Scan barcode
A review by verkisto
Olympus by Mike Allred, Alan Moore, John Totleben, Peter Milligan
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.