Miracleman

AUTHOR: Moore, Alan

ARTIST: Alan Davis (illustrator); Garry Leach (illustrator); John Totleben (illustrator); Chuck Beckum (penciller); Rick Veitch (penciller); Rick J. Bryant (inker); John Ridgway (inker); Ron Courtney (colorist); Sam Parsons (colorist); G. George (letterer); Wayne Truman (letterer); Howard Chaykin (cover artist); Paul Gulacy (cover artist); John K. Snyder III (cover artist); Jim Starlin (cover artist); Tim Truman (cover artist)

PUBLISHER: Eclipse Comics

FIRST SERIAL PUBLICATION: 1985-1989

FIRST BOOK PUBLICATION: 1988

Publication History

In 1982, the black-and-white British magazine Warrior hired Alan Moore to write its lead comic strip. Moore and artist Garry Leach reintroduced Marvelman, a British superhero created by Mick Anglo in the 1950s. The comics were produced in short installments of six to eight pages each. Alan Davis took over the art, and the series earned high praise. However, Warrior ceased publication at the end of 1984, leaving both Marvelman and Moore’s V for Vendetta unfinished.

The following year, an American company, Eclipse Comics, began reprinting the series in color under the new title of Miracleman, renaming it for legal reasons involving Marvel Comics. In 1986, the series finished reprinting the British stories and began publishing new stories by Moore, picking up where the Warrior stories had left off.

After an issue of reprints not written by Moore, issue 9 featured a special notice on the cover alerting readers of graphic scenes depicting childbirth. John Totleben became the series’ artist for the final six issues of Moore’s run. These issues comprise book 3, which features a significant shift in tone and art. The publication of these issues was somewhat irregular; they often appeared four or more months apart. Eclipse published collected editions of Moore’s three volumes in both hardcover and trade paperback.

After Moore’s run ended in 1989, Neil Gaiman took over the title; however, when Eclipse went bankrupt, Gaiman’s story was left unfinished. Since then, Miracleman has been a source of legal contention. Anglo claimed the rights to the 1950s stories; Moore claimed the rights to his own stories and then gave the rights to Gaiman; and Todd McFarlane, who purchased the rights to the Eclipse catalog after its bankruptcy, also claimed ownership. Marvel Comics began publishing reprints of Anglo’s original stories, and Gaiman and McFarlane engaged in a high-profile lawsuit; the fate of the Moore and Gaiman stories remained undetermined as of 2011, and the issues remain out of print.

Plot

Moore begins the story by introducing Mike Moran, a middle-aged reporter who has been suffering from nightmares. While covering a terrorist threat at a nuclear facility, Moran remembers to say the word “Kimota,” which transforms him into a powerful superhero. In his new form, Miracleman, he defeats the terrorists and returns home to explain everything to his wife, Liz.

Moran remembers first receiving the magic word from a mysterious astrophysicist in 1954 and thus becoming Miracleman. Along with two sidekicks, Young Miracleman and Kid Miracleman, he formed a family of crime fighters, but a nuclear explosion in 1963 killed his two partners and erased his memory.

Johnny Bates, the former Kid Miracleman, contacts Moran. He has become a successful businessman, but Moran quickly surmises that he has turned into an evil incarnation of his Kid Miracleman persona. Kid Miracleman is tricked into saying his magic word; he transforms into the child form of Bates and has to be hospitalized.

As Liz helps Miracleman test his superpowers, a mysterious figure named Dennis Archer hires assassin Evelyn Cream to kill Miracleman. However, Cream double-crosses Archer and offers to show Miracleman the truth of his origin. Miracleman learns that he and his fellow crime fighters were kidnapped and used as experiments in Project Zarathustra. Overseen by Dr. Emil Gargunza, the secret project used alien technology to help create superhuman bodies for the youths to share. The three victims were kept asleep and fed fantasies of life as comic book superheroes. In other words, Miracleman never really existed.

In Book 2, Moran returns to Liz, who is pregnant. However, agents of Dr. Gargunza kidnap Liz. Moran contacts Cream, transforms into Miracleman, and attempts to rescue Liz. Meanwhile, Dr. Gargunza explains his life story to Liz, from his involvement with Adolf Hitler to his work with Project Zarathustra. His secret plan was to use one of the superheroes he bred to obtain immortality.

When Miracleman and Cream arrive, Gargunza uses a special word that transforms Miracleman into Moran for one hour. He unleashes a dog with similarly created superpowers to hunt Moran and Cream. The dog kills Cream, and Moran kills the dog. He then morphs into Miracleman and brutally kills all the men who were holding his wife. He takes Gargunza to the edge of outer space and then throws him back to Earth. Miracleman then rescues Liz, who goes into labor; Miracleman delivers his daughter. All seems good until the newborn turns her head and says, “Mama.”

Book 3 is set in 1987 and opens with Miracleman in his constructed utopia, Olympus. He starts writing a journal that retells the events of the past five years. He describes an attack by two alien creatures known as the Qys, who first possessed the technology that allowed Miracleman’s creation.

When one of the aliens threatens Liz and her daughter, Winter, a mysterious woman dressed like Miracleman appears. This woman, Miraclewoman, describes her experiences as one of the test subjects of a scientific experiment similar to one Miracleman underwent. She and Miracleman travel to the planet Qys and attempt to negotiate a diplomatic situation between the Qys and another race. When Miracleman returns, Liz has grown dissatisfied and is frightened by Winter, who is learning to manipulate her mother’s emotions and moods. Liz leaves, and Miracleman has a long discussion with Winter, who is more articulate and powerful than her father, even though she is still an infant.

Near the conclusion of Book 3, Miracleman describes his final confrontation with Kid Miracleman. The two wage a furious battle that destroys much of London. After finally winning, Miracleman begins constructing a utopia, working with Miraclewoman to enforce their vision of perfection on the world and even offering superhuman bodies to many of the humans. Liz, however, refuses to participate, leaving an isolated Miracleman to wonder about both his choices and his gradual disconnection from humanity.

Volumes

•Miracleman, Book One: A Dream of Flying (1988). Collects Miracleman, issues 1-3. Features the return of Miracleman, his battle with Kid Miracleman, and the discovery of his true origins.

•Miracleman, Book Two: The Red King Syndrome (1990). Collects Miracleman, issues 4-7 and 9-10. Features Miracleman’s battle with Dr. Gargunza and the birth of his daughter, Winter.

•Miracleman, Book Three: Olympus (1990). Collects Miracleman, issues 11-16. Features the return of Miraclewoman, Miracleman’s journey to Qys, his defeat of Kid Miracleman, and his attempt to create a utopia.

Characters

•Miracleman, a.k.a. Mike Moran, is the protagonist. In his human form, he is a middle-aged, out-of-shape, blond-haired reporter, but when he utters the word “Kimota,” he transforms into Miracleman, a seven-foot, godlike creature with blond hair, a blue spandex outfit, and red boots. He has numerous superpowers, including flight, superstrength, and invulnerability.

•Liz Moran is an artist and the wife of Mike Moran. She has dark hair. Her relationship with Moran is strong initially, but after the birth of their baby, she begins to feel she is an inadequate companion for Miracleman and mother to Winter.

•Kid Miracleman, a.k.a. Johnny Bates, is the primary antagonist in the series. In his human form, he is a small-framed teenager with short dark hair, but as Kid Miracleman, he is an adult with similarly cropped dark hair. A former sidekick of Miracleman, he has amassed a fortune and has ambitions to rule the world. His powers are similar to Miracleman’s.

•Evelyn Cream is an assassin but ultimately becomes a friend to Miracleman. He is African American; wears large, reflective glasses; and has sapphire teeth. He is hired to eliminate Miracleman but decides to help him instead.

•Dr. Emil Gargunza is one of the principal antagonists of Miracleman. Exceedingly short, wearing glasses, he is a brilliant scientist who participates in Project Zarathustra for his own reasons. His primary goal is to breed superheroes in order to usurp their powers.

•Winter is the self-named daughter of Miracleman and Liz Moran. She appears as an infant and then as a blond-haired toddler in the series. Her powers manifest in infancy, providing her with the ability to speak and control other people’s emotions.

•Miraclewoman, a.k.a. Avril Lear, is a female counterpart to Miracleman, with similar powers, created at roughly the same time as Miracleman. She was exploited sexually by Dr. Gargunza, but she escapes and works as a doctor before seeking Miracleman. She also becomes a romantic interest and partner for Miracleman in Book 3.

Artistic Style

Even though the first two books account for only nine issues, the series featured four different artists. The initial look of the series, as established by Leach, is dark. The key events occur at night, and Leach uses heavy shading and many silhouettes. He also radically changes the panel breakdowns from page to page, opening the story with page-width, horizontal panels stacked atop each other and then dividing the next page in half, with a large, single panel on the top half of the page and four vertical panels placed side by side on the bottom half. These constant variations add a sense of unpredictability to the story, which seems particularly appropriate given the experiments Moore is making with the narrative.

Davis continues this approach in issue 2, and his figure drawing is comparable to Leach’s; thus, the book maintains a level of consistency in the early issues. The biggest difference between the two styles involves the brightness of Davis’s work. Unlike Leach, who strove for a dirty, grimy, and terrifying tone, Davis goes for a relatively clean, crisp look with more clearly defined, less shadowy facial features.

Chuck Beckum took over for two issues and added an exaggerated and cartoonish style. While the transition from Leach to Davis is smooth, the jump from Davis to Beckum is somewhat jarring. The next two issues, including the childbirth issue, are drawn by Rick Veitch, who worked with Moore on Swamp Thing. Veitch uses more consistent panel breakdowns, and he also contrasts the appearance of Miracleman with all the other characters in the story. While the facial features of Liz, Kid Miracleman, and even the newborn infant are grotesquely exaggerated, Miracleman’s features are soft, clear, and angelic, with little shading. He appears like a drawing from the 1950s, pasted into a contemporary horror comic. This approach helps to reinforce the gradual way in which Miracleman is detaching from the rest of the world, and it subtly helps to prepare for the events of Book 3.

After frequent changes in the art, Totleben finally brought a consistent vision to the series. In keeping with the epic nature of the Olympus story, Totleben uses a distant tableau approach. He frequently uses two-page spreads that encompass the many landscapes presented—postapocalyptic, utopian, and alien. This approach slows down the action, which fits with the narration, recapping the untold events of the preceding five years. Totleben, who also worked on Swamp Thing, uses heavy shading and darkness throughout, which underscores Book 3’s essential irony: All utopias are built atop any number of crimes and indecencies.

Themes

Miraclewoman describes herself as essentially a “cartoon” from a flat, paper world thrown into a real, multidimensional world. That description crystallizes the basic premise for this series. In other words, what if superheroes were real? Book 1 critiques the inherent flaws in traditional superhero stories. In fact, when Moran first relates his new “memories” of being Miracleman to his wife, she laughs at the ridiculousness of the story, mocking its implausible elements. Moran has to stop several times and clarify that he knows the story sounds absurd. This self-reflexive critique of Miracleman’s comic book past is both specific to the Miracleman character, who was admittedly a reworking of the American hero, Captain Marvel, and to the more universal tradition of comic book superheroes. This twofold critique merges at the end of Book 1 when Miracleman learns that his entire “history” is a lie. In its place, Moore posits a more plausible origin involving shadow governments and industrial tycoons.

After dismantling the traditions of the comic book superhero, Moore uses Book 2 to present a more realistic notion of how such characters would really behave. After finding Gargunza’s hideout, Miracleman systematically confronts and brutally kills each of the henchmen. While the graphic violence is horrific, Miracleman’s demeanor remains business-like. He does not savor the killings, nor does he suffer guilt. Moore suggests that the traditional approach to heroes and villains, cemented in the restrictions of the Comics Code Authority, is unrealistic, and that any creature with as much power as Miracleman would freely kill those he believed deserved killing. Moore balances these moments of detached violence with the birth of Winter in the following issue, reminding Miracleman of the beauty and miracle of childbirth; even then, however, the revelation that Winter can speak undercuts any sense of common humanity.

Moore uses Book 3 to draw his conclusions. Having dismantled the origin of his hero and detached him from the rest of humanity, Moore speculates about what such a being might do if given time. In Olympus, Moore elevates Miracleman to godhood. As an all-powerful being, mostly severed from humanity, Miracleman gradually begins enforcing his will on the planet below. During his final battle with Kid Miracleman, he throws vehicles full of people at his enemy, dismissing them as collateral damage. Cults begin to worship him, and he completely restructures the Earth’s economy before creating Olympus, his utopia. Near the end, he declares his human form dead and says goodbye to Liz. The final image depicts the superhero/god as aloof and alone, nagged only by lingering thoughts of Liz, which blend, ultimately, with the more abstract notion of merely having lingering thoughts. Moore destroys traditional superheroes, reconstructs them, and then takes the myth to full fruition, so that when Moore’s Miracleman ends, so does almost anything anyone might want to say about superheroes.

Impact

In many ways, Alan Moore’s run on Miracleman marks the beginning of the Modern Age in mainstream comics. Featuring a revisionist context, realistic characterization and dialogue, self-reflexive themes, graphic violence, and adult subject matter, Miracleman represents one of the first fully realized adult superhero stories. Miracleman is the prototype for Frank Miller’s Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (1986) and Moore’s Watchmen (1987).

Book 3 pushes the boundaries of the superhero story as far as anyone has attempted, extending the basic premise of the all-powerful hero to its logical conclusion by transforming the character into a god, a mostly benevolent fascist who loses touch with humanity. In a sense, Moore tears down the superhero story in the first arc, deconstructs it in the second, and then kills it in the third. While some series, such as Warren Ellis’s The Authority (1999- ) and Grant Morrison’s All-Star Superman (2005-2008), have toyed with the ideas presented in Book 3, none has taken them in as radical a direction.

The historical significance of this series cannot be emphasized enough; it has also impacted the business side of the industry, thanks to its famously troubled legal history. The various claims of ownership of the character and stories have helped to illustrate the legal and ethical complexities of multiple creators working with corporations.

Further Reading

Ellis, Warren, et al. The Authority (1999- ).

Miller, Frank. Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (1986).

Moore, Alan, and Dave Gibbons. Watchmen (1987).

Moore, Alan, et al. Swamp Thing (1984-1987).

Bibliography

Callahan, Timothy. “Marvelman, Part One: Behold the Superman.” Comic Book Resources, August 3, 2009. http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=22381.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. “Marvelman, Part Two: Miracleman Ascendant.” Comic Book Resources, August 10, 2009.http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=22479.

Khoury, George. The Extraordinary Works of Alan Moore. Raleigh, N.C.: TwoMorrows, 2008.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Kimota! The Miracleman Companion—The Definitive Edition. Raleigh, N.C.: TwoMorrows, 2010.