Miracleman/Marvelman

Anyone else a fan of it? I reread it the other day and it may just be my favourite work of Alan Moore's. What's going on with it at Marvel these days? Are they doing anything other than reprinting the "classic" strips yet? They've reverted the name to Marvelman again haven't they? Seems a shame because "Miracleman" sounds much, much better in my opinion.

Finally, what the hell is with the "family unfriendly aesop" example on Miracleman's entry here? Does anyone REALLY think that's the message the work was trying to get across? It's Alan flippin' Moore, for god's sake!

edited 3rd Jun '11 7:51:08 AM by Jonny0110

Moore's run was probably one of the best things I've read in terms of deconstructing comic book tropes and I actually prefer it to Watchmen. But are you sure the rights for the characters lie with Marvel now?

edited 2nd Jun '11 6:33:00 PM by eX

Yeah it's been mentioned here and there Marvel kind of waded into the whole dispute and bought everyone out. And I think I prefer it to Watchmen at the moment as well - not just because of the interesting ideas it raises but also because it's just darned awesome ("I threw him at a planet" springs to mind).

Miracleman was originally called Marvelman, wasn't it? 'Cuz Marvelman was the English publisher of Captain (Shazam) Marvel's attempt to keep the spirit of the character alive after DC won it's court case against Fawcett?

Yes, Marvelman was a Captain Marvel ripoff. Created when the British publisher wasn't able to reprint Captain Marvel any more.

When Alan Moore started writing Marvelman he couldn't very well CALL it that (Marvel would sue) so they called him Miracleman. Now that Marvel owns Marvelman, they can use the name.

I'm aware of all that - but I still think Miracleman sounds a lot better. Go on, say them both out loud. Which do you think?

First of all, whoever wrote the "family unfriendly aesop" thing clearly didn't understand the work.

Second, Marvel now has ownership over pre-Warrior Marvelman stories, and is reprinting them. Unfortunately, all pre-Warrior (and therefore pre-Moore) stories are unreadable tripe.

The rights to the stories in Warrior and all subsequent ones are unknown. If Marvel owned the rights they probably would have reprinted the Moore stories by now (cash fucking cow), but Moore has stated that reprint royalties would go partly to a charity, so who knows.

@Canondorf - I know, right? How could they think that was the intention behind the work? It makes me angry. Angry and tired.

As to the legal troubles - all I can say is "crud". I'd do anything for a physical copy of the Moore stuff (except for, you know, spend like hundreds of pounds on it). I really thought they had sorted it.

And yeah, the original strips... not so much...

Oh I agree, Miracleman does sound better.

Would be awesome if they did a (well done) videogame about Miracleman but hey, imagine them trying to license HIM into a videogame! The world would probably explode.

OK well Marvel are reprinting the Alan Moore stories starting Jan 2014 AND letting Gaiman finish his run AND keeping the Miracleman name! AWESOME.

http://marvel.com/news/story/21334/nycc_2013_miracleman

"Eighteen years. Eighteen years trapped in that old, tired body. It doesn't matter... It's over now!

I'm Miracleman!

I'M BACK!"

edited 13th Oct '13 12:50:51 PM by Jonny0110

As a complete Alan Moore fanboy, I love this news. I think Miracleman is the only comic of his that I haven't read (well, that and Lost Girls, but that's for other reasons). I might wait for the trades, though.

edited 14th Oct '13 1:54:06 AM by imadinosaur

Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.

Miracleman is by far my favourite of everything Moore's written and I'm really excited that Gaiman will be able to finish his run.

I definitely recommend everyone should read Miracleman. I personally think it's an amazing deconstructionist take on a Superman/Captain Marvel like character and their potential impact on society.

Starting the betting pool on when Alan Moore will say something ill-natured, crotchety, and un-self-aware about Gaiman's continuation, or about the reprint in general.

... Unless, of course, he's already beaten us to it.

I don't know, he and Gaiman are friends. Although he was apparently friends with at least one artist he worked with in the 80s*

that he now casts as a DC toady.

I think he'll leave it at what he's saying already, which is basically neutral for Molre

edited 14th Oct '13 9:15:53 AM by C0mraid

Am I a good man or a bad man?

Given he handed the project over to Gaiman originally, I'm thinking his response will be nothing. I would be highly surprised if he said anything negitive about Gaiman at all. Maybe that this project is old and he should work on something new and fresh.

Yeah it looks like they're reprinting the Moore run but respecting his wishes and leaving his name out of it. Personally, I'd want something good with my name on it to come out this soon after the third League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Oh no I didn't!

Yes, I did. It sucked.

edited 14th Oct '13 11:41:25 AM by Jonny0110

and Oh, I'm well aware they're friends ... but that's seldom stopped Moore from being a grouch, God bless him. One doubts Gaiman would take it personally.

It features Harry Potter jizzing a lighting bolt, shut up, it was great :L

Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.

My girlfriend bought me volumes 1 and 2 recently... I'd read them a while ago and somehow forgotten how great they were. The heartbreaking bit with Mr. Hyde... to go from that to "oooh, look at my great character Orlando and by the way, I hate Harry Potter!" is sad.

I mean, I'm totally indifferent to HP but if you don't like it, write a better story. Don't just bash it. that's boring. As we saw.

Anyway, I am really pleased they're keeping the Miracleman name. I'm guessing because changing it would fuck up the rhyme scheme of that poem/hymn in the festival from Gaiman's run.

They've also got a bunch of people running around with Marvel in their name. Captain Marvel. Blue Marvel. Marvel Boy. So on... adding in Marvel Man, Marvelwoman, Young Marvelman and Kid Marvelman might be confusing.

Yeah, Century — especially the 2010 section — was definitely one of the weakest things of his that I've read (it's still not as bad as his wildcats stuff lol). Even the good bits were weaker rehashes of his better stuff — the magic stuff was a poor repeat of Promethea, for example.

Also, his character assassination of James Bond was much better (more entertaining) than what he did to Harry Potter. I did honestly like the first two sections of it though, even if they weren't quite up to the standards of Volumes I and II. I think a lot of 2010's failure comes down to Moore not really knowing much contemporary pop culture.

Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.

Moore will mumble and grumble about this being a mere regurgitation on things belonging to the past and with other people's characters, and about comics needing to do new things with new characters... right before going to do more stuff with other people's characters from the past.

But it's totally not hypocrisy, because he's Alan Moore. Him, Byrne, and Miller have the biggest freakin' egos. Not entirely undeserved, but still.

edited 15th Oct '13 9:13:25 AM by RedM

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I wonder if they are going to include that graphic birth scene in issue 9.