SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for Mister Miracle #12, by Tom King, Mitch Gerads and Clayton Cowles, on sale now.
With the release of Mister Miracle #12, Tom King and Mitch Gerads’ exploration of the mind-bending yet mundane life of Scott Free has come to a close. As expected, that also means we finally have an answer as to what’s been causing Scott to experience false memories and why it seemed as though the miniseries existed outside of the main DC Universe continuity, despite King confirming the contrary.
However, while the key to Scott’s false reality is no Paranoid Pill, it is something of a bitter pill to swallow.
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In Issue #11, the surprising appearance of Metron all but confirmed what readers had long suspected, which was that everything that had transpired over the course of the miniseries was some sort of fabrication. What wasn’t entirely clear, though, was if Metron trapped Scott in another world or dimension, if he was trapped by The Lump, or if perhaps we were witnessing the final pre-Flashpoint story. Then, of course, there was the possibility that Scott’s attempted suicide in Issue #1 was more successful than we were led to believe.
As it turns out, that’s exactly the case.
Throughout the issue, Scott is visited by those who’ve died over the course of the miniseries, including Granny Goodness, Bug, Orion, Darkseid, Highfather and Oberon. Furthermore, each of them is rendered with the same static effect we’ve come to associate with the perception that all isn’t what it seems. It’s during the first visit, though, that it starts to become clear what Metron was trying to show Scott in the previous issue.
“The deaths, the war, the wife, the child,” Granny Goodness says. “This pretend life you… It’s in your head.”
“You little fool,” she continues. “You had a chance. Metron was a signal. You should’ve opened your eyes. You should’ve come back.”
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While Granny Goodness’ words certainly leave some room for interpretation, it would appear that Metron was attempting to pull a dying Scott Free away from the light at the end of the tunnel – a gesture Scott ultimately refused.
Where does that leave Scott, now, though? If we’re to believe Bug, he’s in Hell, which is symbolized by the ongoing war between New Genesis and Apokolips. And while Scott had a chance to escape, he chose not to. However, if we’re to believe Orion, Scott is in Heaven, which is symbolized by his life with Big Barda, Jacob and now, a newborn daughter.
Regardless of what form of afterlife Scott is in, though, he makes one thing perfectly clear in the end.
“I can always escape,” he says as the issue concludes, leaving us with little doubt that even death can’t trap the world’s greatest escape artist for good.
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