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verkisto's review against another edition
4.0
(This review is for all three volumes written by Alan Moore. Potential spoilers may follow.)
I first read Miracleman long after I had read Watchmen, and around the time when I decided to read more of Alan Moore's work. Given that Miracleman is basically Watchmen v0.1, I wound up reading the works out of order, but I liked them enough that when the series was finally getting reprinted last year, I started buying them up to re-read them all together. Since The Golden Age finally saw print last month, I decided to sit down and make my way through the series again.
Ultimately, Watchmen is Moore's magnum opus. It takes the ideas that he started examining in Miracleman and Swamp Thing and forms them into a complex analysis of comic book heroes, comic books, and politics, all while telling an engaging, compelling story. It's just a shame that it was the first of Moore's works I read, since all the other stories he's told using these ideas pale in comparison to it.
Miracleman was Moore's first attempt at deconstructing the superhero mythos, and there's no denying that he did a great job with it. When a hero comes along with abilities that make him god-like, it's logical that they would become like gods. Moore takes another version of Superman and does just that with him. When someone with that kind of power exists, and sees ways to improve the world, why wouldn't he do it? Why wouldn't he step in and say "This is how we're going to do things, because if we don't, I have the power to make it happen regardless"? Once the heroes are public, and their strengths are common knowledge, how would one avoid that kind of conclusion?
The opposite side of that coin is someone with that kind of power without any kind of moral compass, which Moore also addresses with the character of Kid Miracleman. That character is one who has internalized his suffering, blaming others for his own pain, so when he has the opportunity to take his revenge, he does so, without remorse, regret, or concern over anyone who gets in his way. Since there are only a handful of others who can survive against such a superhuman onslaught, several innocents are killed in that revenge. Moore doesn't shy away from showing the horrors of such an act, but neither does he shy away from showing the aftermath of it. Some story arcs would approach that story, end it, and then move on. Look at how The Avengers ended, with widespread destruction and (presumably) thousands of deaths. It's all ignored to focus on the victory of the heroes. And it's not at all realistic. Moore attempts to make it realistic, and he succeeds.
The origin story for the Miracleman Family is a little ridiculous, which can be forgiven, since Moore was working within the confines of the original origins of the characters and attempting to create a new mythos while keeping the existing canon in place (see also how he did the same to Swamp Thing). The explanation he creates makes about as much sense as it can, given those constraints, and it makes as much sense as other superhero origin stories.
As good as Moore's run on Miracleman was (and continues to be), it's simply not as good as Watchmen. Considering, though, that Miracleman is still a four-star story when compared to the five-star story of Watchmen, Miracleman is still a story worth reading and examining. I just wish I had read them in the proper order so I could have experienced Moore's development over the course of all his works.
I first read Miracleman long after I had read Watchmen, and around the time when I decided to read more of Alan Moore's work. Given that Miracleman is basically Watchmen v0.1, I wound up reading the works out of order, but I liked them enough that when the series was finally getting reprinted last year, I started buying them up to re-read them all together. Since The Golden Age finally saw print last month, I decided to sit down and make my way through the series again.
Ultimately, Watchmen is Moore's magnum opus. It takes the ideas that he started examining in Miracleman and Swamp Thing and forms them into a complex analysis of comic book heroes, comic books, and politics, all while telling an engaging, compelling story. It's just a shame that it was the first of Moore's works I read, since all the other stories he's told using these ideas pale in comparison to it.
Miracleman was Moore's first attempt at deconstructing the superhero mythos, and there's no denying that he did a great job with it. When a hero comes along with abilities that make him god-like, it's logical that they would become like gods. Moore takes another version of Superman and does just that with him. When someone with that kind of power exists, and sees ways to improve the world, why wouldn't he do it? Why wouldn't he step in and say "This is how we're going to do things, because if we don't, I have the power to make it happen regardless"? Once the heroes are public, and their strengths are common knowledge, how would one avoid that kind of conclusion?
The opposite side of that coin is someone with that kind of power without any kind of moral compass, which Moore also addresses with the character of Kid Miracleman. That character is one who has internalized his suffering, blaming others for his own pain, so when he has the opportunity to take his revenge, he does so, without remorse, regret, or concern over anyone who gets in his way. Since there are only a handful of others who can survive against such a superhuman onslaught, several innocents are killed in that revenge. Moore doesn't shy away from showing the horrors of such an act, but neither does he shy away from showing the aftermath of it. Some story arcs would approach that story, end it, and then move on. Look at how The Avengers ended, with widespread destruction and (presumably) thousands of deaths. It's all ignored to focus on the victory of the heroes. And it's not at all realistic. Moore attempts to make it realistic, and he succeeds.
The origin story for the Miracleman Family is a little ridiculous, which can be forgiven, since Moore was working within the confines of the original origins of the characters and attempting to create a new mythos while keeping the existing canon in place (see also how he did the same to Swamp Thing). The explanation he creates makes about as much sense as it can, given those constraints, and it makes as much sense as other superhero origin stories.
As good as Moore's run on Miracleman was (and continues to be), it's simply not as good as Watchmen. Considering, though, that Miracleman is still a four-star story when compared to the five-star story of Watchmen, Miracleman is still a story worth reading and examining. I just wish I had read them in the proper order so I could have experienced Moore's development over the course of all his works.
neven's review against another edition
5.0
I started reading this as a pirated ebook, a scanned comic. This is because the original comic is no longer available, and may never be, thanks to a piss-fest regarding the license rights.
I eventually had to put down the iPad, though, because the scan quality is very bad. Bummer - the story seemed excellent.
Update: I've miraculously been lended the physical comic.
I eventually had to put down the iPad, though, because the scan quality is very bad. Bummer - the story seemed excellent.
Update: I've miraculously been lended the physical comic.
bstratton's review against another edition
5.0
When I first read these stories nearly 25 years ago, they blew my mind. I was pleasantly surprised to see how well they hold up now. If they don't seem as groundbreaking as they once did, it's because so many comics writers have spent the last quarter of a century trying to reverse engineer The Original Writer's [sic] work. It's amazing how many of them have fallen short of the goal, even after two and a half decades of trying.
Maybe you need to have been there back in the day, when single issues of Miracleman were still being published (however infrequently) to feel that this is deserving of a five-star review. But revisiting these stories in Marvel's beautiful hardcover collection takes me back to when a young and hungry Alan Moore was turning the comics world on its head, and I couldn't get enough of it. Moore may have moved on to bigger and better things, and he might not even want his name on the 2014 edition, but I'm glad that this is back in print.
Maybe you need to have been there back in the day, when single issues of Miracleman were still being published (however infrequently) to feel that this is deserving of a five-star review. But revisiting these stories in Marvel's beautiful hardcover collection takes me back to when a young and hungry Alan Moore was turning the comics world on its head, and I couldn't get enough of it. Moore may have moved on to bigger and better things, and he might not even want his name on the 2014 edition, but I'm glad that this is back in print.
thecommonswings's review against another edition
5.0
The problem with Miracleman is that more than any comic of it’s time you have to unpeel a LOT of baggage and drama to fully place it in context. Alan Moore’s incredibly prescient reimagining of a copyright fudge British comic of the fifties - in essence the U.K. was no longer allowed to just reprint Marvelman/ Shazam comics so they just shipped the old cast off and created a very similar version instead - it’s been caught in one of the knottiest or legal hells ever. It’s also a hugely controversial comic because Moore spends the run taking a thin premise and exploring it ruthlessly - it’s easy to argue that this is Moore’s most successful attempt at deconstruction of the superhero genre but it’s also equally easy to spot Moore’s worst excesses developing too
But this collection is just wonderful. The earlier Marvelman collections of Mick Anglo’s work is the best context for this, but the book does have Moore’s slight rewrite of a classic story - and a pretty faithful one - before a page where it zooms in on Miracleman’s face with text from Nietzsche over the top. This is probably the best moment to leave if you don’t want to see some merciless probing of comic cliches, because Moore really does race through them all - secret identities, origin stories, government manipulation, power, corruption and more - in small bursts (that demonstrate the original short form origins in Warrior comic) that really suit the story. It’s also got a real sense of focus. There are very few characters in it because Moore seems to understand that the more he puts in, the less power the story will have
This first volume collects and bookends a sort of origin story for Miracleman, and highlights his biggest foe, but also closes with some SF larks courtesy of the Warpsmiths: these are fascinating because they do feel far more SF than I was expecting and could easily be an illustrated Moorcock story. They also show how constrained Moore must have been by 2000AD as this sort of tale wouldn’t really feel comfortable in the prog until Mike Carroll and Henry Flint’s Shakara and Proteus Vex. Because the actual Miracleman story has an understandably dour and cynical feel to it, this burst into big ideas SF is really welcome but to me just makes me feel a bit melancholy that Moore pursued the former theme in his career rather than the latter. Moore merrily throwing strange ideas together is a joy and I feel he lost this sense of wonder because of his treatment by the industry. That sourness of tone is why I struggle with his later work, albeit completely sympathetic to why he might have started to feel that way
The book is also sumptuous, a term I hate but one absolutely accurate here. A lesser book could pad out the volume with doodles and sketches, which this sort of does: but those doodles and sketches have context and are placed in their proper place in the development of the book and the story. There’s no introduction to give the book it’s historical context but to be honest it’s so notorious and dense and thorny it’s already become several larger pieces trying to unpick it - so to reheat that is probably a wise decision to avoid. It’s sad but inevitable that Moore distances himself from it, but it’s very much worth the long, long wait this took in coming
But this collection is just wonderful. The earlier Marvelman collections of Mick Anglo’s work is the best context for this, but the book does have Moore’s slight rewrite of a classic story - and a pretty faithful one - before a page where it zooms in on Miracleman’s face with text from Nietzsche over the top. This is probably the best moment to leave if you don’t want to see some merciless probing of comic cliches, because Moore really does race through them all - secret identities, origin stories, government manipulation, power, corruption and more - in small bursts (that demonstrate the original short form origins in Warrior comic) that really suit the story. It’s also got a real sense of focus. There are very few characters in it because Moore seems to understand that the more he puts in, the less power the story will have
This first volume collects and bookends a sort of origin story for Miracleman, and highlights his biggest foe, but also closes with some SF larks courtesy of the Warpsmiths: these are fascinating because they do feel far more SF than I was expecting and could easily be an illustrated Moorcock story. They also show how constrained Moore must have been by 2000AD as this sort of tale wouldn’t really feel comfortable in the prog until Mike Carroll and Henry Flint’s Shakara and Proteus Vex. Because the actual Miracleman story has an understandably dour and cynical feel to it, this burst into big ideas SF is really welcome but to me just makes me feel a bit melancholy that Moore pursued the former theme in his career rather than the latter. Moore merrily throwing strange ideas together is a joy and I feel he lost this sense of wonder because of his treatment by the industry. That sourness of tone is why I struggle with his later work, albeit completely sympathetic to why he might have started to feel that way
The book is also sumptuous, a term I hate but one absolutely accurate here. A lesser book could pad out the volume with doodles and sketches, which this sort of does: but those doodles and sketches have context and are placed in their proper place in the development of the book and the story. There’s no introduction to give the book it’s historical context but to be honest it’s so notorious and dense and thorny it’s already become several larger pieces trying to unpick it - so to reheat that is probably a wise decision to avoid. It’s sad but inevitable that Moore distances himself from it, but it’s very much worth the long, long wait this took in coming
drtlovesbooks's review against another edition
4.0
If you bear in mind that this was one of Moore's earliest works, it's interesting to see how he's exploring the superhero genre in this series. He's well-aware of the saccharine tone of most comic books up until this point, and how they created weird, nonsensical elements to keep kids entertained. He takes that concept and tries to ground it in scientific realism.
In Miracleman, who was originally Marvelman, Moore is resurrecting an old British superhero and reinventing him for the (then) modern age. It's very interesting, though, that Miracleman nee Marvelman is basically the story of Shazam if a sci-fi writer had started the series in the 1980's and was required to explain all the original Shazam storylines in a way that made some kind of sense. Shazam, by the way, is actually named "Captain Marvel", and it's not just a name which Moore's character shares with that comics legend. This is Shazam, the magical hero, as created for the atomic age - quite literally, as Miracleman changes into his alter-ego by reciting his "magic word", Kimota (which is "atomic" backwards), just as Captain Marvel changed by calling out "Shazam!", the name of the wizard who gave him his power. This is one of several sci-fi "grounding" elements that take Marvelman from the realm of magic into the realm of realism (well, "realism" as it applies to a superhero comic book about a super-powerful being).
Along with the pseudo-scientific background Moore gives his character to replace the magical origin of Miracleman (and Captain Marvel), Moore also grounds this character fairly firmly in reality in other ways as well. His alter-ego is a down-on-his-luck middle-aged freelance reporter (which seems like a reference to Superman's alter ego Clark Kent, a star reporter in his own right) who definitely has feet of clay. He's married to an illustrator who, very early on, accidentally cuckolds her husband with his super-powered alter-ego. There are also discussions of their feelings about each other that articulate the reality of relationships, rather than the simplified and idealized versions of relationships that populate kids' comics.
In other words, this is the origin of Moore grounding his comic book characters in the real world and giving adults a comic book enjoy. It's definitely worth a read if you know some comic book history.
In Miracleman, who was originally Marvelman, Moore is resurrecting an old British superhero and reinventing him for the (then) modern age. It's very interesting, though, that Miracleman nee Marvelman is basically the story of Shazam if a sci-fi writer had started the series in the 1980's and was required to explain all the original Shazam storylines in a way that made some kind of sense. Shazam, by the way, is actually named "Captain Marvel", and it's not just a name which Moore's character shares with that comics legend. This is Shazam, the magical hero, as created for the atomic age - quite literally, as Miracleman changes into his alter-ego by reciting his "magic word", Kimota (which is "atomic" backwards), just as Captain Marvel changed by calling out "Shazam!", the name of the wizard who gave him his power. This is one of several sci-fi "grounding" elements that take Marvelman from the realm of magic into the realm of realism (well, "realism" as it applies to a superhero comic book about a super-powerful being).
Along with the pseudo-scientific background Moore gives his character to replace the magical origin of Miracleman (and Captain Marvel), Moore also grounds this character fairly firmly in reality in other ways as well. His alter-ego is a down-on-his-luck middle-aged freelance reporter (which seems like a reference to Superman's alter ego Clark Kent, a star reporter in his own right) who definitely has feet of clay. He's married to an illustrator who, very early on, accidentally cuckolds her husband with his super-powered alter-ego. There are also discussions of their feelings about each other that articulate the reality of relationships, rather than the simplified and idealized versions of relationships that populate kids' comics.
In other words, this is the origin of Moore grounding his comic book characters in the real world and giving adults a comic book enjoy. It's definitely worth a read if you know some comic book history.
noveladdiction's review against another edition
3.0
So mine is probably an unpopular opinion. I thought this graphic novel was "okay." I think the story was good, I think Miracleman is a great character, and I love his history/back story. What I disliked is this graphic novel.
We get several regular issues - great. And that in some point around the middle, we get a page with some art on it, and three small paragraphs saying "This guy is this, he does this. This guy does this stuff." And then we get an issue featuring those people. Clearly, something is missing in between the issue we last saw, and this new one. And then at the end, there is an issue that doesn't feature Miracleman at all, and feels out of place.
Finally, there are 20-ish pages in the graphic novel that are just filled with art or cover art.
I have heard Miracleman hyped up so much that when I finally read this re-released graphic novel, I was stunned by how... slightly more than mediocre it felt. I will read more, when more is released... but this isn't something I will be pre-ordering and anxiously anticipating its arrival.
We get several regular issues - great. And that in some point around the middle, we get a page with some art on it, and three small paragraphs saying "This guy is this, he does this. This guy does this stuff." And then we get an issue featuring those people. Clearly, something is missing in between the issue we last saw, and this new one. And then at the end, there is an issue that doesn't feature Miracleman at all, and feels out of place.
Finally, there are 20-ish pages in the graphic novel that are just filled with art or cover art.
I have heard Miracleman hyped up so much that when I finally read this re-released graphic novel, I was stunned by how... slightly more than mediocre it felt. I will read more, when more is released... but this isn't something I will be pre-ordering and anxiously anticipating its arrival.
amalelmohtar's review against another edition
4.0
No idea if this represents the 6 issues I read or not, but there you go: I've read the first 6 issues of Alan Moore's Miracleman. It was fantastic, often terrifying, and made me reflect on how often Moore focuses on his villains' smiles to drive home their uncannyness: recalling how the "crooked man smiles a crooked smile" in Captain Britain, in Miracleman we're subjected to Mr. Cream's sapphire smile, to Jonathan Bates' tiger smile. Moore clearly uses the baring of teeth to a primally threatening end.
I kind of don't want to read anymore, for all that the 6th issue ends on a stupendous cliffhanger. At this point, all is still possible.
I kind of don't want to read anymore, for all that the 6th issue ends on a stupendous cliffhanger. At this point, all is still possible.
evnlibrarian's review against another edition
3.0
The first book in a volume written by the legendary Alan Moore, credited here as "The Original Writer" for reasons more complex than I care to go into, as a homage and deconstruction of the Captain Marvel comics of the golden age. It's an idea that by this point almost seems old hat. The kid who could turn into a superhero with a magic word forgets his powers and now is a middle aged man? The kid sidekick grew up to be evil? The fantastically ridiculous powers turn out to be part of a dark government experiment? It's less 'subversive' today and more just depressing and faux high brow to me.
But the plot on its own does seem intriguing, and on its own does have a premise that can be engaging. What if you or your spouse suddenly remembered they were a superhero? Mike Moran feels inadequate to his super hero persona (in this case, imagine if Clark Kent was not a disguise for Superman but an actual person he swapped bodies with) . I like the art and confess I have a bit of weak spot for Alan Moore's grandiose and over the top descriptions of super hero fantasy stories. So I'll give volume one 3 stars.
But the plot on its own does seem intriguing, and on its own does have a premise that can be engaging. What if you or your spouse suddenly remembered they were a superhero? Mike Moran feels inadequate to his super hero persona (in this case, imagine if Clark Kent was not a disguise for Superman but an actual person he swapped bodies with) . I like the art and confess I have a bit of weak spot for Alan Moore's grandiose and over the top descriptions of super hero fantasy stories. So I'll give volume one 3 stars.
depreydeprey's review against another edition
1.0
This was a real struggle for me. I didn't like the main character, felt like the 1982 setting, outside the political environment seemed like it wasn't done well and rather than gritty there is just a depressed tone to this book.
stevenk's review against another edition
4.0
A 2014 collection (on which Alan Moore's name isn't used at his request) of a 90's reprint of an 80's reboot of a 50's character created to replace Captain Marvel (now known as Shazam!) in British comics when Fawcett Comics discontinued his title because of a lawsuit from DC, that has been hard to find because of feuds and legal wrangling over the rights to the character Miracleman/Marvelman. The history of the book is almost more interesting than the character himself, but as a kid I missed out on this much heralded title because I thought he was a rip-off of Captain Marvel (which he was). This take on the character however, is an engrossing read, wrapping the stories of the 50's incarnation into an 80's cold war sensibility (and unfortunately for the Warpsmith's 80's sense of style) Moore created a unique read that feels a little dated but still fun. I'd give this a 3.5 if Goodreads allowed half stars.