Mister Miracle
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Mister Miracle is a DC Comics superhero. Created by Jack Kirby, Mister Miracle first appeared in Mister Miracle #1 (April 1971).
Mister Miracle was one of four series in Kirby's ambitious but short-lived Fourth World saga. Mister Miracle was Scott Free, the god of escape in the New Gods mythology. Izaya, his father and chief of the New Gods, traded sons with the galactic tyrant Darkseid as part of a peace pact to end the war between New Genesis and Apokolips; the exchange of heirs sealed the pact and guaranteed that neither side would attack the other. Trained as one of Darkseid’s minions without any knowledge of his own heritage, Scott found something inside him that rebelled against the totalitarian ideology of Apokolips, something that was nurtured first by Metron and later by Apokolips rebel Himon. With their help, he escaped Apokolips for Earth; his escape attempt was a breach of the pact that ended the first New Genesis-Apokolips war and gave Darkseid the excuse he needed to begin the war anew.
On Earth, he met an escape artist with the stage name of Mr. Miracle; on the death of the first Mr. Miracle, he took over the man's name, costume and career. Later, another pupil of Himon, Big Barda, escaped from Apokolips and joined him; they later married.
The character was inspired by the early illusionist career of comic book artist Jim Steranko, while the character's relationship with Big Barda is based on Kirby's relationship with his own wife.[1]
Several short-lived Mister Miracle series have been launched throughout the years. Free and Big Barda have also been members of the Justice League.
Recently, Shilo Norman, Free's protégé and an Earthling, has taken on the role of Mister Miracle.
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[edit] Publication history
The original title featuring this character was the longest-lasting of the short-lived Fourth World tetralogy. It lasted 18 issues, but with the ending of the other Fourth World titles (New Gods, Forever People), the Fourth World elements largely disappeared. The title was briefly revived in the late 1970s for an additional seven issues, ending with #25. A one-shot special was published with art by Steve Rude in 1988. A Doug Moench-written series in the late 1980s ran for 28 issues, in which Scott, Barda and "Uncle" Oberon tried to live normal lives in suburbia. In 1996, a series written by Kevin Dooley showed Scott attempting to escape his destiny as a New God by setting up a charitable foundation in New York. This only ran for seven issues, before all Fourth World titles were cancelled for the launch of Jack Kirby's Fourth World.
Scott Free also has a brief cameo in the story "Passengers", which appears in Volume I, Preludes and Nocturnes, of Neil Gaiman's The Sandman. He guest-starred with Batman in issues of The Brave and the Bold and with Superman in DC Comics Presents.
In addition, the character (and wife Big Barda) was made a member of the revived Justice League and appeared regularly in the Jack Kirby's Fourth World series by John Byrne.
A future version of Mister Miracle and Big Barda (along with their daughter), appeared in the mini-series Kingdom Come. Being an escape artist, Mister Miracle would assist Superman in creating the Gulag, an unescapable prison for meta-humans.
Mister Miracle also appeared in the Elseworlds Superman: The Dark Side, in which he becomes Metron's successor and Justice League: Another Nail, in which he achieves the ultimate escape by downloading his consciousness into Barda's Green Lantern ring.
A somewhat reconcieved Shilo Norman appears in Grant Morrison's 2005 30-comic Seven Soldiers of Victory crossover, in a new four issue Mister Miracle miniseries, written by Morrison, pencilled for its first issue by Pasqual Ferry with later issues pencilled by Freddie Williams II, and colored by Dave McCaig.
[edit] History
[edit] Thaddeus Brown
Thaddeus Brown was a circus escape artist whose stage name was Mister Miracle. As the first escape artist to use the name Mister Miracle, Brown mentored both Scott Free and Shilo Norman. After Brown's murder, Scott Free took up the Mister Miracle name, adopted Thaddeus's young ward Shilo Norman, and hired his assistant Oberon.
[edit] Scott Free
Originally, the boy Scott Free was the son of Highfather, the ruler of New Genesis and his wife Avia. However, as part of a diplomatic move to stop a destructive war against the planet Apokolips, Highfather agreed to an exchange of children with his enemy Darkseid. In doing so, he surrendered the infant Scott Free to the care of his enemy while he received his enemy's son, Orion.
For years, Scott Free grew up in the care of Granny Goodness, a sadistic minion of Darkseid who oversaw the training of Darkseid's forces with inhuman intensity. As he matured, Scott found something in himself that rebelled against the totalitarian ideology of Apokolips. At first hating himself for being unable to fit in, he was influenced first by Metron and later by Himon to see a future beyond Darkseid. He became part of a small band of pupils who were nurtured in secret by Himon, a rebel on Apokolips; and met a fellow pupil, Big Barda, who would later become his wife.
Eventually, Scott Free escaped and fled to Earth. His escape, long anticipated and planned for by Darkseid, nullified the pact between Darkseid and Highfather and gave Darkseid the excuse he needed to revive the war with New Genesis. Once on Earth, he became the protégé of a circus escape artist, Thaddeus Brown, whose stage name was Mister Miracle. Brown was impressed with Scott's skills (especially as supplemented with various advanced devices he had taken from his previous home). Scott also befriended Brown's assistant, a dwarf named Oberon. When Thaddeus Brown was murdered, Scott Free assumed the identity of Mister Miracle. Barda later followed Scott to Earth, and the two used their powers, equipment, and skills in the war against Darkseid, who was still interested in recapturing both of them. Eventually, tired of being chased on Earth by Darkseid's servants, Scott returned to Apokolips and won his freedom by legal means, through trial by combat.
Scott Free later became a member of the Keith Giffen-era JLA (as did Barda and Oberon) and remains a member of Earth's heroic fraternity. He most recently appeared in Identity Crisis.
[edit] Shilo Norman
Young Shilo Norman was the informal ward of escapologist Thaddeus Brown (Mister Miracle I), and he also served as an occasional stand-in. When Brown was murdered by a mobster named Steel Hand, Scott avenged his new friend's death by taking on the identity of Mister Miracle and brought Steel Hand to justice. After Brown's death, Shilo worked with Scott Free (the new Mister Miracle) and Scott's wife Barda.
A master escape artist himself, the now-adult Shilo was appointed security chief of the Slabside Island Prison for Metahumans also known as the Slab. He held his own during the Joker's "Last Laugh" riot and was promoted to Warden of the Slab which had by then been relocated to Antarctica.
In the last issue of the Seven Soldiers: Mister Miracle miniseries, Shilo saw all his friends fall to the Anti-Life Equation, after which Darkseid subjected him to the "Omega Sanction", in which he lived a series of oppressive lives (in one of which he was working at the Slab). Upon escaping from this trap, Shilo found himself in the black hole where he first met Metron, seven days later. It appears that the events of the miniseries were thus negated, although connections to the other Seven Soldiers miniseries suggest they did happen, and were not merely another artificial life.
[edit] Awards
The Mister Miracle series (plus Forever People, New Gods, and Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen) earned Jack Kirby the 1971 Shazam Award for Special Achievement by an Individual.
[edit] Other media appearances
Mister Miracle's first Television appearance was in the Superman: The Animated Series episode, "Apokolips...Now!" Part II. Later he made a return in the Justice League Unlimited episode, "The Ties That Bind (AKA Miracles Happen)" (which, fittingly enough, was scripted from a story outline provided by Jim Steranko). He was voiced by Ioan Gruffudd, while his younger self was voiced by Zack Shada.
[edit] Footnotes
- Note 1: Mark Evanier (screenwriter, Jack Kirby biographer, and Kirby's assistant during the Fourth World comics):
- Jack based some of his characters (not all) on people in his life or in the news.... Big Barda's roots are not in doubt. The visual came about shortly after songstress Lainie Kazan posed for Playboy...and the characterization between Scott 'Mr. Miracle' Free and Barda was based largely — though with tongue in cheek — on the interplay betwixt Jack and his wife Roz. Of course, the whole 'escape artist' theme was inspired by an earlier career of writer-artist Jim Steranko.[1]
