Last of the Fourth World series that I will review.
Mister Miracle #1 (1971)
by Jack Kirby
Your superhero is an escape artist and you want to show it off on the cover.
Anyone else: I’ll draw him escaping from some daring trap, like being chained underwater.
Jack Kirby: hold my cigar.
And right away we begin with Mister Miracle practicing an escape act with his assistant Oberon.
A stranger shows up to save him, even though it’s completely unnecessary.
This isn’t the Mister Miracle you expect.
They met just in time to be attacked by members of Intergang.
They’re working for Steel Hand.
Who is a guy with a steel hand.
Yeah, uhm, even on stories I don’t like I usually still praise Kirby for his creativity… but you have to admit that this time it’s not anything revolutionary.
Little known fact: having your hand replaced with a titanium prosthetic gives you super-strength.
Mister Miracle welcomes the guy who helped him against Intergang into his home, where he tells his origin story.
Turns out his guest knows a thing of two about escapism.
Namely, he knows how to cheat.
Yeah, uhm, while he WILL do impressive escapism stuff… I’m not feeling his use of what he calls gadgets. If you have on you a device that melts any chain, is it really an impressive trick?
Eventually, as Mister Miracle prepares from his next trick… which involves untying himself before he’s crushed by a metal ball (!!!)… Intergang sabotages the act.
You have to love how needlessly complicated Intergang’s plans get.
Their objective is to kill an old man, so naturally they:
A) throw a big metal ball at him
B) expect this won’t kill him, SOMEHOW
C) shoot him
Couldn’t they just have skipped the first two steps!?
So the original Mister Miracle dies of the dreaded Mentor Figure Disease.
Wait, does he even qualify if he barely met the protagonist?
All so that the new Mister Miracle can get a costume.
Intergang doesn’t shoot him AND Steel Hand doesn’t use his steel hand on him?
What is this, the Golden Age?
Instead, they strap him TO A ROCKET HEADED FOR SPACE.
Hey I know they’re funded by Apokolips, but can Intergang still be considered a regular criminal organization when THEY HAVE A LAUNCH BASE!?!?
Speaking of Apokolips: we will later learn Mister Miracle grew up there, so naturally he has a fondness for sitting on other people’s chairs.
His actual miracle is being able to keep so many gadgets under his costume.
Splash pages: 2 out of 22 (5%)
No double splash pages
Most Kirby panel
Most WTF panel
What he said has nothing to do with Superman.
Mister Miracle #2 (1971)
by Jack Kirby
Unusually for his Fourth World series, Kirby will actually give answers to the questions on the cover.
The story also has one of the most unique beginnings for a Kirby series. Virtually all of his stories begin with a splash page, but this one starts with a sequence seen through the eyes of an artificial being that infects the panel grid.
Here’s the answer to the cover’s question: the “follower” is a robot double of Mister Miracle.
Mister Miracle uses it to practice a trick with live explosives… as you do…
…and they’re shot by an unseen force.
Don’t worry, Mister Miracle, no other series so far has actually explained Mother Box™ either.
I have to wonder, has any Kirby superfan tried to used this to explain to their kids how babies are born?
The attack was courtesy of one of the best characters of the Fourth World: Granny Goodness.
Her appearance was reportedly inspired by Phyllis Diller, pictured here receiving the news.
I’m not being sarcastic in my praise. Next to Darkseid, she’s the best of the Apokolips villains: her mixture of old-fashioned courtesy and outright sadism is delightfully creepy.
Her goons kidnap Follower and Oberon.
Second question from the cover answered: “Ever wear Aero-Discs?”.
I don’t know about you, but I haven’t.
See what I meant about Granny’s creepiness? Every time I see her “children” suck up to her it sends chills down my spine.
The real Mister Miracle doesn’t take long to show up.
Unfortunately she was ready for him, trapping Mister Miracle in the X-Pit.
Breaking free requires going through a cycle of excruciating traps.
Controlling the X-Pit is Overlord, this box that can do anything a Mother Box™ can’t.
Namely, it can explode when its plans are thwarted.
Honestly, I don’t really get how the X-Pit and Overlord are defeated.
I think that Mother Box™ is being powered by the radiation that was supposed to kill Mister Miracle?
Also Overlord was a tiny creature in a box. I think.
Then Mister Miracle just leaves and allows Granny Goodness to continue her schemes, because that’s how the New Gods roll.
Splash pages: 2 out of 9 (9%)
No double splash pages
Most Kirby panel
Most WTF panel
Mister Miracle takes his Aero-Discs out of his bag, but where does he keep them in other stories?
If they can shrink to fit beneath his shoes, why is he keeping them in the bag?
Mister Miracle #3 (1971)
by Jack Kirby
I see that Mister Miracle already has a fan club.
We begin with a bunch of androids setting up one of their own for a strange procedure.
They kind of look like Marvel’s Super-Adaptoid (to be fair, not in the look Kirby gave it).
This is done so that one of the androids can be possessed by Doctor Bedlam and his eyebrows.
Behold Doctor Bedlam’s terrifying power: knowing a phone number!
This is the most cordial setup for a superhero fight I’ve ever seen.
Something that irritates me about the Fourth World is the sheer amount of protagonists who rely on the Mother Box™ for NEARLY EVERYTHING.
Mister Miracle then decides to show to Oberon the mental dimension where Doctor Bedlam normally operates.
It’s amazing that Oberon, who I remind you is just an escapist’s assistant, doesn’t just resign when stuff like this keeps happening around him.
Doctor Bedlam is some sort of eldritch abomination who feeds on the worst nightmares of humanity, so obviously he’s going to adhere to the “code of combat”.
The entire Not Baxter Building is going to be a giant death trap…
…because he’s going to turn every human inside the building into a raving lunatic.
The most human reaction any Kirby character has had in this entire retrospective.
Now I see why Doctor Bedlam is not used all that often in modern stories.
He just turns the real world into the Internet, so it’s not that scary anymore.
It’s a surprisingly tense series of action scenes.
Seriously, Kirby manages to keep you on the edge of your seat in the entire sequence: every time Mister Miracle thinks he’s safe or has figured his way out, something new shows up.
And we end with the cliffhanger of him being dropped off 45 floors of stairs.
Splash pages: 1 out of 22 (5%)
No double splash pages
Most Kirby panel
Most WTF panel
How considerate of this insane mob to make sure the demon they’re captured doesn’t suffocate before they kill him.
Historical significance
#1: 2/10
Considering how surprisingly connected to the DC Universe Mister Miracle is going to become, his origin story is barely ever mentioned. Especially the fact that he took the stage name of a human.
#2: 10/10
Granny Goodness. That is all.
#3: 0/10
Doctor Bedlam shows up, but he’s not among the most used Apokolips villains.
Silver Age-ness
#1: 10/10
A criminal organization has a launch base for a rocket that can reach space.
#2: 8/10
Granny Goodness is as over-the-top and scenery chewing as they come.
#3: 0/10
If anything, the tension makes me think more of Golden Age horror stories.
Does it stand the test of time?
#1: 5/10
A bit underwhelming as an origin story. We don’t really get to know Scott Free here, and while that’s partly on purpose because of an ongoing mystery (which will be spoiled pretty early)… it still means he doesn’t have much of a personality. Steel Hand is also shockingly uninspired as a villain.
#2: 7/10
Now that’s more like it. A compelling villain makes all the difference, despite a lackluster finale.
#3: 9/10
This one was GREAT. Incredible pacing, creative paneling, fantastic tension, and for once Mister Miracle doesn’t cheat too much and makes use of relatively believable escapism.
In general, all three of these issues have something extra when compared to the other series I’ve followed: while some of them had the same number of pages, Mister Miracle has much fewer splash pages and a higher number of panels: this REALLY helps the pacing, and for once it feels like a complete story rather than a collection of unrelated scenes.
Mister Miracle has SOME personality and Oberon has SOME chemistry with him… but the series doesn’t really kick off until Big Barda arrives.
Luckily, that’s next issue.