Mister Miracle #2

Written by Grant Morrison

Art by Billy Dallas Patton, Michael Bair, Freddie Williams II & Dave McCaig

Cover by Pasqual Ferry

Shilo Norman finds himself dodging man-eating cars as he plays out his part in a battle between Metron and the Black Racer. Shilo soon discovers himself in the company of several homeless people who were at one time warriors of New Genesis, but are now on Earth in new forms. Meanwhile, Dark Side and Dr. Dezard make their move against Mister Miracle.

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:

Metron and the Black Racer are engaged in a game of chess that seems to directly parallel the events that Shilo is experiencing in the Drive By Derby. Metron is holding a white knight chess piece that represents Mister Miracle. The significance of the knight in the game of chess is that it is the only piece that can attack a queen from outside her line of attack...

From CBR Forum: Comments from issue 1:

"Higher worlds of manichaean purity locked in a grim, eternal struggle, with our earth as their battleground?"

Now that we know who Dezard is, we know that's true: the New Gods are fighting their war as human avatars. With Darkseid's decimation of New Genesis, it makes sense for his forces to be people of wealth and resources and the people of New Genesis to be hunted and homeless. Perhaps this is just how the higher conflict of the New Gods appears in the lower world of our reality -- a mundane representation of a conflict on a level we can't understand?

Following information from Barbelith:

See the sillouetted figure of the guy on skis above the oncoming car? That's what Death, the Black Racer usually looks like when he's not trapped in the body of a creepy old guy in a wheel chair.

From left to right, we have Orion, Jezebelle, Lightray, Big Bear, Beautiful Dreamer, either Fastbak or Forager, and Highfather. Big Bear and Beautiful Dreamer are both members of The Forever People.

"I'm sorry, Doctor Dezard."

Doctor Dezard is actually Desaad, one of Darkseid's followers.