Miracleman began as Marvelman, a 1950s homegrown British
Captain Ersatz version of
superhero Captain Marvel (himself somewhat of an
Expy of
Superman). After
Alan Moore revived the character in the 1980s, the character turned into something quite different.
It all started when London publisher, L. Miller & Son, Ltd., had the rights to make reprints of American
Comic Book Captain Marvel for the UK. However, when Fawcett Comics, publishers and right-owners of Captain Marvel in America, had to cease when
DC Comics threatened to sue due to similarities to Superman, L. Miller was faced with the reprint material drying up. So, ironically, he then created
Captain Ersatz versions of the character and his supporting cast. Marvelman's adventures lasted from 1954 to 1963, for about 350 weekly issues.
In 1982,
Alan Moore started writing new Marvelman stories for two years. When these were reprinted, pressure from
Marvel Comics caused the name to be changed to Miracleman. Moore started to write more stories when the reprints ran out of material. After the natural conclusion of Moore's storyline,
Neil Gaiman took over writing in the 90's, also taking it in a somewhat new direction. However, Eclipse Comics, the company that owned the rights to Miracleman, went under before the final issue of Gaiman's run, issue 25, was coloured and printed.
Sadly, after Gaiman's run ended in the early 1990s, many different people and companies claimed to hold the rights to Miracleman, and various side-characters within the story, including Todd McFarlane (who bought the rights from Eclipse but has done nothing with them),
Neil Gaiman (who held part of the rights when Eclipse went down) and many more. Although McFarlane is free to make characters based on Miracleman, conflict between rights-claimers meant for more than a decade that collections of the stories were near-impossible to print and many never got to see this magnificent story. Then it was announced at the San Diego Comic-Con 2009 that Marvel Comics has bought the rights to Miracleman (now calling him Marvelman, again) lock, stock and barrel. What they will do with those rights remains to be seen. So far, they have only announced reprints of the original 1950s stories.
Marvel has
recently promised
that the
Alan Moore and
Neil Gaiman years are coming, with the possibility of having Gaiman finish his story arc. . . when the last of the legal hurdles can be cleared.
Tropes included:
- All Just a Dream: In just the first few issues of the Alan Moore run it's revealed that the entire 1950's-60's run of Miracleman was just an elaborate dream induced simulation created by Miracleman's government handlers.
- Anti-Hero: Type V.
- Applied Phlebotinum: 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 and with a K.
- Because You Were Nice to Me - Subverted horribly by Kid Miracleman. Upon his escape from the hospital, he invokes this trope to the only nurse who was kind to him during his stay. Then returns and punches her head into pieces while she was smiling at being spared.
- Benevolent Alien Invasion
- Beware the Superman
- Black and Gray Morality - 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.
- Bus Full of Innocents - Quite literally, but subverted in that Miracleman himself throws it.
- Canon Discontinuity - The earlier Marvelman adventures happened only in a kind of Lotus-Eater Machine.
- City of Spies - Features in a short story later in the series.
- Completely Missing the Point - As Miracleman disconnects from humanity more and more, he starts to do this in regards to people's reactions.
- Continuity Reboot - The modern version.
- Darker and Edgier - Moore's interpretation.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him - magnificently subverted with the death of Gargunza. "I threw him at a planet."
- Enemy Mine - The threat of 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.
- Eye Beams: Johnny Bates has this ability, while Miracleman and others like him do not. Something which is not explained, though perhaps these are meant to be focused telekinesis.
- Flying Brick - Miracleman, Young Miracleman, Kid Miracleman, etc., in both versions.
- Imported Alien Phlebotinum - Responsible for the creation of the superhumans in the modern version (but not the original).
- Keep Circulating the Tapes: Due to the legal issues surrounding its rights, this series is out of print with no immediate plans to collect it or reprint the issues.
- Mad Scientist - Dr. Gargunza, in both the '50s comics and the Alan Moore version.
- Mistaken For Granite - 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.
- Psychopathic Manchild - Kid Miracleman and Young Nastyman
- Reed Richards Is Useless - 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 Kid Miracleman destroys London, however, Miracleman and his friends "go public," which changes every human society on every level.
- Re Vision - The modern version.
- Serial Escalation: One suspects he has the power to make up superpowers as he goes along like the Silver Age Superman, except instead of super-ventrilquism and super-knitting he invents things like super-horriblemurder or super-evil. Example of just how hard he went: while not fully shown or detailed how he acomplished 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.
- Stable Time Loop - In one of the original Warrior comics, and hinted at in Issue#15, Miracleman and the 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.
- Super Family Team
- Superhero Speciation - The superhumans created by Gargunza have the same Flying Brick power set.
- Apparently, they all have Psychic Powers, that's just how they manifested.
- Also, the Warpsmiths are all teleporters, and Firedrakes are pyrokinetic.
- Take That - After 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 "George" for his trust. It's pretty obvious it's George H.W. Bush, who became President the year the issue came out.
- Similarly, when Miracleman announces that the old ways are over, and the world will be remade, Margaret Thatcher insists the world's leaders will not allow it. Miracleman looks at her nonchalantly and responds, "'Allow?'"
- You Are Already Dead: The final fate of Evelyn Cream.
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