Who Is Big Barda? The Other Half of 'Mister Miracle's' New Gods, Explained
The DC Universe may just be starting out, launching with Superman in 2025, but it’s already expanding into different realms, including introducing a superheroine in this year’s Supergirl. But the ladies are holding it down in the TV world as well, especially with the upcoming adult animated series Mister Miracle, which will follow Josh Hutcherson’s Scott Free, aka Mister Miracle, and Mackensie Davis’ Big Barda, his female counterpart and love interest.
But just who is Big Barda, and what does her introduction mean to the DC Universe as a whole? The answer goes back further than you may expect.
Big Barda was raised in the orphanage of the dastardly Granny Goodness, who raised children to be weapons on the world of Apokolips as a minion of Darkseid. She became the head of the Female Furies, a group of women warriors, and eventually met Scott Free, the adopted son of Darkseid, the result of a risky deal between the warring realms of Apokolips and New Genesis: the leaders of both swapped their infant sons, hoping the differing upbringings would guarantee peace for the next generation. However, Darkseid sent Scott to Granny Goodness’ orphanage, allowing him to meet Barda all the way back in Mister Miracle #4 in 1971.
Scott and Barda quickly fell in love, despite the fact that she stands more than a foot taller than him at seven feet two inches. Together they escaped to Earth, where she supports Scott as an escape artist and superhero. In this world, Barda is probably more intimidating than ever, but despite the fact that she could prove her own strength alongside Wonder Woman and Superman (especially with her Master Rod), she chooses not to.
As his name suggests, Scott’s story is one of freedom, of two people escaping an unhappy life to build a new one from scratch on their own terms. Wonder Woman left Themyscira and continued being a superhero, but what if she didn’t want to do that? What if she didn’t know what she wanted to do? That’s what Barda explores.
Mister Miracle may not be entirely about Big Barda, but she’s a kind of character we so rarely see in superhero media as a whole: someone who doesn’t really have an interest in the entire endeavor altogether. How will the show reflect this, and what will her inclusion in this series mean for the DC universe as a whole? We have more than a year to wait and find out.