Miracleman (Comics)

Miracleman was published by the American company Eclipse Comics from August 1985 to mid 1993, running a total of 24 issues. Initially published monthly, the publication schedule became increasingly erratic as the series progressed.

Miracleman began as a reprint series, containing colourised reprints of the Marvelman series by Alan Moore, Garry Leach and Alan Davis first published in the British magazine Warrior (see Marvelman (Comics)) by arrangement with the original publishers, Quality Communications. From issue #6 onwards however, the series contained new material, with Moore continuing his story with new artists: Chuck Austen, Rick Veitch and John Totleben worked on various issues.

Moore's storyline, which saw the 1950s British superhero Marvelman (now renamed 'Miracleman' in order to avoid conflict with Marvel Comics, the same conflict which had forced Warrior to drop the strip halfway through) regain his lost memories in 1982, discover the sordid truth behind his origins, and then defeat his corrupt former sidekick Kid Miracleman in a battle which destroyed London. It ended in #16 with Miracleman and his new consort Miraclewoman effectively taking over the world, which Moore saw as the logical outcome of superhumans arising on Earth.

Miracleman and Miraclewoman both appeared in the 1988-89 crossover series Total Eclipse with most of Eclipse's other characters, but this had no impact on the characters' ongoing continuity.

From #17 onwards the creative team of Neil Gaiman and Mark Buckingham took over and began a new storyline intended to detail the rise and (presumably) fall of Miracleman's Utopia over the course of several volumes titled The Golden Age, The Silver Age and The Dark Age, each running for six issues. A three-issue limited series entitled Miracleman: The Apocrypha was also published as a companion piece to The Golden Age. Unfortunately, Eclipse's financial problems meant that only the first two chapters of The Silver Age were ever published — issue #24 was the final issue. Issue #25 was completed but never published and the creators reclaimed the original pages due to non-payment by Eclipse. The company went out of business shortly afterwards.

The full story of the tumultuous history of the series and the subsequent complex legal battles connected with the character are described in detail in the 2001 book Kimota! The Miracleman Companion by George Khoury.

The first 22 issues of the series were collected into a series of four trade paperbacks subtitled A Dream of Flying, The Red King Syndrome, Olympus and The Golden Age. Miracleman: The Apocrypha was also collected, but the final two issues of the main series have never been reprinted.

A second spin-off limited series, Miracleman Triumphant, was planned but only the first issue was completed and this was never published.

The ninth issue of the series has achieved a certain level of notoriety, since it shows the birth of Mike Moran/Miracleman and his wife Liz Moran's daughter, Winter, in graphic detail, the artist using images from a medical book for reference.

Eclipse also published several relettered reprints of classic Marvelman and Young Marvelman stories in the two issue limited series Miracleman Family and (along with an Alan Moore/Alan Davis framing sequence) the one shot Miracleman 3-D Special.

In January 2014, Marvel Comics began reprinting the series, with two issues' worth of the Warrior material per issue backed up by Mick Anglo reprints and other supplementary material. Unfortunately, early issues of this reprint series were plagued by controversy over Marvel's censoring of some panels (in either the digital edition only, or both the digital and print editions) for nudity and bad language, resulting in later print issues being released in sealed plastic bags. Evidently, it was felt that young Americans could handle extreme violence but they would be mentally scarred forever by the sight of a line drawing of a female's bare bottom.