Mister Miracle #3 (of 12) Review

Granny Goodness may be dead, but war still rages in the Fourth World, and Orion wants Scott Free back on the front lines…  Your Major Spoilers review of Mister Miracle #3 awaits!

MISTER MIRACLE #3

Writer: Tom King
Artist: Mitch Gerads
Colorist: Mitch Gerads
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Jamie S. Rich
Publisher: DC Comics
Cover Price: $3.99

Previously in Mister Miracle: The insanity of war is the insanity of Mister Miracle. Darkseid and Orion’s forces clash violently on the battlefields of New Genesis. Stained with blood and glory, the New Gods fight on. As they move closer to victory, Scott and Barda begin to see that every step forward leads them into a deadly trap. Where do you run when the path ahead is your enemy’s triumph and the path behind is your family’s defeat?

”THIS IS BUT A MAN!”

I have to tell you, friends: I don’t feel entirely qualified to review this comic.  The complexity of what King, Gerads and company are doing in the pages of Mister Miracle is a step beyond the average comic book experience.  We open with Scott talking to Barda, remembering a story that Granny Goodness told him as a child, a terrible story that takes place during the second World War.  The narrative is juxtaposed with images of Orion’s war, showing us the brutality of the battlefields of Apokalips while Scott tells us an utterly horrifying parable that makes it all seem even bleaker.  Both words and images end with horrifying deaths, cutting to Scott lying in bed, delivering the final words Granny always told him: “Merry Christmas.”  It’s utterly chilling work, made even worse as Forager arrives to report from the battlefield, urging, BEGGING “General Free” to return with him.  “We will follow you,” he says of the army of bugs, dissatisfied with Orion’s brutal leadership.  Scott seems utterly beaten, watching helplessly as Lightray arrives to forcibly send Forager home, sleepwalking through his life, his performances, his marriage.  The issue ends with Orion arriving and…

…things not getting better.

LEFT ME GUTTED, *AGAIN*

…let me just catch my breath for a second.

This issue is unrelenting in is brutality, complexity and depth.  Mitch Gerads art is amazing (I almost wrote ‘beautiful’, but I can’t bring myself to apply that to the things he’s showing us, but it’s truly amazing to behold.)  As a reader, I feel like I am almost sharing Scott’s spiral into depression, and the sense of loss and hollowness he feels at possibly being host to the Anti-Life Equation is almost tangible.  The visual effects, like the visual “static” that shows us hidden truths, are all devastatingly effective, and a moment where Barda tells Scott that she, at least, is real, hurt me, almost physically.  The story that King is presenting us is horrible, but somehow beautiful and utterly disorienting, and every bit of it works.

THE BOTTOM LINE: THIS. IS.  AMAZING.

Okay, seriously, just buy this one, guys.  You won’t regret it, unless the therapy bills get too high.  Mister Miracle #3 is beautiful, it is haunting, it is disturbing, and it’s one of the best comics I’ve read in 2017 (at least!), earning 5 out of 5 stars overall.  I truly believe that, when this is collected, it will be a watershed moment for DC, for post-Kirby Fourth World and for Mister Miracle.