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A review by magnetgrrl
A Dream of Flying by Alan Davis, Garry Leach, Paul Neary, Steve Dillon, Don Lawrence, Mick Anglo
3.0
Miracleman, under a few other names, was an old U.K. 1950's superhero that was basically a close rip-off of Superman and Captain Marvel. Then, when he stopped selling or being interesting, and throughout crazy lawsuits over amazingly similar superhero names and a few company takeovers and buyouts (partially explaining how Captain Marvel is a DC comic, not a Marvel comic) Miracleman after several name changes his own eventually got re-written by a very early Alan Moore (and picked up after by a very early Neil Gaiman) in a 1980's rewrite that made him darker, and more real. This was an early moment in the superhero deconstruction of the 80's. Then due to an even more complicated story involving lawsuits and rights... he was only ever seen in cameos, promos, toys and statues, for the next couple decades, as the rights to who owns his character and copyright were fought over in court. (Honestly, the story ABOUT Miracleman is, in my opinion, more interesting and dark than any incarnation of Miracleman himself!)
I used to hear my old boss at the comic book store wax on about Miracleman and how sad it was ithe the original Moore stories couldn't be reprinted, or that Gaiman's run couldn't be finished. To hear him tell it, they were the greatest stories of our time. I've been waiting probably 15+ years to read it (not that I was looking super hard or I probably could have found a way to read it sooner on the internet). I have to admit, after all this time I'm a bit disappointed.
Almost half of this hardcover is sketches and notes. There are at least 2 more hardcovers that I know of in this reprint. I wish they had condensed them into just two larger ones and cut out a bunch of the "extras".
This reprint is nostalgia, but it's for a character I was never familiar with, and can't be nostalgic for.
I find it hard to believe Miracleman was ever as "genre defining" as all the litigious hype and blurbs say. I think of him more as a test run of what later became Watchmen, or Dark Knight Returns, or Sandman, which are more refined and greater examples of the era of 80's superhero deconstruction.
Reading Miracleman is like glimpsing into the world of super music hipsters who find an obscure band that sounds like a crappier version of a now popular style of music and then claim they were "ahead of their time" and "started it all" rather than admit they were at best one of many early participants in a zeitgeist which produced other greater bands. It's worth it to give some props I guess, for posterity's sake, but if it's the only thing you read from this time period, you're missing out on better representations. I think it would be like reading Dickens' very first novel, but never getting to Great Expectations or David Copperfield.
I probably would have given this 2 stars, but for my old boss and everyone of his age, I'll say 3.
I used to hear my old boss at the comic book store wax on about Miracleman and how sad it was ithe the original Moore stories couldn't be reprinted, or that Gaiman's run couldn't be finished. To hear him tell it, they were the greatest stories of our time. I've been waiting probably 15+ years to read it (not that I was looking super hard or I probably could have found a way to read it sooner on the internet). I have to admit, after all this time I'm a bit disappointed.
Almost half of this hardcover is sketches and notes. There are at least 2 more hardcovers that I know of in this reprint. I wish they had condensed them into just two larger ones and cut out a bunch of the "extras".
This reprint is nostalgia, but it's for a character I was never familiar with, and can't be nostalgic for.
I find it hard to believe Miracleman was ever as "genre defining" as all the litigious hype and blurbs say. I think of him more as a test run of what later became Watchmen, or Dark Knight Returns, or Sandman, which are more refined and greater examples of the era of 80's superhero deconstruction.
Reading Miracleman is like glimpsing into the world of super music hipsters who find an obscure band that sounds like a crappier version of a now popular style of music and then claim they were "ahead of their time" and "started it all" rather than admit they were at best one of many early participants in a zeitgeist which produced other greater bands. It's worth it to give some props I guess, for posterity's sake, but if it's the only thing you read from this time period, you're missing out on better representations. I think it would be like reading Dickens' very first novel, but never getting to Great Expectations or David Copperfield.
I probably would have given this 2 stars, but for my old boss and everyone of his age, I'll say 3.