Mister Miracle 2
From Barbelith
nositcoe "Drive-By Derby"
Barbelith thread: White Supermagnetic Force to Black Gravity (http://www.barbelith.com/topic/21563/from/140)
| Table of contents |
Background and General Commentary
Synopsis:
Shilo Norman is a pawn in a chess match between Death the Black Racer, and Metron. He must use his skills as an escape artist to survive a Drive-By Derby in which he is pursued by the living cars of Armaghetto. Norman fears that he may be losing his grip on reality when he encounters a clan of homeless derelicts who appear, to his eyes, to be fallen gods disguised in human form. Shilo may be cracking up and the man he trusts to keep his head together, the psychiatrist Dezard, doesn't have Shilo's best interests at heart. In fact, the duplicitous doctor is leading Shilo straight into a trap set by the ultimate evil: Dark Side!
Annotations
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Pages 9 and 19-22 were penciled and inked by Freddie Williams III. The rest of the book was penciled by Billy Dallas Patton and inked by Michael Bair.
Page 1
PANELS 3-4: "Death is the Black Racer. And no one escapes Death."
See the sillouetted figure of the guy on skis above the oncoming car? That's what Death, The Black Racer usually looks like when he's not trapped in the body of a creepy old guy in a wheel chair.
Page 2
PANEL 3: "We met. In a higher place."
Enter Metron, last seen in issue #1, another New God trapped in frail human form.
Page 5
PANEL 1: "Shilo Norman will prevail. That's why he was selected, long ago, in the far future, before the fall."
With latter revelations about the nature of the reality in which the majority of the series takes place, it seems likely that the New Gods - and their Apokaliptic enemies - have been trapped in a 'realistic' universe, not unlike Qwewq by Sheeda. The Manichaean game of chess played between the Black Racer and Metron is therefore, most likely, Tawllbwrdd, the Gwddbwl board of Gwenddolau (http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Ithaca/8049/Magic.html), one of the Seven Treasures of Arthur.
Page 12
PANEL 5: "See?"
From left to right, we have Orion (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_%28comics%29), Metron (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metron_%28comics%29), Jezebelle of The Fiery Eyes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jezebelle), Lightray (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightray), Big Bear, Beautiful Dreamer, either Fastbak (http://www.dcuguide.com/who.php?name=fastbak) or Forager (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forager_(comics)), and Highfather (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highfather).
Big Bear and Beautiful Dreamer are both members of The Forever People (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forever_People).
Page 16
PANEL 1: "...Down in the dirt there was Brotherhood and Community and a Vision... Like human life, all human life, was so precious... ...and every individual human story was worthy of I don't know... Mythology. It's hard to put into words."
Shilo's comments about the homeless bums he encountered seem to parallel Ed Starguard's comments about Subway Pirates at the end of Manhattan Guardian #2: "We're telling stories about human dignity, Jake. Stories of how human beings make culture and meaning for ourselves, even down there in the garbage." Don Vincenzo also detected the element of Mythology in the human story of which he had become a part, back in Shining Knight 4: "This is it, isn't it? This is #&@$% Mythology calling."
Whether the bums really are disguised Gods or whether Shilo is projecting symbols of his own internal struggle onto his experiences, it doesn't really matter. In the world of the Seven Soldiers, meaning is something you make for yourself. Ed Starguard knew it: "Human beings make culture and meaning for ourselves." Klarion knew it: "We can easily make our own Gods out of hopes and dreams and the stories of unsung heroes." The Bulleteer realized it: "There must be a reason for all this, right?" "Even if there isn't, I know you can make one." Shilo's starting to realize it, too.
Page 18
PANEL 2: "I'm sorry, Doctor Dezard."
Doctor Dezard is actually Desaad (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desaad), one of Darkseid's followers.
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