Mister Miracle #1 Review

Mister Miracle #1 Review

Written by: Tom King
Pencils, Inks & Colors: Mitch Gerads
Letterer: Clayton Cowels
Assistant Editor: Molly Mahan
Editor: Jamie S. Rich
Publisher: DC Comics

A review by Robert Coffil

Mister Miracle‘s origins lie in Jack Kirby’s Fourth World creation. As the son of the high father, he was traded at birth to Darkside for Orion, in order to bring peace between Apokolips and the New Gods. However, if you don’t know this going into Mister Miracle #1, you’re not at a disadvantage. Tom King and Mitch Gerads make sure this book is as new-reader-friendly as possible.

Tom King is a writer who has a particular skill set. He can do something every writer wants to do: breathe life into obscure characters unlike anything I have seen in comics. Look at his work on Vision, Omega Men and now on Mister Miracle. He takes characters who have never quite had a massive success on a wide comic audience and applies his skill set to make them relevant. Mister Miracle is no different.

Mitch Gerads is an artist whose work is always good, but when he works with Tom King the pages sing. Mitch has worked on The Activity, Punisher, and Sheriff of Babylon. What I like about his style is that it is a combination of photorealism and cartooning. It almost looks life-like in presentation, but there is always a bit that lets you know it’s comic cartooning. No one does faces in comics like Mitch. The way they are able to emote on each panel is evocative of some of the best dramas.

DC Comics has been pushing this book hard. I was actually a little worried that it wouldn’t live up to the hype. King just came off an Eisner win while Gerads did some of the work of his life on Sheriff of Babylon, and some killer issues of Batman. They couldn’t possibly keep doing great work; they were going to lay an egg with this work. I’m glad my sense of trepidation was proven wrong. Mister Miracle is going to a certified hit.

From the beginning of the comic, Tom and Gerads are able really to dig into the heart of Mister Miracle and make you feel for him. It would have been easy to tell a story about the spectacle of Mister Miracle’s ability to escape from anything. However, what they do is attack the story from a personal angle and bring the reader in that way.

What Gerads does with the art in Mister Miracle is wonderful. He is almost able to deconstruct comic book storytelling. This book has double page spreads, 9-panel grids, everything. However, there are some pages that use no panels or grids. I like this a lot.

Verdict
Must Buy!!!! Tom King and Mitch Gerads create wonderful art together. We should know this from their time on Sheriff of Babylon and Batman. Already, Mister Miracle seems to be another wonderful piece of art in their gallery of stories. Mister Miracle is going to be a 12 issue maxi-series and you are going to want to get in on the ground floor on this one. Trust me.