Dan DiDio & Jim Lee Say There's Nothing Like Mister Miracle on the Shelves

08/03/2017 12:35 am EDT

DC believes it's got something special on its hands when the upcoming Mister Miracle #1 hits.

August means the month-long celebration of Jack Kirby's one hundredth birthday is underway at DC and Marvel. This week saw the release of a New Gods special, and there are plenty more to come throughout the month...including the first issue in a year-long Mister Miracle series from Sheriff of Babylon creators Tom King and Mitch Gerads.

During a sit-down with ComicBook.com, DC co-publishers Dan DiDio and Jim Lee heaped praise on the book, comparing it to King's acclaimed run on The Vision at Marvel and praising the creative team's ability to handle Kirby material in a way that is intellectually honest without being so slavish that the work suffers -- and they talked about how, in a time where DC is focusing on the Dark Nights: Metal initiative and introducing a number of new characters and concepts, Mister Miracle is a little bit different than most of what's on the shelf even from its own publisher.

"Mister Miracle is a little bit more of a special project," DiDio told ComicBook.com. "That was a conversation I had with Tom King, because I was a big fan of his Vision work, and I said I want you to do Vision here at the DCU. As Tom would describe it we went through a couple of lists, and it came down to Atomic Knights and Mister Miracle, and then he had the idea for Mister Miracle that just seemed to resonate. And what I really liked about it is, the Kirby stuff is a hard nut to crack. It's unique to Jack Kirby, his voice, his style, and it's very hard to emulate. Most people come on board and they almost try to emulate it to the point that it just weakens the product. I felt what Tom is doing with MM is so fresh — even though it's true to the character, he's not afraid to explore it in a way that we haven't seen it before. It's an exciting book to see and it really plays to Tom's strength. He has a great rapport with Mitch as well; those two are a great team."

"To me, I think what Tom loves about the project is that because it's not Batman or the Justice League, he can play around with the whole structure of the character and how he tells a story in a way that he couldn't on a more quote-unquote mainstream book," Lee explained. "If you read it, it's very surreal, the way it's a deconstructed story. So you don't know if what you're seeing is a panel or if that's something he imagines or if it's actually happening within the context of the story. They use topography and kind of sketches and it's very dreamlike, which plays into the story that he's weaving, which is an analysis of what is real, and what happens if you keep waking up and you're having these nightmares but they are indeed reality. It works on all these different levels and I think for that reason, people are going to embrace it. There's nothing out there like it right now."

Mister Miracle #1 hits the stands next week. You can contact your local comic shop to get a copy, or pre-order a digital version here.

You can check out the solicitation text below.

From the team behind THE SHERIFF OF BABYLON and the Hugo Award-nominated writer of Vision comes a unique new take on one of Jack Kirby's most beloved New Gods.

Scott Free is the greatest escape artist that ever lived. So great that he escaped Granny Goodness' gruesome orphanage and the dangers of Apokolips to travel across galaxies and set up a new life on Earth with his wife, the former female fury known as Big Barda. Using the stage alter ego of Mister Miracle, he has made a career for himself showing off his acrobatic escape techniques. He even caught the attention of the Justice League, which counted him among its ranks.

You might say Scott Free has everything...so why isn't it enough? Mister Miracle has mastered every illusion, achieved every stunt, pulled off every trick—except one. He has never escaped death. Is it even possible? Our hero is going to have to kill himself if he wants to find out.

Written by Tom King (BATMAN) and illustrated by Mitch Gerads (The Punisher), this is a MISTER MIRACLE unlike any you've read before.

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