When I was six months old, my family lived and worked in an off-license, in Walthamstow, East London. Almost one hundred and forty years earlier, William Morris, the renowned social activist, writer, artist, textile designer and pillar of the British Arts and Crafts movement, was born on the same street.

I was not old enough to form any memories of that place and time, as we moved away when I was still very young. As an adult, I have since visited William Morris’ house (now gallery) and the park in which it stands. What significance can be drawn from my earliest days being so near to the site of the birth of the great socialist polymath? Especially when being triangulated through the mists at the dawn of the Fourth World; the new mythology from the mind of a similarly visionary artist and writer, Jack Kirby.

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When I was six months old, DC Comics published Mister Miracle #2. On the cover, we are informed, amongst many other things, that we shall meet Granny Goodness for the first time, a key figure in Scott Free’s history and high-ranking lieutenant in Darkseid’s pantheon of evil.

The first three pages of this issue are split into four-panel grids, where the story follows Scott and Oberon, in the ‘test shack’ at late Thaddeus Brown’s house, unpacking a delivery of components for an android replica of Mister Miracle, which Scott refers to as a ‘follower’ unit. As they build the automaton, Scott demonstrates the follower’s ability to mirror his movements. Simultaneously, the borders of these panels tell another story. Framed with a kind of exotic, technological filigree - something akin to an industrial art nouveau style - shocking pink caption boxes carry capitalised statements, such as; ‘I AM OVERLORD -- I CREATE -- I DESTROY’

As Oberon assists Scott and his robot follower, in a rehearsal for a daring straitjacket escape, the captions state that the unseen Overlord is, ‘CLOSING ON VICTIM’ and ‘OVERLORD AWAITS COMMAND!!!’ Turning the page, the command is given, ‘STRIKE, OVERLORD!’

A splash page reveals Overlord to be a monstrous robotic skull, with a powerful beam of energy blasting out from his third eye! The following splash page, shows the beam obliterating Mister Miracle’s test shack, blasting Scott and his facsimile into the air! ‘But it is not the end, friend!’ reassures the title caption. ‘What lies ahead is even more to be dreaded!’ it adds, warning us of the titular trap of this story'; the X-Pit!

Oberon, completely unaffected by the blast, fetches a fire extinguisher to deal with the burning shack. He fights back the flames and finds Scott, unhurt and free from his straitjacket. ‘Talk about miracles!’ says Oberon, ‘I expected to find you fatally injured!’ Scott explains that his Mother Box absorbed the blast for him. He rolls up his sleeve, revealing a hi-tech arm brace and unhooks his Mother Box from the shoulder housing. Oberon has not seen the Mother Box before, saying, ‘You mean that thing is alive?’

‘In a way she is!’ Scott explains, sitting cross-legged and placing the Mother Box in front of him on the floor. He places his fingertips on his temples. ‘But now she’s hurt, weak. I must pour out my love, my belief to make her respond!’ To Oberon’s astonishment, Mother Box pings in reply. The follower unit is beyond repair. Suspicious that the escape, which they had been rehearsing, did not have enough explosive to cause the amount of damage the shack sustained, Scott decides to practice a different stunt instead.

Meanwhile, in an old mansion nearby, Granny Goodness sits, dressed in flowing robes, her hair a puffy, white bouffant. She uses a vidi-screen to communicate with Overlord. The contrite, mechanical skull reports that he has failed to eliminate Mister Miracle. Granny is surrounded by bug-eyed, armoured minions. One foolish lacky asks Granny if she intends punish Overlord for his failure.

Granny immediately flips her lid. She whips off her robes, revealing a battle-armoured, absurdly hench frame. She says that Overlord, ‘Needs no discipline like my pouting, jealous soldier boys!’ Then proceeds to ferociously club said soldier boys with her mega-rod, sending them reeling. She screams that wants to kill Scott Free for being, ‘the first to run away from her institution!’ She orders her minions to bring Mister Miracle to her, ‘Or take his place in the X-Pit!’

Scott and Oberon are still rehearsing. Scott barely escapes from a triple-speared deathtrap, saying that, ‘Mother Box helped me calculate my movements but she’s still pretty weak!’ Oberon says, ‘They have strange mother’s where you come from.’ Which leads Scott into explaining a little about his background. He is from another planet, but he came here via Boom Tube, not a flying saucer. When speaking about his escape to Earth, Oberon can see the trauma Scott is reliving and tells him to say no more for now. He suggests Scott take a break and go and try on his new Mister Miracle costume. Scott agrees and leaves.

Just as he closes the door, the follower robot springs back to life, making Oberon jump in surprise. Oberon is surprised again, as a squad of bug-eyed soldiers burst in, blasting both Oberon and the follower with stun guns and carrying them away, back to Granny Goodness’ mansion.

From the house, Scott hears a commotion, and through the window, spots Granny’s raiders abducting Oberon and the follower. Scott finishes putting on his Mister Miracle costume and attaches his aero-discs to his feet. ‘As a former candidate for Granny’s flight troops, I earned these!’ he says to himself, as he locks on to the raider’s ‘sonic trail’ and soars off to rescue Oberon.

Scott arrives at Granny’s Air B&B just as she realises that her minions have brought her a fake Mister Miracle. The real McCoy swoops in, scattering the troops and scooping up Oberon to make a fast getaway. But before they can escape, Granny Goodness orders Overlord to open the X-Pit! Immediately, Mister Miracle’s aero-discs stop working, and both he and Oberon fall straight down, through a haze of Kirby crackle, into the fathomless, geometric nightmare of the X-Pit!

A hidden force slows their descent as they reach the bottom. The pair are then sealed within ‘a transparent cage of unknown substance’ and presented with a series of studs, set into the wall, to choose their own form of torment. The first button Mister Miracle selects sets the transparent cube aflame. The second blasts them with electricity. The third starts to fill the chamber with mud. Desperately, Scott holds Oberon above his head, as the mud rises to his neck, and then begins to harden!

Granny Goodness is distraught at the suffering her poor Scott must be suffering in the bowels of the X-Pit. She sits, weeping in her rocking chair, as one of her bug-eyed soldiers tries to cheer her up, by bringing something from her vault. ‘My soldier boys are so understanding!’ says Granny. ‘That’s why Granny trains soldier boys!’

‘Granny helped me earn my pointed helmet!’ says the soldier, handing her a dark, metal box. Granny says that she too has earned her rewards and that the box was a gift from Darkseid. It can create anything she wishes. A diamond as big as her fist immediately appears in the box.

Suddenly, there is a blinding flash.

The box is a smoking ruin. Her soldiers are unconscious and Mister Miracle and Oberon are standing, as large as life, in the middle of the room!

Granny Goodness is horrified by the destruction of her box. She threatens to kill Scott with her bare hands but first wants to know how he escaped. Mister Miracle explains how, once he realised that Overlord had created the X-Pit, he knew that ‘Every atom of the X-Pit was linked to Overlord himself!’

The escapologist elaborates on how he had pressed his Mother Box against the studs of the torment circuit. Mother Box then fed on the radiation that was powering the X-Pit and used it to feed it back and destroy Overlord! ‘I could hear his silent scream,’ says Scott. ‘Somewhere, I felt him die!’

Mister Miracle opens the burnt-out box on the table, revealing the tiny, smoking remains of Overlord. ‘Little worms can look like sea serpents when cast on a vidi-screen!’ says Scott, then turns to his former guardian and says, ‘Dry up and blow away, Granny Goodness!’

As Oberon and Mister Miracle fly back home, Scott commends himself for standing up to his childhood abuser. Oberon has a bad feeling that it will not be the last they see of Granny Goodness.

Next time, the Forever People return to face Glorious Godfrey, in Life Vs Anti-Life!