Mister Miracle #1

New Godz

Written by Grant Morrison

Art by Pasqual Ferry & Dave McCaig

Summary: Shilo Norman, Mister Miracle, prepares to perform his most daring escape yet - from the gravitational pull of a black hole! During his stunt, all contact is lost and Shilo encounters Metron in the interior of the event horizon and given a vision of a war between New Genesis and Apokolips where the forces of Darkseid had prevailed. Metron informs Shilo that he'll have to choose between light and dark. Shilo then reappears to the roar of his audience after 11 seconds of zero contact.

Shilo informs his psychiatrist of this visitation along with another. At the afterparty for his show, Shilo's friend ZZ tries to hook him up with some party people, who just happen to be earthly incarnations of Granny Goodness and the Female Furies. The psychiatrist is very dissmissive of Shilo's account and gives the typical "come back next week" goodbye.

Shilo leaves and encounters the new form of Black Racer, an old man in a wheelchair. Mr. Miracle mistakes him for Metron. The Black Racer reveals that he's not, but does wager with Metron from time to time. Black Racer proceeds taunts him, saying Shilo is too soft and will fail his first trial - the Drive-By Derby!!!

After a hallucinatory encounter with the being called Metron, the formerly aimless and dissatisfied Mister Miracle finds himself with a new mission in life. He now believes he has evidence of an apocalyptic cosmic war being fought through human agents on Earth! Shiloh's seen the light. He knows the score —and he may have lost his mind!

Noteworthy Items:

The cover image of Mister Miracle descending as if a Christ like figure may hint at his mortality in the final Seven soldiers issue.

This is also the position of the Hanged Man in the Tarot .

No Sheeda? Nope, no Sheeda.

Black holes? Event Horizon? What the hell is that? Click here for an overview on the anatomy of a black hole.

A motherbox, along with Boom Tubes, were a regular part of Kirby's New Gods stories -- essentially, they're small, portable supercomputers with a few dimension-twisting add-ons.

This Mr. Miracle's motherbox is spelled with two extra Xs. This might be a reference to one half of the Outkast grammy winning album Speakerboxxx/The Love Below by Outkast.

The motherbox takes the role of the Barbelith from the Vertigo series The Invisibles. Barbelith is an egregore founded on the principles of agape, education and transformation, capable of releasing ideas and assisting in initiation, individuation and self-development. It acts as a placenta, providing the developing human race with the nourishment necessary in order to grow into its full potential. This global working is accomplished by its capacity to engage with an unlimited number of people simultaneously.

This work was has been called a narrative hypersigil. In other words, a magical working intended to bring about changes in its author and readership. A large body of anecdotal evidence exists to suggest that the intentions of the working were successful, although these effects are not easily quantifiable (they rely on the subjective experience of those involved). As the methodology of the working involved the way in which our personal realities and world models depend on fiction for their existence and maintenance, it's reasonable to suggest that the egregore has received sufficient empowerment to be used in workings which are independent from (albeit ideologically linked to) the original text. Furthermore, there are already accounts of Barbelith interacting with a number of individuals connected to this site.

Metron (Greek for the English word 'meter,' meaning measure in physics class), Darkseid, High-Father and many others are from Jack Kirby's New Gods series.

The psychiatrist could be the Jack Kirby character Dr. Bedlam who appeared in the original Mr. Miracle series starting with issue #8. Bedlam is also derived from a psychiatric hospital Saint Mary of Bethleham.

From Barbelith:
So who is the Black Racer? Previously, he was Sgt. Willie Walker, a Vietnam vet whose injuries left him mute and paralyzed, and who was subsequently possessed by a force of the New Gods... the force of Death. So, for the most part, Walker was confined to a hospital bed, but as soon as one of the New Gods died in their war against Apokolips, Walker was suddenly able to zip around at the speed of light. Unfortunately, he did so on, umm, a pair of hyperspace skis. In some ways, this character may have been Kirby's way of trying to create a new Silver Surfer for DC, but heroes on skis just don't seem quite as cool as heroes on surfboards. Anyway, he's appeared in Flash stories on and off since then.