Spotlight Sunday 11.18.18
While there were several options to choose from, with the arrival of the end, there are spoilers ahead for…
Mister Miracle #12
Writer: Tom King
Artist: Mitch Gerads
Cover: Nick Derrington
Variant Cover: Mitch Gerads
Rated M
$3.99
DC
“I can always escape.”
I meant to get around to taking a look at Plastic Man upon the arrival of its final issue, and this week I managed to pick up The Green Lantern. There’s also the promising start to renowned writer G. Willow Wilson’s run on Wonder Woman that is worth of consideration – particularly given that DC is finally doing what I’ve been saying they need to do for a long time and having a woman write it – and I kind of hate to admit how much (despite the inevitable annoyances) I’m enjoying the Bendis run on Superman.
I could have picked any of those, but I still would havehad to write about this as the last remaining Bonus feature from the old days. In the interest of laziness, I opted to just focus on this one issue.
It was good. The end.
…
Okay, fine, I won’t get that lazy about it.
The ending that we’ve been waiting for/dreading has arrived for Mister Miracle. It’s been a long, glorious, game-changing run, filled with twists and turns and gut-wrenching cosmic and personal turmoil.
So how does it end? Well…it doesn’t. Not really.
Sure, the book will not continue – though the last page’s teaser text speaks of other things to come – but the story, like life, has no conclusive ending.
A life may end, but life goes on.
Last issue found Scott and Barda adding a “not” to “Darkseid is,” and Metron appearing to inform Scott that, as Scott himself knew, and we suspected, he is not where he belongs, and showing him a glimpse of his real home.
Yet this issue opens with Scott going on about his life as if that never happened, with the only significant change being his decision to shave his beard.
The question of where Scott is, if he’s not where he belongs, remains ambiguous, but one thing remains clear: he did not escape from death back when this whole thing got started.
Is he in hell? The ghost of Bug seems to think so.
Is he in heaven? Orion’s ghost would have us believe that, and that being in heaven is worse than being in hell.
Scott just plain does not give a shit what the ghost of his father tells him.
It’s Oberon’s ghost that he pays attention to, leading Scott to decide that wherever he is, he’s with Barda, and their son, and the daughter who’s on the way, and it’s where he belongs. At least for now.
After all, he can always escape.
(Or can he?)
As annoying as it may seem, such an ambiguous ending is a good fit for a series that has been less about the plot and more about the moments that make the plot a story. I said early on in my first Spotlight post about the book that the story is, essentially, only part of the story, that the real value of the book is in experiencing it. I could tell you, in meticulous detail, everything that happens in it, and while you might think “That sounds cool!” or “Hard pass,” and any reaction in between, you wouldn’t really get it until you hold the book in your hands – as a physical book or a digital version – so I’ll sum things up by encouraging you to do just that, either by picking up the individual issues, or by grabbing the trade when it comes out in January (ideally doing so via a link I’ll provide when the time comes).
Mister Miracle has been one of the best comics I’ve read in decades, and it deserves all the praise it receives, so I’ll close out by extending a heartfelt congratulations – and thank you – for this stunning achievement to Tom King, Mitch Gerads, Nick Derrington, Clayton Cowles, DC Comics, and, of course, The King.
So…What Were the Other Options?
Catwoman #5
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina TPB
Domino #8
Electric Warriors #1
Exiles #10
The Green Lantern #1
House of Whispers #3
Plastic Man #6
Superman #5
Thor #7
Wonder Woman #58
Stan Lee 1922 – 2018
We lost a legend last week, in many senses of the word.While Stan’s legacy is complex, there is no question that it is significant. Stan left his mark. As I saw someone say on Twitter, he may get more credit than he deserves, but deserves credit for more than most people could ever dream of.
He was Stan Lee, and to much of the world he was comics.
‘nuff said.
Recommended Reading
Excelsior!
As always, special thanks go out to my comic shop, Comic Logic Books & Artwork. Please remember to support your local comic shop, and if you need to find one, click here.
Question if the New Gods have died then shouldn’t New New Gods be born just as they were born of the death of the Old Gods?
The New Gods weren’t born of the deaths of individual gods. The energies that were released in the final, cataclysmic battle between the old gods destroyed them, then coalesced into New Genesis and Apokolips, upon which the New Gods were born.
Kirby originally envisioned doing the Fourth World stories at Marvel, and the New Gods would have been the Asgardians reborn after Ragnarok.