I’ve read the Avengers on and off over the years, never sticking around for a long time but long enough to experience some pretty good stories. The 1980s run by Roger Stern, John Buscema, and Tom Palmer may be primarily remembered now for containing the first appearance of future Marvel movie star Nebula, but it really peaked with the multi-part “Masters of Evil” storyline. It’s a knock-down, drag-out battle between our heroes and a powerful group of villains, containing enough characterization, drama, and heart to keep it from just being action figures being smashed together.
The next, and ’til now, last time I read the regular monthly Avengers title was in the ’90s, when Kurt Busiek and George Pérez gave us a superhero adventure comic filled with solid writing and great art. It really was the top of the line when it came to Big Two superhero books of the period, emerging from the “Image” style and showing how coherent storytelling and professional illustration could tell memorable stories.
Aside from the occasional annual or special issue, and that first Avengers Forever mini, that was pretty much that.
And then there was this Avengers: Armageddon series. I’ve been a fan of its writer, Chip Zdarsky, for a long time, and enjoying his current superhero work. And on top of that, Avengers: Armageddon was tying into current and/or recent Marvel storylines that I am following, like the Red Hulk stuff, and all the Doctor Doom shenanigans, and Zdarsky’s own Captain America series. And even though I held that first issue of this new mini in my hands as I thought about whether or not I wanted to read this, I still decided “no.” Despite everything going for it, I just felt like I didn’t need another comic to try to keep up with, given the backlog I’m still trying to work through.
However, I came across some online chatter about what was supposedly going to happen in this comic, and my interest was piqued. If what was being talked about was true, then I was absolutely going to want to read this series and see what was going on.
“And what was going on, Mike?” I’m glad you asked, and I hope you clocked the SPOILER WARNING in the title of this post, because I’m a’gettin’ into it.
Last chance. No one to blame but yourself at this point. It starts after the cover scan here.
So anyway, Miracleman is back, and this time he’s firmly in the Marvel Universe. Well, kinda sorta. It’s finally the payoff to this one-shot from a few years ago, hinting…well, okay, not so much “hinting” as “straight up saying” that the character would pop into the Marvel Universe eventually. It’s still too early to say to what extent, if any, this is connected to the Miracleman storyline by Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman, et al., but I suspect, given the latter writer’s current scandals, this is an entirely separate iteration.
Long story short, Marvel spent some cash establishing its ownership over the somewhat confused legal status of this intellectual property, and by golly if they’re no longer able to monetize the other stuff, they’re gonna make some new stuff with it. Plus, the stuff they were trying to monetize was hampered by problems even before Gaiman’s current troubles, many of which I cover in this post. Basically, format issues, printing errors, and the simple fact that the property was old and mostly forgotten was keeping Marvel’s attempts at revival from getting any traction.
As I say at the end of that post, I’ve held for a long time that when it finally happened, Marvel would revert back to using the “Marvelman” name for their Marvel Universe version of the character, to keep it separate from the different, pretty-much-its-own-thing Miracleman run. (I believe I first theorized that in this 2013 post.) Again, we just got Miracleman, or somebody like him, in this new Avengers: Armageddon issue, so I don’t know where we’re going yet. Tellingly, the “next issue” page for the issue directs readers to a “Who Is Miracleman?” story on their digital comics platform, so maybe they are sticking with the name? Too many characters with “Marvel” in their names already, perhaps?
By the way, that “Who Is Miracleman” comic, produced in 2023 presumably for the return of the Gaiman/Mark Buckingham “Silver Age” chapter, seems like it would be mostly confusing, if not incomprehensible, to anyone actually new to the character. It’s a short “highlights” reel of What Had Gone Before in the Moore/Gaiman era, and the huge gaps and jumps I can fill in myself because I’ve read it all, but I wonder how someone who hadn’t could deal with it. (And notably, aside from a Miracleman special by other creators, there is no other Miracleman material on the digital service.)
How much is any of that going to apply to what’s currently going on, anyway? To keep it very short, David Colton, who had been a replacement Captain America for Steve Rogers, is given new powers by a New Super Powers Machine (an “Origin Box” from the Ultimate Universe — yet another long story), putting him in the Miracle/Marvelman costume and presumably giving him that same power set. It’s even down to the same ability to do a Captain Marvel/”Shazam!”-esque transformation by saying the magic work “KIMOTA” (in a sequence deliberately cribbed from Moore’s very first Marvelman short). It doesn’t appear to be tied to the Mike Moran (Marvelman’s civilian identity) version of the character at all, but again, we’re still way early in the process here.
As I said, before this issue even came out, there was a lot of talk about this happening, which is probably the most interest the character has had in a long time. By forcing Marvel readers to engage with Miracleman (or whatever, I just keep using both names) by putting the concept squarely in the center of an Avengers comic, fans can’t just ignore it like they could some weird decades-old thing that was revived solely for people in their late middle age who 1) are still alive, 2) are still reading comics and 3) remember it from the last time it was on the stands. It is now officially A Marvel Thing, so, I guess, coming soon to a movie screen near you? We’ll see.
At any rate, I don’t know why I’ve been so antsy about spoiler warnings when Marvel itself just plain put Miracleman on one of the variant covers for this issue, which you can see if you click the Avengers: Armageddon cover I posted above. And yes, that’s the cover I took for myself. (And yes, by all rights I should put this post under the miraclemarvelman category, but I didn’t want that being an inadvertent spoiler right at the top of the page. I’ll add it later.)
EDIT: Marvel has put out a press release specifically identifying the character’s name as “Miracleman.”
I’d say the only thing you’ve missed out on Avengers after Busiek is the Jonathan Hickman era.
That is as long as you’ve read the Steven Englehart run from the ‘70s as well.
You get an Avengers run worth reading about once a decade:
‘70s: Englehart
‘80s: Stern
‘90s: Busiek
‘10s: Hickman
As far as Miracleman, it was one of the worst kept secrets in comic history. They kept giving little hints about bringing Miracleman in the Marvel Universe. Then, all of a sudden, the line-up for the new Avengers team listed that a “redacted” character was also going to be a member. Who else in current-day Marvel would require a “redacted” other than Miracleman?
I think Marvel/Miracleman is a character whose time has passed. There’s so much baggage associated with him, it seems impossible to use him effectively now.
Then again, Animal Man was a character whose time had passed until Grant Morrison wrote him, so who knows?
And it’s a huge mistake to put him firmly in the MU. Marvel is not great with Superman-type characters, and what will MM add that Hyperion, Sentry or Blue Marvel couldn’t? I don’t think the general Avengers reading audience is going to care, and I don’t think MM is going to last.
Also, I don’t think the red hair looks right.
Chris V – I really should read those Englehart Avengers at some point…that particular period of Marvel is one I do enjoy, so I suspect I’ll like ’em.
Daniel T. – I did delete a paragraph where I speculated on the need for a Superman-level hero in the Marvel Universe when we already had (as you mentioned) Hyperion and Sentry, plus Gladiator. I am willing to see if this brings something new to the table other than “might as well us it, we paid money for it.”
Hickman even did some interesting things with Hyperion as a member of the Avengers during his run.
Where’s Wundarr (created by Steve Gerber) when Marvel needs their Superman pastiche? Wundarr is the one that Marvel should be putting the time and effort into making an Avenger.
Wundarr’s parents believe their home planet is going to be destroyed and send Wundarr into space on an escape pod. His parents are wrong, and they send their son away for no reason.
His life pod crashes on Earth, but the elderly couple who witness the crash decide they can’t be bothered to check the crash site.
The life pod provides the physical care to ensure that Wundarr survives and grows, but there are no computers or anything educational, so Wundarr grows to maturity with the mind of an infant.
Eventually, Man-Thing opens the pod, with Wundarr believing that Man-Thing is his “mommy”.
So, he has all the powers of an adult Superman, but the mind of an adolescent child.
Unfortunately, a later story sees Wundarr’s mind connect with that of a Cosmic Cube, which allows his mental powers to advance as greatly as his Earth-born physical powers. However, Wundarr remains himself the Aquarian and devotes his life to pacifism, which is also an interesting take on Superman.
Aquarian eventually founds his own cult devoted to pacifism and spiritual enlightenment.
Now, isn’t this (either version) a more interesting “Superman pastiche” to add to the Avengers instead of Miracleman?
Question from Old Man Wayne: why did Marvel just not use a “Marvel Man” character 1/before this or/and 2/during this Avengers dealie?
Mike? MIKE?
And just think, none of this would be happening if a jealous National Comics hadn’t sued Fawcett 85 years ago…
That dude looks like he’s cosplaying Miracleman at a convention. So weird, but God bless.
Marvel pretty much poisoned their own market by publishing the original material that no one actually cared about. By the time they worked out whatever prevented them from publishing the Moore material for so long, they had already positioned the property as nothing special. They probably should have skipped single issues altogether and gone right to the collected Moore HCs and TPBs first, realizing that it might mean losing money in the short team, with the potential of an evergreen in the long-term. They certainly weren’t helped by Moore’s bizarrely recurring tendency to put personal grievances ahead of making his (and his cocreators’) work accessible to new readers.
Not that they were ever in the discussion to acquire the property, but I feel DC would have shepherded it better.
Hickman’s Avengers is great, but also perhaps the most Hickman book ever. Almost entirely about the long game rather than the more digestible bits. Fantastic Four and X-Men both had better jumping on points.
X-Men has a better jumping on point (being pretty much a soft reboot of the franchise), but Hickman also leaves halfway through the story. Which may be described as the new most Hickman thing to happen.
I still love House and Powers of X so much, but I don’t know how to recommend that by itself with the fact that Hickman moved his story forward very little with his X-Men run and will just leave with “Inferno”. I would definitely recommend his Fantastic Four first if someone wanted the best of Hickman writing superheroes.
I kind of just view HoxPox as a standalone story at this point. It’s my favorite X-book ever, and I don’t think it’s diminished by the follow up. New status quos get bungled all the time, it doesn’t mean the original story is any worse.
Perhaps the new “Miracle Man” is actually “Fat Marvel” (a redhead from the Lieutenant Marvels –who are three kids named “Billy Batson,” just like the “real” Billy Batson. In addition to “Fat Marvel,” there was “Tall Marvel” and “Hillbilly Marvel” — there was no “City Slicker” Marvel, however) who lost some weight and experienced amnesia after a calamity which pulled him from the Fawcett Universe into the Marvel Universe…
I’m also not sure what value yet another Superman-ish character adds to Marvel. Now, introduce the Qys and Warpsmiths to the Marvel universe sitting one tier above the current most powerful cosmic races, maybe that has potential…
“They certainly weren’t helped by Moore’s bizarrely recurring tendency to put personal grievances ahead of making his (and his cocreators’) work accessible to new readers.”
Undoubtedly the man’s a genius, but his refusal to permit even the reprinting of the six extant issues of ‘1963’ was the last straw for me. But I digress…
“…I can fill in myself because I’ve read it all, but I wonder how someone who hadn’t could deal with it.”
well. since you actively *asked…
i started reading comics in 85. we didn’t have any comics shops in a radius my parents were willing to drive for something so trivial, so i never got my hands on miracleman comics in that era. decades later i would, (and again, since you asked!) i found them to be plodding, uninteresting, and really unremarkable.
now, i DO have an explanation for that!
since this was the original grim and gritty period, and moore himself would continue in that vein of deconstruction and shame many, many other writers into doing things his way, (“wow how could i possible compete with ALAN FRICKIN MOORE?”) i”ve seen everything in miracleman happen over and over again for literal decades. i won’t say it was done BETTER since, but the veneer of that type of work being essentially unheard of wasn’t there when i got to them. some things are a product of their times, and once they unleash a concept, and that concept is run with as extensively and frankly done to death as deconstruction and “realistically” couched stories of ultraviolence, even the progenitors of a given concept are just another example of it.
Ive struggled to get through each and every issue i got my hands on. and i WANTED TO! this was the unbelievably IMPORTANT Miracleman! Grandaddy of “what if superman were bad?! stories. It was supposed to MATTER. But it was just kinda…there.
Some things are a product of their times and environments, and when you remove either of those factors, well…sometimes, like an in-joke, you really had to be there.
That’s a super interesting perspective, and it makes a lot of sense. If I may be blasphemous for a moment: there are elements of Moore’s Miracleman that aren’t that great: reprinting from Warrior makes the pace kind of choppy at the beginning, the art isn’t consistent until Totleben steps in. And other elements aren’t very modern, Moore’s wordiness being one of the main culprits. Sometimes his prose is beautiful — and I’d argue it improves over the course of the series — but it can also just be a lot of text.
All of this to say that Miracleman is the prototype for what comes later, and it no doubt has importance because of that, but that also makes it kind of a rough draft for cleaner versions down the road, many of them also written by a more experienced Moore. So I’d argue that superhero revisionism *has* been done better than Miracleman, if for no other reason than creators have that text to work from and improve on over time.
That doesn’t mean I don’t love it or that I don’t desperately want to see its original plan concluded, but I can see why it’s a niche property now. It’s been out of the spotlight for so long, and its themes have been played endlessly since, that it’s probably only old fans like me who buy the new issues. I would argue that even Alan Moore’s name doesn’t have the cache it once did. It’s not like he was writing anything new for the series, after all. “Alan Moore returns to comics!” might sell some books, but “Alan Moore doesn’t want his name on this old thing!” probably didn’t.
So I guess I can see why Marvel is trying a different tack with old MM, but it’s the same old problem: do enough people actually care about this character anymore? Hopefully, the speculation market can work a little magic and get some readers interested.
DC buy Miracleman?
They already own Superman AND Captain Marvel, they definitely don’t need a third guy.
Miracleman was a happy accident- right place, right time, right team. Moore could do whateber he wanted and explore whatever he wanted because it was a dead property nobody cared about even then. Kill everyone off, eberything you know is a lie, turn the violence up to 11- go nuts, brother.
I like Moore’s run. You can see a LOT of ideas that played out more fully later, it’s really the first time something like this had been tried on the level of a floppy or a weekly rather than an “adult” cheekily taking apart their childhood favorite (Helloooooo Larry Niven and also David Brin to the white courtesy phone please) in a fanzine or ‘legit’ sci-fi story. Gaiman’s addemdum doesn’t go anywhere because Moore wrote a complete story. There’s nothing else to say.
I think it holds up as an early example of a specific genre, the art exhibits genuine violence and horror, and Moore even sneaks in the cheesiest of Big Red Cheese resolutions (I’ll trick him into saying his magic word again!). Mr. Mxyzptlk would be proud.
What MARVEL is planning to do with this is beyond my ken.
What I hope: Hey kids, This is the “kimota effect” of Earth-616. It works differently a lot of places, like the Star Brand. We told you there were a lot of Earths. Remember when the Fury showed up? No? Ask Dad. This is even worse, it’s the poster child for out of control power sets, you better pray he’s the only one who shows up. The SIDEKICK is gonna rip Thor’s head off. It’s everything you hate about overpowered DC supes brought to life. Time to juggle some planets. In essense, the Superboy Prime of the Marvel side.
What I expect: Some PG-13+ punching and a Deus Ex Machina. (The Sentry will return in Avengers:Doomsday) Nostalgia ride for a bit. He joins the Avengers. the most corporate good guys ever? Come on.
NOTE: My predictions have been off before.
Maybe it can be resolved in Marvel/DC crossover event: Captain “Shazam” Marvel vs Miracle Man…
…or else The Consortium of Reed Richardses, Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Dr. Doom, Magneto, Mephisto, Loki, Thanos, Adam Warlock, Galactus, The Celestials, et al can defeat Miracle Man…
…or bring in The Beyonder from over yonder …
“I’ve read the Avengers on and off over the years, never sticking around for a long time but long enough to experience some pretty good stories. The 1980s run by Roger Stern, John Buscema, and Tom Palmer may be primarily remembered now for containing the first appearance of future Marvel movie star Nebula, but it really peaked with the multi-part “Masters of Evil” storyline. It’s a knock-down, drag-out battle between our heroes and a powerful group of villains, containing enough characterization, drama, and heart to keep it from just being action figures being smashed together.”
THAT IS SO WELL DONE! Dude knew how to end a run. Which is still the BEST Avengers run, as far as I’m concerned.
I might be the only one, but I didn’t like Hickman’s Avengers (main title only, I didn’t read his New Avengers, the Illuminati book that I’ve heard good things about). I thought it was boring, overstuffed with characters I didn’t care about doing mostly nothing, and bailed during a particularly lifeless story featuring Captain America time-traveling. There were good moments (Hyperion interacting with Thor, Sunspot’s characterization) but too much dull spectacle.
Anyway, nobody cares about the character or concept of Miracleman. They just liked the Alan Moore series. We already have Thor or Captain Marvel to be the Avengers’ powerhouse, as well as the above-mentioned Superman expies.
That said, I’m enjoying Avengers Armageddon, and am willing to see if Zdarsky & co can make Miracleman into something interesting. David Colton is already an engaging character, so this version is starting off with a decent foundation. We’ll see where it goes from here.
(I also recommend the Englehart run of Avengers, it’s a hoot.)
I just can’t help but wonder what this means for The Sentry, who pretty much only exists because marvel didn’t have access to MM, and has never known what to do with.