W James
Mister Miracle is about a lot of themes. It is about how two people deeply in love but also deeply opposite, live together. It is about how the struggles of life come just as easily from the outside as it does from the inside. It is about understanding who really has your back. It is about trying to escape a world that has lost any meaning. The world today doesn’t make sense and neither does the world of main protagonist Super Escape Artist Scott Free. Mister Miracle is all those things but, Mister Miracle also, just is.
Mister Miracle is about Super Escape Artist Scott Free as he tries to make sense of a world he thought he knew. A world he thought made sense but seemingly overnight doesn’t. His world and his mind are no longer on the same page. What is reality and what is true blur with each panel and each line of dialogue. However, through it all there is one consistency. Darkseid is. This is a theme that is expressed numerous times though out the books currently published six issues. You may not know who Darkseid is but all you need to know is that he in fact is. He is there when Scott messes up. He is there when the world Scott knows falls apart. He is an ever-looming presence that only needs to exist through just being.
Scott Free, Big Barda, Darkseid, Orion and the hole New Gods cast are more than just characters caught in a space epic. They are lens in which to perceive the world around us. When Scott Free is put through a traumatic event in the very first issue, Barda, his wife, is there trying to understand. When Orion, his step-brother, interrogates Scott in issue four, he tries to understand. However, when everyone around Scott is trying to understand, Scott is trying to escape. Scott’s main priority isn’t to try to understand what’s happening around him, he is trying to escape it. It’s a theme we can all relate to. We are trying to be Mister Miracle, but we are held back by being Scott Free. We have the easy parts in life we know we can accomplish, we in fact are our own Super Escape Artist with our various talents. Even so, when the people leave, and the performance is over. All we have left is to escape from the emotions and the insecurities that we carry. Some things are just too hard to escape.
Tom King, Mitch Gerads and company have spun themselves a tale for the ages. Mister Miracle is more then just a hero trying to trump villainy. Mister Miracle is more than just a series of panels and pages that tell a linear story. Mister Miracle is more than what Darkseid is. Mister Miracle is about us and who we are. Mister Miracle is about you and where you are. Mister Miracle is, just as much as Darkseid is. There are six issues left of Mister Miracle and I don’t know where it’s going What I do know is, I’ll be there for every issue, page and panel, waiting to see what trap Super Escape Artist Mister Miracle has next.