#dematteis

Mister Miracle v2

Mister Miracle was created by Jack Kirby in 1971 and was included as a part of Kirby’sFourth World storyline which was introduced in Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #134 (1970). Mister Miracle’s first ongoing series lasted 18 issues from 1971 to 1974, and was then revived again for another 7 issues from 1977 to 1978. It would appear that the Fourth World interest had fizzled out by the end of the decade and Mister Miracle and the rest of the New Gods went into comic limbo after a 1980 Justice League of America appearance (issues #183 - 185).

Kirby’s Fourth World characters experienced a revival in the mid-80s, thanks in part to Darkseid’s appearance in the Legion of Super-Heroes’ Great Darkness Saga storyline (1982) and Kenner deciding that Darkseid and his crew would make the perfect villains for the Super Powers Collectiontoy line (and accompanying cartoons and comic books) in 1984. Part of the revival included a deluxe format reprint of the 1971 New Gods saga in 1984 and a Hunger Dogs graphic novel in 1985.Kirby’sFourth World characters really hit their stride in 1986 when Darkseid was revealed to be the villain responsible for the Legends cross-over event, and it wasn’t much later that all of the New Gods became integrated into the DC universe and Mister Miracle became a member of the new Justice League (written by Kieth GiffenandJ.M. DeMatties) in 1987. Coinciding with Mister Miracle joining the Justice League was a one-shot special published in 1987 reminding readers who Mister Miracle was.

Mister Miracle would finally get another ongoing series in 1989 as the Fourth World’s involvement within the DC universe was at all-time high: the Cosmic Odyssey event was just wrapping up, the Forever People had just concluded a six issue mini-series, Mister Miracle and Big Barda had become prominent members of the Justice League International, Lashina (of the Female Furries) was on John Ostrander’sSuicide Squad roster, and another New Gods ongoing series was about to debut. It really was a good time to be a Fourth Worldcharacter.

The premise of Mister Miracle’s 1989 ongoing series was pretty simple - Mister Miracle and Big Barda want to escape all of the crazy superhero shenanigans and just settle down for a quiet ‘normal’ life in the suburbs. J.M. DeMatteis was the first writer for this series - which made sense since Mister Miracle (and Big Barda) had become a permanent fixture in DeMatteis’Justice League International and no other writer (save for Keith Giffen) probably had a greater hand in fleshing out the character since his 1987 return. As you can suspect, the new Mister Miracle ongoing series had many humorous elements as seen in DeMatteisandGiffen’sJLI and really played up the whole 'superheroes trying to settle in a small town without drawing attention to themselves’ aspect. Len Wein became the writer after issue #8 and, while he still kept the humor, the series shifted direction and started to move toward Mister Miracle heading on an intergalactic tours sans Big Barda. I’m not sure if I mentioned that Mister Miracle and Big Barda were heavily integrated into the Justice League universe, and just to demonstrate that point, Justice League Special #1 (which occurs between issue Mister Miracle v2 #12 and Mister Miracle v2 #13) is a pivotal issue in the series and Mister Miracle subscribers would not have received it unless they had ordered it (or sought it out at the local comic book shop). The series then focuses on Mister Miracle’s adventures across the galaxy all while a subplot about a robot Mister Miracle being introduced and killed off within the pages of Justice League America (also by GiffenandDeMatteis) ran subsequently. It should be noted that Doug Moench picked up writing chores at Mister Miracle v2 #14. The final big story arc in this series is about Mister Miracle returning to Earth, moving to Manhattan with Barda and company, deciding that he no longer wants to be a hero anymore and begins to train his old protegé Shilo Norman to become the new Mister Miracle. Ian Gibson illustrated the first 5 issues and was then promptly replaced by Joe Phillips who became the regular artist for the rest of the series (minus a few fill-in issues by various illustrators).

If I had to describe this series to someone, I’d tell them it’s veryvery good with many elements of Giffen’sJustice League incorporated into it (the humor, anyways). A gritty realistic mood was trending as far as comic books were concerned in the late 80s, and to have a series jump on the humor bandwagon (à la JLI) was a refreshing change. Many fans pointed out that this conflicted with the OTHER Fourth World series at the moment (The New Gods) which had a much darker tone, however this may have been done in respect to Kirby’s 1970s Mister Miracle series which also kept a light tone.

Big Barda plays just as much a role in this series as Mister Miracle does, and I’m somewhat surprised she didn’t get her name included in the title. If you are a fan of Kirby’sFourth World universe, I’d recommend checking this series out as A LOT of Fourth World characters make appearances. One of the interesting things about this series is that it picks up on a lot of the story lines and characters that appeared in the 1971 Mister Miracle series, meaning that Mister Miracle’s history/existence was NOT rebooted by the Crisis On Infinite Earths event. I guess there was no point in messing with perfection? While this series is being reviewed in a blog about DC comics from the 1980s (because the first issue was published in 1989) it really is more of a 1990s series - it even contains the obligatory Lobo cross-over (as Lobo was appearing EVERYWHERE in the early 90s). 

This series ended at issue #28 (1991) and Moench managed to wrap up any loose ends by the final issue (although it was revealed that he did have plans to have Barda’s new Female Furies battle her former team, but plans had to be scrapped). Mister Miracle continued making appearances in the DC Universe until he got another ongoing series in 1996. Shilo Norman (who was reintroduced in this series) also made sporadic appearances throughout the DC Universe and is still a fan-favorite to this day.

Doctor Fate v1

Dr Fate was created by Gardner FoxandHoward Sherman and first appeared in National’sMore Fun Comics #55 (1940). He debuted as a flying, magical-based superhero who was somewhat invulnerable and could shoot lightning from his fingertips. It has been speculated that the creation of Dr Fate was inspired by H.P. Lovecraft (and the need for another Superman-like character). Dr Fate was a member of the Justice Society of America and appeared in All-American’sAll Star Comics #3 (1940) as a founding member of the team. In 1942, More Fun Comics (the series Dr Fate regularly appeared in) became more oriented towards super-hero action, and the creative team decided to downplay his magical powers and play him up as physician who occasionally became a masked crime fighter to beat-up criminals (they also reduced his full helmet to half of a helmet). In 1944, World War II was concluding and super-heroes were no longer the popular genre, so Dr Fate was placed into comic book limbo.

Dr Fate resurfaced in the 1960s and, being categorized as a ‘Golden Age hero’ along with the rest of the Justice Society of America, mainly appeared in stories set on Earth-Two. The more famous of these stories being the ones in which the JSA crossed over to Earth-One and met the modern aged Justice League of America. In 1975, Dr Fate got a chance at an ongoing series in DC’s First Issue Special #9, but fan reaction wasn’t strong enough so it didn’t take. In the mid-70s, Dr Fate appeared regularly in DC’s All-Star Comics until it was cancelled. Although he was an Earth-Two character, he still appeared in many other mainstream DC books (sometimes as a cameo, sometimes as a guest appearance or sometimes even in a back-up feature) so he was never far from view. It would seem like he was one of those characters who had a lot of potential, but DC wasn’t sure what to do with him. Finally, in 1985’s Crisis On Infinite Earths, Dr Fate got his big break: he had somehow been spared of the fate the Justice Society of America had received (they were all wiped out and placed into comic book limbo) and had been transplanted to Earth One. He appeared in the company-wide Legends cross-over and ultimately became a member of Keith Giffen’sJustice League in 1987.

I don’t think Dr Fate migrating from Earth-Two to Earth-One was an lucky coincidence, and a big clue supporting this theory the Super Powers Collection action figure toy line released in 1985 by Kenner. Dr Fate is the only Earth-Two figure in the toyline and was not appearing in any cartoons at the time - so I’m going to go on a limb and guess that DC was planning for Dr Fate to have a larger role in the DCU and was just trying to get the fans warmed up to him. Well, that and the fact that he’s just a cool-looking character. Around this same time, DC published a 3 issue series called Immortal Dr Fate which consisted only of reprints of his more popular Silver Age solo stories - I believe this was reprinted in an effort to re-spark interest in the character.

Doctor Fate v1 was written by J.M. DeMatteis and illustrated by Keith Giffen, and was essentially the introduction of a new version of the character. DeMatteis took care to incorporate the previous Dr Fate’s history when explaining the origin of this new character rather than tossing all of the previous history away and starting anew (aka: John Byrne’s reboot of Superman). I’m kind of getting the impression that writers couldn’t decide what to do with Dr Fate during his previous 40 year publication history - everybody from Paul LevitztoRoy ThomastoMartin Pasko has put their own little spin on the character (whether it be slightly altering his origin or changing the extent of his powers) and I suspect this is a common problem when you are dealing with a character whose powers and origins are somewhat vague. DeMatteisopted to start fresh and, roughly following the old origin formula of the previous Dr Fate, created a mystical character that was now a composite of both a man AND a woman. This was a major revitalization of the character and surprised many long-time fans.

This mini-series contains some of my favorite Keith Giffen artwork. If I was a Keith Giffen-ologist, I’d tell you at this point in his career he was one of DC’s most popular comic book artists, but his art was under heavy scrutiny for mimicking the work of Argentinian cartoonist Jose Muñoz. This wasn’t the first time Giffen had pencilled Dr Fate - but his style was way different from the previous back-up stories he illustrated back in 1959’s The Flash v1 #306-310. Thankfully, Giffen was able to bounce back from these accusations and kept delivering on some top notch work for DC comics.

All things considered, this mini-series was a pretty good read. I’m really tempted to call this the post-Crisis reboot of Dr Fate for the main reason that, in the story, the former Dr Fate (Kent Nelson) blames the Crisis on Infinite Earths as the reason for his demise (as well as Inza’s). Chronologically speaking, Doctor Fate v1 occurred after Dr Fate’s appearance in LegendsandGiffen’sJustice League, so it’s kind of a mess to determine just what is considered post-Crisis and what isn’t. Apparently, the only reason Dr Fate was included in Giffen’sJustice League is because DeMatteis (who was also writing Justice League) was already writing this mini-series, so they had free reign of the character. Speaking of which, a few members of Giffen’sJustice League DO make an appearance in this mini-series (albeit a pretty minor role) which I was pretty grateful for. Dr Fate works well as a member of the Justice League, but omnipotent mystical characters do not tend to make for interesting main characters in a book and tend to not sell very well. I was a little surprised that this mini-series spun-off into an ongoing in 1988 that lasted 41 issues and an annual.