Obscure Comic of the Month was a column I wrote from 2015 to 2017, where I would take a look at a comic or series that wasn't really talked about. This covered independent comics, zines, weird spin-offs, webcomics and more. It's been away, but now it's back.
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The Miracles by Joe Glass with art by Vince Underwood and Harry Saxon - 2022 Queer Comix
Contains Spoilers
The idea of comic book characters manifesting in the real world is a well trodden premise at this point. In fact The Miracles itself has been released on the tale of Donnie Cates' Crossover, inviting immediate comparison. However, while Crossover envisions our world's encounter with incarnated fictional beings as being nothing short of an apocalyptic threat, The Miracles takes a more optimistic approach, while keeping a hard bitten edge to it. Last Action Hero this is not.
The story follows the young Elliot Morgan, whose rapidly manifesting superpowers lead to the shocking discovery that his parents are actually characters from a comic book that he himself is familiar with. This soon leads to the entire family deciding to go public as superheroes outright, and finally confront the baggage that had followed them from the comic book world.
The decision to have the character's comic book flashbacks be drawn as a homage to Jack Kirby would normally be a nice little touch, but Underwood nails the style so well that the book is worth recommending by the art alone. You almost can't believe that it's the same artist pulling double duty on both art styles, and that makes it feel like something special.
Joe Glass has been in the game for a while now, but The Miracles itself feels like a real jump up to the next level. The writing and artistry on display is equal to what the mainstream is putting out, and it almost feels an injustice that the book started as a small crowdfunded project, when it could easily stand side by side on the comic book shelf with stuff put out by the major publishers.
While the story's premise is relatively straightforward, all the fascinating stuff is taking place under the hood. Glass is probably mostly well known for The Pride, a comic unapologetically focussing on queer superheroes and putting their queerness front and centre. The Miracles also features a gay protagonist in Elliot himself, but Glass is taking a different tact here.
At first blush it'd be easy to say that the comic could have worked just as well with a straight protagonist, down to the fact that Elliot's sexuality is dealt with so matter-of-factly. However, in putting together The Miracles Glass has clearly decided to draw upon the sub-textual queerness intrinsic in the superhero genre.
If The Miracles has one big theme, it's that of 'coming out.' As our story begins Elliot is still in the closet, wracked by inaction and unsure who to trust. Mirroring this are his parents, whose own history and reality as superheroes is similarly closeted. Elliot's brother, cousin and boyfriend each have their own secrets to varying degrees. As the story progresses we find that in the case of many of these secrets, their concealment for so long has only lead to further hurt down the line.
And that, fundamentally, is where The Miracles optimism comes from. It is a story about honesty, openness and acceptance. It's about how being true to oneself can be the greatest of strengths. Elliot might not be Superman, but in The Miracles he serves a similar purpose. To think about not who we are, but who we have the potential to be.
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Jack Harvey 2022. The Miracles (c) Joe Glass. Images used under Fair Use.
