Who Were We

In Doctor Who, there’s an episode called “The Snowman.” One of the best scenes of that episode pertains to what is called The One Word Test, wherein one character is asked a series of questions and must answer with only a single word. The purpose of this is because “Truth is singular. Lies are words, words, words.” Of course, just because the answer is merely a single word, doesn’t mean that it is just a single thing as the explanation implies. Take the title, for example. On the surface, it refers to the main threat of the episode, an army of killer snowmen in the three-ball variety. Equally, it refers to The Doctor themselves, who is at that moment closing himself off from the outside world, freezing his heart. (As an aside, there are many a question of importance that require more than a one word answer, including “What is the meaning of life?”, “Why is there something instead of nothing?”, and “

Why shouldn’t I commit suicide?

”.) So then, the purpose of The One Word Test is less about the implications of a word, but of its clarity.

Which brings us quite nicely to different sort of One Word Test found within Mister Miracle #6. Like many things in his life, Orion has simplified this seemingly simple set up even further, removing the possibility of language and restricting it merely to “True” or “False” answers. “Every statement. Is either true or false,” Orion claims. “If it weren’t, it wouldn’t be a statement.” There is a clarity in this logic, all things can be bound up in either option A or option B; good and evil; right and wrong; here and there.

But people don’t work like that. As a species, we’re a mixed up bunch of irrational thoughts, barely controlled emotions, and mad ideas. There’s an ambiguity in whether or not, say, someone deserves to die (notably, that’s the only question Scott doesn’t have an answer for. For all Orion’s talk of trying to find Scott’s belief, he misses the moment where Mister Miracle opens up). Indeed, there’s an ambiguity in all people, most of all Scott Free. (As the issue shows, that ambiguity goes down to even Scott’s name, which was never his to begin with. Scott Free is an abused child, a cruel joke about his inability to be free. Mister Miracle is someone else’s name, obsessed with escaping even from life. He thinks if Highfather had just given him a name, he’d be all right. Wouldn’t make a difference in the end, it would have been as much a name as Scott Free. In the end, what makes us “us” is simply the relationships and actions we do in our lives who we’ve touched, knowingly or unknowingly, for better or for worse.)

In many ways, Orion is Darkseid’s heir: both seek clarity in a world of ambiguity. He simplifies complicated feelings as mere hatred. People hurt each other/themselves because of hatred. We trap each other in a cage called life because we utterly despise one another and want to watch as they suffer with us. But people are more complicated than that. We can hurt people out of love, fear, misery, and so much more. And we can also help each other.

Big Barda helps Scott in the end. She’s as much broken by this cruel and twisted place they called Apokolips, “Where Holocaust is a household word.” She has as much ambiguity within her as Scott. But in many ways, she has a way out of all that (indeed her words escape the ever closing circle where Scott’s [and Jack Kirby’s] cannot). Maybe Barda won’t be enough to prevent Scott from killing himself, maybe this is all some wacky scheme of Darkseid’s to break Scott (and I use “wacky” tactically, as one of the less talked about aspects of the comic is how funny it is. Most of this comes from the slightly cartoony way Mitch Gerads draws the characters being hit/eating as well as the absurdity of some moments of mundanity juxtaposed with the colorful costumes). It doesn’t matter though, because she’s there right now, and it makes it hurt less.

“Who were we?
Who were we
when we were
who we were
back then?
Who would we
have become
if we’d done
differently
back then?
No new beginnings…
Some die, some go on
living.”
-Leo Carax and Neil Hannon, Holy Motors

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