Line #120 Comicbook/Miracleman


1	[[quoteright:289:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/marvel-miracleman-1_6346.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:289:KIMOTA!]]
3
4	''Miracleman'' (originally ''Marvelman'') refers to two separate, yet related, creations, the second based on the first, with one of the comics industry's more complicated legal histories.
5
6	The origin of ''Marvelman'' is convoluted. In the early fifties, the similarities between Superman and Captain Marvel led to a famous legal battle between Fawcett Comics and Creator/DCComics. L. Miller held the rights to reprint the American ComicBook [[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} Captain Marvel]] in the UK but the legal hurdles in America meant the end of material for them to reprint and distribute to the local market. Since the comics were highly popular, they decided to commission a CaptainErsatz of Captain Marvel. Mick Anglo developed Marvelman, his supporting cast and villains in the course of his adventures, which lasted 350 weekly issues, between 1954 to 1963. Marvelman became popular as young men's reading material and its bright colour adventures were considered refreshing in England during TheFifties.
7
8	A young Creator/AlanMoore was one of the readers of the original Mick Anglo run and in one of his first interviews, he stated a desire to write the long-discontinued title, hoping to do a fresh spin for modern audiences. Word of Moore's intentions reached Dez Skinn, publisher of ''Warrior'' magazine. Skinn had gained the rights to Marvelman and had entertained ideas to bring it back into print. Moore's deconstructionist story made the books his BreakthroughHit (particularly in the US once DC Comics noticed him) and Miracleman started selling well. Sadly, ''Warrior'' stopped publication about one-third through his run; the series would have remained lost and unfinished if not for Eclipse Comics, who offered to buy the US rights to the property and let Moore finish the series. Creator/MarvelComics was not exactly thrilled with Moore and the fact that his character was called '''Marvel'''man, though. As Moore pointed out, the original Marvelman (and its inspiration Captain Marvel) dated before Timely Comics started calling itself Marvel and became a major brand. Despite this, Eclipse Comics' lack of legal muscle [[RenamedToAvoidAssociation led to the character's rename]] as [[OurLawyersAdvisedThisTrope Miracleman]]. Miracleman debuted in 1984 to rave reviews, though there would be many problems to come in the course of its publication history: Eclipse Comics had its corporate headquarters destroyed in a flood and Creator/AlanDavis (the original artist for the series) left over the fact that Moore's antagonistic relationship with Creator/MarvelComics threatened to get Davis blacklisted from working stateside.
9
10	Several artists were called in to draw the rest of Moore's run (along with an issue that reprinted classic Miracleman stories, something that the book's editor replied was only being done because of the aforementioned flood), among them Steve Bissette and Rick Veitch of ''ComicBook/SwampThing'' fame and Creator/ChuckAusten (under his birth name, Chuck Beckum). Alan Moore's run ended with ''Olympus'' which was regarded by many as a FullyAbsorbedFinale to the series and an epic conclusion. It was followed by Creator/NeilGaiman, who sought to write a trilogy of [[StoryArc story arcs]] beginning with ''[[ComicBook/MiraclemanTheGoldenAge The Golden Age]]'', continuing on with ''The Silver Age'' and ending with ''The Dark Age''. Though ''The Golden Age'' arc was concluded, the book was cancelled again shortly after the commencement of ''The Silver Age'' with the collapse of Eclipse Comics. As of December 2022 Gaiman's story is currently unfinished but, well, read on.
11
12	With the collapse of Eclipse Comics, the rights to the series fell into legal limbo, made worse with Creator/ToddMcFarlane buying up ownership of Eclipse Comics assets when the company went down. [=McFarlane=] drew much controversy by incorporating Miracleman into the ComicBook/{{Spawn}} universe as the "Man of Miracles[=/=]Mother of Existence" and holding usage of the character and the chance to finish his story as blackmail material to force Creator/NeilGaiman (who, thanks to Alan Moore, had partial legal ownership claim to the character) to give up his long-standing legal fight over ownership of popular ''Spawn'' character Angela, along with claims to royalties that were being withheld by Todd. This remained the tenuous status quo for a few years, until it was revealed that the real rights were ''still'' held by Mick Anglo, who, due to the vagaries of the British copyright system, had never really signed away his rights to the characters at all -- thus the deal with Alan Moore for usage of the character for Warrior and Eclipse Comics had been invalid all along. This allowed, ironically, Creator/MarvelComics to cut a deal to buy the rights to the entire franchise from Anglo (as well as the scripts to the '80s comic series, as the artwork has to be renegotiated since Gaiman still owned the rights to the Miracleman scripts).
13
14	As part of their deal and as a means to help out Anglo (who never saw a penny for his character in the years after Moore revitalized him and was terminally ill), Marvel republished several trade paperbacks of the original 1950s Miracleman series (now Marvelman again) in hardcover and mini-series format. This in turn brought back into the spotlight many characters that Anglo created that were abandoned by Moore in his revival, most notably Nastyman and Young Nastyman, a pair of [[{{Expy}} Black Adam Expies]]. Thanks to the myriad copyright controversies, physical copies of ''Marvelman''/''Miracleman'' were for many years extremely hard to find. An online archive of all the Moore/Gaiman stories, however, can be found [[https://web.archive.org/web/20180203064206/http://miraclemen.info/ here]].
15
16	In 2013 Marvel announced that they had acquired full rights to Miracleman and in 2014 they began to reprint Alan Moore’s issues, reissuing them with extras including Moore and Leach's ''Warpsmiths'' stories, a variety of production material and some previously unpublished stories (including one by a young Creator/GrantMorrison).
17
18	This was followed in 2015 by a reprint of Neil Gaiman and Mark Buckingham's Golden Age arc, retitled as ''Miracleman by Gaiman & Buckingham''.
19
20	The first part of Gaiman and Buckingham's ''ComicBook/MiraclemanTheSilverAge'' was reprinted by Marvel in October 2022, with all art completely revised by Buckingham. After releasing new versions of the two chapters published by Eclipse, the series has continued the Silver Age arc with unpublished scripts.
21
22	Marvel have also stated that there will be some sort of celebration for the character's 40th anniversary later in 2022 - the Miracleman logo has reappeared in the Franchise/MarvelUniverse comic ''Timeless'' and Miracleman will be appearing on a large number of alternate covers for other Marvel titles.
23
24	!!Version One
25
26	A 1950s homegrown British CaptainErsatz of {{superhero}} [[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} Captain Marvel]] (himself an {{Expy}} of ComicBook/{{Superman}}), created by Mick Anglo, published by L. Miller and Son, Ltd.
27
28	Michael Moran, Johnny Bates and Dicky Dauntless were three young boys who on saying a particular "magic word" became Marvelman, Kid Marvelman and Young Marvelman respectively. Like Captain Marvel, they had a series of adventures with often fantastic and absurd settings with Dr. Gargunza being their arch-enemy (Gargunza is an {{Expy}} of Dr. Sivana, Captain Marvel's recurring arch-enemy).
29
30	!!Version Two
31
32	->''"Behold... I teach you the superman: He is this lightning... He is this madness!"''
33	-->-- '''Creator/FriedrichNietzsche''', ''Thus Spake Zarathustra''
34
35	The Creator/AlanMoore version, from the 1980s, later continued by Creator/NeilGaiman.
36
37	[[AC:The Alan Moore stories]]
38	* Book One: A Dream of Flying -- It was with ''Miracleman'' that Moore started what became part of his SignatureStyle. Take a previously unknown character, RetCon its origins and submit its premise to a GenreDeconstruction. His work with ''Marvelman'' attracted a great deal of attention and this later led to work with DC on titles like ''ComicBook/SwampThing'' which also radically changed the character from the ground-up. The first arc is largely an "origin" story dealing with a grown-up, HappilyMarried Michael Moran who works as a reporter and has dreams of life as a "superhero" but has forgotten his magic word. He rediscovers it ("Kimota") at an atomic power plant and becomes a superhero in the grim 80s of Thatcher's Britain. The DrivingQuestion of the first story is the circumstances of Michael Moran's existence, the tension in his marriage caused by having two different identities in a single body and his reunion with childhood acquaintances Johnny Bates ("Kid Miracleman") as well as ArchEnemy Dr. Emil Gargunza.
39	* Book Two: The Red King Syndrome -- The second arc dealt with his final confrontation with [[spoiler:his effective creator]] Gargunza, intertwined with the birth of his child. This was the arc that ''Warrior'' folded part-way through; it would take several years for Eclipse to pick the series back up (rebranding it ''Miracleman'' in the process) and finish it with new artists, most notably Rick Veitch and Stephen Bissette.
40	* Book Three: Olympus -- The third (and arguably most famous) part of the series, drawn by John Totleben. This celebrated arc led the series to undertake a GenreShift into science fiction and CosmicHorror as Moore introduced Miracleman to a mysterious DistaffCounterpart, sent them to outer space to meet the [[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien extraterrestrial sources]] of their powers, and ultimately examined their drift from humanity. Moore capped it all off with the final two issues of 15 and 16, memorable for the hitherto unseen levels of violence depicted in superhero comics.
41
42	[[AC:The Neil Gaiman stories]]
43	* [[ComicBook/MiraclemanTheGoldenAge The Golden Age]] -- A RotatingProtagonist arc dealing with Muggles in the Miracleman world (including a MindScrew issue that features Creator/AndyWarhol)
44	* [[ComicBook/MiraclemanTheSilverAge The Silver Age]] -- This story was interrupted midway by the rights issues. It featured a TimeSkip and reintroduced Young Miracleman (Dicky Dauntless) back into the lives of a very changed Miracle Family, before being CutShort. After some delay caused by legal issues, the series would eventually be completed under Marvel.
45	* The Dark Age -- The last book of Gaiman's run will finally see print in the reissued Marvel volumes.
46
47	[[AC:Other stories]]
48	* ''Miracleman: The Apocrypha'' was an AnthologyComic miniseries published by Eclipse, containing short stories by other creators linked to the ''Miracleman'' setting. Neil Gaiman and Mark Buckingham provided framing sequences which introduced them, positioning them as comics created within Miracleman's world which weren't to be considered canon.
49	* ''Miracleman #0'', published by Marvel before the start of the ''Silver Age'' series, is effectively an extension of ''The Apocrypha''. The framing sequence is actually one of the same ones used for that series, but completely redrawn by Buckingham, and with Gaiman's captions rewritten to reflect the new set of stories and remove some sexual references.
50
51	----
52	!!''Miracleman'' provides examples of:
53
54	* AbandonedCatchphrase: In the original ''Marvelman'' comics by L. Miller & Son Ltd., Micky Moran, Dicky Dauntless and Johnny Bates all had a tendency to exclaim "Holy macaroni!" In the Alan Moore revival, they do not say the phrase outside of flashbacks to their original adventures, [[spoiler:which are revealed here to actually be a simulation they were kept in to condition them for warfare.]]
55	* AlienGeometries: When Gargunza first sees an alien spacecraft, in flashback, it obviously has a very strange shape, but it's also rendered in a hazy, almost [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointillism pointillistic]] fashion, as if normal pencil-and-ink comic art couldn't convey just how bizarre it really was.
56	* AllJustADream: In just the first few issues of the Creator/AlanMoore run it's revealed that [[spoiler:the ''entire'' 1950s-60s run of Miracleman was just an elaborate dream induced simulation created by Miracleman's government handlers.]] Invoked in-story, too, by Gargunza in order to [[spoiler:cleverly stop the Miracleman family from waking up in the real world]].
57	* AlternateUniverse: It was LikeRealityUnlessNoted until [[spoiler:the final two issues of Alan Moore's stories bid a sad farewell to the status quo. Neil Gaiman's story takes place in TheUnmasquedWorld]].
58	* AntiVillain: Evelyn Cream is in league with Gargunza, but feels self-doubt about whether he's doing the right thing.
59	* AppliedPhlebotinum: Originally, Marvelman transformed by saying a formula for the "key harmonic of the universe," whatever that might mean, that just happened to be "atomic" spelled backwards [[XtremeKoolLetterz and with a K]].
60	* ArtShift: Happens between (and sometimes ''within'') every issue of the ''Golden Age'' arc. And all of those styles were the work of ''one'' artist, Mark Buckingham.
61	* ArtificialAfterlife: After Miracleman takes over, one of the alien Qys uses technology to store the spirits of the recently deceased, upload them into android bodies, and house them in a beautiful garden beneath the palace in London. It seems like the procedure is only reserved for especially famous or interesting people who had died within the last 18 months (at time of publication), including Creator/JohnBelushi, Creator/SalvadorDali, and Creator/AndyWarhol.
62	* AuthorAppeal: Invoked and deconstructed. [[spoiler:Because Gargunza was left completely to his own devices with Miraclewoman and Young Nastyman, the pulp fantasies he devised for them slowly became more sexual, violent and depraved, both to stimulate their future breeding and for his own kicks. Miraclewoman considers him an impotent little creep for it, too pathetic to bother hating; meanwhile, the inconsistency of Young Nastyman's cruel, hedonist reality renders him completely insane and unable to discern if actions have consequences.]]
63	* BackFromTheDead: [[spoiler:At the end of the Olympus Arc, the Miracle Family discovers technology to bring people back from the dead. Neil Gaiman's story introduces us to a newly revived Creator/AndyWarhol who has ADayInTheLimelight. Dr. Gargunza is also revived briefly but there are several copies of him, because in his case he doesn't quite adjust to the new Miracle world and can't leave his MadScientist days, and his rampant homophobia, behind. Evelyn Cream is also back, and lastly Young Miracleman]].
64	* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: [[spoiler:Subverted horribly by Kid Miracleman. Upon his escape from the hospital, he spares the only nurse who was kind to him during his stay. He then returns and obliterates her head while she is still smiling in relief at being spared. He actually seems a bit regretful about it, but considers it necessary lest anybody get the idea that he went soft for a moment.]]
65	* BenevolentAlienInvasion: [[spoiler:The warpsmiths entrance into Earth society and politics initiates a Golden Age ruled by Miracleman at the price of all free will and the urge to dissent removed]].
66	* BewareTheSuperman: "He is this lightning... He is this madness!" Indeed, Miracleman and his superpowered compatriots eventually see themselves as above humanity, operating on BlueAndOrangeMorality and taking over the world.
67	* BittersweetEnding: Alan Moore's run ends with this. [[spoiler:Kid Miracleman destroys half of London and kills millions of people in unthinkably horrible ways. Miracleman finally defeats Kid Miracleman but it comes at the cost of young, innocent Johnny Bates's life. In the aftermath, Miracleman and his team of superbeings become as gods, and remake the world anew as a [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans benevolent dictatorship]]. Miracleman falls in love with Miraclewoman and they become sexual partners. Miracleman begins humanity's "apotheosis", instituting at Miraclewoman's suggestion a eugenics program to make everyone into godlike beings and producing more superbabies like Winter. However, Liz has left Miracleman for good and when he tries to convince her to become a superhuman like him, she rejects him and tells him never to speak to her again. Miracleman wonders if he has done the right thing as he looks out over the city of London and the audience is left to wonder with him.]]
68	* BlackAndGrayMorality: Though self-evidently much more "good" than his antagonist, Miracleman neither acts according to merely human ethics or morality nor gives lip services to it.
69	* BlasphemousBoast: Once Miracleman fully becomes convinced that he is a god among men, expect him to compare himself to the Abrahamic God.
70	* BlueAndOrangeMorality: Miracleman starts out with BlackAndWhiteMorality when he regains his powers, then moves to BlackAndGrayMorality and finally arrives at this, seeing himself as the {{Ubermensch}} and beyond human morality.
71	** This is most apparent when Miracleman warmly agrees to help a woman with her capacity to draw the images in her head, stating everyone has a right to art but coldly turns down a father's plea to help his daughter who's been in a coma since Miracleman's battle with Kid Miracleman in London.
72	* BodyHorror: Aside from some of the atrocities Kid Miracleman performs, such as flaying people and hanging their skin on a laundry line, Young Miracleman, Young Nastyman, and the alien who crashed to Earth in the 50s all die in such a way that their dual bodies collide, leaving a corpse of two bodies perfectly merged together, down to a cellular level.
73	* {{Bowdlerise}}: The 2010s Marvel reprint asterisked out the comic's two uses of the N-word (once during Evelyn Cream's worries about whether he's falling into primitive superstition, and once when Bates insults Huey Moon during the final battle). The digital release edited the art to add underwear to a scene in which Liz was previously naked, with the 2022 omnibus collection keeping the violence and sexual content intact while once again censoring both uses of the N-word due to using Marvel's remastered reprints instead of the original ''Warrior'' and Eclipse Comics printings.
74	* BrainwashingForTheGreaterGood: Perhaps surprisingly, used ''less'' than one would expect in Miracleman's utopia. Only Big Ben (who was ''already'' a victim of brainwashing by the government and was arguably made ''saner'' by Miracleman's allies) and Miracledog (a non-sapient) undergo this in the traditional sense. In the Gaiman run, Mors keeps trying this with [[spoiler:Dr. Gargunza, or rather his clone-bodies, but the bad doctor's misanthropic instincts are just too much to unprogram]].
75	* BreakingTheFourthWall: Issue #8 has a set-up [[BreatherEpisode completely different]] from the other issues: [[spoiler:Picking up immediately after having killed Dr. Gargunza, Miracleman begins to reflect on his false memories of his past "adventures"... only for ''editor Cat Yronwode'' to abruptly show up, interrupt the scene, [[ProsceniumReveal and stop writing the issue]] in order to be honest with the readers. Namely, admitting that this issue is reprinting two of the original 1950s comic because, as a result of the Eclipse offices being flooded, the schedule for the Miracleman comic got shot to shit. "We're not running these 1955 Mick Anglo stories '[[Creator/JohnWayne because you demanded it, pilgrim!]]' We're running them because we desperately need the time to get back on schedule. '''[[LampshadeHanging Too ]]''' [[LampshadeHanging honest?]]"]]
76	* BusFullOfInnocents: Quite literally, but subverted in that [[spoiler:Miracleman himself throws it]].
77	* ByThePowerOfGrayskull: Given that the character started out as a pastiche of [[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} Captain Marvel]], Micky Moran changes into his alter ego by saying "Kimota", with Dicky Dauntless and Johnny Bates doing the same by saying "Marvelman/Miracleman". [[spoiler:Gargunza also programs them with a ''de''-powering word, "Abraxas."]]
78	* CanonDisContinuity: The earlier Marvelman adventures happened [[spoiler:only in a kind of LotusEaterMachine.]]
79	* CanonWelding: After the series was bought by Creator/MarvelComics[[note]]Ironic, considering Marvel's lawsuit is what necessitated the series being renamed from ''Marvelman'' to ''Miracleman''.[[/note]], it was retroactively established as part of the Marvel multiverse, being given the designation Earth-82324.
80	* CerebusRetcon: [[spoiler:It's revealed at the end of Book One that the events of the original ''Marvelman'' comics of the 1950s and 1960s were just a childish fantasy made up in order to train the Miracleman family to be powerful living superweapons, with the true origin of their powers being experimentation as part of a secret government project.]]
81	* CityOfSpies: Features in a short story later in the series, during Gaiman's run.
82	* CityWithNoName: The aforementioned City of Spies is a literal instance of this - the first sign, to the protagonist, that something's not kosher...
83	* ComicBookFantasyCasting: Miraclewoman is based on Creator/MarilynMonroe, while Miracleman is Creator/PaulNewman (which can be easier to see when he is Mike Moran).
84	* ContinuityReboot: Moore's version of Miracleman is effectively a brand-new continuity and shows that Moran's previous adventures were all part of an elaborate attempt by Dr. Gargunza to control him.
85	* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Downplayed. Prior to Miracleman's return, Kid Miracleman had a career as an unethical businessman, but not much detail is put into how he runs his company from day to day. That said, he ''does'' casually murder his secretary as his first KickTheDog moment (of many)...
86	* CrapsaccharineWorld: [[spoiler: The "Age of Miracles" as portrayed in Moore's final issue and in Neil Gaiman's run. It's a perfect world but there is just something ''off'' about it, mostly because it's cold, vapid and built on authoritarian power]].
87	* CreepyChild: Miracleman's daughter Winter. She mentions that she participated in an orgy with the Qys (by Earth standards she's ''four years old''), laughing off her father's shock, then casually asks if he "''decided'' to leave the sky that color."
88	* CurbStompBattle: The final fight between Kid Miracleman and the rest of the superhumans starts off as this. They throw everything they have at him [[spoiler:and accomplish absolutely nothing as he trashes them left and right. Finally Aza Chorn gets creative.]]
89	* DarkerAndEdgier: Moore's interpretation turned what had originally started out as a British Captain Marvel rip-off into a gritty, ''Film/TotalRecall1990''-ish, what-is-real head trip, that even turned his Freddy Freeman-esque sidekick Kid Marvelman into a sadistic psychopath, with graphic violence that was unprecedented in the genre at the time and is still shocking today.
90	* DeathOfTheOldGods: [[spoiler:One of the sects of Miracleman's religion preaches that the New Gods killed the weak gods of old. Despite being small, this is Miracleman's favorite.]]
91	* {{Deconstruction}}:
92	** Moore developed a lot of the themes of ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' first in his run of ''Miracleman'' and indeed the former was described by him as the last word in his interest in superhero deconstructions, which properly began with this series. In ''Miracleman'' he tackles the conflict between boring civilian identity and the superhero identity, the wider social effect superheroes can have on the world and the AscendedFridgeHorror of a superhero-supervillain dust-up, likewise the BlueAndOrangeMorality that develops from the mere fact of having superpowers.
93	** The final issue of course is a parody of CrystalSpiresAndTogas utopia [[spoiler:portraying that such a world can amount to mere UsefulNotes/EthicalHedonism and a false paradise without any real authenticity and feeling. It's also much harder to resist than any dystopian reality since opponents would come across as either Luddites or regressive and reactionary people]].
94	** Young Miracleman[=/=]Dicky Dauntless also explores the Captain America [[spoiler:caught in time warp arc. He's still mentally a teenager of the Fifties and the newly changed world of the Miracles is deeply strange and upsetting, and he's not able to adjust the shock, and Miracleman and Miraclewoman are not willing to help him adjust]].
95	* DerivativeDifferentiation: Moore's run aged Michael Moran in real time from the '50s one and created a character who was in many ways the prototypical NinetiesAntiHero, while Billy Batson keeps getting rebooted to age 10-14 and remains very much a kid in a man's body in superpowered form.
96	* DeusExNukina: There's no real reason why the A-bomb [[spoiler:the government launched on the Miracleman family]] should instantly kill one, do no real harm to another, and inflict the third with semi-serious injuries plus amnesia, besides setting all the pieces in place for the story Moore (and later Gaiman) wanted to tell.
97	* DidIJustSayThatOutLoud: A rare instance of it played for drama; after 18 years of remaining as the increasingly powerful Kid Miracleman and becoming untethered from his human form, the sociopathic adult "Johnny" can't clearly remember, among other things, what it was like to change back. When he carelessly says "Miracleman" for the first time in decades, he's horrified.
98	* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Given [[Creator/AlanMoore who wrote the most famous run,]] this is inevitable. One instance in particular stands out: While [[spoiler:comforting the human boy Johnny Bates after his alter ego Kid Miracleman's rampage, just before snapping his neck]] Miracleman uses an interesting turn of phrase (while patting him on the head, no less.)
99	-->'''[[SuperiorSpecies Miracleman:]]''' Good kid, Johnny. [[DogsLoveBeingPraised Good kid.]]
100	* DracoInLeatherPants: Invoked in canon during Neil Gaiman's issues, with the introduction of the "Bateses", a punk-style subculture who idolise the psychotic, sadistic mass murderer Johnny Bates because they think Miracleman's utopia is too much of a SugarBowl.
101	* DreamsOfFlying: The first volume is called, "A Dream of Flying" and starts with Mike Moran having the dream.
102	* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Michael Moran for all intents and purposes kills himself after Liz and Winter leave him by writing a suicide note to Miracleman and saying "Kimota" one last time. Respecting Mike's wishes, Miracleman hasn't said their transformation phase since.]]
103	* DroppedABridgeOnHim: Magnificently lampshaded after [[spoiler: Dr. Gargunza's death. "I threw him at a planet."]]
104	* DudeNotFunny: After Miracleman first reappears, he tries to explain the situation to Liz. The sheer weird absurdity of the adventures he describes causes her to laugh and crack jokes, until he angrily yells "You're laughing at my life!" and punches a hole in the hardwood floor.
105	* DyingDream: In "Notes From the Underground", [[spoiler:Gargunza's clone]] discusses how a minor contingent of Miracleman's subjects believe in this - that Mike Moran ''actually'' keeled over from a stroke the day he "returned" as Miracleman, and everything afterward is just an elaborate fantasy in a dying man's brain. Neither he nor his conversant believe it.
106	* EnemyMine: The threat of [[spoiler: Miracleman overseeing the planet as a "god"]] is enough that both Christian and Muslim fundamentalists join together in its wake. However, there's not really much they can do about it.
107	* EstablishingCharacterMoment: When Michael recognizes that Johnny Bates has been still super all along, Bates incinerates his secretary's head with his EyeBeams just to show that he can.
108	* EveryoneHasStandards: By the end of Moore's run, [[spoiler:Miracleman has become detached from humanity and has seen some weird shit, but even he's disturbed by his four-year-old daughter Winter already having sex.]]
109	* EveryoneIsASuper: After [[spoiler:taking over the world, Miracleman plans to make super-bodies available to any {{Muggle}} who wants one (though it's mentioned there is a waiting list). This is only briefly touched on during the Moore run, and the as-yet-uncompleted Gaiman run hasn't really explored it... yet.]]
110	* EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory: Discussed in-universe; after Miracleman has taken over the world, he allows the tapes of his "fake" life in Gargunza's para-reality chamber to be freely circulated as entertainment. Many of his worshipers look for allegories and symbolism in every second of these childish stories, which Miracleman reacts to with mild amusement.
111	* {{Expy}}:
112	** Big Ben is a superpowered version of John Steed from ''Series/TheAvengers1960s''. Lampshaded within the story, when a GreekChorus type "little man" character points out the resemblance.
113	** All the Miracleman characters are intentional {{Expy}} of [[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} Captain Marvel]] and his Family, though in Moore's version, Mike Moran/Miracleman is closer to Clark Kent/Superman while Kid Miracleman is closer to the original Billy Batson/Captain Marvel. Liz Moran likewise is based on Lois Lane and Miraclewoman is a combination of Mary Marvel and Supergirl.
114	** Dr. Emil Gargunza is a carbon copy of Captain Marvel's enemy Dr. Thaddeus Bodog Sivana, to the extent that he's basically what Sivana would look like if he had hair.
115	* ExpyCoexistence: [[spoiler:The original ''Marvelman'' comics were imitations of Fawcett's ''[[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} Captain Marvel]]'' comics with the differences of the characters powers and origins having more of a sci-fi bent and there being no Mary Marvel equivalent. When the ''Miracleman'' version reveals that the Miracleman Family were actually living weapons created as part of a secret government project and that their original adventures were a simulation created to condition them by Dr. Emil Gargunza, it is heavily implied that Gargunza was inspired to create the fantasy world by ''Captain Marvel'' comics.]]
116	* EyeBeams: Johnny Bates has this ability, while Miracleman and others like him do not. Something which is not explained but is suspected to stem from the fact that Bates was in his super body the longest and has had more time to learn the extent of its power.
117	* FaceHeelTurn: Arguably a TropeCodifier in superhero comics. Between the Anglo and Moore periods, Kid Miracleman turns from a KidSidekick to a ''colossal'' psychopathic murderer who massacres/mutilates half of London.
118	* FlockOfWolves: The "City" in ''The Golden Age'' is a holding zone for former spies who were too essentially paranoid and untrustworthy to handle Utopia. Everybody in the City is a spy involved in some kind of pointless intrigue, but they all think that most of the other citizens are innocent bystanders.
119	* FlyingBrick: Miracleman, Young Miracleman, Kid Miracleman, etc., in both versions.
120	* FreeLoveFuture: One of the most... ''distinctive'' aspects of [[spoiler:the "Golden Age" that Miracleman and his allies bring to the world. It's a lot more embraced by superhumans than by {{Muggles}}, though, and a key reason Liz Moran refuses to be converted into a super.]]
121	* GenderFlip: If Miracleman is Captain Marvel and Kid Miracleman is Captain Marvel Jr., that means Young Miracleman must be based on Mary Marvel.
122	** Alternatively, at least one article describing the Expy relationship between the two families has Young Marvelman as corresponding to CM Junior and Kid Marvelman as a replacement for Mary Marvel because British boys of the 50s and early 60s didn't want to read about girls -- according to the editors/publishers, anyway. This agrees with the order of introduction of the characters: Junior was introduced a year before Mary, and YM pre-dates KM by slightly more than that.
123	* GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke: Miracleman's body is the product of genetic engineering, and the U.K. is mentioned as having developed the technology as a counter to the larger powers' nuclear weapons.
124	* GenreDeconstruction: With Alan Moore, it's par for the course.
125	** Among the issues he tackles are how Miracleman's existence wreaks havoc on Michael Moran's personal life and sense of self; what sort of collateral damage would occur in a realistic superhero battle; and what the impact on society would be if Miracleman took over the world as a benevolent dictator. More gently, he also points out ([[AudienceSurrogate through Liz]]) how the traditional FlyingBrick powerset would be completely nonsensical under the laws of (Earth) physics, and suggests more reasonable-sounding workarounds, such as Miracleman's NighInvulnerability ''really'' being a skintight force-field.[[note]]Something that, coincidentally, Creator/JohnByrne was also suggesting with ComicBook/{{Superman}} at the time.[[/note]]
126	** Kid Miracleman is also a deconstruction of the Dark Phoenix FallenHero story, where in the X-Men original, the noble Cyclops is not able to make the choice to kill the equally genocidal Dark Phoenix because of the decent alter-ego Jean Grey, [[spoiler:here Miracleman very gently comforts poor Johnny Bates before snapping his neck]].
127	* GodEmperor: Miracleman and his fellow superhumans eventually come to see themselves as gods and at the end of Moore's run proceed to take over the world in a benevolent dictatorship where humanity worships them, living in a high mountain explicitly called Olympus. In the first issue of Gaiman's run, it's revealed that those wishing to ask Miracleman for favors must take a pilgrimage up a long tower, which the pilgrims may or may not survive or remain sane.
128	* {{Gorn}}. [[http://afewidlemusings.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/mm15-20-21.jpg Behold]]. In Neil Gaiman's run, [[spoiler:Creator/StanleyKubrick, who really did reside in England during TheEighties, made a documentary about the aftermath.]]
129	* GovernmentConspiracy: Entirely responsible for Miracleman's (retconned) origins, being the ones who brought Dr. Gargunza to the Qys' crashed UFO and financed his experiments. The chap in charge, Sir Dennis Archer, grows guiltier and guiltier at what he unleashed on the world, and eventually [[spoiler:commits suicide during Kid Miracleman's massacre of London]].
130	* GrandTheftMe: Gargunza's true objective is [[spoiler:to achieve immortality by transferring his mind into the body of Miracleman's newborn child]].
131	* HehHehYouSaidX: At the beginning of "The Red King Syndrome", Jason Oakey laughs at Miracleman saying "fairy" when he explains how his force field works and compares it to Tinkerbell from ''Literature/PeterPan'' (since the word "fairy" is sometimes used as a homophobic slur).
132	* HowWeGotHere: The framing device to every single chapter in "Olympus", the last leg of the Moore run, which begins with [[spoiler:Miracleman having already brought "Utopia" to the world.]]
133	* ILied: Cream interrogates (via notepad) a man who saw Miracleman's transformation (and was burned and deafened as a result), promising he won't kill the man if he answers all his questions. When he's done, he holds up a note that says, "Oh... and you remember how I promised not to kill you? I was lying, Steve."
134	* ImportedAlienPhlebotinum: Responsible for the [[spoiler:creation of the super-humans in the modern version (but not the original).]]
135	* ImprobableInfantSurvival: {{Invoked}} by Evelyn Cream. When he sets about capturing Mike Moran, he has a woman hand Moran her baby. Then he sticks a gun in Moran's face and tells him not to say his magic word, since the flash of power would probably kill the baby.
136	* IronicNurseryTune: An ''extremely'' dark example: "Star Light, Star Bright" is recited as [[spoiler: Miracleman pitches Dr. Gargunza's body from the stratosphere back down to Earth, and the air resistance burns the good doctor into nothing but a charred pelvis resembling a shooting star]].
137	* LastKiss: An ''extremely'' twisted one between [[spoiler:Miracleman and Gargunza]], right before the former kills the latter.
138	* LotusEaterMachine: Gargunza and his government backers developed one for the Miracleman "family" - a place where they could enjoy and experiment with their powers with no "real" danger attached. [[spoiler:Things go horribly wrong when Gargunza continues this habit with Young Nastyman...]]
139	* LowerDeckEpisode: The beginning of Neil Gaiman's run is filled with these.
140	* MadScientist: Dr. Gargunza is an evil scientist in both the '50s comics and the Creator/AlanMoore version. Moreso in the latter, where it's revealed [[spoiler:he gave the Miracleman Family their powers through experimentation and that the events of the original comics were actually a simulation he put them in as an attempt at conditioning them towards being used as living weapons.]]
141	* LowerHalfReveal: Used as the FramingDevice twist of [[spoiler:Evelyn Cream's]] last appearance (at least, before the Creator/NeilGaiman continuation). The first few panels are close-ups of his face, with a completely serene expression as he [[HowWeGotHere narrates the events leading up to this point]]. The ''last'' page reveals all this internal-monologuing is happening in his last second of life after [[OffWithHisHead his head got torn clean off his body]].
142	* MeanwhileInTheFuture: An interesting case with the Moore run's rarely-reprinted fourth installment, [[http://sequart.org/magazine/10104/the-yesterday-gambit-a-miracleman-interlude/ "The Yesterday Gambit"]] - which was mostly cooked up to buy regular artist Garry Leach some extra time. The events it depicts ''are'' given proper context during ''Olympus'', but by then Moore's vision for the series had changed so much that he describes it as one of several ''possible'' events that happened during the final battle against Kid Miracleman.
143	** Speaking of which - this is the FramingDevice for all six chapters of ''Olympus'', with all the present-day events book-ended by a scenes of a victorious Miracleman reflecting on them years after the fact.
144	* MercyKill: Miracleman gives one to [[spoiler: Johnny Bates to prevent Kid Miracleman from ever killing anyone again]].
145	* MistakenForGranite: The doors to the room housing the kingqueen of the Qys is guarded by two guards whom Miracleman/Marvelman mistakes for statues, due to their immobility and size.
146	* MoodWhiplash: Perhaps the most notable is the issue where Liz gives birth to Winter, when Miracleman's sense of awe at the baby being born [[spoiler: takes a sharp left turn into SurrealHorror in the last panel when the newborn ''speaks''.]]
147	* NewSuperPower: Kid Miracleman is able to develop powers he didn't originally have over the course of his life, and Miracleman alters his uniform while still in Gargunza's LotusEaterMachine. His child, Winter, has inherited her father's ability to fly and has a forcefield, but also can read and influence minds.
148	* NothingIsTheSameAnymore: [[spoiler:Neil Gaiman's stories deal with how people react to a totally different and changed world, where people come back from the dead, where consciousness is not really tied to one's body. Spies who spent their lives in duplicity can no longer fit into a new reality and instead are coralled to a fake city of spies where they can live out their fantasies of importance. Young Miracleman then gets revived and since he was a teenager when he died, the newly changed reality is a huge shock]].
149	* OrphanageOfFear: Poor Johnny Bates is abandoned to one after Miracleman exposes and defeats his sociopathic alter-ego, until... well, just look under the spoiler tags.
150	* OtherworldlyAndSexuallyAmbiguous: The alien Warpsmiths are multi-dimensional, and ultimately genderless beings, who have sex in ways that defy anything resembling biology on Earth.
151	* OverrideCommand: Gargunza has an override word ("Abraxas") which forces Miracleman to change back to Mike for one hour. Miracleman does not allow Gargunza to say it a second time.
152	* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Kid Miracleman refers to Huey Moon as the N-word and also calls Miracleman a "fairy".
153	* PosthumousNarration: A borderline case with [[spoiler:Evelyn Cream]] after he's decapitated by Miracledog. He narrates several hours' worth of story in his head, all in the second before his body and mind stop functioning.
154	* PsychopathicManchild: Kid Miracleman and Young Nastyman are both completely psychotic and see their powers as giving them license to do whatever the hell they want and destroy whoever gets in their way.
155	* PutTheirHeadsTogether: What [[spoiler:Miracleman]] does to [[spoiler:two of Dr. Gargunza's lackeys as soon as he can transform again]].
156	* ReedRichardsIsUseless: Both played straight and later inverted as much as possible. On the one hand, Gargunza, Miracleman's creator, strangely, never capitalizes on his biotechnological brilliance. After [[spoiler:Kid Miracleman ''destroys London'']], however, [[spoiler:Miracleman and his friends "go public," which changes every human society on every level.]]
157	* RefusingParadise: Liz Moran [[spoiler: in her final meeting with Miracleman does this. She refuses Miracleman's "everyone's-a-super" offer of acquiring powers and chooses to simply be herself.]]
158	* RetGone: Todd [=McFarlane=]'s version of Miracleman, the Man of Miracles[=/=]Mother of Existence, who played a significant role in ''ComicBook/{{Spawn}}'' for several years, was more-or-less removed from his comics' continuity following the revelation that his claims of ownership were invalid.
159	* ReVision: The modern version.
160	* ScaryBlackMan: Evelyn Cream starts out as this, complete with unflappable personality, ScaryShinyGlasses, and a perpetual SlasherSmile (inlaid with sapphire-plated teeth, no less). Deconstructed as the story goes along, and chapters told from his perspective reveal him to be, in his own way, as scared of Miracleman as everyone else is.
161	* SceneryGorn: Kid Miracleman's attack on London, along with just plain {{Gorn}}.
162	* SerialEscalation: One suspects that Kid Miracleman has the power to make up superpowers as he goes along like UsefulNotes/{{the Silver Age\|of Comic Books}} Superman, except instead of super-ventriloquism and super-knitting he invents things like super-murder or super-genocide. Example of just how hard he went: [[spoiler:while not fully shown or detailed how he accomplished this somehow Kid Miracleman manages (once his darker alter-ego is fully unleashed) to elaborately mutilate, torture, rape, kill and arrange into morbidly artistic ornaments half the population of London in one or two hours.]]
163	* ShaggyDogStory: The first issue of Neil Gaiman's run, in a nutshell. [[spoiler:Four pilgrims travel up Miracleman's great golden palace, an exhausting and days-long journey that drives one of them insane halfway through. Of the remaining three, one apparently went to ''kill'' Miracleman (or perhaps just defy him), and immediately turns the gun on himself once Miracleman's bulletproof skin does its job. The third is a little girl who wants to be an artist; Miracleman agrees to help her (though what this actually entails isn't shown). The last pilgrim is our {{Narrator}} and easily the most sympathetic of the bunch - a father whose girl is on life support, [[NiceJobBreakingItHero thanks to]] the battle between Miracleman and Kid Miracleman. When Miracleman's asked to heal the girl? He doesn't even ''think about it'' before saying no and leaving.]]
164	* ShoutOut:
165	** The final battle against Kid Miracleman features the Warpsmiths teleporting a bank on top of his head, which he {{No Sell}}s while flying through a falling pile of coins and bills. This is easily the most direct reference to ''Superduperman'' in the story, where the titular character attempts to defeat Captain Marbles by smashing a safe, then an entire skyscraper over his head, causing nothing but a similar shower of bills as Marbles just counts his money.
166	** In "Spy Story", the resurrected Evelyn Cream refers to himself as the "Number One" of the City (a prison camp for former spies), which is a reference to ''Series/ThePrisoner1967''. He giggles after the line, suggesting that it's meant to be a Shout Out in-universe on his part.
167	* TheSingularity: [[spoiler:The final issue of Moore's run, Issue 16, displays a post-Singularity world and its implications on humanity. Neil Gaiman's run explores the new, altered, world and the place of humanity within it.]]
168	* TheSociopath: Kid Miracleman.
169	* SortingAlgorithmOfEvil: ''Completely'' averted by the Moore run, where Kid Miracleman is the first villain and remains the most dangerous in both physical abilities and [[OmnicidalManiac ambitions]] all the way up to the end. [[spoiler:Gargunza]] needs an army of {{Mooks}} and special gimmicks to put Miracleman on the ropes, while the Qys - though able to keep up physically - are still beaten handily when Miracleman ([[spoiler:and Miraclewoman]]) find a weak spot in their armored forms.
170	* SpaceColdWar: One exists between the Qys and the Warpsmiths. [[spoiler:They later make some kind of "peace" when Miraclewoman convinces them to allow their cultures to interact in a more positive, creative way via earth.]]
171	* SpySpeak: All over the place, natch, in "Spy Story". To the point where the main character wonders if ''every single conversation she hears'' is part of some secret code. [[spoiler:Given the nature of her city, she's probably right.]]
172	* StableTimeLoop: In one of the original Warrior comics, and hinted at in issue #15, Miracleman and a Warpsmith travel back in time twice to battle his earlier self in order to steal kinetic force from their blows. After each battle, the Warpsmith erases his earlier double's memory.
173	* StrongerWithAge: Johnny Bates A.K.A Kid Miracle Man. Of all of the superhumans, he has spent the most time in his superhuman body and thus has had more time to develope his strengths and learn new abilities. It shows as he can single-handedly defeat all of the other superhumans and superaliens combined with almost no harm done to himself.
174	* StupidJetpackHitler: More-or-less inverted. [[spoiler:Emil Gargunza]] is a Brazilian street-kid whose scientific skills take him out of Brazil to Germany where he worked for the Nazis, but he never built superweapons for Hitler. Rather, he reverse engineered the fallen Warpsmith technology and created the superheroes after the war.
175	* SuperFamilyTeam: Totally deconstructed. Like a real family, there is the BlackSheep and DysfunctionJunction, and plain weirdness.
176	* SuperheroSpeciation:
177	** The super-humans created by Gargunza have the same FlyingBrick power set. Apparently, they all have PsychicPowers, that's just how they manifested.
178	** Also, the Warpsmiths are all teleporters, and Firedrakes are pyrokinetic.
179	* TakeAMomentToCatchYourDeath: [[spoiler:The nurse who gets spared by Kid Miracleman begins thanking God that she wasn't killed. Kid Miracleman then returns, tells her how he didn't want people to think he was going soft, and smashes her head against the wall.]]
180	* TakeThat:
181	** [[spoiler:In explaining [[BreakingTheFourthWall to the readers]] why the eighth issue is going to just be reprinting two of the 1955 comic stories, one of the writers uses the following as a lead-in:]]
182	--->'''[[spoiler:Writer]]''': Remember that period during the mid-1970s when it seemed like [[spoiler:every third Marvel comic was an unannounced reprint? I resented 'em, of course... but I hated it '''more''' when they tried to pretend the reprints were "flashbacks". [...] Didn't fool me one bit. '''I''' knew deadline doom when I saw it.]]
183	** After [[spoiler:Miracleman effectively takes over the world]], there is no power structure anymore. All the former tyrants of the world meet in group therapy to deal with the reversal. One of the members is a gray-haired white guy who tells the rest he got aroused from a dream where he ordered soldiers to kill rabbits and give him money. The group's therapist then thanks [[UsefulNotes/GeorgeHWBush "George"]] for his trust, and asks [[UsefulNotes/MuammarGaddafi "Moamar"]] if he'd like to comment.
184	** Similarly, when Miracleman announces [[spoiler:that the global economy will be rebuilt from the ground up, UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher insists that "we cannot allow this sort of interference in the market". Miracleman looks at her nonchalantly and responds, "'Allow?'" Thatcher looks absolutely shattered and later requests to leave.]]
185	* TeleFrag: How [[spoiler:Kid Miracleman]] is ultimately defeated.
186	* ThreeMonthOldNewborn: Averted, surprisingly. The team used actual reference books for Winter's birth, and the result is a very accurately gross-looking baby. Some readers even sent in mail asking [[RealityIsUnrealistic what was wrong with the baby.]]
187	* TimeSkip: Neil Gaiman's run skipped ahead of the mid-80s in which Moore's run was finished. ''The Silver Age'' takes an even bigger TimeSkip going forward nearly twenty years after Moore's last issue.
188	* TwistedEchoCut: As is typical of Moore's works, stuffed to the brim with these.
189	* {{Ubermensch}}: The quote from Friedrich Nietzsche that serves as an epigraph for the book[[note]]Which, contrary to popular belief, was placed by the editor and not Moore himself, it comes from a later reprint[[/note]] sets this up as a central theme, the desire for man to be more than human and its disturbing implications. In an introduction, Alan Moore noted that Marvelman/Miracleman is unique for actually resembling the Nazi ideal of the blonde, blue-eyed Aryan more closely than Superman and Captain Marvel themselves and he deliberately sought to explore the fascist connections with his character.
190	* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: Pretty much Miracleman's entire pantheon believes in this, but Huey "Firedrake" Moon gives one of the most encapsulating quotes:
191	-->'''Firedrake:''' You see some little kid about to drink Clorox, you gonna take away his free will or he ain't gonna get no destiny.
192	* TheVerse: Intended by editor Dez Skinn to be part of a "Warrior Universe", which it shared with Moore and Leach's ''Warpsmiths'' stories, Skinn's own ''Big Ben'' series and an early, short-lived Creator/GrantMorrison series called ''The Liberators''.
193	** Eclipse Comics - especially after its acquisition by Todd [=McFarlane=] - also tried to link the series to its other properties, with equally abortive results. Now that the series is owned lock-stock-and-barrel by Marvel, they’ve hinted at a third attempt.
194	* WhatTheRomansHaveDoneForUs: [[spoiler:After taking over the world in the finale, the Miracles unleash a Golden Age of world peace, an end to crime, a post-scarcity society, superpowers for ordinary people so that they can become like the Gods they admire, and begin making inroads into raising the dead. It's a utopia under a benevolent kindly dictator, and almost nobody wants to go back to the bad old days]].
195	* WholePlotReference:
196	** The conflict between Miracleman and Kid Miracleman is a DarkerAndEdgier take of Creator/HarveyKurtzman's more humorous ''Superduperman'' (which Moore always stated was his all time favorite comic) which pointed out how pathetic the secret identities of superheroes actually are as a concept, and likewise showed, in greater detail than comics at the time, a conflict between two super-powered beings in a populated city area. Likewise the antagonist in the Kurtzman comic actually has a civillian front as a businessman much like Johnny Bates in the earlier issues.
197	** Kid Miracleman's FallenHero story, the drastic contrast between the innocent Johnny alter-ego and the SuperpoweredEvilSide as well as the scale of devastation he could unleash also recalls ''ComicBook/TheDarkPhoenixSaga'' where Jean Grey/Phoenix threatened the whole universe after shattering a star system populated by billions of lives. That story went into ExecutiveMeddling and subject to later retcons but Moore and Totleben take it to the absolute logical conclusion.
198	* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity: Kid Miracleman, inarguably. More arguably, Miracleman and Miraclewoman are subject to this themselves by the end of Moore's run.
199	* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: Young Nastyman and the human alter ego of Kid Miracleman.
200	* YouAreAlreadyDead: The final fate of [[spoiler: Evelyn Cream]].

Context Comicbook / Miracleman