Summary
Re-reading it over 45 years later, it still stands up, as does the absolutely beautiful art from Garry Leach. His realistic style is clean, crisp, and detailed. The cast is all well realized, and even the background characters have depth thanks to the art.
This classic comic review of Miracleman #1 contains spoilers.
Two men are transporting plutonium for sale to the highest bidder, heading North on a lost highway, while Michael Moran is having another recurring nightmare of flying superheroes that circle an abandoned space platform that explodes violently, and the last thing he hears is thunder before awakening in bed with his wife.
Moran heads to work, carrying a migraine with him. On route, he is haunted by a word he cannot remember and is still distracted when he arrives at Larksmere Power Station. He is there as a reporter and meets his photographer at the site, where anti-nuclear protesters have gathered. However, terrorists armed with machine guns surprise the security guards and tell the press they are to follow them inside the building. Inside the ringleader announces they are hijacking the plutonium isotopes. The press is to cover the story so terrorist organizations will know they have the plutonium and can make the appropriate offers for it. Michael Moran’s headache grows worse and he collapses. On the floor, he sees a sign written on the glass door. The word ATOMIC is reversed, and Moran remembers the word from his dream. Under his breath, he says the word KIMOTA. In a flash of lightning, he is transformed into Miracleman, a blue-clad superhero who has remembered who he is. The gunmen open fire to no avail, the bullets bounce off the hero, who slams his hands together creating a thunderclap that renders them unconscious. Miracleman flies through the roof of the building into the sky proclaiming “I’m Miracleman… I’m back! ”
The first part of the Miracleman saga, originally Marvelman in Warrior magazine, was written by Alan Moore and drawn by Garry Leach. It is only 8 pages long, as that was the format of Warrior, an anthology book that had several strips running through it, but it covers an awful lot of ground.
Probably due to the page constraint, there is a lot of dialogue from Moore, some would say too much, but bearing in mind he had limited space to get everything across, it can be somewhat forgiven. The first part of the story has to introduce us to Mike Moran and his wife, then present a situation that will kick the whole thing off. In eight pages, it’s a tall order, but Moore still manages to engage the reader, and tell a story with high stakes that will lead into an introduction to Miracleman.
Re-reading it over 45 years later, it still stands up, as does the absolutely beautiful art from Garry Leach. His realistic style is clean, crisp, and detailed. The cast is all well-realized, and even the background characters have depth thanks to the art.
When Miracleman appears, it is a classic superhero splash, the final panel of him flying above the Earth is one I remember well. It’s a shame that Leach would leave the title, and there would be a number of other artists that take it on over its rocky future path.
Eclipse would later reprint the original Warrior strips, and add color to the black and white art, then Marvel would buy the rights and begin their reprint run of the book in 2014.
Marvel would recolor the strips, print them on high-quality glossy paper, and add a huge amount of original sketches and behind the scenes work. These are readily available, quite cheap on eBay, and are a great way to pick the series up. Marvel had hoped that they would convince Neil Gaiman to finally complete the story, but it has never happened, and I doubt it ever will, leaving the final fate of Miracleman as a dream, of flying.
