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Mister Miracle #9

Ok there is sooooooo much going on in this comic I love it.

Anyway, general thoughts as I was collecting these panels.

Big Barda is a protector, or views herself as such, even when she still conceptualizes herself as loyal to Darkseid (which she does for a time even after leaving and starting in the Mister Miracle series)

The theme of Apokolips and Granny Goodness's orphanage as a machine designed to crush people and turn them into weapons and tools for Darkseid.

Because of this, if you have aspirations outside of Darkseid, or can imagine another way, you are a threat that must be eliminated. Darkseid and anti-life are so linked because in Darkseid's universe, his is the only will that matters.

Ok, so general start of the comic. We see Scott in his training days as a trooper in Granny Goodness's orphanage. He meets Himon, a New God who is taking him to some secret underground place to learn about Motherboxes.

Points so far: Himon does not actually believe Scott is nothing but a weapon, but this is the rhetoric Scott deals with his whole life. He's just putting into words (and antagonistically, rather than 'oh its good b/c Darkseid) what is the truth of how scott's world functions.

Also, even though Scott follows Himon, we he does make a show of verbally saying he's better than everyone else who's here, Himon's rhetoric is bad, etc... this doesn't last long.

The next panels purpose will not be obvious until later, but we see another addition: Auralie. She is training to be a female furie, but obviously resists it.

Auralie's general theme is inner beauty (aside: Which is also how Barda conceptualizes scott (link)), she doesn't want to fight. We'll see later why this is a threat to the existing order of things on Apokolips, but meanwhile: Introduction to Big Barda.

Big Barda when we first see her is already a Lieutenant with the Female Furies and in command. Barda works according to Apokolips's underlying systems. We've seen this earlier in the comic (link) when she objects to being called a traitor, even though she swears to tear down Apokolips (and everything that killed Scott) because she's the 'purest, most superior product' ever turned out by granny (again -- the apokoliptan dehumanization is evident). she operates, even as she protects others, according to the rule of the the strong for her own personal conduct - the female furies follow her even when she leads them against Darkseid, because she's the strongest. She has all this rage she has turned into a weapon, she just directs it at the "wrong" person.

But anyway back to Issue #9

So Barda shows up in Himon's scene:

Barda and the female furies track Auralie down to Himon's workshop. Auralie is clearly violating the rules -- and we do have the idea that Barda intends to punish her for this ("Beat some brains into her"). At the same time, it's clearly something Barda doesn't want any higher-ups to know about. She threatens everyone involved, especially Scott (who she knows is a another soldier in Darkseid's army). To me, it's clear Barda is trying to keep Auralie out of greater trouble, but while still following the rule lined up with Darkseid's world. She can only protect Auralie by making her strong, by making sure she toes the party line, because if Auralie has her own dreams or is weak, she'll be a threat to the existing order of things and she won't survive. Lending credence to this: a scene later where the others in Himon's workshop have been rounded up and killed, and Willik interrogates Scott and Barda.

Here Barda is clearly distraught by Auralie's death and says that she (and the other female furies) were trying to protect Auralie. the tools they were working with were such that the only way they could do that was by trying to make her more of an ideal female furie, even though they couldn't. and if we take barda at her word earlier (which I don't know why we shouldn't) it is abusive -- the female furies are presumably going to punish auralie for her conduct and hurt her (and later we see implications that she 'should' be resistant to pain according to the training), just not as much as they fear granny goodness or the other authorities, or at least won't kill her. the world that they live in is one where you can't really protect someone, just hurt them less. at least until Barda is no longer trying to get someone to survive apokolips, and instead tries to help them survive their esacpe from apokolips:

So why are Auralie and Scott and Himon so threatening to the order that exists on Apokolips? Auralie's just making pretty images, Himon's teaching kids how to make mother boxes.

Because Darkseid's power is built on absolute control. It's built on a machine that turns people into weapons, and if they want to act like people, if they have their own dreams, they aren't working as they should in the machine.

Darkseid's one of the most powerful people in this section of the universe, but a lot of the underlying structure for that power relies on absolute control. that's why he wants the anti-life equation. he wants his own will to be the only one in the universe.

In some of the last panels of the comic, we parallel some of the first. Scott, in his aero-troop training, is stuck in a machine designed to break down the person and turn them into a weapon. Darkseid says this - scott will have power (so much as darkseid allows it) provided he destroys scott free - himself. his dreams, his desire to function outside of apokolips and to imagine something more, are a threat to darkseid, and if it were possible for everyone on apokolips to act like this - if they weren't violently beaten down or killed for trying -- darkseid's power would disappear. that's why darkseid needs the anti-life equation -- his system does not work with free will, and no matter how many people he kills, he's never able to stamp it out

#dc comics #comic review #darkseid #mister miracle #mister miracle 1971 #big barda #scott free #himon #the fourth world

Now some of the most questionable panels with Darkseid ever.

The Hunger Dogs

... Himon... Darkseid... are y'guys... exes?

Look, every time I have read this it just reads to me like they are exes and Darkseid is still very into Himon, but Himon has moved on but just likes taunting Darkseid.

#orla reads new gods #darkseid #himon #why does darkseid look like he is literally anguishing #looney tunes ass himon

Himon info page

art by Richard Howell & Greg Theakston

#himon #DC #comics #comic books #DC comics #info page