So I finished reading Miracleman, and I loved it.
One part I didn't understand, so could somebody please explain it to me?
What was up with the weird subplot of a miracleman travelling back in time to fight himself in order to "gather energy" for his battle with Kid Miracleman? That never seemed to become relevant
>What was up with the weird subplot of a miracleman travelling back in time to fight himself in order to "gather energy" for his battle with Kid Miracleman? That never seemed to become relevant
That's probably not something Moore wrote because I never saw it in the actual book.
It was definitely there
Moore didn't write it, I know that much.
So who wrote it? Gaiman?
What was its purpose?
I really don't know. In Moore's story Miracleman just comes down from the space and sees the horror and then as soon as Kid shows up they start fighting. I haven't even read the story in question here. It most likely is some backup written by someone other than Moore. Did you find it in between Moore's chapters or afterwards?
It was introduced relatively early as a kind of foreshadowing that KM was gonna go mental. Basically the Warpsmith is introduced in it as helping MM go back through time to fight himself and gather energy. It's the first time we see the Warpsmith in the comic
I just read it last year but also do not recall this plot point. Not necessarily doubting you, but it's a blindspot in my memory maybe in an otherwise great run.
Yeah I don't remember this at all, it most likely is some other story and not written by Moore. Anyways let's talk about the book, this is not really important. What did you like and dislike about the book?
Loved the attempt to integrate fifties fantasy character Marvelman into a more grounded setting by making it all into a literal dream programmed into him.
Mike Moran was a little boring, other than being pathetic he never got much characterisation.
The whole mythos of having an entire galactic civilization using multiple bodies for different tasks was fascinating, would've loved to have seen their home world and how their average citizens lived
Miracleman himself felt like an early Doctor Manhattan, especially when it gets to the future parts. Loved the scenes by Gaiman about how the world has changed now Miracleman is here
Kid Miracleman was a fucking brilliant villain, so was Gargunza for that matter (loved the part where Gargunza is brought back as a robot, and asks why Miracleman isn't visiting him, only to learn Miracleman is scared Gargunza may have another code word to switch him back to Moran)
Absolutely gutted the comic never got finished because of legal bullshit
I remember this plot point but only vaguely. If memory serves (which mind you its been a loooongtime since I read Miracleman), that was one of the Warp back-up stories and then during the fight with Kid Miracleman, it was presented as one of the scenarios that "might have" happened in the same sequence where they say stuff like the fight might have been metaphorical and they just actually played a game of chess or the one where Miracleman killed all the gods to harness their powers.
It was supposed to show different theological interpretations of the same fight. Miracleman going back in time to fight himself to gain power was just one of the scenarios that may or may not have happened based on the interpretations of the fight from Churches in the distant future.
>Loved the attempt to integrate fifties fantasy character Marvelman into a more grounded setting by making it all into a literal dream programmed into him.
Yeah that was really a stroke of genius huh? Moore has always been creative like that.
>Mike Moran was a little boring, other than being pathetic he never got much characterisation.
I think that was the point, he was just average Joe who was thrown into this ridiculous situation he never wanted not had any control over. His suffering was very relatable and then when he commits suicide is one of the most heart breaking scene in comics for me.
>The whole mythos of having an entire galactic civilization using multiple bodies for different tasks was fascinating, would've loved to have seen their home world and how their average citizens lived
Yeah, I really liked the aesthetics designs of that place. It was truly alien and not alien that's conveyed generally in comics.
>Miracleman himself felt like an early Doctor Manhattan, especially when it gets to the future parts. Loved the scenes by Gaiman about how the world has changed now Miracleman is here
Never read Gaiman because story wasn't finished but while he does share some characteristics with Manhattan, I think they are very much different. For example the whole of losing humanity bit is also there in Moore's Swampy, it's what they end up doing that ultimately defined them. MM chooses to become humanity's messiah because he does care, Swampy doesn't because he thinks humanity should ascend on their own and Manhattan is just an exercise on pure stoicism.
>so was Gargunza for that matter (loved the part where Gargunza is brought back as a robot, and asks why Miracleman isn't visiting him, only to learn Miracleman is scared Gargunza may have another code word to switch him back to Moran)
The whole scene of how he takes Garganzua to outer space and kills him and "star light, star bright" rhyme are captioned is one of my favorite scenes in the book.
Was this back up written by Moore or someone else?
Pretty sure the back-up was written by someone else, but the sequence of things that "might have" happened occurred in issue 15. So Moore acknowledges the back-up but at the same time establishes that it isn't necessarily canon.
Ah that makes sense
>Never read Gaiman because story wasn't finished
I'd recommend reading Golden Age. The Silver Age arc was never finished and is more of an overarching plot where not having those last two issues to it definitely leaves you rather blue-balled, but Golden Age is a series of stand-alone one-shots about the state of the world after the timeskip and are all well worth reading and I highly recommend.
In fact, the Golden Age issues are easily my favorite Miracleman comics.
>they never brought back Young Miracleman or Young Nastyman
Why?
>they never brought back Young Miracleman
You should read Gaiman's run.
it was alright but it didn't really have any interest in characters to me
I think it was an extra in an earlier chapter, not part of the main narrative, I remember Miracleman going back to various points in his past and defeating versions of himself to get stronger. The rest is hazy, but I think how Kid Miracleman is defeated in the story is foreshadowed there.
Overall, the comic was alright. There's glimpses of Alan Moore's genius here and there, but overall isn't his greatest work. Especially for the final battle:
For example, the fire guy, Huey Moon, serves almost no purpose to the story. Despite establishing the fact that he can survive a close attack from Kid Miracleman. Since they established this, why couldn't they get him close to Kid Miracleman then let him utter the phrase to turn him back to the kid (like what happened to Miracleman when he fought Gargunza)
And another thing, since the warpsmiths can teleport anything anywhere, why couldn't they just teleport Kid Miracleman to some far away remote area of the universe or a black hole or something.
Just so many things that frustrate me about that ending
This, I think it's more an observation of Moore as a writer at this point then Miracleman as a pinnacle of storytelling for me. Moore throughout the run developed so many of his writing tendencies, Mooreism if you will and you can feel them birthing on those panels. Moore agrees that it was the beginning of his realistic cape and where eventually he would take them all comes from here but it's not a perfect work, it's more about conceptualizing the themes and ideas.
Book 3 for me is such a beautifully written and drawn book, so full of ideas and imagination yet so hollow in terms of exploration of these ideas. I like it because of the prose and the imagery and the imagination but at the same time if I start thinking about it, it frustrates the hell out of me.
That's cause it was never reprinted until Marvel reprinted the entire Moore run. I think it wasn't reprinted the first time because it no longer really fit in with what Moore was doing.
No, he wrote it. The comic was originally in Warrior Summer Special 1982. It was to get stuff he planned for the book foreshadowed (he mentioned the Firedrake, that Mike and Liz's relationship would end badly, Kid MM getting a new suit, and other things.
They never reprinted it for a long time because it no longer really fit in with how Olympus turned out but Moore decided to include a reference to it, but leaves it open about whether it happened or not.