Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities Marvelman/Miracleman

You are thinking of Evelyn Cream. Winter was Miracleman's daughter, mentally aged but never did physically and was more and more detached from humanity.

Thanks for the clarification, Dave.

You're very welcome, He Who. Legion World remains, as ever, the best comics forum for the kind of exchanges you just described. We are all of us LW-ers so very lucky.



Those are both favorite MM scenes of mine as well, especially Big Ben. Moore is IMHO nearly unique among British entertainers born in the 1950s in the way he can evoke the best of a fading English culture without coming across as either reactionary or sentimental.

Hey all,

This thread has inspired me to re-read the first issue of the 1985 version of MIRACLEMAN, and I think I might have enough to say to do a re-read thread of it. It's only 24 issues plus a 3-D special, so it shouldn't take very long.

Anybody else up for it?

He Who, I'm so sorry to have to inform you that, as with BF's proposed Outsiders re-read, I won't be able to contribute more than random memories of Miracleman. I'm just swamped at the moment, what with all the current and upcoming stories for Bits, in addition to a lot of real-life stuff.

No worries, Fanfie. Life gets in the way of review sometimes.

Huey, I'd suggest using this very thread for your re-read. The title can even be edited for that purpose.

I've only ever read the first few issues of the Marvel Comics reprint * , so I wouldn't be able to contribute much. But I think it's a worthwhile idea for you to do. Judging by the number of comments this thread is attracting, I imagine there would be even more feedback and back-and-forth from such reviews.



*BTW, I have to echo what Cobie said earlier about the crappy job Marvel did with the reprinting when I had been so looking forward to it. $6 for issue one and $5 thereafter for 20 pages or less of what you really wanted to read and the rest shitty filler. I may be wrong, but I can't think of anyone who's all that interested in the character pre-Alan Moore--so why would anyone want to pay extra to read the pretty terrible (imo) Mick Anglo original strips that come off, at best, as a poor Captain Marvel/Shazam rip-off without any of the latter's flair?

The easy answer is Marvel paid out the ass to obtain the rights and was looking for a supposedly easy way to re-coup their investment. Well, they got a few issues out of me before I wised up.

Oh, and the HC collections are pretty damned over-priced as well considering their low issue and page counts per collection. Generally speaking, you expect to pay less for the trade or hardcover than you would have paid for the combined cost of the individual issues. Nope.

Thanks for the suggestion, Lardy. Since this thread now seems devoted to the Marvel reprints, I wonder if it would be muddying the waters by reviewing the original Eclipse series here. I could certainly link to this thread from the new one and vice versa.

What I mainly want to know, though, is if anybody is interested in doing this. If I get started on a review thread, I want to make sure there is sufficient interest in participating.

Thank you for understanding, He Who.

And although, as I said, I'll only be chiming in with brief memories if the re-read does happen, I'd like to make this post an "open letter" to any Legion Worlders with strong opinions on Miracleman:

PLEASE take at least a minute or two of your time to post here, and thus make He Who's re-read happen. I consider him to be one of Legion World's most insightful and eloquent critics, and I believe his Miracleman reviews would be a great contribution to this forum.

Thanks, Fanifie! Your support is much appreciated.

It doesn't look like there's much interest in a re-read thread (but thank you, Fanfie and Lardy, for your responses), so I'm going to go ahead and post the review of MM # 1 I had already drafted. WARNING: Spoilers abound.

Miracleman # 1 (August 1985)
Story: Alan Moore
Art: Garry Leach
Letters: G. George
Editor: Dez Skinn

Synopsis: In 1956, the Miracleman Family (Miracleman, Young Miracleman, and Kid Miracleman) stop the Science Gestapo, time-travelling invaders from 1981.

In the present (1982), Mike Moran—a 42-year-old newspaper reporter—wakes up from a persistent bad dream in which he is flying in the night sky as Miracleman and accompanied by Young Miracleman and Kid Miracleman, though Moran does not know them or himself by those names. The trio comes across a massive ship or space station. As the other two enter the derelict, it explodes, sending Miracleman falling. Even though the dream leaves him with a migraine, Moran insists on going to work against the wishes of his wife, Liz.

Moran arrives at a nuclear power plant to cover a demonstration. Armed masked men arrive and force Moran and other reporters to escort them inside the plant, where the thieves plan to steal plutonium and sell it to the highest bidder. Moran’s migraine causes him to collapse and be dragged into the hall by one of the thieves. As he passes a glass door, the backwards writing reminds Moran of a word he’s been trying to remember from the dream: “Kimota” (a backwards phonetic of “atomic”). Moran whispers the word and, in a flash, transforms into Miracleman.

After quickly defeating the thieves, Miracleman rejoices that he has been freed from “that old, body” after 18 years and flies into space, attracting media attention.

He returns home and tells Liz his story as he remembers it. At age 14, copy boy Mickey Moran was approached by Guntag Borghelm, an astrophysicist who commanded “the key harmonic of the universe” and who bestowed upon Mickey the godlike powers of Miracleman when Mickey said the word “Kimota.” Within two years, he had been joined by Young Miracleman (Dicky Dauntless) and Kid Miracleman (Johnny Bates). The trio fought numerous villains until October 1963, when they encountered the fortress which exploded—robbing Miracleman of his memories. Liz finds the story absurd—as does Moran as he recounts it—but cannot deny the reality that the flying man she heard about on the news is her husband.

The news reports also reach John (formerly Johnny) Bates, who has grown up to become the owner of Sunburst Cybernetics. He calls Moran and invites him and Liz to come by for a visit. Bates explains he survived the explosion with his memories intact but without his powers. Moran, however, realizes Bates is lying and fears his old friend has given in to the temptations that would available without anyone to hold him in check. Moran tests his theory by pushing Bates over a balcony. Bates returns by flying and crackling with lightning.

Review: Man, I intended to write only a brief synopsis of this issue, but so much is packed into it—typical Moore.

In the 1980s, this was edgy stuff—and it still is more sophisticated than most comics I’ve read since then. This is a densely packed story with a lot going on—yet, for all that, the plot is fairly simple.

Knowing that this story was serialized first in Warrior may account for the somewhat rushed feeling. So much happens so fast. We are barely introduced to Mike Moran as an adult, and barely given enough reason to care about him (though Liz cares for him, and right away she becomes our most sympathetic character) before he is taken hostage, falls ill, and then transforms into Miracleman. All of this happens without much reaction from Mike, so it’s hard for me to get too invested in him.

Once he becomes Miracleman, all that changes. He smiles as bullets hit without hurting him, and then, with a clap of his hands, sends forth a “thunder burst” to subdue the thieves. In what is arguably the best panel in the entire issue, he flies above the earth, screaming with joy “I’m Miracleman . . . I’m back!!”

Yes, it would be awesome to be a superhero, and Moore (superbly abetted by Leach) captures that feeling brilliantly.

But this superhero's godlike powers come with terrible consequences. As in Moore’s other work, violence has permanent effects even when it used accidentally by heroes. The energy burst that results from Moran’s transformation leaves one of the thieves deaf and blind.

The rushed feeling mostly disappears when Miracleman approaches Liz. Her reactions—fear, disbelief, and finally acceptance—are all too real and help ground this fantastic story in something much closer to the real world. My favorite parts of the book consist of her amused reactions to Mike’s story (“Dicky Dauntless?? That was his name??”), and Mike grudgingly admitting that the story sounds far-fetched to him, as well—even though those are his memories.

In fact, the relationship between Mike and Liz is one of the more believable marriages in comics, even though Moore and Leach never waste a chance to indulge in comic book cheesecake by showing off her well-proportioned, nude body (always drawn from the back or obscured by shadow).

As John Bates enters the picture, the narrative rushes again. Mike and Liz have barely gotten used to the idea that he's a super-hero before Bates calls, sets up a meeting, and the reunion takes place--all to reveal our villain.

It's believable that Moran sensed his old pal was wasn’t human (heck, John even looks god-like, somewhat reminiscent of Tom Hiddleston’s Loki). But even if John was lying, there’s no indication he had misused his powers at this point, so there is no reason for Moran to throw him off the balcony. Mike’s actions come off as cold and desperate—but they get the job done, and we’re hooked to come back for the next issue.

Random Thoughts:

--In a nice bit of irony, the “Science Gestapo” hail from the year 1981, the year before the “present” scenes of the story. This pays homage to the fact that people often think the world of the future will be more advanced than it turns out to be.

--The Nietzsche quote (“Behold . . . I teach you the Superman . . .”) is worked in to great effect on Page 11.

--A bit of artistic inconsistency: Is Liz supposed to have flecks of grey hair on Page 13? They disappear from the rest of the book.

--Another inconsistency (though it works): The fortress appears to be a mangled wreck in Mike’s dream but appears whole and undamaged as he recounts the story to Liz. This is easily explainable, as his dream probably warped his memory of it. However, the fortress also looks different in John’s version of the story (Page 28).

--A pop culture coincidence: John Bates was also the name of the valet on Downton Abbey. He, too, had a dark past and was believed capable of murder.