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A review by thecommonswings
A Dream of Flying by Alan Davis, Garry Leach, Paul Neary, Steve Dillon, Don Lawrence, Mick Anglo
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