The Aughts were a pretty busy time for Grant Morrison in the DC Universe. Even with an excursion over to Marvel in the early part of the decade. They finished their epic run on JLA with Howard Porter, kicked off a lengthy tenure that changed the landscape of the Batman office, and helped build a foundation for a number of events and characters. The most ambitious of those latter efforts may well have been the patchwork crossover series under the Seven Soldiers banner, that took the old moniker and a handful of existing characters from across different areas of the DCU, including some Jack Kirby creations, and breathed new life into them in fairly interesting ways. Among them was Shilo Norman in Seven Soldiers – Mister Miracle from Morrison, Pasqual Ferry, Billy Dallas Patton, Michael Bair, Freddie Williams II, Dave McCaig, Pat Brosseau, Nick J. Napolitano, Phil Balsman, and Travis Lanham.
To me, Seven Soldiers of Victory feels like a bridge between Morrison’s JLA and what would come in Final Crisis. Nowhere is that more on display than in their interpretation of Mister Miracle and the New Gods. While the Sheeda of the overall event take a bit of a backburner, the Fourth World is reinterpreted as what’s essentially the ground work for a Fifth World. Evil won. The gods of New Genesis essentially fell to Earth, hiding in mortal guises, while Darkseid and his minions are free to run wild as a criminal element, Boss Dark Side and the Dark Side Club, dealing in mind control and sex. It’s a fascinating juxtaposition of their divine nature and the more mundane street level elements. All while Shilo Norman tries to navigate fame, failure, and potentially losing everything, including possibly his mind.
I’m not rightly sure what happened with the artwork (interviews I’ve seen don’t seem to shed light on what exactly happened), but it still comes off well. The visual style is set in the first issue by Pasqual Ferry. With his earlier work on Adam Strange he started developing a very open, clean-lined style filled with dynamic characters. It reminds me a bit of Carlos Pacheco and Pete Woods, but a little more simplified. Billy Dallas Patton & Michael Bair and Freddie Williams II carry on with work that is similar, on different sides of detail or exaggerated cartooning. Patton delivers the former in the second issue, while Williams the latter as he carries on from the second to the end of the series. I’ve really grown to like Williams’ artwork, there’s a verve and uniqueness to it that feels like a mix between western animation and anime like Dragonball Z, and it’s interesting to see some of his early days.
A lot of the heavy-lifting of maintaining visual consistency to this story is down to the absolutely gorgeous work of Dave McCaig. McCaig uses a fair amount of bright colours and flare effects that suit the bombast and spectacle of Mister Miracle. It also serves as an interesting counterpoint to the more neutral, almost “drab” colours of the former New Gods of New Genesis and a certain surreal feeling that makes some of the story feel like a hallucination. Also a credit to the four letterers, it never feels like there are four letterers with one per issue.
Even on its own, Seven Soldiers – Mister Miracle from Morrison, Ferry, Patton, Williams, Bair, McCaig, Brosseau, Napolitano, Balsman, and Lanham is a compelling and intriguing look at how to possibly interpret the Fourth World in a new setting, while commenting of the pitfalls of fame, expectation, and freedom. It’s also a teaser for things to come.
Classic Comic Compendium: Seven Soldiers – Mister Miracle
Seven Soldiers – Mister Miracle
Writer: Grant Morrison
Artists: Pasqual Ferry, Billy Dallas Patton & Michael Bair, and Freddie Williams II
Colourist: Dave McCaig
Letterers: Pat Brosseau, Nick J. Napolitano, Phil Balsman, & Travis Lanham
Publisher: DC Comics
Release Date: June 19 2012 (current collected edition)
Available collected in Grant Morrison’s Seven Soldiers of Victory – Book Two
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