Hot off the heels of wrapping up an epic and guiding Batman’s successful rebirth in team ups with Catwoman and Swamp Thing, friends and collaborators Tom King and Mitch Gerads are back together for a breakout new series.
Videos by ComicBook.com
King and Gerads’s 12-issue Mister Miracle maxi series begins this August from DC Comics, chaining up Jack Kirby’s messianic escape artist for a brand new adventure. The series will be King and Gerads’ next major collaboration after The Sheriff Of Babylon, as well as a few issues of Batman for DC Rebirth.
Mister Miracle AKA Scott Free was originally created by Kirby as a part of his Fourth World saga, alongside the New Gods and the Forever People. The stories contained the concepts of Darkseid, Apokalips, Highfather, and Orion, which have become a staple of DC lore ever since.
King and Gerad’s Mister Miracle series looks to take those original elements from Kirby and tell “an epic that doesn’t want to be told,” as revealed to Paste.
“You make up things, and you say things and biographers or autobiographers write about them,” King said to Paste. “The real hidden secrets and the real hidden battles—that’s the story that you don’t want told. You don’t want that exposed. That’s what we’re doing for Mister Miracle. He’s confronting that part of him that doesn’t want to be told.”
Check out the gallery to see the covers and some completed interior art from the first issue!
UP NEXT: New Swords of the Swashbucklers Could Be Coming Soon
Gerads said Mister Miracle is “just trying to process the absurd.”
King elaborated that the story will deal with themes of anxiety and perseverance in modern society.
I wanted to write about the Trump era, but I didn’t want to write, ‘Fascism sucks’ or ‘Trump sucks.’ That doesn’t get you anywhere. You’re taking your Twitter feed and putting it in panels. What I wanted to do is capture the emotion of the period, and the anxiety, the way Alan Moore captured the anxiety of the ’80s or Kirby captured the anxiety of the ’70s or even Lee captured the optimism of the ’60s; to capture the feeling, more than the politics. That’s what interests me. That’s how you make something that’s just not a polemic. After page four, the whole thing goes into a 9-panel grid, and it’s to give you a sense of that claustrophobia. To give you a sense of what it is to be trapped, not only in the themes and the words, but in the actual panel structure. He’s trapped behind those bars we had in Omega Men, and how does he break out?
The series will be a return to the 12-issue epics that King has become known for, including Sheriff of Babylon, The Omega Men, and Marvel Comics’ the Vision.
Mister Miracle #1, lettered by Clayton Cowles, covers by Nick Derington, and edited by Jamie Rich, will be in stores this August.
MORE COMIC BOOK NEWS: Exclusive DC Preview: Trinity #9 / Exclusive The Mighty Thor #19 Preview: Asgard Battles The Phoenix Force / King Arthur’s Legend In Comics
