Mister Miracle #9

Jul 1972 · DC · 0.20 USD

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“Himon!”

★ 1st appearance — Himon

About this Issue

Titled 'Himon!', Mister Miracle #9 is the definitive origin issue of Scott Free, at last explaining — nine issues into the series — exactly how and why Highfather's son fled the hell-planet Apokolips and set himself on the path to becoming the super escape artist. The issue functions as a companion piece to New Gods #7 ('The Pact'), with the two stories together forming the complete mythological backbone of Jack Kirby's entire Fourth World saga. Its debut of Himon — the inventor of both the Mother Box and Boom Tube technology, and the underground mentor who taught Scott Free escapology as an act of rebellion — gave those already-established Fourth World devices a rich in-universe origin that reverberated across DC continuity for decades. Widely regarded among Kirby scholars and collectors as one of the single greatest single-issue achievements of the Bronze Age, 'Himon!' is the emotional and narrative apex of Kirby's unfinished cosmic epic.

writer, artist Jack Kirby · inker, letterer Mike Royer · cover Jack Kirby, Mike Royer

ComicBooks.com Value

Our Model is In Beta

Raw (Fine) $8

CGC 9.8 · 42 in census $308

CGC 9.6 · 46 in census $113

CGC 9.4 · 30 in census $48

CGC 9.2 · 13 in census $48*

CGC 9.0 · 13 in census $48

CGC 8.5 · 9 in census $37*

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CGC 8.0 · 9 in census $34*

CGC 7.5 · 3 in census $31

CGC 7.0 · 7 in census $25

CGC 6.5 · 2 in census $22

CGC 6.0 · 3 in census $22*

CGC 5.5 · 2 in census $20*

CGC 5.0 · 2 in census $20*

CGC 4.5 · 3 in census $20*

CGC 4.0 · 2 in census $20*

CGC 3.5 none in existence

CGC 3.0 · 2 in census $20*

* estimate — limited direct-sales data at this grade

Our model’s value — refined as new sales data arrives · CGC census counts shown where available

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History

According to researcher John Morrow's 'Old Gods & New', Kirby pivoted away from a different, already-planned story while finishing Mister Miracle #8 in late 1971, with erasure marks on the pencil stats of that issue's final panel showing he physically changed the 'next issue' blurb at the last moment — meaning assistants Mark Evanier and Steve Sherman had unknowingly written a letter-column preview describing a story Kirby had already abandoned. Kirby produced the 26-page 'Himon!' story at a point when DC had briefly expanded the page count, giving him room to tell a longer, darker, and more cinematic narrative than the series' standard format allowed; Mike Royer inked the story, delivering line work that collectors and critics regard as among the most faithful renderings of Kirby's pencils in the entire Fourth World run. There is credible circumstantial evidence, explored by Morrow and others, that Kirby accelerated the creation of 'Himon!' because he sensed — or had begun to receive signals — that DC was preparing to cancel the companion Fourth World titles New Gods and Forever People, making him want to get his origin material on record before the larger saga was shut down.

Trivia · 8 facts

Cover date: August 1972 (on sale May 11, 1972); story title: 'Himon!'
Written, pencilled, and edited by Jack Kirby; inked and lettered by Mike Royer.
First appearance of Himon — a New Genesis scientist living undercover among Apokolips' oppressed 'Hunger Dog' underclass — who is established in the story as the inventor of the Mother Box and Boom Tube technology.
First appearance of Auralie, a young woman who finds sanctuary in Himon's hidden workshop and is killed by Darkseid's enforcer Wonderful Willik, triggering the story's central tragedy.
Serves as the full origin of Scott Free / Mister Miracle: the issue dramatises his time in Himon's underground rebel cell on Apokolips, the murder of his fellow students, Big Barda's crisis of conscience, and his final leap into the Boom Tube to Earth — all events previously referenced but never shown.
Darkseid appears, delivering a half-hearted appeal for Scott to remain; the issue closes with a prophetic vision of Darkseid's destined final confrontation with his son Orion in Armagetto — a story Kirby would eventually tell in the 1985 graphic novel 'The Hunger Dogs', where Himon again plays a role.
Kirby's design for Himon was reportedly based on real-world comics convention promoter Shel Dorf; separately, Kirby had explicitly likened Scott Free to Oliver Twist and Himon to the Dickensian character Fagin in early promotional materials.
The issue was collected in 'Jack Kirby's Mister Miracle: Super Escape Artist' (DC, 1998, collecting #1–10), in DC's Fourth World Omnibus Vol. 3 (November 2007, collecting Forever People #7–10, Mister Miracle #7–9, and New Gods #7–10), and in the 'Mister Miracle by Jack Kirby' trade paperback collecting the complete original run (#1–18).