Mister Miracle Explained: Who Is Scott Free, And What Are The New Gods?
The DC Universe isn’t afraid of keeping the bright colors and more cringe elements of its heroes’ original designs, which opens up a lot more interesting options for new projects. The most recently announced DC animated series is a great example of that: Mister Miracle, an adult animated series starring Josh Hutcherson as Mister Miracle and Mackenzie Davis as Big Barda, is set to premiere on HBO Max in 2028.
But just who is Mister Miracle? His story is actually quite interesting, full of political intrigue, deception, and a lot of escapology.
Who is Mister Miracle?
Mister Miracle was born Scott on the planet New Genesis, although that wasn’t where he was raised. When he was young, he was an unwitting pawn in a odd pact between the warring planets of New Genesis and Apokolips. Darkseid, the leader of Apokolips, made an agreement with Scott’s father Highfather to swap their heirs in the hopes of creating a second generation that would have enough empathy to acheive peace. While Darkseid’s son was raised as Highfather’s own, Scott was left at Granny Goodness’ orphanage on Apokolips, where he was tortured alongside other children, including his future wife Big Barda.
Scott and Big Barda eventually escaped to Earth, where he took the name Scott Free and became a hero as well as an escapologist, using his supernatural abilities and Apokolips technology to fight crime and get out of all kinds of tight spots. The name “Mister Miracle” was actually a stage name he borrowed from another escapologist named Thaddeus Brown. The only difference is that Thaddeus was an actual human, while Scott fudges it a little by using his powers.
Scott Free may not be brooding like Batman or polished like Superman, but he’s a representative for one of the coolest chapters of DC Comics history. He’s just a short king who has had a hard intergalactic life and loves his tall wife.
The New Gods, In Brief
This extraterrestrial society from the twin planets New Genesis and Apokolips was known as the New Gods, created by Jack Kirby for DC Comics in 1971. After being unhappy at Marvel, he moved to DC, and created a whole new world of old gods and new. It was meant to be a limited series, but Kirby’s vision was so popular that these characters kept going, leading to this series.
As suggested by their names, the New Gods are god-like beings that live outside of normal time and space in an extradimensional realm called the Fourth World. It’s there that they live in proximity to a primeval energy known as the Source, which has helped them evolve into higher bings that are evolutionarily perfect. They possess all kinds of superhuman abilities — super strength, stamina, reflexes, invulnerability, and speed — and have such long lives that they are functionally immortal. However they do have a weakness: Radion. Its source is unknown, but its effects are toxic to the New Gods, who can be killed by a Radion blaster or bomb.
The upcoming DCU series is not the first time Hollywood has attempted to bring the New Gods to the screen. Ava Duvernay was originally set to direct New Gods under the Snyderverse, from a script by comic book legend Tom King, after Darkseid made his debut in Snyder’s Justice League. However, that project never came to be. But now we’ll finally get to see the New Gods in all their glory, albeit in animated form.