Mister Miracle #11

It's been a week since Mister Miracle #11 hit the stands and so my hope is I am near the spoiler event horizon.

I have been a fan of this series since the beginning. King and Gerads have really done this spectacular job of making this a truly complete story of the duo of Mister Miracle and Big Barda. We open with some drama and sadness as Scott seems to have tried to kill himself. We then have Scott enter into a new war with Apokolips as a general, ascend to the title of Highfather, all while navigating married life, family politics, and being a new dad.

Throughout the series, panels have been warped as if the original shifted in the copy machine or the signal was breaking up on an old antenna television. And while at times this has been a very sad book, there was somehow this undercurrent of hope. Even when covered in the blood of his enemies after days of nonstop combat, the love and respect Scott and Barda have for each other was a foundation for something better.

The plot twists and the opening suicide and the warped panels (the biggest 'interference' happening in panels discussing death and pain) all made folks wonder just what was this story.

Was it 'real'?
Was it purgatory?
Was it a near death experience?

I myself kept saying I thought it was something like 'An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge', a potential future that Miracle was running through his mind in a second before he was in danger of dying.

But then the end of Mister Miracle #11 happened. Spoilers ahead.

After a brutal battle, Mister Miracle slays Darkseid.

And when that happens, the warping hits maximum. Suddenly Metron appears and tells Scott that after all the turmoil in his recent life, he is free. It is time to go back.

A portal opens and Scott is flooded with images of the DCU, or heroes past and present. Of bright colors and straight lines.

Heck we even get Streaky the Super-Cat.

Metron says 'There is Another World.'

For an old Morrissey fan like me, it hit me as a line from The Smiths 'Asleep'.

"There is another world, there is a better world, oh there must be."

It is one sad song, one with strong suicidal overtones. Could all of this be that near death experience? Could Scott have tried to kill himself as said in #1 and this is all him struggling to live, that Owl Creek Bridge idea again?

I hope not.

Now I am hoping that this is Scott facing down his demons and fears. Maybe Darkseid has solved the Anti-Life Equation and has loosed it on the universe. Darkseid Is, after all. Maybe Darkseid Is Reality.

And maybe the heroes need someone to counteract that; they need someone to solve The Life Equation, the opposite of Anti-Life. Maybe everything that has happened is Scott getting through it and embracing life. With the Life Equation solved, things revert to normal.

Perhaps we have reached that point.

I can only hope.

There is another world. There is a better world.

Oh, there must be.