Early Reader Review: Mister Miracle: The Great Escape by Varian Johnson

Source: From DC Comics in exchange for an honest review. This in no way alters my opinion or review.

Mister Miracle: The Great Escape by Varian Johnson, Illustrated by
Daniel Isles
Publisher: DC Comics
Publication Date:  January 25, 2022

 

Format: Ebook


Rating:

Goodreads Synopsis: 

Falling in love was never part of the escape plan.

Scott Free is a student at the Goodness Academy, on the planet Apokolips, ruled by Lord Darkseid. Sounds pretty cool, right? Wrong. Scott Free wants nothing more than to leave Apokolips for planet Earth; the only problem is that no one has ever left Apokolips of their own free will...or alive.

Scott Free has a plan, a foolproof plan, a plan that his found family depends on for their own freedom. But that plan never involved falling in love with the head of the Female Furies, Big Barda-the one person tasked with ensuring he never escapes.

From the Coretta Scott King Honor-winning author of The Parker Inheritance, Varian Johnson, and afrofuturist artist Daniel Isles (DirtyRobot) comes the story of an escape plan that will take a miracle to pull off. Lucky for Scott, everyone calls him MISTER MIRACLE! Okay, fine, no one calls him that...yet.

Review: 

I am not familiar with the Mister Miracle graphic novels or comics but it was sent over and I love reading graphic novels, so I gave it a chance. 

Mister Miracle follows Scott Free, a student at an academy/ orphanage, that is more like a prison than anything else. His goal is to escape his school and make for Earth, only that is not done so easily. 

Scott is a pretty typical teenage boy, he has jokes and talks a lot, getting himself into trouble at every available instance. But he also tries to stand up for others. While a smart ass, he seems like a good-natured teen. 

The world is miliary-themed and messy and the illustrations do a good job of showing that. I liked the detail throughout. There was just enough text and dialogue to keep things moving but not too much to drag the story down. I was a little confused by one detail that was recurring - there were little red dots throughout the graphic novel, often emphasizing movement, but it seemed like it could be blood at first so I kept thinking it might be blood and I was very confused about the choice stylistically. 

Overall the story was a good one, it emphasized burden and the weight that it can carry even for teens. This was a fun coming of agee / origin story and it was a good book to pick up for Black History Month. If you are looking for diverse characters, some action, and maybe even a little love, this would be a good graphic novel to pick up.