 The history of Miracleman is fairly complex. It starts with Captain
Marvel, originally published by Fawcett Comics in the 1940s. If we understand Superman as the
archetypal costumed super-powered being, characterized most by strength and flight (or the
illusion thereof, given that the earliest depictions of Superman were supposed to be merely
leaping spectacularly, though this was treated even then like steered flight), we must understand
that there were not so many derivatives of this archetype. Superman's cape and lack of wings or
other visible means of flight were important and fairly unique traits at the time. It was for
this reason that Marvel Comics placed silly little wings on the Sub-Mariner's feet. Well,
Fawcett's Captain Marvel was essentially just like Superman, except that his alter ego was a boy
-- all the better for wish fulfillment fantasies -- instead of a lovelorn, introverted reporter.
It was an era of copying, of frantic art and low wages, of printing with near disregard for the
law. But Captain Marvel's case was special: he sold better than Superman; Fawcett was making
big bucks. Though Captain Marvel ever drifted more towards clever humor and away from his very
Superman-derivative beginnings, creating girl and boy versions prior to Supergirl or Superboy,
DC Comics sued Fawcett for infringing the Superman copyright. The legal battle became protracted.
Fawcett surrendered in 1953, by which time super-heroes weren't selling very well and the profits
weren't there to justify continued legal action. This was the infamous lawsuit over Captain
Marvel, for which DC was long demonized in the 1970s to the 1990s without regard for historical
context; the charge against DC was convenient, given that Captain Marvel's Fawcett issues were
fondly remembered and stopped at the right time (so that no one watched their quality
disintegrate), and had more to do with Jack Kirby's fight over his original art, which many
creators publically aided, and with the fiascos over
Alan Moore
and Rick Veitch, than the lawsuit itself.
Less known was the fact that England had its own version of Captain Marvel,
a sort of grandchild to Superman. During Fawcett's own publication, Len Miller & Son published
black-and-white reprints of Captain Marvel and the rest of the Marvel Family, including Mary
Marvel and Captain Marvel, Junior. Fawcett turned off the faucet of American material in 1954,
leaving an impending need for new material. Captain Marvel thus transformed into Marvelman, a
new character closer to Captain Marvel than he had been to Superman. The Marvel Family
transformed as well, with Captain Marvel, Junior becoming Young Marvelman and Mary Marvel given a
sex change to become Kid Marvelman. DC seemed uninterested in a lawsuit, doubtlessly not because
of any greater divergence between characters but instead because of England's different laws,
geographical distance, and small audience; in other words, Marvelman, a black-and-white feature
available only in England, was hardly competition for Superman, who therefore let him be. The
Marvelman titles -- including Marvelman, Young Marvelman, and Marvelman
Family -- were published prolifically until low profits forced their cancellation in 1963,
by which time sleeker super-heroes were popular again in the United States.
The magazine-sized British periodical, Warrior, revived Marvelman
as one of its black-and-white serials.
Alan Moore
wrote the serial, which was first published in early 1982 -- almost two decades after Marvelman
had last been seen. Gary Leach provided the art, but left quickly to work on Warpsmith stories
and was replaced by Alan Davis. The serial was successful and spawned a one-shot entitled
Marvelman Special #1. It was, as the cover itself pointed out, the first time a title
had featured the Marvelman name in twenty years. Marvel Comics, however, was less than
enthused and threatened Warrior with legal action over the prominent display of the
Marvel name. It was a case similar to that of Captain Marvel, who has for the same reason
continually appeared under the title Shazam!, despite that Captain Marvel was
copyrighted and the Marvel name appeared on his titles prior to Timely Comics even taking on
the name Marvel. Marvelman also pre-dated Marvel Comics and had even existed alongside the
early 1960s Marvel titles, a legacy invoked by the cover of Marvelman Special #1. But
that same cover admitted Marvelman's two-decade absence, during which Marvel Comics had come to
dominate the Marvel name. Ultimately, any such arguments were irrelevant in comparison to
Marvel Comics' money and (reportedly brutally-weilded) legal might: Warrior and its
owners simply did not have the finances required to battle the multi-million-dollar American
corportation. This apparently contributed to Warrior #19 being the last issue to feature
Marvelman, whose story was left woefully incomplete.
Alan Moore
had conceived the story as a series of books, and publication was suspended during the second
of these. The entire situation, as well his perception of Marvel Comics' insensitivity, caused
Alan Moore
great resentment towards Marvel Comics, for whom he has never worked since. Warrior
#26, cover-dated January 1985, was the final issue of the magazine, leaving Marvelman without a
home.
In mid-1985, the American publisher Eclipse Comics began reprinting the
feature in colorized form -- in a comic book entitled Miracleman to get around the copyright
issue. All references within the text to Marvelman were similarly replaced with references to
Miracleman. Dates were not changed, causing some readers confusion as to why
Alan Moore
began the story in 1982. In addition to being colorized, the pages were shrunk from magazine size to
the size of American comic books, causing the artwork to look particularly detailed. Most
readers of these issues were American and seeing the work for the first time, when
Alan Moore,
already respected for his award-winning work on
Swamp Thing,
was first becoming incredibly hot due to his work on the international hit,
Watchmen.
 
Because the reprinted serials were of relatively short length, each issue
contained multiple chapters. The first book stretched through the first three issues and was
followed by Marvelman 3-D #1, a 3D version of the Marvelman one-shot that had
prompted the legal trouble. Ironically, this is the only material never to have been colorized,
as it was not included in any trade paperback collection. The sixth issue, cover-dated February
1986, contained the last of the reprinted stories and the first new episode. The new episode,
while well-scripted, featured inferior art, made all the more apparent by its contrast with the
reprinted episode just before; this was not solely a product of an inferior artist but also the
result of producing artwork for pages of the correct size rather than shrinking magazine size
originals for comic book reprints. The all-new issue #7, featuring two new episodes, followed
soonafter, but issue #8 was a fill-in issue, mostly reprinting old stories and containing
nothing either written by
Alan Moore
or taking place within his story. Issue #9, featuring a
single 16-page chapter illustrated by Rick Veitch, was cover-dated July 1986. It featured the
birth of Miracleman's baby in graphic detail and resulted in great controversy by the standards
of a small publisher like Eclipse Comics. Issue #10, cover-dated December 1986, featured another
16-page chapter illustrated by Rick Veitch; it concluded the second book of Moore's plan for the
series.
Book three began in early 1987 and did not conclude until the start of
1990. Consisting of six issues published over three years, book three, planned as
Moore's final
book, was entirely illustrated by John Totleben, the only book to have a single artist and a
great contrast to the many artists of book two. One reason for the delay was eye trouble on
Totleben's part; reportedly, he went unable to draw for months at a time. The story itself began
as a continuation of book two, but only accelerrated, linking the expanding Miracleman family to
mythological precedents. Issue #15 was a revelation, exploding the super-hero genre that had
seemed dead after Moore's Watchmen. Issue #16 moved from deconstruction to reconstruction
as the entire world was transformed into a funner, more just and more wonderful place. It was
fantastic. It was beautiful. It was one of the few most important moments in American comics
history.
A new creative team began book four with issue #17, taking over a title
that had received great critical attention but that had become notorious for its lateness.
Miracleman was fortunate in having the two greatest mainstream writers of its era:
Neil Gaiman, before his rise as writer of
The Sandman, had been hand-picked as
Moore's
successor by Moore himself. Along with artist Mark Buckingham, who varied his artistic style
episode by episode, Gaiman envisioned three books, consisting of six issues each. They would be
titled The Golden Age, The Silver Age, and The Dark Age. The Golden
Age, running from #17-22, jumped the narrative into the future and examined how the
transformed society left at the end of #16 affected a series of people. Critics charged that he
was simply exploiting the various loose threads left by Moore rather than creating anything new;
while largely true, it was a brilliant exploitation that decentered Miracleman and examined the
issues left by Moore on a more consciously crafted level. Finding loose threads in Moore's work
to exploit, much less doing it so masterfully, was itself no small task. The brilliance of
Gaiman's work was that they exposed and illuminated Moore's work, making it stronger; had
Gaiman's work carried Moore's name instead, critics would have praised Moore's foreshaddowing.
And, taken on their own, Gaiman's stories were brilliant.
As The Golden Age had taken over a year, and Miracleman was
Eclipse's best-known and best-selling title, Eclipse published a three-issue mini-series entitled
Miracleman: Apochrypha following book four's conclusion. Beginning in late 1991, the
three issues could be published quickly because they featured multiple artistic teams. Featuring
a very well-done framing sequence by Gaiman and Buckingham, the three issues featured stories by
other writers and artists that, according to the framing sequence, occur within comic books
published within the world of Miracleman. These stories were off and on, but featured work by
Matt Wagner, James Robinson, Kelley Jones, and Kurt Busiek -- as well as an early work by Alex
Ross, prior to his fame-launching work on Marvels.
The framing sequence took place between The Golden Age and The Silver Age.
Book five, The Silver Age, began with #23, cover-dated June 1992.
Jumping further into the future, the issues returned the focus to the Miracleman family, specifically
on the revival of Young Miracleman. Touching on hints
Alan Moore had dropped, #24 featured Miracleman and
Miraclewoman realizing Young Miracleman's
homosexuality. In this utopian future, Miracleman sought to soothe Young Miracleman's
difficult adjustment to a world that challenged his 1950s sentimentality by kissing him.
Critics thought this was going too far, perhaps even catering to liberal concerns, but they
ignored the fact that this too had been foreshaddowed and, while perhaps uncomfortable,
carefully illuminated each character's personality.
Eclipse, eager to exploit the success of Miracleman, solicited a new
monthly series entitled Miracleman: Triumphant, to be published around the same time as
Miracleman #25. The main title would continue, ever aiming for a bimonthly schedule and
ever failing, while the new monthly series, featuring art by Mike Deodato, Jr. (who went on to
popular runs on Wonder Woman and other titles despite his fairly poor work), would feature
the Miracleman family and would take place immediately following the events of #22, the final
issue of The Golden Age. Before either Miracleman #25 or Miracleman:
Triumphant #1 could be published, Eclipse Comics went bankrupt and ceased publication. Few
mourned Miracleman: Triumphant, but it later became known that Miracleman #25 was
finished and ready for publication. Unfortunately, no one else could take up publication of the
issue, nor publish the second half of Gaiman's and Buckingham's three books. Miracleman
became entangled in a massive copyright dispute that paralyzed the work.
Gaiman's understanding, as he reported it to the press, was that the
present writer and artist at any time inherited the original one-third of the copyright owned by
Alan Moore
and Gary Leach, then Alan Davis; by some reports, this share would revert to Alan Moore if the series
were to end and there were no present writer and artist. As noble as this may seem, it is by no
means certain. Mick Anglo, the original creator of Marvelman, and Dez Skinn, editor of
Warrior, both may own part of the copyright. Eclipse apparently owned part of the
copyright, but whether it automatically lost this upon its bankruptcy is unclear. In any case,
Todd McFarlane, the millionaire creator of Spawn and Todd McFarlane Productions (a prominent toy
company), purchased all of the copyrights Eclipse owned, at public auction in 1998, reportedly
for a mere $25K, in order to gain the rights to Miracleman. McFarlane apparently did not
understand the other claims to the copyright; he planned to use Eclipse characters in his regular
titles or in a couple new anthologies (ingeniously entitled Todd McFarlane's Twisted Tales
and Todd McFarlane's Alien Worlds), while relaunching Miracleman soonafter.
McFarlane's company placed hints of its plans to sell the rights to a Miracleman movie and its
thoughts of Miracleman toys. All of this was particularly insensitive to Gaiman, who had a
long-running dispute with McFarlane over the use of Angela and Medieval Spawn, popular characters
Gaiman had co-created in Spawn #9 but for which he had not received royalties despite
McFarlane's very public promises at the time. Gaiman
was suing McFarlane, who had even made toys of the disputed characters and soon started an ongoing
series featuring Medieval Spawn. Some speculated, after the anthologies and movie deals utterly
failed to appear or even receive mention, that McFarlane had offered the Eclipse portion of the
Miracleman rights to Gaiman in compensation for the disputed royalties. By Gaiman's later
account, this was exactly the case and McFarlane's written transfer of rights was accompanied by
Eclipse's film to the issues. But McFarlane may have never completed the transfer of rights and
Gaiman may not have never formally accepted. Confusion over the
Miracleman copyright continued to proliferate as the comics press annually lamented the
situation.
Shockingly, in 2001, many years after McFarlane had purchased
Eclipse and promised strange titles that never appeared, Miracleman was slated to reappear in the
pages of Hellspawn, a spin-off title from Spawn. Mike Moran, Miracleman's alter
ego, had appeared months prior and bore no real relation to his Moore-Gaiman version. He was
slated to first transform within the book at the end of Hellspawn #12 and was to be
featured on the cover to #13. Gaiman publically asked readers to boycot the issues, initially
declining to sue. As others rallied to his side, he changed his mind. With his novel
American Gods on the best-seller lists, he sued McFarlane with Marvels and Miracles, a
limited-liability company to which Gaiman,
Moore,
and Buckingham transferred their rights to
Miracleman and which would represent the interests of Miracleman, as opposed to Gaiman's
interests, in court. Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada publically announced a deal to produce
a Marvel Universe mini-series written by Gaiman, the profits of which would be donated to the
lawsuit. Meanwhile, Ashley Wood, the popular and stylistic artist on Hellspawn, quit
the title, leaving the bastardized return of Miracleman unpublished in the wake of the
litigation.
MORE AS IT DEVELOPS.
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