Marvelman

Origin

Marvelman
Marvelman

Mike Moran was the orphan son of a deceased Royal Air Force officer. As a kid a gentle astrophysicist gave him atomic powers by saying a word, kimota. He was later helped by Kid Miracleman and Young Miracleman in their incredible adventures.

But all that was a lie.

Mike was chosen to be a subject in the Airforce’s experimental Project Zarathustra. The Project created a replicated super-human from alien DNA and a device that allowed this replicated human to share Mike’s own consciousness and to displace whichever being is not conscious at the time into infra-space using a trigger word: “Kimota.” This process created Mike’s alter ego, Miracleman, who was kept in check by the project using a virtual reality world where he was a superhero. The project later tried to destroy Miracleman and his fellow test subjects, Young Miracleman and Kid Miracleman, by hitting them with an atomic explosion in space. Mike survived the explosion but developed amnesia, forgot his Miracleman identity for years, and grew up to be a journalist.

Creation

Created by Mick Anglo in 1953, Marvelman was originally a character created to replace the strips and characters of Captain Marvel comic books published in the United Kingdom, after the publication stopped in the USA. The character would stop being published in 1953

However the character gained new relevance as a black an white feature in the magazine Warrior, wrote by Alan Moore, who reinvented the character and gave him a darker origin and context, far from the original, more innocent tales.

When in 1985, Eclipse Comics started to publish the colored series in the USA, they rebranded the character as Miracleman to avoid any legal conflict with Marvel Comics. Moore wrote until the issue 16. Neil Gaiman started to script in issue 17, but his run was abruptly ended because of the bankrupt of Eclipse Comics.

After that, a legal battle involving Neil Gaiman and Todd McFarlane made it problematic for any new appearance of Marvelman to be published. In the end, it was revealed that Mike Anglo had the rights all along and Marvel Comics bought them from him (and also backed Gaiman against McFarlane) and have published reprints of these adventures and some appearances in some anthology books.

Major Story Arcs

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Later, a middle aged Mike Moran remembered Miracleman and his trigger word while being held hostage by terrorists.

After the discovery of his powers he developed a strange relationship with his wife Liz due to his switching of personas and was discovered Kid Miracleman who has grown in his super powered body and now lives as a corporate CEO and attempts to kill Miracleman and his wife Kid easily defeats Miracleman but grows overconfident and says Miracleman’s name which depowers him back to his child identity of Johnny Bates. Mike and his wife then try to understand his Miracleman powers and she tells him that she is pregnant with Miracleman’s not Mike’s baby. Soon Mike is confronted by Evelyn Cream an assassin who changes his mind and becomes his ally. He is also attacked by Big Ben who was sent to kill him but fails.

Gargunza the man who gave Miracleman his powers learns of his survival and kidnaps his pregnant wife with the intention of taking over his baby’s body he depowers Mike and has Cream killed leaving Mike to the psychotic “Miracledog” soon Mike regains his powers and kills the normal body of Miracledog. Miracleman kills Gargunza’s men and Gargunza himself last by throwing him down to Earth from the stratosphere.

Liz shortly after these events starts to give birth to Miracleman’s baby Winter. Winter due to her superior DNA ages mentally quickly becoming more intelligent. The stress of their strange life begins to affect Liz and Mike. When by himself Mike is attacked by alien beings seeking him out called the Qys the same aliens whose DNA was used to give him powers the Qys also seek out Liz and Winter apparently to kill them but are stopped by Miraclewoman who saves them all. Miraclewoman was also created by Gargunza but was believed to have been killed years before the other MIracle people were blown up she and Miracleman become allies and even become attracted to each other. Miracleman and Miraclewoman are then involved in the intergalactic cold war between the Qys and the Warpsmiths Miraclewoman convinces the two to end their war by suggesting they have sexual relations with each other.

Kid MarvelmanKid Marvelman
Kid Marvelman

The stress becomes to much for Liz who leaves him saying she loves both Mike and Miracleman but she can’t handle the stress. Winter now super powered and intelligent also leaves Miracleman to seek guidance elsewhere in the universe. While Johnny Bates whom Miracleman has left in an orphanage is beaten up and molested by older kids and reactiaves his powers now insane he sets out on a super powered killing spree destroying London and murdering thousands. Miracleman, Miraclewoman, The Warpsmiths and the new Firedrake all attempt to stop Kid Miracleman and are finally able to change him back into a tearful and regretful Johnny Bates Miracleman assures the crying child he has discovered a way to stop Kid Miracleman altogether he cries and thanks Miracleman who crushes Johnny’s head and decapitates him leaving Miracleman tearfully screaming out crying over his actions.

It now becomes apparent that Miracleman and Miraclewoman with the help of the alien races are going to rebuild London and the entire planet by taking over it and abolishing currency. Miracleman attempts to fix things with Liz by offering her superpowers but she refuses to. With Liz leaving him Mike says his magic word one last time and chooses to leave his life behind. Miracleman then starts to take over the planet him and Miraclewoman then give into their attraction for each other and become lovers they have sexual relations while flying in the sky where many witness. They recreate MIracledog and retrain Big Ben into the British Bulldog a more heroic figure Winter returns to Earth as well as the Warpsmiths and all create the Olympus a fortress in the UK and become the gods of Earth now worshiped over all the other old religions. It could be seen that Miracleman has slowly lost his humanity.

Miracleman is often visited by normal human beings who all pray to him and ask of things like a God it is also shown that Miracleman has artificially inseminated many women who have no or impotent partners to help them get pregnant he has over a thousand children over the planet who are all super powered and intelligent like Winter (who still retains the appearance of a toddler).

Young Marvelman Young Marvelman
Young Marvelman

Miracleman and Miraclewoman then resurrect Young Miracleman and bring him in their “pantheon” Young Miracleman is greeted by all but he has some difficulty over his origins and a possible dislike of Miraclewoman. He seems to have some trouble with Young Miracleman wanting to avoid the same situation over Kid Miracleman that resulted in him becoming a maniac. Miraclewoman says that Young Miracleman is probably gay and in love with Miracleman she tells him to trust her on the matter and talk to Miracleman he then confronts Young Miracleman by kissing him but is attacked by Miracleman who leaves Olympus tearfully. Miracleman goes to confront Miraclewoman about the situation she looks resistant to talk to him and nervous. Due to Eclipse comics bankruptcy and legal complications with ownership of Miracleman and his related characters the story has not been finished or reprinted but now the character is owned by Marvel comics. In the last page it can be assumed that he was manipulated by Miraclewoman due to how uncomfortable she looks and her and Young Miracleman’s dislike of eachother.

Miracleman’s alter-ego, Mike Moran, briefly appeared in Image Comics within the pages of Hellspawn. Detectives Sam Burke and “Twitch” Williams contacted Mike for help in exposing police corruption within the city. Mike was still working as a journalist and appeared to be having marriage problems.

Other Versions

Marvel

Miracleman also existed in at least one Marvel comics reality – Earth-238, where he was killed by The Fury.

Powers and Abilities

Superhuman strength, speed, stamina, flight, invulnerability, energy manipulation, telepathy, superhuman intelligence.