REVIEW: Mister Miracle #7

One of the miracles of comics is the generative discourse that is crafted between a superhero character“s creator and the writers and artists who continue to expand the narrative universe of that superhero. DC“s Mister Miracle, written by Tom King and visually realized by Mitch Gerads, is one of these miracles within the miraculous world of comics ”“ a creative team who fully grasps Jack Kirby“s original concepts of Mister Miracle, the new gods, Darkseid, Apokolips, etc. but are now breathing magical new comic life into their world ”“ and ours.

If you are as avid a comics review reader as you are of comics themselves then you will see near universal praise for this particular title; it“s a twelve-issue limited series with a great creative team executing a singular vision of Mister Miracle“s story world. The escapes, the wars, the battles are all still epic in scope ”“ that is, the stakes are high. But somehow King is able to infuse his plot with an abiding ”“ and sometimes biting ”“ sense of humor that overwhelms readers, occasionally catching us off guard. The magic miracle here is that King and Gerad effectively humanize an entire cast of characters whose predominant attributes are that they are not human. They are super human, super-powered, super evil, immortal or otherwise otherworldly. This process of humanizing superhuman characters is regularly attempted but rarely achieved in such a spectacular fashion as it in this limited series.

At the outset of Mister Miracle #7 Scott Free has won an important victory and become the Highfather. But he is much less interested or invested in his new divine title. His focus is on his family. Big Barda, his life partner, is about to give birth to their child; so ruling the universe is put on hold so that he and Barda can fight through LA traffic in order to get her admitted to maternity before her contractions really get going.

Gerad matches King“s writing skills with an immaculate yet simple panel arrangement and layout. Readers will see/read this layout as cinematic but it tends more toward the photographic sensibility and as such each panel invites and requires readers to stare into them. Readers will study the details of the hospital room, the medical machinery; they will read the writings on the walls.

Imagine a comic book that is set almost entirely in a hospital room; it“s about a mother giving birth and a father bearing witness. Aside from the birth itself, the only other real action here is choosing a name for the baby ”“ a hilarious process that once again underscores Tom King“s wizardry with the written word. This is the long and the short of Mister Miracle #7 ”“ and even these spoilers can“t spoil it for you. It will still very likely be the most engrossing read you will have this week. 4.5/5!

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(W) Tom King (A) Mitch Gerads (CA) Nick Derington