But let’s not read too much into that, or the scene where Scott is trapped by a giant set of nut-crackers wielded by Barda! The cover of a later issue shows Miracle tied to train tracks, as a bystander shouts “Stop Him! He’s committing suicide!” Escape artistry is revealed as a more sophisticated Russian roulette – gambling, or even flirting with death.

Thankfully his companion Barda (reputedly based on Kirby’s own wife) senses something wrong and acts in time. In that light, the second story seems poignant in it’s subtext: ‘Mystivac’ hypnotises Scott to want to die, and he passively fails to escape the latest death-defying trap. The introduction by Mark Evanier, Kirby’s assistant on these stories, and later biographer, offers rare insight into Kirby, noting he sometimes struggled, and worked through his feelings in his work. In this volume, the stories are more standard fare of hero versus this month’s menace. His titles failed to sell, within a year the others were cancelled and Kirby had to untangle Mister Miracle from the collapsed Fourth World continuity. Was Kirby getting the creative freedom, success and recognition he deserved? Tragically not. It’s somewhat contrived, but great fuel for Kirby’s visual imagination, and most stories begin with the latest elaborate trap Scott has to escape from. He escapes to Earth, where he takes the identity of recently deceased escape artist Mister Miracle. The resulting deal let him create The Fourth World of the title: a suite of interlocking new series – including New Gods, Forever People, and this one.Īs detailed in the previous volume, Scott Free was born on the Fourth World planet Apokalips. He spent two years negotiating a move to DC. Kirby was the top artist at Marvel in the 1960s, co-creating, and plotting primary titles, but painfully unhappy there at his lack of credit. This companion volume, confusingly titled Jack Kirby’s Fourth World featuring Mr Miracle, reprints the remainder. Mister Miracle reprinted the first ten issues of Jack Kirby’s 1970s series.

Mister Miracle, Vol. 1 by Jack Kirby