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A review by ryter89
Mister Miracle by Tom King
3.0
I had a difficult time rating this one. Parts of it are left so open to interpretation I can't decide if I actually liked it or not because I'm not totally sure what the author was trying to say or why certain things happened. It's probably a good idea to look up information about Jack Kirby's New God's before reading this so you have some idea of who everyone is and their relationship to each other.
Ok, so here's what we do know for sure.
DARKSEID IS.
(I'll get to what I think this means in the spoiler section of this review at the bottom)
Highfather of New Genesis and Darkseid of Apokolips are the leaders of these two endlessly warring planets (they have times of peace but always end up fighting again). Due to the terms of one of their peace treaty negotiations they trade sons. Mister Miracle, son of High father, is brought up with pain and torture by Granny Goodness (think of her as Darkseid's sadistic drill sergeant) in order to make him a strong warrior for Darkseid (this is how MM learns how to escape so many things). Orion, son of Apokolips, is treated with care and love (and still turns out to be an asshole). When MM finally escapes for good he runs off with another one of Darkseid's warriors Big Barda and they make a life in LA, MM performing as an escape artist.
When the book begins MM has seemingly attempted suicide. I'm interpreting this is because he feels trapped in life? Eventually, things happen and they get tangled up back in the war.
Honestly, this story was a tough for me to get through. It's really dry and word heavy and was just a slog for most of it. If you enjoy stories that don't really seem to have a specific point to them, and like to interpret what the story is about for yourself because the author isn't really going to tell you, then you'll probably love this.
*SPOILERS AHEAD*
What my interpretation is:
I think what King and Gerads are saying with this story is that no matter how hard we fight it, and no matter how much we try to avoid it, we can never truly escape evil. Or call it bad, suffering, the devil, whatever you want to call it. I think this is what he means when "Darkseid is." is repeated so much throughout the story. And also why, after being defeated, Mister Miracle and his son Jacob see Darkseid sitting on their sofa near the end of the story. "Darkseid is." is even repeated when they don't have the remote for the TV. Darkseid being the representation of everything bad in life.
There are also many times when the images warp and fade to represent, I'm assuming, MM's fragile psyche. This isn't ever explained though so I don't want to think about it too much and risk a headache. Personally, I hate when things like that aren't explained and it takes away from the story for me.
And then there's the two parts where Metron shows up. The first time, he's old which I'm sure has some sort of significance, he says "you are not to know the face of God" and disappears. The second he says something about MM challenging the unchallenged and that's there's another world MM belongs in and shows all the DC heroes. I'm guessing this ties in with the four worlds being mentioned somehow. Maybe, since the fourth world is the one in our head, this story takes place in MM's mind while he's in a coma from the suicide attempt and he actually is in the main DC universe world. Or maybe this is in the mind of the young Scott Free and it didn't actually happen?
The face of God is mention many times and is referred to as being several different characters. Maybe this is to show how "God" can be many things depending on who's looking?
Those are my interpretations anyway. Feel free to discuss in the comments! I'd like to hear others insight.
Ok, so here's what we do know for sure.
DARKSEID IS.
(I'll get to what I think this means in the spoiler section of this review at the bottom)
Highfather of New Genesis and Darkseid of Apokolips are the leaders of these two endlessly warring planets (they have times of peace but always end up fighting again). Due to the terms of one of their peace treaty negotiations they trade sons. Mister Miracle, son of High father, is brought up with pain and torture by Granny Goodness (think of her as Darkseid's sadistic drill sergeant) in order to make him a strong warrior for Darkseid (this is how MM learns how to escape so many things). Orion, son of Apokolips, is treated with care and love (and still turns out to be an asshole). When MM finally escapes for good he runs off with another one of Darkseid's warriors Big Barda and they make a life in LA, MM performing as an escape artist.
When the book begins MM has seemingly attempted suicide. I'm interpreting this is because he feels trapped in life? Eventually, things happen and they get tangled up back in the war.
Honestly, this story was a tough for me to get through. It's really dry and word heavy and was just a slog for most of it. If you enjoy stories that don't really seem to have a specific point to them, and like to interpret what the story is about for yourself because the author isn't really going to tell you, then you'll probably love this.
*SPOILERS AHEAD*
What my interpretation is:
I think what King and Gerads are saying with this story is that no matter how hard we fight it, and no matter how much we try to avoid it, we can never truly escape evil. Or call it bad, suffering, the devil, whatever you want to call it. I think this is what he means when "Darkseid is." is repeated so much throughout the story. And also why, after being defeated, Mister Miracle and his son Jacob see Darkseid sitting on their sofa near the end of the story. "Darkseid is." is even repeated when they don't have the remote for the TV. Darkseid being the representation of everything bad in life.
There are also many times when the images warp and fade to represent, I'm assuming, MM's fragile psyche. This isn't ever explained though so I don't want to think about it too much and risk a headache. Personally, I hate when things like that aren't explained and it takes away from the story for me.
And then there's the two parts where Metron shows up. The first time, he's old which I'm sure has some sort of significance, he says "you are not to know the face of God" and disappears. The second he says something about MM challenging the unchallenged and that's there's another world MM belongs in and shows all the DC heroes. I'm guessing this ties in with the four worlds being mentioned somehow. Maybe, since the fourth world is the one in our head, this story takes place in MM's mind while he's in a coma from the suicide attempt and he actually is in the main DC universe world. Or maybe this is in the mind of the young Scott Free and it didn't actually happen?
The face of God is mention many times and is referred to as being several different characters. Maybe this is to show how "God" can be many things depending on who's looking?
Those are my interpretations anyway. Feel free to discuss in the comments! I'd like to hear others insight.