Lesson Plan: Mister Miracle

Review

Scott Free’s name comes into play immediately in Mister Miracle.  Without a prison or a trap that can hold him, he is able to escape anything “Scott Free” every time.  The greatest escape artist in the world, Scott Free is famously known as Mister Miracle on earth because of his abilities. 

But will Mister Miracle’s heroic abilities really allow him to escape literally anything and everything, including death?

While Scott Free and his wife Big Barda have been living peacefully on earth, their home worlds of Apokolips and New Genesis have been waging an ongoing and intensifying war. As they try to maintain normalcy on earth Scott and Big Barda find out that Scott’s villainous, adoptive father Darkseid has discovered the Anti-Life Equation, a weaponized equation that will allow him to obtain total victory in war.

As the war rages on and on, and the heaping numbers of bodies mount on both sides, Scott realizes that only Mister Miracle can put a stop to Darkseid’s slaughter. Prepared to put his life, his family, and his famous career on the line, however, Mister Miracle shows signs that the Anti-Life Equation might already be at work in his mind. With the Anti-Equation manipulating his reality and damaging his life with Big Barda and their newborn son, Scott must face the probable fact that even Mister Miracle may not be able to escape death.

As Mister Miracle fights the Anti-Life Equation despite its constant interference with his reality, family, mind and thoughts, how much will he be able to take? Heroic enough to face his fears and Darkseid’s death path of destruction against all, Mister Miracle takes his chances and comes to face-to-face with whether or not he can survive the Anti-Life Equation, still stay connected to his family, and, on top of all that, end the wars.  Pretty ambitious for a famous escape artist from earth! 

Elements of Story

Plot: Scott Free is earth’s most famous Escape Artist (“Mister Miracle”).  Even Mister Miracle, however, might not be able to escape from the war between his home world and his wife’s home world, especially after his adopted father has figured out the Anti-Life Equation.

Major Characters: Highfather, Darkseid, Granny Goodness, Orion, Scott Free, Mister Miracle (original), Oberon, Big Barda, Godfre, Metron, Forager, Lightray, Funky Flashman, Jacob, Bernadeth, Kalibak, Kitkloud, Kanto

Major Settings: New Genesis, Apokolips, Scott and Barda’s condo, Godfre’s late night show set, battle scenes on Apokolips, Orion’s throne room, outside of restaurant, Oberon’s grave, highways, fair, beach, hospital, the heart of Apokolips, bar, grocery and party stores,

Themes: Life vs Death, Trauma and Pain, War, Family, Identity, Memory 

Lesson Plan Recommendation Using the

Common Core Standards (CCS) for Young Adults

KEY IDEAS & DETAILS: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.2
Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text.

Lesson Plan Directions:
Ask students to choose three of the themes listed above.  With their three themes in mind, have them draw three large circles, each labeled with one of the themes of their choice.  After drawing the circles and labeling their chosen themes above each ask them to create a horizontal and rectangular box that falls below the circles and spans the width of all three of them. 

In the three circles, students should write down whatever images (page #s and panel locations) and / or text (quotations) they come across while reading that aligns, demonstrates, and/or emphasizes the themes they have labeled above each circle. 

When they are done reading, ask students to review their three thematic choices and in the large, horizontal rectangle below their circles, explain how the themes overlap or inform each other throughout the course of the story, creating a “Complex Account” as noted in the standard.