Mister Miracle #3 “Welcome to the desert of the real” New Genesis!

By Tom King and Mitch Gerads

As the third issue of this amazing series opens the reader is met by multiple layers of story and I would argue “reality”. King and Gerads again return with a nine panel grid as the blurry panels tell a story of Orion of the New Gods torturing prisoners and executing them. I think the blurriness and distortion in the panels is a to hint to the reader that this is not “reality” or at least the “true reality”, sorry if this gets complicated, but what I believe King and Gerads are telling is a post modern tale something that Slavoj Zizek, or Jean Baudrillard would appreciate.  We as the reader are full on participates in this narrative as we sort though the multiple layers of reality looking for the “real” one or the “truth”.

Our next clue to this comes on page 6 where we encounter Scott Free who has finished telling us the terrifying Christmas story that was layered over the distortion of the first few pages as he lays sleepless in his bed next to his wife Big Barda. “It’s Dr. Bedlam Calling!” the narration box tells the reader. Dr. Bedlam for readers that are not in the know is a villain that can alter your reality with his Paranoid Pill and he also has no physical form so he can control mindless robots so he has a body. We can come back to the second power later, I want to talk about the paranoid pill. 

The paranoid pill in the past has been a pill that releases a gas that temporarily makes anyone that breathes it insane with fear and hatred. This is what I believe has happened, Scott Free is either suffering the effects of a paranoid pill or is dealing with the after effects after being under its sway multiple times. The depression and his struggles with “reality” could be PTSD type after effects from the pill.  So, as we as readers try to discover what the reality is, so to does Scott Free struggle to find his “truth” to reality.

  Our next clue happens after Scott has gotten up from bed to drink some milk in the middle of the night and is met by Forager an ally from New Genesis. Forager pleads with Scott to take up the mantel of his father, High Father and lead the forces from New Genesis because Forager’s people the bugs are being used as cannon fodder and getting slaughtered. The conversation is stopped short as another New God called Lightray shows up and disintegrates Forager, leaving Scott saying “Is it true?” and then a panel later “But was it true?” and this time the word true is bolded. The truth is what Scott is searching for and at the moment he is just as lost as the reader in the endless amounts of realities.

  

Scott’s search is then again brought to the readers attention on page 18 as he sits with his wife having dinner after one of his shows. “Sometimes I don’t know what’s real” he tells her. This time real is bolded. This again highlights that Scott does not trust his reality as the “true” or “real” one.  

The closing pages go further to support my theory of Dr. Bedlam being involved in Scott’s current search for reality. After Orion seemingly beats Scott for no reason he stands over top of Scott and removes his helmet to revel his face, saying “this is the face of god.” Again the page is a nine panel grid with distortion effects on each panel similar to the opening of the book. The effects slowly change the face from Orion’s to Dr. Bedlams for the middle of the nine panel grid and then back again to Orion.  Again, there are many levels of reality happening on this page and the reader is left with this cliffhanger of an ending.

Mister Miracle to me is by far the best book being published in monthly comics today. King is a writer operating in his prime and it is just a joy to read and think about.