The publishing history of Miracleman is about as convoluted as the character's fictional biography. An English publisher was reprinting Captain Marvel (aka Shazam!) when legal issues forced them to slightly revamp and rename it Marvelman (which is why Marvelman began in issue #25). Many years later, Marvel Comics had legal issues with this name and for the reprints it was renamed Miracleman (somewhat ironically, Marvel Comics eventually acquired the rights and this is their reprint volume). But the essence of the story always remained similar to (if not exactly identical) to the original Captain Marvel. Someone said a magic word and turned into a superhero. Then the superhero acquired a "family" of younger versions of himself.

For much of its early publishing history, Marvelman was a fairly simple comic book. Almost 20 years after being canceled, in the 1980s, Alan Moore came in to revitalize the character. Characteristically for Moore, he made the series much darker and mature.

This volume begins with a short tale from the original run by Mick Anglo. Miracleman and one of his sidekicks travel to the future to prevent a villain from time traveling to his past (their present). I wonder why not just travel back in time to stop all villains!

Then, Moore's run begins. Miracleman had had amnesia for all those years but finally remembers who he is and begins fighting crime again. Miracleman's origin is explained as him having been part of an experiment with captured alien technology (it's not clear if this was the same explanation given during Anglo's run). In the process of trying to prove his abilities to his wife, we see that simple super-strength or super-speed can't explain all his powers. Later, there is a retcon of sorts and it seems that all of Miracleman's adventures were implanted into his comatose body. (And I've heard there is yet another retcon later in the series.)

Moore's storyline is full of violence (and some nudity). The artwork reflects this darkness with heavy shading and coloring. The tiny font size makes it difficult to read, however. Up to this point I was mostly onboard, if a bit confused.

Then the Warpsmiths and the Oys appear with little or no introduction (perhaps they were part of the original series?). My head began to hurt. I didn't know what they were doing or why, only that they could shift reality and time. Some of the aliens spoke in a weird, unintelligible slang, and had no obvious connection to Miracleman.

There's no indication as to why Moore took his name off of this reprint (he is listed as "the original writer"). Moore has a history of disavowing projects that other people manipulate or change, but these stories seem to not have been rewritten. The art is apparently recolored, but I can't imagine that Moore would take his name off for that. Perhaps it's only because Moore hates the big publishers so much that he won't have anything to do with them, no matter what, and now that Marvel Comics owns the series, this is how he flips them the bird.

I've always heard that Moore's run on Marvelman/Miracleman was some of his best work, but based on this volume I don't see it. Perhaps Moore didn't hit his stride until later in the run. I'm not sure I'm willing to find out.

Fantastic. One of Alan Moore’s best!

Miracleman is a very protean Alan Moore, where he starts to dip his toes into the themes he spent most of the next half-decade exploring - the deconstruction of the superhero, bringing flawed human foibles to the most godlike entities. In Miracleman, he's still a bit beholden to classic superheroic tropes (as compared to later works where he actively uses those tropes in subversive ways), but he brings a startling and palpable humanity to Mike Moran and his darling wife. Bates, Kid Miracleman, is all comic book arch-villain evil, posturing and strutting, but he's still creepy as hell. The art is mostly very strong throughout the book, with Garry Leach delivering sturdy, Earthy illustrations and Alan Davis showing obvious signs of the slick superhero dynamism he'd later hone to great effect.

The Warpsmith story that is used to pad out the volume is nonsense, at best a mediocre Future Shock sci-fi gimmick tale, and doesn't really fit with the heart of the main narrative.

Miracleman:
Book One:
A Dream of Flying
Author: Moore, Anglo, Leach, Davis, Lawrence, Dillon, Neary, Oliff, Caramagna, Eliopoulos
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Published In: New York City, NY, USA
Date: 2014
Pgs: 176

REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS

Summary:
A magic word and a forgotten legend again walks the Earth. Two decades along, the man inside Miracleman wants answers. He will explore his origins and connection to Project Zarathustra. His truth. Their lies. And where the two become one. While Miracleman is busy with that, his very human alter ego must come to grips with life as the human half of a creature with godlike power.

Genre:
Adventure
Comics and graphic novels
Fiction
Science fiction
Superheroes

Why this book:
I’ve seen Miracleman/Marvelman before and was interested in taking a walk through this obvious Captain Shazam Marvel-esque character. KIMOTA! SHAZAM! BOOM!

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Favorite Character:
Miracleman, Young Miracleman, Kid Miracleman...I loved ‘em all three.

Least Favorite Character:
Kommandant Garrer and the Science Gestapo. Of course, they are villains, so I’m supposed to dislike him...and them. He makes me think of Per Degaton who was always a favorite comic book villain of mine. The time travelling Nazi schtick fits them both.

The Feel:
A little bit schizo, but that fits with the way the story is written.

Favorite Scene:
When Miracleman tries to describe his 1950s career to his alter ego’s wife in 1982 and she calls him on the silly names and such that were part of the comic book norm back then.

Kid Miracleman going all dragon...and, then, lamb.

Pacing:
The pace is alright. Not great. But alright.

Plot Holes/Out of Character:
It’s hard to call this when you are looking at part of the story being virtual reality and the rest being dealing with that VR life in the real world.

Hmm Moments:
When Garrer destroys his time ships so that his Science Gestapo has to stay in the past and so that the Miracleman Family can’t send them back through time, it is very Cortez-ian.

Miraclebaby? Baby Miracleman? Is it cheating if your wife sleeps with your alter ego who is you...but not you? Though we don’t get the payoff on this within this hardcover.

Why isn’t there a screenplay?
If they got it onto the screen ahead of Captain Shazam Marvel, they’d be golden. But it would have to be rushed to get ahead of them with the Shazam movie already having a 2019 release date.

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Last Page Sound:
That’s all?

Author Assessment:
I like the way that the stories are written and formatted.

Editorial Assessment:
Wish the editor or whoever was responsible for putting this together would have pushed for more story.

Knee Jerk Reaction:
glad I read it

Disposition of Book:
Irving Public Library
Irving, TX

Would recommend to:
genre fans

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Errata:
The whole Fawcett Comics/DC Comics Captain Marvel not being able to be called Captain Marvel anymore even though he’s been Captain Marvel since the 1940s is such bullshit.

The whole referring to Alan Moore as The Original Writer in all the title pages of this books is, as above, bullshit.

Es muy muy bueno y a la vez es muy denso. No termino de disfrutar de la lectura porque creo que Alan Moore aún media mal las turras.

Before Watchmen there was Miracleman, a super hero whose only weakness is copyright. Alan Moore started his revisionism of super heroes here in great, great fashion. Highly recommended.