Mister Miracle

1752 - The son of Highfather is born on New Genesis. He is traded to Apokolips to seal their non-aggression pact, given to Granny Goodness to raise in the Terror Orphanages. He is given the mocking name Scott Free.

64 years ago - Scott, slowly being driven mad by the unknown voice of Metron, finds Himon's sanctuary, finding a voice for the feelings that have always lingered inside him. Himon begins to mentor him in Escapology and in building a Mother Box, teaching him how to have hope even on Apokolips. He slowly forms a bond with Auralie as soldiers of Apokolips hiding their capacity to hope.

60 years ago - Scott stays behind when Himon's sanctuary is raided to help others escape. He is captured and imprisoned, and Granny Goodness pays special attention to punishing him.

58 years ago - Scott escapes his cell, but is recaptured. Granny Goodness moves him into the inescapable X-pit, and tasks Big Barda to break his will to escape.

9 years ago - Scott learns of the death of Auralie from Big Barda. She helps him escape the X-pit, but is not yet ready to free herself.
Himon opens a boom tube for him to escape to Earth, but he is bombarded by Mass-Gravity, the weight of Apokolips itself bearing on him. Darkseid is certain he cannot muster the will to survive as he and Metron watch, but Scott makes it to the boom tube, ruining Darkseid's plans for the non-aggression pact. Scott is taken in by Thaddeus Brown, a circus escape artist. When Brown is murdered, Scott takes on his stage name, Mister Miracle, to solve the crime. Doctor Bedlam tries to recapture him , but he is able to outwit him.

8 years ago - Scott is attacked by Killroy, trying to invalidate the non-aggression pact between New Genesis and Apokolips by killing him before Doctor Bedlam can recover him.

7 years ago - Scott is attacked by Kalibak to earn his father Darkseid's approval but manages to escape and send him home in shame. He later joins the Justice League. Granny Goodness sends the Female Furies to recapture Scott, but Big Barda switches sides, helping him defeat them. She stays with him on Earth.

6 years ago - Scott and Big Barda are found on Earth by Forager, who brings them to New Genesis to stop Glorious Godfrey, bringing the Justice League with them. Forager is killed, but Highfather and the Gods of New Genesis descend from Supertown to assist them, raising Forager to Godhood. He finally meets his father, and his counterpart Orion for the first time. He and Barda are married by Highfather, and they choose to retire back on Earth together.

4 years ago - Scott and Big Barda join the fight against the Parademon wave invasion. When the Gods of New Genesis arrive, Highfather forges a new non-aggression pact, with the stipulation that Scott & Barda can return to Apokolips and win their freedom in combat. Darkseid gives them an impossible opponent, Brimstone. Scott uses a series of lasers to disrupt Brimstone's magnetic field so Barda can destroy the techno seed within.

2 years ago - Scott's wife Big Barda join the Watchtower with Orion at the request of Highfather.

1 year ago - Scott helps Big Barda & Watchtower fight Mageddon. He, Michael Holt & Buddy Baker repurpose Mageddon's planetary signals through the floating city of Superbia to temporarily empower everyone on the planet to join in the attack on Mageddon. Big Barda gives birth to their son, Shilo Free. He joins the new Justice League with her.

As fantastic and influential as the New Gods are, they are not exactly beginner material. It's dense and thematic, something you get into when you're already deep into your comic fandom. Not so much an issue for most of these characters who primarily appear within the New Gods stories, but Mister Miracle is pretty much front and center. He's a regular Justice League member. Trying to explain him to a newcomer requires you to sit them down and explain the entire Fourth World. That sort of complex and insular storytelling isn't an easy sell, but it's also what lifelong fans love in their comics, and once you get into the proper rhythm of these stories Mister Miracle becomes one of the absolute best. He represents a pedigree of creative innovation and complex long-form storytelling that most heroes almost never reach.

Mister Miracle's Comic History

Mister Miracle was one of the comic series created by Jack Kirby when he came to DC in 1971 and started his evolution of what comics could be, using superheroes to tell the stories of gods. Of his broad catalog of new characters, Mister Miracle was perhaps the most accessible. His story took place entirely on Earth, and even though Kirby's bombastic storytelling continued to feel like it was happening in a reality with the volume turned up to 11, it felt like it touched the rest of the world of DC in a way that the other gods perhaps didn't.

Miracle's story was full of mystery. We knew he was a super escape-artist, and that he had access to New God technology, and later that he was partnered with the awesome Big Barda, but his connections to that world were slowly revealed across the series. He was the son of Highfather of new Genesis, traded to Apokolips to preserve their pact of non-aggression. Watching his backstory be revealed, and seeing him slowly come to understand his capacity for hope and to dream of something beyond what he had been presented with is some of the most moving elements of the Fourth World.

Mister Miracle was the only book of the original three to continue past the end of the Fourth World, essentially becoming a earth-based adventurer, and the first New God to actually become a member of the Justice League.

Our Miracle Story

On the surface, Mister Miracle presents a bit of a conundrum. He's a super escape artist. This raises several questions, because it seems like those powers are very situation specific. Apparently, Kirby actually based this on fellow comic legend Jim Steranko who had a previous career as an Illusionist. Once you start thinking of broader applications of the concept of stage magicians and understand that Scott Free can apply them on a more cosmic level thanks to his Mother Box, the character makes a lot more sense. It's understood that Free is a genius inventor that has constructed unique applications for the alien-god technology that he used to escape from one of the most inescapable places in the universe.

Without his technology, he's still a New God, he's superhumanly strong and durable (although not quite on the same level as bruisers like Barda or Orion) and received training as an aerotrooper in the Terror Orphanages by Granny Goodness. He's an extremely competent combatant even though he will never choose violence as a first option. When he has his suit, and by extension all of his specialized reality-warping equipment, however, he is capable of performing any number of feats that should be impossible; simply applying his skills as an illusionist and escape artist while manipulating the fundamental laws of physics.

This is all true of the character even before we start to look at his backstory, which might be one of the most compellingly constructed heroes in all of comics.

Mister Miracle's Costume

There have been a lot of amazing artists working in comics. If you wanted to talk about the best ever, you obviously think of Steve Ditko, George Perez, Jim Steranko, Osamu Tezuka, Frank Romita, Will Eisner...

But any conversation about the greatest artist and innovator in comics that doesn't end definitively with Jack Kirby is just flat-out incorrect. His influences are so interwoven with the concept of super-heroes that it might be impossible to imagine a modern comic book character without him. His work at Marvel alone is responsible for billions of dollars worth of revenue. Every superhero costume that's ever come from him is an absolute work of art.

Mister Miracle is a unique concept of a superhero; defeating his enemies by outsmarting them with cosmic science rather than punching them . Kirby's design for his costume is absolutely perfect. It's just a question of how well we can honor that original design.

Mister Miracle's Future

As we leave our timeline, Mister Miracle has married his wife, severed his connections with Apokolips, settled into his life on Earth, become a premier member of the newest version of the Justice League, and has just become a father. It seems his life is actually very much complete.

Of course, that really can't ever be the case, can it? Scott Free has a part to play in the narrative unfolding back on his home planet. He is the son of Highfather... essentially the son of God... the adopted son of Darkseid, and in many ways the lost brother of Orion, the future ruler of Apokolips. As the final conflict between the New Gods looms, he will definitely have a role to play. Someday that story will be told, and he will be right at the forefront of it.

Related Characters

Himon