When I first heard about this 6-issue series, I was ecstatic. I really enjoyed the Tom King/Mitch Gerads 2018 Mister Miracle mini which left me with many questions. Namely, I wanted to know if Scott Free survived his reality-bending encounter with the Anti-Life Equation or did Mister Miracle really succeed in killing himself and everything that happened was just the last moments of thought for the New God? So when I found out that Shilo Norman was the star of this series, I didn't think I was going to get my answer!
While myself and countless comic book fans are getting tired of legacy heroes, Shilo Norman is one of those legacies that I can get behind. Shilo was the creation of Jack Kirby. First appearing in issue #15 of Mister Miracle, Shilo was the ward of the original Miracle stuntman, Thaddeus Brown. Before Scott Free came to Earth, Shilo Norman was being trained to become the next Mister Miracle. But not being older than a pre-teen, Shilo wasn't ready yet to take on the Mister Miracle mantle.
Shilo Norman would eventually don the red and yellow costume when he became an adult. Sometimes he would share the Mister Miracle title with Scott Free. But after the continuity altering events of Final Crisis and Death of the New Gods, for the most part, Shilo Norman was the sole celebrity stuntman/superhero on the block.
In this story, set in the some years from now as part of DC's Future State story line, Shilo Norman has created a multi-media empire as an escape artist thanks in part to Thaddeus Brown's training and a mysterious computer device called mother box. Keeping his identity a secret, his agent is pressuring Shilo to unmask as public opinion about capes, his in particular, has started to wane. Someone has hacked all of Mister Miracle's social media accounts and begun a campaign of their own accusing Shilo of being a fraud.
The accuser is N'Vir Free, the daughter of Scott Free and Big Barda. Only Shilo Norman has never heard of Scott and Barda! And why is a mystery man named Oberon offering to fill in the gaps about these seemingly unknown entities?
Written by Brendan M. Easton (Transformers: Deviations), this story captures the decades long African American struggle in Metropolis and places South. Easton's account of Thaddeus Brown, now cast as a black man seeking his fame and fortune during the Civil Rights era was powerful. So much to the point, I think he should have written The Other History of the DC Universe. (To be fair, I've not read that yet, so this opinion might be moot. We shall see.)
After completing this read in less than 24 hours, my verdict is just. This is a great read. I get some of my answers as to what happened with Scott Free. I was also okay with the new race casting of Thaddeus Brown. Why Easton does this was actually quite satisfying but I'm not a liberty to say more about that. Spoilers, sweetie.
The Source of Freedom is a book deep in Jack Kirby Fourth World lore and Multiversity history and quantum mechanics. A lot of the events that occur in this book are the results of Dark Nights: Metal and its subsequent sequels. Normally, I say it's okay not to read such and such before you read the book I'm currently reviewing. This time, I really don't think you should skip it. Metal really explains a lot of what's happening here.
Worth Consuming!
Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.
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