Graphic Novel Review: Mister Miracle: The Great Escape by Varian Johnson and Daniel Isles

Posted on June 7, 2022 at 6:20 am by Gene Ambaum

Mister Miracle: The Great Escape by Varian Johnson and Daniel Isles. DC Graphic Novels for Young Adults, 2022. 9781779501257. 198pp. plus a short preview of the House of El graphic novel.

Scott Free and his friends are students at Granny Goddess’s Goodness Academy on Apokolips, where they’re training to become foot soldiers in Darkseid’s army. Scott is a bit of an escape artist, and the only person to have ever escaped the X-Pit, a place near the planet’s core full of monsters and traps. Now he’s trying to help his friend and “family” and unlikely new girlfriend (the head of Granny’s Female Furies) escape to Earth, where he might take up superheroing and learn who his parents are. Standing in the way are Granny, Darkseid’s son Prince Kalibak, and all of the school’s security features.

Even if you didn’t grow up reading Jack Kirby’s Fourth World / New Gods comics, you may have heard of a few of the relevant DC comics universe details about Darkseid and all in that Justice League movie. But I have to say this book probably works well enough for those who haven’t grown up reading about super heroes — it’s enough to know that Scott Free is a kid trying to escape a miserable military boarding school to save his friends and go to Earth where he hopes he can enjoy life a bit. It’s a fun reboot of a classic character, well written and illustrated. And there’s even a little Kirby krackle in these pages if you’re a fan and look for it.