DC Comics Rebirth Spoilers and Review for Mister Miracle #1 follows.
I understand now why DC Comics made this Rebirth continuity book a mature readers book…
…perennially happy-go-lucky Scott Free, aka Mister Miracle, is depressed and has unsuccessfully escaped the grips of his mental illness by a failed suicide attempt.
He is a bit of a celebrity so his hospital was staked out by paparazzi and fans who “greet” him as he leaves. Nice to see DC Comics use the classic Jack Kirby Mister Miracle as a advertisement poster of Mister Miracle’s escape artist show.
Orion, Darkseid’s son and Scott Free’s step brother, comes to Earth and is disgusted with what Mister Miracle has done; the suicide attempt. And begins a series of domestic abuse to snap him out of it…
…while Mister Miracle’s wife, Big Barda a former reformed Female Fury of Darkseid, has had enough. She stops Orion and explains that he grew up soft on New Genesis as Highfather’s step son while his real son Mister Miracle was sent to Darkseid in a sons-swap as part of a peace deal between Darkseid’s Apokolips and Highfather’s New Genesis.
In another example of Mister Miracle’s mental illness or whether his concussed based on Orion’s beating, he believes Big Barda’s eyes used to be blue, but they are brown now; she says they were always brown.
We then move to Highfather seemingly visiting Mister Miracle on Earth, likely to see if he is ok after his failed suicide attempt, and tells Mister Miracle that Darkseid has finally discover the anti-life equation and his a bigger threat to the cosmos because he can now change reality.
Mister Miracle is then practicing his escape act trying to escape Thanagarian (Hawkworld) shackles provided by his stage hand and friend Oberon; who is a fan of stogies.
However, in another nod to Scott Free’s mental illness, it seems he was speaking to a mind-induced vision as Oberon…
…has been dead for a month the victim of cancer from his incessant smoking.
If you are curious who Oberon was / is, he had a big role in the Justice League International of the 1980’s; here’s his classic DC Comics Who’s Who bio.
The book begins to end with Orion calling Mister Miracle via his teleportation and communication device the Mother Box. Darkseid has attacked, killed Highfather and now Orion is in charge pulling together a resistance. He needs Mister Miracle and Big Barda to help in that fight.
Scott Free is weary and worried…
…Big Barda responds with her own domestic abuse of Scott Free; he snaps out of his funk, seemingly, and they…
…head into the fight via Boom Tube generated by the Mother Box.
Darkseid is. He was all over this issue yet never appeared in person. A grand threat that is omnipresent… or is this all in Scott’s head?
So…
A complex, compelling, thought provoking, drama-filled and action-packed comic book by writer Tom King and penciller Mitch Gerads. Important and troubling themes of mental health illness and, which wasn’t covered by many other sites as a big issue, the domestic abuse inflicted on a man with mental illness by his brother and wife; and they are all the “good guys” per se. Weighty stuff. 9 out of 10.
