Mister Miracle #6

Writer: Tom King

Artist: Mitch Gerads

Letterer: Clayton Cowles

This is by far the worse issue of the series, without a doubt. Each issue of this series has had a "hook" that people would normally tweet about following the release of the issue, but here the hook is a simple conversation between Scott Free and Big Barda concerning renovating their apartment. They have this literally issue-long conversation while moving through New Genesis, killing guards as they see fit. In terms of tone management, this is a wreck since Scott and Barda show absolutely no signs of remorse when killing their own people. The conversation between Scott and Barda is clearly meant to be relatable, which is then upended by the violence depicted.

Peppered throughout the issue are little bits of humour, which come across as incredibly contrived and frankly not funny in the slightest. Tom King twice uses the guards as weak attempts at humour to no avail whatsoever, and I'm not sure if the conversation between Scott and Barda is meant to come across as funny; maybe it's meant to seem a little bit humourous, but with King, I can't tell anymore.

Nothing really happens in this issue. A grand total of two plot points are brought up and they both turn up at the end of the issue, so this entire issue is padded nonsense and plain ol' filler. King could have used the page space to elaborate on the pretty interesting ending, but the fact that the story is going to be continued in March doesn't have me excited one bit for the future of this maxiseries.

Mitch Gerads' art is quite nice, although I take issue with some panels and character poses that he very clearly reuses. I understand that time is a factor when it comes to art and the Mitch household recently welcomed a baby, but it's bothersome to see panels and character repeated throughout an issue. I think Gerads' colouring might be the best touch on his art. He really transforms a scene and plays with colour very well, resulting in a mostly gorgeous and diverse-looking book.

In an uneventful and unfunny issue, King and Gerads end the first arc of their acclaimed series. This issue is pretty bad; it's paced poorly, the dialogue is contrived, the humour doesn't work, and nothing happens in the issue. Save for some repeated poses, the art is mostly nice and is coloured wonderfully.