At long last, the collection of stories making up Miracleman are being released. For those lost on the significance of Miracleman, don’t fret, it hasn’t been an easy series to find. While perhaps one of the most important works in post-superhero comics, tracking down Miracleman was limited to hard-to-find trades from Eclipse, or the Warrior magazine issues. Having finally gotten the licensing and legal arguments out of the way, Marvel has started their release of these comic gems with Miracleman #1.
While nothing new is being printed here, you have to understand the historical importance of Miracleman. Originally published in Warrior magazine in 1982, these stories staked out a much richer and darker territory than comic books of the day had even broached. Miracleman reinterpreted the entire idea of heroes by turning superheroes into a working class alongside murdering, corporate-driven villains. This was four years before Watchmen pointed the same finger at comic books, and clearly writing Miracleman influenced Moore’s legendary series.
Interestingly, one important page of the original stories that was left out of the Eclipse trades returns for this release. It is a simple one-page shot of Miracleman, with each panel getting close to his eyes. The page is adorned with the Nietzsche quote, “Behold…..I teach you the Superman: He is lightning…..He is this madness.” This is a turning point for the series, for while it depicts a standard blonde, handsome hero on the go, the constant movement closer into the eye of Miracleman foreshadows that these stories are about to subvert genre and take readers into a place they might not want to go. It was really the beginning of seeing superheroes as fallible, and in that way, relatable. That very idea defines the last twenty years of capes in comics. Without the advances made with the Miracleman stories, we would have no Dark Knight Returns, or a Superman that survived the “Gee Gosh Wilikers” Golden Age.
Originally presented in black and white, Marvel does an excellent job of colorizing the series without overpowering Garry Leach’s original line work. Especially exciting is the inclusion of original Golden Age stories of Marvelman, the hero created by Mick Angelo that would eventually become Miracleman. Outside of being classic slices of comic book history, these early stories show where the comic hero was, and how the evolution of Miracleman changed so much.
If Watchmen is the Ramones of the movement to mature and darken the world of superheroes, then Miracleman is The Stooges and the MC5 rolled into one.
