Warner Bros. and DC Studios have announced a Mister Miracle animated series. But you might be forgiven for letting this one pass with a shrug. After all, on the pantheon of DC heroes, Mister Miracle probably sits in the comfy C-tier of characters alongside other kooky creations such as The Question and Mxyzptlk.
Dig a little deeper, however, and you suddenly realize you should be paying closer attention to this one. Based on a darkly funny, moving 12-issue series from writer Tom King, Mister Miracle is a twisted, towering modern masterpiece I'd put above even the likes of Watchmen for the impression it left on me as a reader, the way it pushes the boundaries – sometimes quite literally – of the comic medium, and the vivid mirror it holds up to the human (and Apokoliptan) condition.
In it, Mister Miracle (moonlighting on Earth as escapologist Scott Free) sees his violent past on Apokolips crash into his life of domestic bliss with wife Big Barda. Where some superhero adventures trade in big battles, Mister Miracle is altogether quieter, touching on mental health, PTSD, and the unseen scars left by trauma. If that doesn't sell you, the show's logline teases something altogether more impossible and intriguing: “No prison can hold him. No trap can contain him. He is Scott Free, the worldwide celebrity sensation known as Mister Miracle, and he is the greatest escape artist who ever lived. But can he pull off the ultimate trick – and escape death itself?”
At its heart, too, is a mystery that rivals Inception in terms of how you'll be combing through every frame and eager to devour any fan theories about just what goes down in its final pages and panels.
To say too much else would spoil a story that deserves to be read through fresh eyes. I envy you for getting to do just that. Just know that Mister Miracle is a stone-cold classic – and one that has me feeling extremely confident that DC Studios co-CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran know exactly what they're doing in their brave new world as they step up against the mighty MCU.
Miracle worker
Why? You only need to look at who is involved. The comic's writer, Tom King, is heading the series up as showrunner. DC's approach under Gunn has been creator-first compared to Marvel (King is also heavily involved in the Lanterns HBO series). By contrast, Marvel Studios is content with throwing its comic creators – their work so frequently a foundation for the MCU – a 'Special Thanks' credit. But by getting comic creators in on the ground floor, DC can tap into why we all fell in love with the medium in the first place, rather than being a pale imitation of the cacophony of color and chaos inked across decades.
Speaking of color, Mister Miracle is proof enough that DC Studios under James Gunn is championing animation, and this is very well suited to it. There are no square pegs in round holes here: if it works best in animation, it's going to be animated. Mister Miracle will also be a truly adult animation, one where adult isn't just a byword for blood, sex, and swearing. That will hopefully usher in a new age of storytellers gravitating towards the format for the opportunity to tell their stories as if they were a comic book come to life.
Mister Miracle's greatest trick, though, is convincing the world the devil does exist in the newfangled DCU. Throughout its 12 issues, Scott Free bumps into his troubled past, including diving deep into his history to uncover a callous trade that saw Darkseid's son Orion swap places with Scott on New Genesis to avoid all-out war. Then, at the mercy of Darkseid and his legion of torturers and tyrants, Scott suffers a traumatic childhood that hangs around him in his later life tighter than his stage act's straitjackets and chains.
Away from the suffocating story it's trying to tell, it is a narrative sleight of hand that allows Darkseid to be built up as a nasty, all-powerful villain without necessarily having to shoehorn him in at the end of a future movie's post-credits scene. Gunn has already preached the benefits of cross-pollination across live-action, animation, and video games in one shared universe. This is the perfect way to put that philosophy to the test – by introducing the biggest of Big Bads in the fringes of a show that might not immediately catch the eye.
The personal touch with Mister Miracle, too, resonates far more effectively than some nebulous force that wants to conquer Earth with the equally abstract Anti-Life Equation. It's a mistake the DCEU made, but one, seemingly, the DCU doesn't care to repeat.
Mister Miracle, then, is poised to escape into the mainstream, with Tom King's seminal work a trap door for the character after a lifetime spent in relative obscurity. Now, it might pull off one more magic trick – by becoming one of DCU's leading lights. Wouldn't that be a miracle?
Give in to the Darkseid
Mister Miracle's greatest trick, though, is convincing the world the devil does exist in the newfangled DCU. Throughout its 12 issues, Scott Free bumps into his troubled past, including diving deep into his history to uncover a callous trade that saw Darkseid's son Orion swap places with Scott on New Genesis to avoid all-out war. Then, at the mercy of Darkseid and his legion of torturers and tyrants, Scott suffers a traumatic childhood that hangs around him in his later life tighter than his stage act's straitjackets and chains.
Away from the suffocating story it's trying to tell, it is a narrative sleight of hand that allows Darkseid to be built up as a nasty, all-powerful villain without necessarily having to shoehorn him in at the end of a future movie's post-credits scene. Gunn has already preached the benefits of cross-pollination across live-action, animation, and video games in one shared universe. This is the perfect way to put that philosophy to the test – by introducing the biggest of Big Bads in the fringes of a show that might not immediately catch the eye.
The personal touch with Mister Miracle, too, resonates far more effectively than some nebulous force that wants to conquer Earth with the equally abstract Anti-Life Equation. It's a mistake the DCEU made, but one, seemingly, the DCU doesn't care to repeat.
Mister Miracle, then, is poised to escape into the mainstream, with Tom King's seminal work a trap door for the character after a lifetime spent in relative obscurity. Now, it might pull off one more magic trick – by becoming one of DCU's leading lights. Wouldn't that be a miracle?
For more on the rebooted DC universe, check out our guides to DCU Chapter One and upcoming DC movies.
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