Daddy Issues
Writer: Tom King
Artist: Mitch Gerads and Clayton Cowles
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: September 19, 2018
I have had a rocky relationship with Mister Miracle since it began. While most people would guess that I hate this series, I keep telling them that I am just not ready to crown it the best book ever until I see how it turns out. I have had problems with reviewing individual issues because of the "is it real or not" story structure and what that means to the overall narrative. I also think that some reviewers have jumped on the Mister Miracle is an instant classic bandwagon in order to hide the fact that they have no idea what's going and are afraid of going out on a limb and looking dumb. I have never been afraid of that and I think I have given way more of an explanation of why I don't like a lot of this series than fans have explained why they love it. With that in mind, let's discuss the penultimate issue...
We open the issue with Scott, Barda, and Jacob getting ready to head off to meet Darkseid and it you have been a fan of Tom King mixing the mundane with the fantastic, I'm sure this opening will tickle your fancy. We also get two of the greatest hits jokes of the series for good measure. Again, this is a personal thing, but seeing the veggie tray and Batman doll here just felt like going to see your favorite standup comedian four times and each time getting the same material. Even Dice Man's nursery rhymes got old after a while and this feels a bit stale.
No matter what I've said about this series, I have loved Mitch Gerads' art throughout, but as we get into this issue, things aren't as crisp and as we see Darkseid eat a carrot or Jacob squeeze noses and crawl around, there are a lot of similar panels. Still, I can't complain too much because when he is on, he is one of my favorite artists in comics right now.
Back to the story, my problem is that for a good portion of this issue, I was bored. Maybe it's the lack of real setup to what is going on, but the first half is a bit slow. I also wasn't in awe of Darkseid the way I thought I would be after all these issues and all the Darkseid is...panels.
Things do pick up in a big way halfway through and we get the best ten pages of this entire series. I won't spoil it all, but Scott and Barda don't follow things through completely and it ends in the bloodiest version of "it's not my fault" I have ever seen. There is also a really touching moment between father and son right before shit gets crazy that I know fans of the series will no doubt eat up and tweet like crazy.
Then we get to the end and depending on what you want out of this series, you just may lose your mind. It's actually a little too soon for that as we aren't given any real answers, but all things point in a direction that isn't shocking in content, but maybe intent. It's big but seems to point in the direction that this series may have been a bunch of issues too long. if you ask me.
I liked this issue more than most of what we've gotten up until now. That certainly doesn't mean I am jumping in the shallow end of the review pool and giving this a perfect score. Better? Yes. Perfect? Hardly! Tom King still puts aside actual story developments for big bang moments, but that can be disguised a bit when the moments are as big as some are here. The ending makes sense when you examine what we have seen up to this point, but I am wondering if Tom King will go all the way with it. After the wedding debacle, this issue and the next one had multiple delays and I don't think that is a coincidence. I just hope he ends the series in a way that is true to his original vision and not in a let me fix this quick, reactionary way.
Bits and Pieces:
Tom King and Mitch Gerads give us a penultimate issue that has big moments that are sure to have fans of the series drooling. I have been vocal about not loving every single page since issue one, but I even got swept up in the mayhem this month. It's not shocking to say that if you have loved this series so far, that probably won't change...except for what we find out by the end of this issue. The jury is still out and I will continue to wait for the entire series to end next issue before declaring this anything but one of the better issues so far.
6.5/10
Sure the jokes are starting to get stale with issue 11 but we needed to see them play out with Darkseid and I ate it up. The rest of the book was a continuation of the stuff that us fans of this series love, albeit very very hard to read at times due to the graphic content. Suck it Jimbo this was my first read this week and I enjoyed every panel of it!
ReplyDelete