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Mister Miracle Reading Order

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For a few short years during the 1970s, Jack Kirby joined DC Comics and introduced revolutionary ideas that are still affecting the DCU to this day–he was not the king of comics for no reason.

His major DC work was what is called “The Fourth World,” a series of interconnected series based around a new mythology surrounding The New Gods–find more about it in our Fourth World Reading Order. Kirby mostly developed it we three titles:  New Gods, The Forever People, and Mister Miracle. The last one is the heart of our article today.

Introduced in Mister Miracle #1 (April 1971), Scott Free is the son of the sage Highfather, ruler of New Genesis, the positive counterpart to the hellish planet Apokolips ruled by Darkseid. To stop the war between the two planets, heirs were exchanged. That’s why Scott grew up in one of Granny Goodness’ “Terror Orphanages” with no knowledge of his own heritage–he still rebelled against the corrupt and violent ideology of Apokolips.

Scott joined the Resistance where he met Big Barda who would later become his wife. He also finally found an exit and fled to Earth where met circus escape artist Thaddeus Brown–whose stage name was Mister Miracle. After Thaddeus was killed, Scott took over his stage identity and became an escape artist, with the help of his assistant and friend, a dwarf named Oberon.

Of course, the war against Darkseid had not ended and, joined by Big Barda, Scott Free kept fighting. He became a hero, and eventually joined the Justice League. He died at some point, like the other New Gods, and was later resurrected too.

Mister Miracle Reading Order

Mister Miracle and The Fourth World (Pre-Crisis)

During the 1970s, Mister Miracle was mostly part of Jack Kirby’s work on the Fourth World mythology. After he left DC Comics, Scott Free starter to appeared in issues putting him next to other DC heroes.

After Kirby left, Mister Miracle appeared in a few issues of the Batman team-up title The Brave and the Bold, before Steve Englehart and Steve Gerber took over his ongoing series. All of this issues are collected in:

Mister Miracle during the Modern Age era (Post-Crisis)

As you know, in 1985, DC Comics rebooted its own universe with the help of the Crisis on Infinite Earths event (see reading order for more info on that). A new history of the DC Universe was established, solidifying the place of the New Gods–you can take a look at the History of the DC Universe to see how it is explained.

After that, Scott Free got a special issue to go back into show business with Oberon and Big Barda.

Then, Mister Miracle (and Oberon) became a member of the Justice League. It was the JLI era by Keith Giffen and J. M. DeMatteis, we already covered in detail how to read these books in our Justice League International Reading Order.

Justice League International Omnibus Vol. 1 - Justice League Reading Order

The era of the Justice League has not yet been fully collected.

  • Justice League International Omnibus Vol. 1
    Collects Justice League #1-6, Justice League International #7-25, Justice League America #26-30, Justice League Annual #1, Justice League International Annual #2-3, Justice League Europe #1-6, and Suicide Squad #13.

After Justice League International #25, the series “ended” and was replaced by “Justice League America” and “Justice League Europe.” Mister Miracle’s second ongoing series written by J. M. DeMatteis and drawn by Ian Gibson was launched.

After that, Mister Miracle appeared in some DC Events, including Zero Hour, not doing anything of note. And then, John Byrne used Scott and Big Barda for a questionable storyline:

In 1996, DC launched a third Mister Miracle series, this time written by Kevin Dooley, as part of its relaunch of the Fourth World line following the Cosmic Odyssey miniseries. Like the new New Gods series, the Mister Miracle series was quickly canceled to be replaced by the Jack Kirby’s Fourth World series, written and drawn by John Byrne.

At that time, Mister Miracle appeared as a guest star in multiple series, nothing of note though, except maybe in the Orion series by Wal Simonon (in issues #5, 13, 15-16, & 25). After that, Scott’s apparitions became scarce. We saw him during the Identity Crisis event.

Shilo Norman is Mister Miracle

Created by Jack Kirby, Shilo Norman first appeared in Mister Miracle #15 (August 1973). As time went by, we saw him in other Mister Miracle series, but it was Grant Morrison who decided to make something of him. In fact, he made him the new Mister Miracle in his Seven Soldiers miniseries.

  • Seven Soldiers by Grant Morrison Omnibus
    Collects Seven Soldiers #0-1, Seven Soldiers: Shining Knight #1-4, Seven Soldiers: Guardian #1-4, Seven Soldiers: Zatanna #1-4, Seven Soldiers: Klarion The Witch Boy #1-4, Seven Soldiers: Mister Miracle #1-4, Seven Soldiers: Bulleteer #1-4 and Seven Soldiers: Frankenstein #1-4.

After that, Shilo made brief appearances like in Infinite Crisis and Morrison’s Final Crisis.

In 2007, Jim Starlin wrote a miniseries titled Death of the New Gods in which he killed a lot of characters, but it didn’t last long as they came back in the conclusion of Final Crisis.

  • Death of the New Gods
    Collects Death of the New Gods #1-8.
  • Final Crisis
    collects DC Universe #0, Final Crisis #1-7, Final Crisis: Superman Beyond #1-2, Final Crisis: Submit #1, Batman #682-683.

Mister Miracle during the New 52 era

In September 2011, following the Flashpoint event, DC’s continuity was once again rebooted. It was the launch of The New 52 era. During that time, Mister Miracle and Big Barda were not part of the regular timeline, they were on Earth 2. It’s not the Scott Free we know.

Later, Mister Miracle joined the main continuity of the New 52 (at the end), joining the Justice League to fight Darkseid during the storyline called Darkseid War. But before that, he appeared in another out-of-continuity story with the event Futures End.

Mister Miracle during the Rebirth era

Despite being another relaunch of sorts, Rebirth didn’t really affect Mister Miracle. In fact, like during New 52, he was underused. Scott Free and Big Barda still starred in a Mister Miracle miniseries written by Tom King and illustrated by Mitch Gerads that was not clearly connected to the continuity.

After that, Mister Miracle appeared in Dark Days: The Forge #1, a single issue that is part of the Dark Nights: Metal event. Scott and Shilo Norman were also in The Black Racer and Shilo Norman Special #1 as part of a celebration of Jack Kirby’s 100th Birthday.

With Big Barda as one of its main characters, it’s no surprise that Mister Miracle appeared in the Female Furies miniseries:

  • Female Furies
    Collects Female Furies #1-6, plus Jack Kirby’s Mister Miracle #9, the issue that inspired this series.

And then, the Dark Nights: Death Metal event put an end to the Rebirth Era. This time, Mister Miracle appeared really briefly here and there. Like with the previous Dark Nights, this is not a must-read if you want some Mister Miracle.

Mister Miracle during the Infinite Frontier era

Infinite Frontier is mostly a continuation of the Rebirth Era. So, not a lot of Scott Free, but Shilo Norman, who appeared in the Superman issues of Future State, got his own Mister Miracle miniseries written by Brandon Easton with art by Fico Ossio.

  • Future State: Superman
    Collects Future State: Superman of Metropolis #1-2, Future State: Worlds at War #1-2, Future State: Superman vs. Imperious Lex #1-2, Future State: Kara Zor-El, Superwoman #1-2, Future State: Legion 5000 #1-2, and Future State: House of El #1.
  • Mister Miracle – The Source of Freedom
    Collects Mister Miracle: The Source of Freedom #1-6.
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