“C’MON. SELL ME ANOTHER ONE”: SIMULATION, SACRIFICE, AND SYMBOLIC REVOLUTION IN KING & GERADS’ MISTER MIRACLE Zachary J.A. Rondinelli "The Strangest, Most Incredible Hero to Ever Appear in Comics!"1 This phrase, interwoven as it is throughout the narrative of Mister Miracle, acts as an unyielding reminder of the unsettling presence of the DC Universe’s most formidable, near omnipotent supervillain Mister Miracle holds a unique position of simultaneity within the DC Universe. He often finds himself and is almost always accompanied by an all-black panel at varying locations within the static nine-panel ‘caught’ in a sort of stasis of in betweens; god and human, New Genesis and Apokolips, superhero and grid structure, refusing to be ignored. This technique allows King and Gerads to ensure that the over- performer, son and orphan. Scott Free, created by Jack “King” Kirby in 1971 after his exodus from Marvel powering presence of Darkseid and his limitless power is never looming far from the readers’ mind. These Comics, is cleverly named in reference to his incomparable prowess as an escape artist. His motto, “I “Darkseid is.” panels hold such a place of prominence for the comicbook that it is easy to begin seeing can always escape” has certainly seemed to hold true throughout his tenure in comics (anyone who can them as a sort of look into Mister Miracle’s mental state; for him, Darkseid is always looming and so these escape insignificance dressed in a costume as gaudy as our Mister Miracle’s must be an artist of superb panels emulate that experience for the reader, as well. This interpretation seems quite logical right up ability) since Mister Miracle has frequently been featured as one of the most important characters of the until the penultimate issue, which is also significant for being the only issue of the entire series that Dark- new gods mythos.2 While certainly not garnering the level of recognition that Batman, Superman, or seid himself physically appears in. Wonder Woman possess, those who are familiar with the peripheries of the DC universe can certainly tell At one point near the end of the issue, Big Barda confronts Darkseid only to be swiftly defeated: you the story of Mister Miracle’s origin. As a young boy, the yet unnamed Scott Free, heir to the throne of New Genesis, was traded away to the despotic ruler of Apokolips, the enemy known as Darkseid. In exchange, Darkseid would provide High Father, the ruler of New Genesis, with his own son. Each child was to be raised by the father’s most bitter enemy in an attempt to establish an, admittedly, antagonistic peace between the two endlessly warring worlds. Raised by the villainous nanny, Granny Goodness, Scott would spend his formative years in the ash and sulphur of the Apokolips “X-Pits” being endlessly trained (alternatively: tortured) in between his many frequent attempts to escape the “inescapable” pits. After years of trauma, Scott succeeds in esca- ping and finds his way to Earth where he eventually becomes the escape artist and superhero known as Mister Miracle. Over the years, Mister Miracle has been prominently featured within his own on-going comics, inclu- ding his original run in 1971 (which lasted only seven issues beyond Kirby’s departure following #18), a new on-going in 1989 (which lasted twenty-eight issues), a seven-issue revival in 1996, and a four-issue tie-in series for Grant Morrison’s “Seven Soldiers” storyline (2005-2006). In each decade since his crea- tion, Scott Free has found a way to escape obscurity by resurrecting himself in the pages of a new series. Fig. 2. Tom King and Mitch Gerads, Mister Miracle (California: DC Comics, 2019), 267. Most recently, this resurrection occurred in writer Tom King and artist Mitch Gerads’ “high camp space opera”, Mister Miracle (2017).3 While both Barda and the reader might be quick to accept Darkseid’s glib “I am.” as acceptance of Barda’s In his most recent adventure, Scott finds himself torn between his desire to build and maintain a colourful description of him, it yet again follows that recurring, menacing black panel. At this point, it normal family life with his wife, Big Barda (also a product of the “X-Pits”), and his responsibilities in the becomes necessary to probe the placement of this “Darkseid is.” reminder and consider the possibility newly renewed war between New Genesis and Apokolips. From family man and new father, to wartime that Darkseid is not answering Barda at all, but rather the statement that immediately precedes his own. general, and, eventually, even the newly crowned Highfather of New Genesis, we follow Scott and his And if, indeed, this meta-moment does indicate Darkseid exerting power and influence over the comic allies through a dizzying narrative of aesthetic distortion and continuity confusion that should, if they’re itself, then the “Darkseid is.” panels become far more sinister because they signal that the reality within paying attention, make any reader question the reality being presented. Of course, this is further obfusca- which we are witnessing the comics narrative may in fact be one simulated by Darkseid himself. The ted by the comics’ constant reminder of the shadowy, evil presence lurking behind the scenes. All it takes history of the new gods’ mythology (steeped as it is in over four decades of complex continuity) would are two simple words: “Darkseid is.”4 certainly support this idea when one recalls the existence of the infamous “anti-life equation”. The “anti-life equation” has a complicated history and is often depicted with varying levels of potency. One of the most powerful and dangerous weapons within the DC Universe, we are told from the very first issue of Mister Miracle that Darkseid is in possession of the equation, the solution of which would give Darkseid ultimate power and control. What exactly that power and control looks like varies from story to story, but both Highfather and Desaad offer possible explanations of the equations power in King and Gerads’ story. Highfather suggests that, “with the equation Darkseid will be able to change reality” and “change men’s minds”, while Darkseid’s crony, Desaad, claims that “the equation is knowledge…it is lear- ning the way to take a person’s will [and] remove that which allows resistance. It is an understanding of how to excise… hope.”5 When Darkseid’s meta-slip and the existence of the anti-life equation are combi- ned, a new potential reading for the ending, and by extension larger narrative, of Mister Miracle emerges. One that not only answers the many questions that materialize from the aesthetic choices of the comic, Fig. 1. Tom King and Mitch Gerads, Mister Miracle (California: DC Comics, 2019), 73. but is also supported by the thematic intentions, as well.

74 FAKE tba: journal of art, media, and visual culture 75 If the narrative of the twelve-issue maxiseries can be read as a large-scale simulation resultant low-middle class) to positions of ‘less than’.10 For Baudrillard, this demonstrated the shift away from a from Darkseid’s use of the anti-life equation on Scott Free/Mister Miracle, then Scott’s choice to remain commodity-system, towards the object-system that would define his work in The System of Objects. “trapped” within the simulation at the end of the series becomes a powerful statement. Internally, Dark- Shifting towards a new system of objects provided Baudrillard with the necessary positioning to seid’s defeat can be viewed as a completion of the circuit of symbolic exchange, which by extension, better understand the intricacies of the relationship between values and exchange. Baudrillard recogni- allows Scott to realign the dynamic of power back towards equilibrium and redirect that usurped power zed that “to become an object of consumption, an object must first become a sign” and from here posits and control onto deciding what type of life he wants. When viewed through the lens of Jean Baudrillard’s that rather than a fetishized aesthetic object that holds only a general sign-value, it was the symbolic work, this decision becomes a conscious rebuke of symbolic revolution and the necessary sacrifice that object that was truly important.11 His example of the wedding ring as a unique signifier of an individual it requires, suggesting that contrary to Baudrillardian belief, “the real” can be discovered and cherished commitment and relationship versus an ordinary ring that has no greater meaning than as an object of within the hyperreal simulation of our world. Through this reading then, the comic can be said to make consumption demonstrates the differences between a meaningful symbolic object and one with traditio- a meaningful statement about reality, one’s ability to determine what is “real”, and whether or not that nal sign-value.12 From here onwards, Baudrillard dedicates much of his theorizing towards further eluci- even matters. dating the intricacies of the logic of symbolic exchange. Yet it is only when hybridizing this notion of symbolic exchange with Marcel Mauss’ concept of gift “And the Fourth World, My Child, That is My World. The World I See When I Close My Eyes…”6 exchange that Baudrillard begins to reveal the nature of power that rests behind the sign system.13 In For a Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign, he suggests that to create a unidirectional/interrupted Few mediums are as obviously postmodern as the comicbook. In fact, comics’ indebtedness to post- circuit of symbolic exchange creates an unbalanced power dynamic: “To give, and to do it in such a way modernism is so well established that I hesitate to even draw any attention to the mountain of critical that one is unable to repay is to disrupt the exchange to your profit…the social process is thus thrown out discourse about the relationship between the two in fear of being accused of tediousness or the re-ins- of equilibrium, whereas repaying disrupts the power relationship and institutes (or reinstitutes), on the cription of previously settled critical debates. This is, of course, not an unprecedented position to take. basis of an antagonistic reciprocity, the circuit of symbolic exchange.”14 Baudrillard’s suggestion that the Renowned comics scholar Hilary Chute argues the same in her essay, “The Popularity of Postmodernism”, returning of a gift through a counter-gift can cancel or nullify power will become of great importance for suggesting that that postmodern tradition “has expanded the range of objects or analysis, and the way us as we begin to explore Mister Miracle; it is inextricably linked to his call for resistance against the rise we talk about them, so successfully that it has enacted its own critical disappearance” and that, as a result, of the simulacra that appears resultant of this failure of symbolic reproduction.15 Only a symbolic event of “to enumerate how something is postmodern or postmodernist…is no longer possible as a critical insi- revolution to “shake the order to its foundations” has the ability to fight against the rise of the exchange ght”.7 In this way, while it is certainly true that the comics form, in a general sense, owes much to post- within society.16 modernism’s emphasis on self-reflexivity, it’s hybridization of high and mass modes, and it’s focus on the This event, capable of enacting the reversal of exchange, is what Baudrillard calls “sacrifice” and can expansion of the literacy canon, etc., I generally agree with Chute when she points out that it is no longer be understood as a form of gift “that contains the potential to undo and reverse capitalist power struc- valuable to discuss these established relationships in any more detail.8 tures that are founded upon economic principles of accumulation”.17 Sacrifice is the key to disrupting So, while a nuanced conversation about the relationship between the postmodern tradition and our rapidly deteriorating world; a hyperreal simulacra (beyond reference to the anything ‘real’) based on comics will not be had here, it does seem useful to illuminate some of the complex intricacies of the post- meaninglessness and an abandonment of “real value”.18 For Baudrillard, the only counter-gift capable of modern philosophy from which this reading of Mister Miracle stems. Venturing momentarily into analogy, this level of “symbolic disorder” is found in “shattering the union of the living and the dead”.19 By choo- the most valuable insight that King & Gerads’ treatment of Mister Miracle offers is a fly spun tightly in a sing a symbolic death, an individual effectively pays society for their life, retaking power and control away webbed cocoon; positioned at the centre of an intricate postmodern spiderweb of philosophical design from the system and reinstituting a circuit of exchange. work. In much the same way as a hyperreal simulation, the beauty of the web’s aesthetic is meant to A revolution such as symbolic death, Baudrillard argues, provides us with the ability to escape the distract us from the ‘truth’ of the matter at hand and it is for precisely this reason that amongst the many hyperreal simulation that obfuscates the truth about our world; that it is no longer real in any true sense theorists who have belonged to postmodernism, it is Jean Baudrillard’s work that can provide us with the because it is produced through the substitution of signs of the real for the real, creating a “desert of the sheers necessary to illuminate or free the meaning hidden within. real” hidden behind the façade of a hyperreality.20 This is what Baudrillard calls “simulacrum” and provi- Baudrillard’s philosophy evolved quite substantially throughout his career and, as a result, the nuance des the theoretical basis for Simulacra and Simulation, in which he further identifies three orders of simu- and complexities of his thought are like a spider’s web bound together by nonlinear connections that lacra. First order simulacra demonstrate images that were once a reflection of reality, while second order cover a large theoretical territory. Suffice it to say that while a complete review of Baudrillard’s theoretical simulacra function to obscure the absence of reality.21 Finally, the third order simulacra is described as contribution is not possible, I will endeavour to clarify the elements that inform this particular reading of “pure simulacrum” because it has “no relation to any reality whatsoever”.22 In this order, the distinctions Mister Miracle. To this end, it becomes important to begin with threads originally woven within his 1968, between “true” and “false”, “real” and “imaginary” are completely obliterated leaving only the hyper- The System of Objects, and follow them into his major works, Symbolic Exchange and Death (1976) and reality of simulation behind. Simulacra & Simulation (1981). That this hyperreal, simulated life threatens the basis of the principles of reality, Baudrillard makes The early work of Jean Baudrillard is rooted primarily in Marxism and examinations of capitalist abundantly clear. As he explains, “to dissimulate is to pretend not to have what one has” while “to simu- society. Among his many contributions was the idea that in addition to the well-established Marxist late is to feign what one doesn’t have.”23 In other words, dissimulation is far less dangerous than simu- concepts of use-value (utility) and exchange value (as in market price), a new concept should be added: lation because the distinction between the real and the imaginary is always maintained, as opposed to sign-exchange. Baudrillard believed that sign-exchange marked “the emergence of consumerism proper” simulation where the line between the two are forever blurred. In this way, Baudrillard’s ‘philosophy of the because it involves the purchasing of objects for reasons of distinction and social status rather than utility.9 real’ begins to take on a far greater level of importance in Simulacra and Simulation. For Baudrillard, this signalled a shift in bourgeois class rule because the owning of these objects estab- As we return to this particular reading of Mister Miracle, it is important to keep these theories close lished them as signs of “prestige and abundance”, relegating those who do not possess them (the Others/ to mind. What follows is a reading of King and Gerads’ text that positions the narrative as a massive

76 FAKE tba: journal of art, media, and visual culture 77 hyperreal simulation and grafts the dynamics of Darkseid and Mister Miracle onto the circuit of symbolic sed “Darkseid is.” panels, as well. These connections (visual distortion, the anti-life equation, and Dark- exchange, thereby providing Scott with the opportunity to enact Baudrillard’s symbolic sacrifice as a way seid’s ever looming presence within the comic) all seem to indicate the existence of a first order simula- of escape that he, ultimately, refuses to take. The implications of this decision (a master escape artist who cra. If we accept this basic principle, then it quickly becomes apparent that the text is also populated with chooses to remain trapped) endorse a meaningful statement about ‘the real’ and how reality shapes and many examples of second order simulacra, which continue to blur the lines between the “real” and the molds one’s happiness. “imaginary”. Take for instance the colour of Big Barda’s eyes in the first issue of Mister Miracle. As Scott Free and “With the Equation, Darkseid Will Be Able to Change Reality. To Change Men’s Minds.”24 his wife discuss the personality of his half-brother, Orion, Scott notices something that he finds strange about Barda: As a point of departure for this reading, it becomes necessary to provide support for the narrative as simulation within the pages of Mister Miracle. King himself seems to provide a solid enough starting place for this idea when he suggests that his intention behind the narrative of the series was “to write about what it felt like to be alive…when it just feels like we’re living in something that’s not real”.25 King was primarily interested in what he described as the “fairly horrific” way that the world was changing at an alarmingly fast pace, suggesting that many “feel like we’re trapped” and “don’t know how to get out.”26 Here, King’s words could easily mirror the fears of Baudrillard and it becomes very clear that he intends to explore similar anxieties about society within Mister Miracle. Yet, there is far more evidence to support the presence of simulation within the series than King’s words alone. In fact, it is Gerads’ visual aesthetic that provides us with the most obvious clues. One of the most common visual elements used within Mister Miracle is that of an interference or static. This effect is put to use in every single issue of the series by visually distorting the panel content at particular moments. The craft and placements of these artistic distortions are designed so as to encou- rage the reader to question the “truth” about what they are reading. The creators themselves suggest that, “the whole book is meant to invoke Scott’s confusion both in form and content… the reader then Fig. 4. Tom King and Mitch Gerads, Mister Miracle (California: DC Comics, 2019), 24. gets that sense of ‘what the hell is going on?’ that Scott feels in his gut.”27 Gerads’ work flawlessly replica- tes these intentions at the pictorial level as he masterfully utilizes the visual distortions in the book’s art: Scott is sure that they were, at one point, blue, but Barda insists that her eyes have always been brown and indeed the visuals drawn and coloured by Gerads reinforce this “truth”. On the issues very last page however, Gerads switches colours and Barda’s eyes are presented in a striking blue:

Fig. 3. Tom King and Mitch Gerads, Mister Miracle (California: DC Comics, 2019), 104.

This example demonstrates the way that the distortion presents itself within the comic as a method for the creation of unease. As a reader, this moment is one of several that begins to erode the trust between us and the narrative at both the linguistic and pictorial level; we often take for granted that what we see on a comics’ page is actually happening, yet in Mister Miracle we are confronted with a visual technique that signifies a displacement of reality, forcing us to reconsider that “truth”. The affect that Gerads’ art therefore has on the readers’ sense of (dis)orientation is undeniable. This effect becomes quickly amplified when we consider the ways in which it might be signalling the Fig. 5. Tom King and Mitch Gerads, Mister Miracle (California: DC Comics, 2019), 36. presence of first order simulacra. Recall that in the first issue of the series, Highfather warned Scott that Darkseid was in possession of the anti-life equation and that with it, the villain had the power to alter As second order simulacra, this causes both the reader and Scott to question the truth. Were Barda’s reality. When coupled with the visual evidence, this conversation could easily be used to draw a connec- eyes ever blue? Did they become blue because Scott thought they were blue? How exactly does one’s tion between the anti-life equation and the strange reality that Scott inhabits; it is likely that Darkseid has eye colour change like that anyway? The line between reality and false reality is only becoming murkier. used the anti-life equation on Scott as a way to exert his power and control over him. Indeed, this reading As has been previously suggested, it is this blending between the “real” and the “imaginary” as well would also explain the power that Darkseid exerts over the comic in the form of the previously discus- as the “true” and the “false” that works to position the arrival of the third order simulacra. For Mister Mira-

78 FAKE tba: journal of art, media, and visual culture 79 cle, this falsehood would have to not only feign what Scott Free doesn’t have, but also must “[substitute] the signs of the real for the real” and in doing so create a hyperreal simulacrum without original or basis in reality.28 In order to achieve this third order simulacra within Mister Miracle, King and Gerads introduce Big Barda’s pregnancy, and the subsequent birth of their son, Jacob Free. As third order simulacra, Jacob Free’s existence is the ultimate tool to be used against Mister Miracle. He is the purest simulacrum; a simulated child born to a simulated relationship within a simulated reality. If we are indeed witnessing an elaborate simulation, then Jacob cannot be said to exist within the “real” and cannot be said to have an “original” because his “birth” occurs only within the false reality. Yet Mister Miracle’s interactions with Jacob are no less “real” for him. We witness him providing all of the mundane, everyday care that a newborn baby needs from warming his bottle in the microwave to feeding and lulla- bying Jacob to sleep:

Fig. 7. Tom King and Mitch Gerads, Mister Miracle (California: DC Comics, 2019), 227.

Yet we also see that Scott does not sit back and passively agree to the consequences of this simulated choice; he instead fights back against Darkseid and his simulation by planning a way to defeat him at his own game. He says, “So I’m going to bring Jacob to him. But when the moment comes. When he’s right there with me. Instead of giving him the kid… I’m just going to kill my father.”31 By fighting back against the simulation, and ultimately succeeding in defeating Darkseid, Scott completes the circuit of symbolic exchange and retakes power and control of the simulation away from Darkseid. It is at this point, that fellow new god, Metron, appears to Scott and explains to him that “there is another world”, effectively confirming the existence of the simulation.32 It also provides Scott with an opportunity to enact a symbolic event of sacrificial revolution against the hyperreal simulation of Dark- seid’s creation; a symbolic suicide (reminiscent of the series’ opening) that would “kill” his simulated life, family, and simulacra son in order to replace the simulated reality with “the real”. Through this act, Scott Fig. 6. Tom King and Mitch Gerads, Mister Miracle (California: DC Comics, 2019), 185. could “escape” the anti-life simulation into the “real” world and begin his “real” life anew.

But, as you can see with the visual distortion in the first panel of this tier, we also witness constant reminders that the entire existence is a simulation and that, by extension, Jacob too is simulated. In other words, Jacob Free’s “existence” presents “an uninterrupted circuit without reference or circumference” between “real” and “imaginary” or “true” and “false” and “envelops the whole edifice of representation itself as a simulacrum.”29 So, from the perspective of the simulacrum, Jacob’s function within Mister Miracle is to reinforce the false reality that Scott finds himself in. If we accept the premise that his reality is a false one, then every interaction that Scott has with baby Jacob should force the reader to recognize the obfuscation, even though Mister Miracle cannot. Yet the question remains surrounding what purpose Jacob’s simulation actually has within the larger simulacrum. This might present itself as a puzzling question at first glance but is quickly explainable through an examination of Darkseid’s insidious intent. As designer of the simulation, Darkseid has the ultimate power over Scott; power over not only his life, but also the life of his simulacra son. He has filled this simulation with Scott’s perfect fantasy; “simul- taneously pacifying, disarming,…and shattering, disturbing, inassimilable into our reality.”30 Through this simulated reality, Darkseid has given Scott the ultimate unidirectional gift in the form of Jacob and, in so Fig. 8. Tom King and Mitch Gerads, Mister Miracle (California: DC Comics, 2019), 274-275. doing, has seemingly ensured that he has unprecedented power and control over Scott as he uses the anti-life equation to bend the simulation to his will. As a weapon of simulated control, Jacob Free was This moment is reminiscent of the Wachowski’s Matrix (1999). By choosing the “blue pill” as it were, always meant to be a used against Mister Miracle, for what better way is there to exercise his power and Scott would remain within the simulation that Darkseid built by way of the antilife equation as a method control over Scott then to provide him with the life he most desires and then take it away from him? to control him, but would also be permitted to continue “living” the normal, happy, and idyllic life that he Indeed, we see that Darkseid does in fact play this card as an attempt to break Mister Miracle’s spirit had begun to build for himself within. On the other hand, choosing the “red pill” would provide him with by offering terms of peace between New Genesis and Apokolips (again) in exchange for Jacob: the ability to escape from the simulated fantasy world that Darkseid and the anti-life equation had shaped for him by way of a symbolic sacrifice, and allow him to return to the “real”.

80 FAKE tba: journal of art, media, and visual culture 81 The repercussions of Scott’s choice to exercise his power by rebuffing the “real world” in favour of his easy and nice…you might as well be dead.”39 “hyperreal simulation” takes up the majority of the series’ final issue. Only Scott’s earth friend, Oberon, really understands his decision. When he speaks with Scott, we see the first glimpse of uncertainty about his choice: “I think I did everything wrong. I should’ve escaped. I “You Little Fool, You Had a Chance… You Should’ve Opened Your Eyes. You Should’ve Come Back.”33 shouldn’t have escaped. I just… Oberon everything is wrong.”40 In response, Oberon says to Scott:

When Mister Miracle #12 opens, very little has changed for Scott and the Frees; what constitutes a normal, family life has resumed. Yet, throughout the issue, we are permitted the opportunity to witness Scott engage in conversation with many characters (all of whom are represented in the now familiar style of visual distortion) that have appeared (and died) throughout the series. With our current reading of Mister Miracle in mind, each of these conversations offers us a different glimpse or perspective into the ramifications of Scott’s choice. In Scott’s meeting with Highfather, for instance, we finally receive a quasi-confirmation about the anti- -life equations role in the story: “As I once did, you faced the anti-life equation. It affected you, warped your world. You fought against it, almost escaped it. But not quite.”34 The insinuation here is very clear; Scott’s decision to remain within the simulation was, in fact, a refusal to escape meaning that he is now forever “trapped” within the anti-life equation simulation. According to Highfather’s reading of the situa- tion, Mister Miracle, master escape artist, failed to escape this time. Fig. 10. Tom King and Mitch Gerads, Mister Miracle (California: DC Comics, 2019), 298. Granny Goodness doesn’t hold back her disappointment with Scott’s choice either: Scott’s decision to refuse symbolic revolution and his resignation to a “simulated real” is a powerful critique of both Baudrillard and our contemporary obsession with “reality”. For Scott, reality is the simula- tion, because within it he has a life with Barda, a son that he loves, and a daughter on the way. While each and every conversation featured in Mister Miracle #12 emphasizes the fact that Scott made the decision to stay, and therefore demonstrates his returned power resultant from his defeating Darkseid, only through Oberon do we really begin to understand Scott’s reasons for why he stayed. He has refused the call of the “desert of the real” (absent as it is from the simulacra and simulations of hyperreality) and has used the power and control that he wrestled from Darkseid to make a decision about how he would live his “real” life. His reality has now become the simulation and, as such, Scott now fully identifies himself with the fantasy of the simulation.41 In this way, his determination to take the power achieved through symbo- lic exchange and use it as he sees fit is commendable. His resilience and willingness to rebuke the symbo- lic revolution that would have disrupted and “freed” him from the “confines” of the simulation speak to his acknowledgement that all types of life, even simulated ones, can be “real”. In other words, his deci- sion demonstrates a different interpretation of Baudrillard, one that supposes the choice of the simula- Fig. 9. Tom King and Mitch Gerads, Mister Miracle (California: DC Comics, 2019), 282. tion over the “desert of the real” means effectively escaping a desolate and empty reality where Scott is alone and without family. For him, they are “the real” now; simulated or not. She chastises Scott for refusing Metron’s help, saying, “You should’ve opened your eyes. You shou- While this is, of course, only one reading among many that can be applied to King and Gerads’ Mister ld’ve come back.”35 With these words, Granny provides the evidence necessary to recognize that Scott Miracle, I believe it to be one of the most compelling and has implications far beyond the confines of the did, in fact, refuse the symbolic revolution that would have freed him from this simulated captivity. comics’ pages. Indeed, while the comic allows for both a critical and compassionate reading of Scott’s Forager also offers a scathing critique of Scott’s choice during their meeting: “What can I say, man? choice, it would seem as though the creative team are ultimately siding with Scott on this one. In this way, You’re in hell. You killed yourself, you died, you went to hell, you had to escape. And you actually found the comic can be said to celebrate the authenticity of his choice; a choice that provides the reader with a way to escape. And you decided not to escape. So now you’re just in hell. Like… forever. Dude, you an opportunity for critical reflection that can be applied to our own existence today. Whether our own should’ve gotten out.”36 Forager’s pessimistic view of the hyperreal simulation certainly seems to echo philosophical ideologies are actively dedicated to heeding Baudrillard’s alarmist call to action against the Baudrillard’s beliefs on the matter. For Forager, as for Baudrillard, “there isn’t a speck of hope” in the hyperreality of simulacra and simulation, or staunchly dedicated to living a life as “real” as we can possibly simulation; it is a hell that traps Scott and prevents him from achieving anything “real” by obfuscating the create, Mister Miracle provides an excellent case study into the options available to us through a genre truth.37 comic that isn’t afraid to ask complicated philosophical questions and push boundaries. By contrast to Granny and Forager, Scott’s step-brother Orion offers a slightly different take: “Dark- And in any case, as Scott often says, “[we] can always escape.”42 seid’s gone. I am gone. You are Highfather. You have the family of your dreams. You are… in heaven. You killed yourself. Went to paradise. Tried to escape. Found a way. Decided to stay.”38 Here, Orion offers a more optimistic perspective of the situation and acknowledges the reasons that Scott chose the simula- tion over reality. Yet, he also suggests that he is disappointed with the choice, because “if everything is

82 FAKE tba: journal of art, media, and visual culture 83 Endnotes

1 Tom King and Mitch Gerads, Mister Miracle (California: DC Comics, 2019), 16. 2 King and Gerads, Mister Miracle, 14. 3 Sam Leith, “Getting Off on Scott Free,” The Spectator, March 2, 2019, 43. 4 King and Gerads, Mister Miracle, 19. 5 King and Gerads, Mister Miracle, 29; 262. 6 Ibid., 293. 7 Hilary Chute, “The Popularity of Postmodernism,” Twentieth Century Literature 57, no. 3-4 (2011): 356. 8 Ibid. 9 Jean Baudrillard, Symbolic Exchange and Death, trans. Iain H. Grant (London: SAGE Publi- cations, 2017), 2. 10 Baudrillard, Symbol Exchange and Death, 3. 11 Ibid., 4. 12 Ibid. 13 Baudrillard, Symbolic Exchange and Death, 5. 14 Ibid. 15 Ibid., 7. 16 Ibid. 17 Ibid. 18 Ibid., 10. 19 Ibid., 11; 150. 20 Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation, trans. Sheila G. Glaser (USA: University of Michigan Press, 2017), 1. 21 Ibid., 6. 22 Ibid. 23 Ibid., 3. 24 King and Gerads, Mister Miracle, 29. 25 David Betancourt, “’Mister Miracle’ turned real-world anxiety into a hit superhero series,” The Washington Post, November 14, 2018. 26 Ibid. 27 Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou, “The Creators Behind the Pages: Tom King and Mitch Gerads Discuss the Themes and Creation of Mister Miracle,” PanelxPanel, 1(4), 7. 28 Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation, 2. 29 Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation, 6. 30 Slavoj Zizek, Welcome to the Desert of the Real, (London: Verso, 2002), 18. 31 King and Gerads, Mister Miracle, 251. 32 Ibid., 274. 33 King and Gerads, Mister Miracle, 282. 34 Ibid., 295. 35 King and Gerads, Mister Miracle, 282. 36 Ibid., 286. 37 Ibid. 38 Ibid., 289. 39 Ibid. 40 Ibid., 298. 41 Zizek, Welcome to the Desert of the Real, 17. 42 King and Gerads, Mister Miracle, 300.

84 FAKE tba: journal of art, media, and visual culture 85