You might be wondering: “Why make your first post on comics about the second volume of Mister Miracle?” Well, there are two reasons. After my first year of “collecting” comics (no bags, no boards, and reading my comics over and over until they fell apart), I walked into a small grocery store and saw issue 15 of Mister Miracle on the spinner rack. I had never seen a Mister Miracle comic, apart from the ads in other DC books which did not appeal to me. This cover with Mister Miracle trapped in a maze, surrounded by four baddies, really jumped out at me though and I bought it. I read it the same day and at that moment thought that it was the most fun comic I had ever read (I was 9 and the names Alan Moore and Grant Morrison meant nothing to me).
The second reason why I’m writing this post is because I recently bought the entire series and read them back to back, and honestly, it is great. (Just in case you are questioning my taste in comics: my top 5 favourite comic series of all time are Doom Patrol #19-63, Swamp Thing #19-64, Transmetropolitan #1-60, Animal Man #1-26, and Watchmen #1-12.) Don’t get me wrong, this series is by no means a literary classic, but at a time when most comics were dark, grim, and edgy, this book, along with Justice League Europe and Justice League America/International, was a breath of fresh air for a lot of readers. The book is immensely fun, a load of laughs, and has some great storylines. Even Lobo makes a guest appearance in two of the issues.
J.M. Dematteis (Moonshadow, Kraven’s Last Hunt, Justice League International) wrote the first eight issues of the series, with Ian Gibson (Halo Jones) doing the art for issues 1 to 5. Issues 7 and 8 were co-written with Len Wein, with Wein going solo from issue 9 to 13. Doug Moench then took over from issue 14 and stayed with the series till the last issue. Joe Phillips (Silver Surfer, Aliens: Colonial Marines, Dr. Who) joined the team as artist with issue 7 and drew most of the issues from there to 28. His pencils for the book are nothing short of phenomenal. His rendition of Big Barda is by far my favourite to this day. And did I mention that Adam Hughes did the cover for issue 19? You know, that guy that draws all those gorgeous comic book women. It’s one of those books a lot of Adam Hughes fans don’t even know about.
One of the great plus points of this series is the way the creators depict Scott Free and Barda’s husband and wife relationship. Forget about Lois and Clark, or Peter and Mary Jane. If you want to see a normal and loving relationship between super-powered individuals, then look no further than this.
The creators also did some really innovative things with the characters and the plots, but I honestly don’t want to spoil this for you. This series has it all: humour, battles on Earth and in space, female wrestlers, death traps, death defying escapes, and space traveling salesmen. What’s more, you can find the whole series often in quarter bin sales, or in $10-$20 sets on Ebay. Unfortunately the series is not yet available in trade paperback format. It really is worth the couple of bucks you’ll spend on it. And when you are done, pass them on to your little cousin or nephew, or the kids in your neighbourhood; especially issues 15 to 16. Way more fun than wasting time on Facebook or Twitter.
Not sold on the old series? Check out the new series by Tom King and Mitch Gerards. I highly recommend it.
