MiracleMan Thread: Let's Rediscover A Classic - SPOILER FREE THREAD

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > BSS: Bisexual Super Son > MiracleMan Thread: Let's Rediscover A Classic - SPOILER FREE THREAD

Waterhaul: Nov 5, 2005; it was a nice post,
you shouldn't have signed it.

For any spoiler talk or talk of issues which haven't been re-released please post in the appropriate thread. :siren:

MiracleMan is a book that's in a pretty interesting situation so I think it could be due a different thread in BSS. Given that the only way to read the book for the last 30 years has been through original issues or piracy I think it stands as a classic book which the majority of BSS hasn't read. Therefore please use spoiler code for any big reveals, or if you want to talk about future issues or the effect the book had on the industry use the discussion thread.

What is MiracleMan?
At his core MiracleMan is a knock off Captain Marvel made in the UK and created by Mike Anglo. He has the same basic powers, kid sidekick and says a magic word to turn into a hero.

Then who's MarvelMan?
The naming of the character has bounced around due to rights but Marvel are republishing and keeping the MiracleMan name for the character.

Why should I care?
MiracleMan is Watchmen before Watchmen existed. Alan Moore, Garry Leach and Alan Davis deconstructed the superhero genre in a way that wasn't expected and to some is still the highpoint of Moore's career. It's a classic that's been lost to time.

If it's so good why haven't I read it before?
Rights mess. A ton of different people most notably Todd McFarlane have claimed to own the rights to the character at various points in time. Marvel threw some Disney money around and got everything under one roof and are hoping to rack in some money for it.

The future of MiracleMan?
Marvel are going to republish the series as a monthly book, removing Alan Moore's name as to not anger the wizard anymore, and move on to the incomplete follow up series by Neil Gaiman and Mark Buckingham. Once everything has been reprinted Marvel intend for Gaiman to finish his run some 20 years later. You're probably looking at 2016 before brand new issues are out.

So where do I start?
MiracleMan #1 at your local comic store/digital comics outlet from January 15th, 2014. The writing will be credited to "The Original Writer" but it's the book you want.

Waterhaul fucked around with this message at 17:15 on Jan 15, 2014

# ¿ Jan 15, 2014 10:21

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# ¿ May 11, 2024 18:05

Waterhaul: Nov 5, 2005; it was a nice post,
you shouldn't have signed it.

Also to note Marvel aren't being particularly cheap with this reprinting so maybe see if your local comic shop is doing a deal as the first issue is 5.99 and the rest will be 4.99.

# ¿ Jan 15, 2014 10:31

Waterhaul: Nov 5, 2005; it was a nice post,
you shouldn't have signed it.

Mind Loving Owl posted:

Huh, never thought I'd see the day where we have two threads for Miracleman.

Well Marvel are putting a lot behind this so it's going to be MiracleMan everything for the next few months.

# ¿ Jan 15, 2014 11:20

Waterhaul: Nov 5, 2005; it was a nice post,
you shouldn't have signed it.

I appreciate (?) the classic MiracleMan stuff. I'm not going to say that it's the best classic age stuff going but it has it's charm and I liked the interview with Quesada and Mike Anglo. It's also nice to see a comic creator ending his life happy and appreciated and not having to worry about money.

As for the main bulk of the issue it easily met my high expectations. I had seen the "I teach the you the Superman" page before but in context it really is something else and a highlight of when Moore is really on his game. Everything else in the issue was a nice twist on very rapidly throwing a Golden Age hero into the far flung future of the 80's.

# ¿ Jan 15, 2014 22:05

Waterhaul: Nov 5, 2005; it was a nice post,
you shouldn't have signed it.

Len posted:

Is Marvel giving out a digital code with the physical copy like they do other "expensive" books?

As far as I'm aware, no.

Also for those going digital only it's important to note that Comixology have two versions a censored Mass Market version and a Parental Advisory version. As of now no major changes, a difference between a character wearing underwear and being naked but it's an Alan Moore book so won't be staying PG-13 for long.

# ¿ Jan 16, 2014 14:17

Waterhaul: Nov 5, 2005; it was a nice post,
you shouldn't have signed it.

Yeah I only saw it because I was wondering why the main series was being called Mass Market version. I would presume it's being done to milk as much money as possible or possibly get around the book being pulled from Apps in the Apple Store.

# ¿ Jan 16, 2014 14:38

Waterhaul: Nov 5, 2005; it was a nice post,
you shouldn't have signed it.

Sure hope those are spoilers about things that happened in issue 1.

# ¿ Jan 16, 2014 19:16

Waterhaul: Nov 5, 2005; it was a nice post,
you shouldn't have signed it.

muscles like this? posted:

While I've not read anything to confirm this I think its pretty obvious why exactly he chose that story, since it has guys coming from the far off future of 1981 with time travel and the Science Gestapo and then the actual Moore comic starts in 1982.

Yeah both that and the mirroring of MiracleMan and friends gleefully smashing bad guys jaws in the 50's with the present day return as he towers over the bad dudes with a smirk of "I'm not human" is Moore picking the perfect Golden Age story to use.

# ¿ Jan 18, 2014 12:30

Waterhaul: Nov 5, 2005; it was a nice post,
you shouldn't have signed it.

The Moore having his named removed is a small bit of a story of his bigger issues with the Big 2.

Basically after all his trouble with DC Moore had sworn off ever dealing with any of the big comic companies. Joe Quesada when he was EiC of Marvel flew to England to talk to Moore face to face and swear that Marvel will never mess him around the way DC did. They were to work together and get more Moore books on shelves and then the very next thing of Moore's that Marvel published was a Captain Britain reprint and there was a printing error and Moore's name was removed from the credits of the book. Which despite being an actual printing error Moore swore off ever dealing with Marvel since if you can't believe the EiC talking to you face to face why bother. Despite all of this Marvel are doing their best to stand by his wishes and not bother him with MiracleMan stuff.

# ¿ Jan 20, 2014 16:44

Waterhaul: Nov 5, 2005; it was a nice post,
you shouldn't have signed it.

Yeah people like to poo poo talk Quesada a lot because of some character choices he instated that they don't like but the guy seems like a really genuine guy and is easily the best thing to happen to Marvel in years.

# ¿ Jan 20, 2014 17:04

Waterhaul: Nov 5, 2005; it was a nice post,
you shouldn't have signed it.

Uncle Boogeyman posted:

One thing I'm still unclear about : I know they're leaving his name off the book, and I know the legal situation was a huge quagmire, but did Marvel have to still get permission from Alan Moore to do the reprints or does someone else own those rights?

The way the MiracleMan rights ended up being sorted, which i'm sure was a lot to do with Disney lawyers was that Mike Anglo had always owned all of the rights to the character and everything else was people claiming ownership which wasn't true.

Here's what Moore has to say on it.

quote:

P�M: OK. The only other thing about your previous work is, do you keep up with what�s going on with the Marvelman Miracleman debacle?

AM: Nah. I mean, other than the fact that I was happy to do everything that I could to help Mick Anglo, who is the person who has always owned all of the rights to Marvelman, as far as I now understand it, that we never had the rights to do those stories, even though Mick really liked the stories that we did. We didn�t understand at the time that Mick Anglo was the sole owner of the rights. We were misled. So I�ve done everything that I can to clear all that up. I�ve said that, they talked about the possibility � what they want is money quickly, because Mick�s a very old man, he�s got a sick wife to look after, and they could use some dosh quite quickly.
I mean, I believe that the Todd McFarlane thing, his ridiculous claims to the character have now been dropped, so it can move on. I believe that they�re going to be reprinting some of my stuff, but I�m not sure of all the details, I�ve just said, �Yeah, go ahead,� and all the money from the first book, from the first printing of the book, should go to Mick Anglo. They�ve also said that what if there�s a possibility of some animated Marvelman cartoons, and I�ve said, again, �Don�t put me name on them, and give all the money to Mick Anglo.� So I hope that some of it turns up in time to do Mick some good, because he�s a great artist, you know, the British comics scene would be poorer without him, and I�m making great use of Captain Universe � oh, I�ve given it away!

source

# ¿ Jan 20, 2014 17:13

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# ¿ May 11, 2024 18:05

Waterhaul: Nov 5, 2005; it was a nice post,
you shouldn't have signed it.

So Issue 3 came out this week and I'm pretty surprised at how quickly Miracleman/Kid Miracle fought and we've moved onto the government attempting to deal with supers and the whole baby stuff.

I'm not quite sure where Moore is coming from but it's a quick change of pace from issue 1.

# ¿ Feb 27, 2014 21:09

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