The MARVEL of MIRACLEMAN 

MIRACLEMAN IS BACK. 

Again. Hopefully this time, it's here to stay. 

In the November 2013 Diamond Distributors' Previews, Marvel Comics solicited MIRACLEMAN #'s 1 & 2, each with regular and multiple variant covers by a plethora of exciting artists. 

The first two issues feature stories which have appeared in print before, both originally in the pages of WARRIOR MAGAZINE and in the pages of MIRACLEMAN the comic book, trade paperback and hardcover edition graphic novels published by Eclipse Comics, all of which go for a good amount of money on the back issue market. The series itself is hard-to-find in NM condition, and several issues fetch a high price. Likewise, the reprints in graphic novel form also fetch a high price.

These issues will hopefully capture an entirely new audience and rekindle a love from the old audience for this once beloved character and mythology. 

The stories are credited to both "The Original Author" and author Mick Anglo, creator of MARVELMAN in the 1950's, named after the CAPTAIN MARVEL line of characters which had abruptly ceased production in 1953 when DC Comics, then National, scored a win in a lawsuit against Fawcett Comics, claiming that their Captain Marvel, was a rip-off of DC's Superman simply because both characters could fly, were super-strong, and had black hair and capes. The fact that Superman was from Krypton and Cap said a magic word to transform from newsboy Billy Batson into the World's Mightiest Mortal never entered the fray.

Mick Anglo's company had been publishing the line of Fawcett Comics when suddenly, they lost their bread and butter. Nonplussed, Anglo re-conceived the entire Marvel Family mythos with the swoop of his pen in a moment of brilliance, turning them into The MARVELMAN FAMILY. Gone were Cap, Cap Jr., and Mary Marvel. Instead, fans could read the adventures of Marvelman, Young Marvelman and Kid Marvelman, a trio of all-male characters. Also gone were the capes and the lightning bolt emblems, replaced by the letters MM, YM, and KM, denoting who was whom. Each character had a different colored costume, and the two older characters were blond rather than black-haired. Their origins were different too, though they did say a *magic* word -- KIMOTA! -- to change from their regular forms to their super-hero identities.

As a boy, "The Original Author" read these stories enthusiastically. Growing up, he became one of comic fandom's most popular writers in the 1980's and 90's, but not before realizing his dream to bring back his boyhood heroes, which had ceased publication in 1963. 

By the 1980's, the characters had seemingly fallen into the public domain. Anglo had vanished, so "The Original Author" set about securing ownership of them. Thinking he had acquired the rights to said characters, "The Original Author" got together with Dez Skinn of Warrior Magazine. Joined by artists Gary Leach and Alan Davis, they brought back to life the series we will begin seeing in January 2014.

"The Original Author" who remains nameless in the pages of Previews and Marvel Comics, for those who don't know, is ALAN MOORE, who famously wrote The Watchmen, V For Vendetta, Swamp Thing, Batman: The Killing Joke, Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?, From Hell, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Captain Britain, and introduced John Constantine to comic lore.

Miracleman, the American comic book, is the same series that began as Marvelman in the early 1980's; it was serialized in the pages of Warrior Magazine before Moore was approached by Cat Yronwode of Eclipse Comics. Whilst bringing this character to the U.S. through Eclipse, Moore was forced to change the name by you know who -- yes, Marvel Comics -- who claimed they exclusively owned the trademark to the name 'Captain Marvel' (which they secured in 1968; copyright and trademark are different animals), and therefore owned the rights to the name 'Marvelman' as well. So, Marvelman couldn't be called 'Marvelman', though the character had been named thus since 1953. And that, cats and kittens, is why Alan Moore doesn't work for Marvel Comics anymore.

MIRACLEMAN - THE MIDDLE YEARS

Upon leaving the series, Moore passed the writing chores on to Sandman author Neil Gaiman. The art chores had exchanged hands several time, from Gary Leach and Alan Davis to Chuck Beacham, then Rick Veitch, before John Totleben took over the series. With Gaiman's tenure, the art chores were again passed on, this time to Mark Buckingham. The collapse of Eclipse Comics due to a flood that destroyed their offices and back stock warehouse resulted in their properties being tied up legally for decades, which became complicated when Todd McFarlane bought the intellectual inventory and thought HE, in turn, owned Miracleman while Gaiman claimed that he had acquired ownership through Moore.

In 2010, Marvel announced they had found creator Mick Anglo, who still claimed ownership, and worked out a deal for new Miracleman stories to appear from the company, which resulted immediately in a new Joe Quesada poster; but in print, *only* reprints of classic Marvelman stories, published as "Marvelman", appeared in 2011, much to the chagrin of fans. It wasn't until this past month that those same fans saw a solicitation for the first two issues of the 1980's MIRACLEMAN solicited by Marvel Comics. These are the classic Alan Moore stories, featuring the incredible artwork by Gary Leach, Alan Davis, Rick Veitch, and John Totleben. 

At this year's New York Comic Con, it was announced that Gaiman & Buckingham would begin producing NEW Miracleman stories after the reprints are concluded. At the time that Eclipse ceased publishing, there were unpublished Miracleman stories written, including -- in the words of Neil Gaiman on Marvel.com -- "Miracleman #25 (which) has been sitting in the darkness – nobody has seen it. It was drawn, it was written, it was lettered over 20 years ago." 

Oh yeah. We're ready. Bring it on!

KIMOTA!