the return of MarvelMan

[sergebroom]

When I went to the comics store yesterday, I got myself the 3rd issue of ”In the Service of Angels”, Mike Mignola’s 5-issue story about Sir Edward Grey, Victorian witchfinder and occult detective. And I heard some news about MarvelMan.

There was a poster showing the character so of course I had to ask if MiracleMan was really coming back. “Miracleman? MarvelMan? Which is it?” you may ask. The answer: both. In 1954, British comic-book MarvelMan had been created to make up for its publisher not having access to America’s Captain Marvel anymore. Their solution was a character like Captain Marvel, down to the hero being a young man who, upon uttering a certain word, would turn into a superhero. The series lasted about a decade. In 1982, Alan Moore brought the character back to life and, being who he was, his MarvelMan was no silly Captain Marvel.



When American publisher Eclipse pursued publishing the character in 1985, Marvel Comics objected so a name change was in order. Thus did MarvelMan become MiracleMan. By the time Moore left, MiracleKid had wiped out most of London before MiracleMan could stop him, and Earth was now under the rule of MM himself, with the help of the aliens whose technology had led to his birth. Neil Gaiman then took on the writing duties and told tales of our world after we’d stopped being its masters.

Then the series just stopped(1).

It’ll soon be back, and, ironically enough, will be published by Marvel Comics. MiracleMan has become MarvelMan again. Gaiman is still the writer, but it’s not quite clear whether the new stories will be a reboot, or a continuation of what went on before.

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(1) Due to various problems about who owned the rights to the character For more details, go here.

Comments

[soon_lee]

I really want to believe, I really do, but it won't be real I have the rest of the Gaiman/Buckingham issues in my clammy fanboy hands.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

I know the feeling. Have you read anything by Gaiman where he says what his plans are?

[soon_lee]

Nope. But it's rekindled my desire to see where they were going with the unfinished storyline, especially the bit with the asylum/rehab for spies.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

That spy was in the story arc called the Golden Age, along with the Andy Warhol robot, if I remember correctly. I'm not sure if Gaiman had been planning to have either character show up in the following arc, about the Silver Age, but that one is where the story just stopped. If I had known about the revival, I'd have asked Gaiman, at the worldcon.

[soon_lee]

I must be misremembering. The Silver Age was about Miracleboy and his sexuality wasn’t it? I’ll have to go dig out those old issues for a re-read.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

Yes, the Silver Age was the one where MiracleMan brought Young MiracleMan's body out of the subspace where his body was merged with Dickie Dauntless to have him fixed. Then MM kissed him, assuming that YMM was a closet gay, and that didn't go well.

[pedanther]

The most recent word I've seen from Neil Gaiman was on his blog at the end of July, just after Marvel made the announcement:

Right now I'm not entirely sure what's going to happen, and Mark Buckingham and I haven't signed anything, but I'm really hopeful that Marvel will bring Alan Moore's stories back into print, and the work I did with Mark Buckingham (Miracleman 25 was finished, ready for printing, 16 years ago. It's still in Mark Buckingham's possession, although some of the lettering balloons have gone a bit yellow.) I'm not entirely sure what Marvel's plans are for the character at this point -- obviously I'd like to finish the story I started.

Nothing since then, but whether that's because he hasn't heard anything more or just because he's been too busy to mention it I don't know.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

Maybe he's had too many false starts with the character to assume that anything is a done deal. Well, whether Gaiman reboots or continues where he'd left off, I'll be reading.