps (as will Tom King in 2017).
*Specifically, a HUGE EYKIW regarding the "Anti-Life Equation" is revealed in this issue, and it is this: [SPOILER] Scott Free has posessed it all along. [END SPOILER]
The Grant Morrison "Seven Soldiers of Victory" series is rightfully famous for how interconnected the books are. While there were indeed seven separate solo series published between the back-end issues, concepts and characters bled all over the place between those series.
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