DC Comics, 1998
The companion volume Jack Kirby's Fourth World: Featuring Mister Miracle compiles issues 11 - 18 (December 1972 - March 1974). Both compilations are in graytone; if you want them in color, you're probably going to want to purchase the 1481 page Jack Kirby: The Fourth World Omnibus (2017).
The first issue of 'Mister Miracle' establishes the premise of lead character Scott Free: a master escape artist who is able to wriggle out from the most lethal of pitfalls and traps. Assisted by his dwarf sidekick Oberon, and the technical wizardry of the 'Motherbox', Free finds himself battling emissaries from his homeworld of Apokalips, as well as a variety of domestic villains.
'Mister Miracle' introduces Big Barda, one of Kierby's more memorable female characters, as well as the sadistic Granny Goodness, the overseer of the nightmarish elementary school on Apokalips (Kirby allegedly to modeled Granny Goodness on the well-known comedienne Phyllis Diller).
Issue 6, included in this compilation, is memorable for introducing the character of 'Funky Flashman', and his servile assistant 'Houseroy'. Kirby clearly intended these characters to be the most thinly disguised caricatures of Marvel's own Stan Lee and Roy Thomas. The satire works, perhaps because it has a little slice of nastiness to it (at one point, Funky Flashman makes good his escape from Darkseid's Female Fury Battalion by tossing Houseroy to them as a sacrifice).
The art, even when rendered in graytone rather than color, is the best thing about 'Jack Kirby's Mister Miracle'. Kirby was in top form at this time in his career and the artwork reflects this.
The writing is where these comics from the early 70s show their age (I should note that it's rumored that Mark Evanier ghost-wrote more than a few of these Mister Miracle comics).
Kirby devotes the entirety of each issue to setting up scenarios where Mr. Miracle finds himself coerced by the villain(s) into entering an elaborately constructed deathtrap; he seemingly dies, only to return alive and well in the final pages, with a contrived, unconvincing explanation for how he escaped.
This gimmick quickly gets tiresome and the series only regains momentum in the final stories, which are flashback entries set in Apokalips.
Summing up, whether it's this older compilation or Jack Kirby: The Fourth World Omnibus, I can't really see either volume appealing to anyone outside of dedicated Kirby fans, or fans of the comics of the early 70s. The good news is that Kirby's writing would become more engaging with Kammandi and The Demon, and those titles are more accessible than his Fourth World materials
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