(bump)
What’s Neil Gaiman doing these days? And Frank Miller?
Is Brought to Light any good? Is it easy to buy? What about the erotic one? Is Moore really going to retire? If so, what happens to ABC and its carachters? What are Moore’s worse comics in your opinion? I vote for the Spawn ones.
Is the Ultimate line still being published?
Do The Books of Magic end well? What’s the deal with Molly? Will telling me ruin the whole thing?
Where can I find Miracleman? I bought the first four stories and they were nice but I don’t know what happened.
Yllaria –
Kahvi’s death happened off-screen in Summer Special #2 of 2002, I believe. Her murderer showed up to report the death to Ember’s band. I won’t spoil how it happened, but I felt like I’d been gut-punched. It was the only way for someone like Kahvi to go out, the only way she’d have chosen to go, but it was still utterly unfair!
As for Jink, I never followed that title after the first couple of issues. Everything about her screamed “BLATANT MARY-SUE!” into my delicate ears, so I mostly ignored her and the Rebels. I don’t even think WARP’s bothered to collect any of those into TPB format yet.
Suzene
**
“Brought To Light” (if it’s the one I’m thinking of…by Eclipse?) is laughably awful. It’s a bunch of brain-dead granola-eating freaks trying to do an 80’s verision of “The Pentagon Papers”…in comic book form…generally by lotsa footnotes to stuff like “The Glorious People’s Worker’s Times” and lotsa pithy leftie sayings like “Arms should hug, not be nuclear!”) It’s so pathetically desperately trying to say “HEY! SERIOUS JOURNALISM HERE! REALLY! WE’RE NOT JUST WACKOS! CAN WE GET SOME MEDIA ATTENTION!” it’s cringe-inducing. REGARDLESS of whether one agrees with their general message (“The CIA has done/is doing naughty things and shouldn’t be mucking about in South America”) or not, it’s horribly done. I’d forgotten that Moore’s name was attached.
**
Yes and selling very well.
**
**
Sadly no. Rather than end it, they started from a new number 1 and the series is still dribbling further into the land of crap. The original mini-series rocked, as did the first run (1-60 or so). The current run started really well and has dengerated into yuk.
**
You can’t. The rights are hopelessly fucked up. If McFarlane would die or something, the remaining rights might be settled, but until then, don’t hold your breath.
The upshot:
The original publisher (Warrior Magazine) got the rights to a British rip-off (I know “rip off” isn’t accurate. I’m trying to keep this short) of Captain Marvel, named MarvelMan. When the publisher got the rights, he split them three ways: He got 1/3d, Moore got 1/3d and Alan Davis got 1/3d. This may have made him feel all hugs and flowers, but it was a BAD mistake from a business sense. When Davis left the book, he “willed” his 1/3d of the rights to the character (but NOT to the artwork he’d done) to the next artist.) Moore did the same when Gaiman took over. The original publisher’s 1/3d got sold to Eclipse Comics (who were the granola-brained freaks mentioned above). They may or may not have also gotten the 1/3d that went with the artist (I’m not clear on that bit) They had no business sense and little ethics and eventually went bankrupt.
Enter our Arch-Villian: Toddy McFarlane. He bought Eclipse from the bankruptcy court soley to get his hands on the rights to MiracleMan (Marvel had said “You publish a book called MarvelMan, we sue your assess off”). Toddy wanted it 'cause the fight scene in #15 was kewl and he wanted more fight scenes just like that. Meanwhile, Gaiman created a couple of characters in Spawn…um…#8? There was a 4 or 5 isssue thing where some of the hottest writers and artists would do an issue of Spawn and the think that made the deal cool is that other than McFarlane having the rights to reprint the issue, all the characters and licenses belonged to the writers/artists, not to McFarlane. Gaiman created “Medeval Spawn” and “Angela”, two wildly popular characters. McFarlane (possibly with Gaiman’s approval) used them in a second appearance. Then McFarlane started using them constantly, including merchandising them. Gaiman saw none of the profits.
Gaiman was (justly) pissed but offered to trade the rights to his characters as well as the royalties owed to McFarlane for McFarlane’s rights to MiracleMan. They agreed and (apparently) signed a hand-written contract.
McFarlane reneged and Gaiman took him to court on two issues; 1) the rights to MiracleMan
2) the rights to (and back royalties from) Medeval Spawn and Angela
The judge was none too happy wasting his time on a case about funnybooks, but declared in Gaiman’s favor on #2, and I don’t know what happened on point #1.
Even if the rights go to Gaiman, however, there’s a problem or two. 1) Alan Davis is all bent outta shape (justifiably) since Eclipse Comics reprinted his MarvelMan work A) without his permission and B) without paying him. Oops. Davis may not agree to let his work be republished.
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Even if the ruling was in Gaiman’s favor (regaring the rights to Miracleman), McFarlane would appeal. And appeal. And APPEAL. He really wants to do kewl fight scenes (with no understanding whatsoever of the background that made that fight scene so horrific. All th’ moron saw was the gore.)
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And it gets even worse. Apparently the publisher of Warrior magazine may NOT have actually gotten the rights to MarvelMan or may not have done it correctly, so it’s possible that everything that’s been done 'till now is a gross violation of copyright.
In other words, I doubt it’ll EVER be reprinted. Which is a shame, because it’s some of Moore’s best work and Gaiman has said that he’d love to write (and has outlines for) something like 11 or 12 more issues which would wrap the series up.
Sigh. It’s so damn good, too.
I’ll type up a synposis for my next post
The Story of MiracleMan-Part 1
Warning: huge spoilers abound, but since there’s a bat’s chance in hell that it’ll be reprinted…
For the background, all you need to know is that MiracleMan in the '50s = Captain Marvel, only the magic word was Kimota! not Shazam!
In the first issue, Mickey Moran is dreaming of flying. He and two brightly colored blurs are swooping around a big…thing…hovering at the edge of the atmosphere. He gets a terrible sense of dread and flys away fast. The thing explodes and one of the blurs strobes as we see a double-image of two skeletons. Moran is burning and falls…only to wake up in his bed, next to his wife. Apparently this is a recurring dream. Moran complains that the key to the dream is one word…which he can’t remember.
He’s a photographer or newspaper journalist and goes off to the opening of an atomic power plant. Some terrorists take it over and he’s whacked on the head. As he looks up, he sees the word “Atomic” backwards through a glass door. As a terrorist leans over him to see if he’s dead, Moran mutters the word “cimotA” and as lighting expodes from his body (burning and deafining the terrorist) MiracleMan arises. He promptly defeats the terrorists and flies home. He convinces his wife of who he is and explains what he knows of his backstory: in the '50s, he, Kid Miracleman and Young Miracleman fought crime and had high adventure. Liz interrupts and says she never heard of any such thing. How could they cover up an invasion from the Ice Women of Pluto or something? MiracleMan shrugs and continues: one day, the three of them were flying, exploring a spaceship and it blew up: someone nuked them. Moran only got amnesia from it. Following that they…um…cough…explore Moran’s new body.
Later they get a call. Turns out that Kid Miracleman (Johnny Bates) didn’t die either, but he’d lost his powers and when he saw MiracleMan on the Telly… He invites Liz and Moran over to his place (he’s a CEO type) and when they get there, they discover that he lied to them: he’s been Kid Miracleman the last 20+ years (why would any 13 year old, given the chance ever go back to being “normal” when they could be the most powerful being on the planet?) and has turned NASTY. They fight, but Moran is 20 years out of practice and Bates has learned a whole bunch of new tricks (shooting lighting bolts, hypnotic eyes, etc). As Bates is about to kill Moran, he accidentally says his “magic” word (which is “miracleman”) and reverts back to 13 year old Bates, but catatonic. Moran puts him in an institution. Right around here, we learn that Liz is pregnant with Miracleman’s baby.
End first Arc.
Second Arc: (I may be getting the events slightly out of order)
A black guy with sapphire teeth has captured Moran, through the clever method of handing him a baby and saying “Mr. Moran. I am about to shoot you with a tranqilizer dart. If you change, you will do to that baby what you did to that terrorist”. Moran wakes up and the black guy (Evelyn Cream) tells Moran that his old arch-nemisis Dr. Gargunza has kidnapped Moran’s wife. He, (Cream) was sent to kill Moran by the government, but has decided for his own reasons to help Moran instead.
Meanwhile, Gargunza (who looks like Dr. Sivanna with hair) is doing tests on Liz. When he looks at the Miraclefetus through a fiber-optic lens, the miraclefetus looks back. This freaks him out.
Gargunza wants to implant his mind onto the miraclefetus’s brain, so that he’ll be superpowerful and immortal.
Miracleman comes flying in and is about to kill Gargunza when Gargunza leans back, pets his dog and calmly utters a word “Abraxas” which turns Miracleman back to Moran. “Come come now, mr. Moran. You didn’t think I would give you all that power without a fail-safe, did you?”
Moran protests that he got his powers from Emil Something or other, a scientist who’d learned the “prime harmonic of the universe” (or the like). Gargunza laughs and gives the true origin of Miracleman. In 1948-ish, an alien spaceship crashed in Britan. By examining their tech, Gargunza (in the pay of the British government) learned that these aliens swapped bodies like humans swapped clothes. Need to be a watchmaker? Switch to your watchmaker body with microscopic fingers and eyes in your wrists. Need to go swimming in Jupiter? Switch to your heavy-gravity body.
Gargunza learned how to do this, and was all preapared to make himself immortal only to learn the process doesn’t work on adults. He has the government to grab three war-orphans (he grabs two more (Rebbek and Lear) on his own) and uses the process on them. Using virtual reality technology, he keeps his Miracleprisoners helpess in a dreamworld based on American comics. However, by 1960, he’s learned all he can and besides, the VR program is starting to be less effective. With the help of the government, he wakes them up with the pre-generated command to go investigate a ufo. Which is a disguised nuke.
Anyway, Gargunza says, “You’re no use to me anymore, Moran. My code-word won’t let you change back for another hour yet, so we’re going to play a game.” He leans back and says “Steppenwolf” and his fuzzy little terrier turns into the horrendous lizard-like Miracledog. “Get him!”
The Miracledog toys with Moran by biting off a few of his fingers then lets Moran run outside. The Miracledog is much smarter than a normal dog (Miracleman’s smarter too) and has a pretty good time sense, so he’s gonna make his fun last. In addation, Cream is trying to provide a distraction (for which he gets his head bitten off). With mintues to go, the Miracledog pounces, just as Moran figures out to say the word “Steppenwolf” again. The Miracledog reverts back to a fuzzy terrier and Moran beats it’s brains out ( Literally.) with a rock.
When the hour is up, Moran turns back to Miracleman and flies through Gargunza’s men (litterally: through them) and, at super-speed, grabs Gargunza by the throat, crushing his larynx so he can’t speak, flies to the edge of the atmosphere and throws him at the earth. Gargunza dies (we see a piece of his skull survive reentry).
At the end of the arc, Liz has the Miraclebaby in an issue noted for it’s gratuitous stupidity; We’d been waiting months between issues (they were chronically late) and the granola-brained freaks decided to waste about 6 pages of storytelling to show that the artist could trace pictures out of a “How women give birth” textbook. There was a smarmy editiorial about how this should piss off a bunch of uptight people, but giving birth is a miracle, dammit! The only reaction I remember is frustration that they wasted pages on junior high biology and that it wasn’t really well done. At the end of the issue, the Miraclebaby says…um…something “Hello Father and Mother” or somesuch.
End Story Arc two.
If anyone wants, I’ll do the last two story arcs later. This took forever to type up, so let me know if you’re interested in me posting the last half.
What are the real names of:
a) Green Goblin
b) Red Lantern
c) White Queen
d) Black Tom
e) Blue Shield
f) The Purple Man
g) The Scarlet Witch
erm…that’s all i can think of right now. More later?
Green Goblin -Originial- Norman Osborn
White Queen- Emma Frost?
Scarlet Witch- Wanda Maximoff
Purple Man- Zebediah Killgrave
Your effort is appreciated, Fenris. I’ve been wanting to read a good synopsis of Miracleman for the longest time. I for one would like to read about the other arcs. Question though, how did you come by the stories? Do you own copies?
Yup, I had gotten the issues of Warrior as they came out and then when Eclipse started reprinting them with the promise of finishing the storyline, I was thrilled.
Little did I know that I’d be left on a far worse cliffhanger…
Heh. And a link to the sort of brainless stupidity that McFarlane will inflict on Miracleman, should he ever get the full rights:
A McFarlane created statue of his “vision” of how the character should look. :rolleyes: (Miracleman is constantly described as slender, graceful, a swimmer or gymnast’s build, not a mutant muscleboy freak)
Per Peter David, the caption on the statue should read “Shit! I’ve slammed my Miraclehand in the Miraclecar’s door!”
Yeah, White Queen is Emma Frost. Black Tom is Tom Cassidy I think. In any case, he’s Sean’s (half?)brother.
So, McFarlane is able to produce Miracleman merchandise, but not reprint the series?
Does that mean that if he wanted to do a Miracleman wave of his Spawn toyline, he could do so?
I don’t think so. I believe he’s either doing this in defiance of the court order, or is doing it before the court has made it’s decision. Pretty much everyone agrees he’s hurting/he hurt his case by doing stuff like this. Th’ thing that kills me is that he wants Miracleman in his “Hellspawn” comic. The problem is that Miracleman is a dull character without the world that Moore/Gaiman created. Put in a regular super-hero world, he’s just another spandex type.
This one spoils the famous Issue 15. Be warned.
Arc Three-Olympus.
I’m certainly going to get the order of events somewhat jumbled: this storyline isn’t as linear as the first two.
Liz is getting weird. The Miraclebaby named herself “Winter” and then made Liz forget that it was Winter’s choice: th’ kid eats tons of food too.
Meanwhile, two robotic-looking people show up at a doctor’s office and ask the receptionist if they can see her. The receptionist lets them in and is surprised to find that she’s gone and the window is open. The only way out of the office, though, is through the reception area. The name on the door is “Avril Lear” (or Leer)…see the first synopsis.
Meanwhile, inside Johnny Bates’ head, Johnny has a fight with Kid Miracleman and, in the course of the fight screws up and lets slip that he “won’t” change back…up 'till now, Kid Miracleman thought he “can’t” change back. Johnny decides that the best way to exorcize Kid Miracleman is to get on with his life so he wakes up from his coma and asks to be put in with other kids.
This was a mistake.
Dr. Lear meets up with Moran (who’s having a bit of an identity crisis: he’s jealous that Miracleman is smarter, stronger, wiser, kinder, etc than him. Also, Miracleman only slept with Liz once and got her pregnant, something Moran was unable to do) and she explains that she’s Miraclewoman. Gargunza made her and Terrance Rebbek (Kid Nastyman) as his own personal experiments that the goverment didn’t know about. She was multiply raped by Gargunza and other…worse…things were done to Rebbeck. He eventually went insane and broke free of the VR device. She was let loose to go deal with him. They fought inside an active volcano and Terrance died (same double skeleton effect that we saw with Young Miracleman from the two bodies merging) and she faked her death too. But now something’s chasing her.
The two robotic looking people show up. Turns out that they’re from the empire of the shape-changing aliens who’s crashed ship started this whole mess and they don’t want to share their tech. A fight ensues as the aliens switch from body to body to fight Moran and Lear. Moran crushes one of their throats as he says how he’s sick of people trying to harm him, his wife and his daughter.
The remaining alien says “But this changes everything! Let me save my mate’s life and we’ll all talk. This is important.” She does. Turns out that it’s pretty damned unusual to have fertile changebodies and any species that does is considered sentient…Winter’s existance guarantees Earth’s safety. And Moran’s and Lear’s as well. However, the Bodychangers (I can’t remember their name) are in a billions-of-years-long war with the Warpsmiths (a race of teleporters) and per eons-old agreements, each group is entitled to have a fair shot at the new world. Some Warpsmiths show up and take them to the Bodychanger’s homeworld where we meet the Queen. She explains the backstory a bit and how the war has mainly settled down to an extrememly ritualized fight…chess with guns, if you see what I mean.
Avril thinks for a sec and says “I know a way out of this war if you want”. The Queen and the Warpsmiths both want to hear and she suggests that two opposing forces can come together destructively or constructively: in short, she suggests that rather than fight, they f*ck. They’re both thrilled with the idea (metaphorically, their parts wouldn’t fit together right for the actual act) and the war’s over (I thought this was really stupid and simplistic at the time. I still do.). They’ll be escorted back to Earth which will take it’s place in the galactic community as the first experiment in Warpsmith/Bodychanger cooperation.
Meanwhile, back on Earth, Bates is finding out that it’s tough in the real world. He’s getting the shit kicked out of him by bullies and you can “hear” Kid Miracleman shrieking at Johnny to let him out. A kindly nurse helps Johnny and Kid Miracleman’s contained.
Miracleman returns to earth and starts to tell Liz about his adventures. She not only doesn’t want to hear them, she’s leaving him. The weirdness is too much for her. After she goes, Winter says (In essence) “That’s a relief. No more goo-goo daa-daa for me. I’m off to the Bodychanger homeworld where I can get a decent education.” and she flies off. Alone and depressed, Moran climbs to the top of a mountain where he writes himself an obituary, strips naked, buries his clothes and leaves Miracleman a brief note to NEVER change back, speaks the word one last time. (this was a heartbreaking scene, as Moran realizes that all he’s a useless appendage to Miracleman) The “death” of Mickey Moran is one of the most tragic, tear-jerking scenes ever written.
With the Warpsmiths, Miracleman and Miraclewoman scour the globe looking for the person who triggered all the weirdness: turns out that stuff like alien spaceships with future tech don’t jes’ happen to fall. There’s a particular gene for Firestarting that’s pretty damn common in the stone-age but becomes recessive by the time the bronze age rolls around. However, once in a while, the Firestarter gene will crop up again and when it does, other weirdness follows. They find the guy and he joins their pantheon.
I don’t remember exactly why (off visiting the Bodychanger homeworld, maybe?), but for some reason Miracleman isn’t available for an hour or so. This is crucial to the big shock storyline in #15, which we’re just about to arrive at.
Johnny’s life is hell, but, he figures, it can’t get any worse. Wrong. The bullies drag Johnny off to the boy’s bathroom where they’re gonna rape him. Johnny pleads with them, then asks them to forgive him as they’re bending him over and pulling down his pants. He says the word. Kid Miracleman promptly dispatches the three would-be rapists (one of whom is horribly burned from the lighting from the change) and then kills the kindly nurse (“We wouldn’t want people to think I’ve gone soft.”)
Number 15 opens with several two page spreads of London as a slaughterhouse. Johnny has killed or maimed millions of people, simply to get Miracleman’s attention. There’s a particularly ghastly picture of a woman, eyes gouged(?) out, arms blackened stumps wandering through the rubble, weeping.
Anyway, the Warpsmiths, the firestarter and the Miraclepeople try to stop Kid Miracleman. There’s a horrificly intense fight scene. Eventually, one of the Warpsmiths teleports a shoe-sized chunk of rock half-into Kid Miracleman’s brain. Even this doesn’t kill him, but it hurts him enough that he retreats by saying the word. Johnny collapses, weeping into Miracleman’s arms begging for forgiveness for what Kid Miracleman did. Miracleman soothes him and hugs him and assures him that everything will be all right and Kid Miracleman will never get out again. And then Miracleman crushes Johnny’s skull, killing him.
End of arc 3.
Arc 4 is non-linear, so I can’t really give a synopsis.This is where Gaiman took over and the book made a 90 degree turn from it’s previous direction (which was necessary. No fight scene could ever top the one in #15, so it was pointless to try.) and the next bunch of issues are single issue stories that explore the world.
Suffice it to say that the Miraclecouple and their allies have taken over the world and are remaking it into a lefty paradise (and it is: you’ve got godlike beings to override human nature. ANY society concieved, however silly, left or right, can work if you’ve got a godlike being to make sure everyone toes the line).
There are no countries, no armies, no money etc. Miracleman donates his sperm to millions of women so there’ll be more Miraclebabies, the Bodychanging aliens are able to resurrect the dead and some of the dead are coming back to life. people are being given super-powers (albiet slowly) as the problems Gargunza couldn’t overcome with performing the process on adults was overcome by the Bodychangers.
There’s a really bad preachy issue featuring Bush 1, Thatcher and several other world leaders in an enforced encounter session talking about how their power-fixation was sublimated sexual desire.
There’s an issue about how Miracleman keeps ressurecting Gargunza, hoping to reform him and how Gargunza and a clone of Andy Warhol form a relationship…or not.
There’s an issue about legends about Miracleman. The first big chunk of Gaiman’s work is simply exploring the world the Miraclepeople built.
It’s very strange, very provokative, occasionally preachy. Gaiman hadn’t entirely learned his craft yet so there’s the occasionally stupid bit (the world leader encounter session issue had “I’m a bitter hippie” written all over it: it managed to be smug, pompous AND preachy all at once. But now that Gaiman’s matured as a writer, I can’t imagine how good it would be if Gaiman could do it again now, though), but damn it’s a fascinating world he’s created. But most of all: it’s different. The world has become something that most adults no longer understand or can cope with. The Miracles regret that, but…hey. It’s making the next generation into immortal gods, so…:: shrug ::.
The last issue published has Young Miracleman (the third one, the one who was killed* by the atom bomb) resurrected. Miracleman and Miraclewoman explain what’s happened and show him around. He’s really not comfortable with the new world (remember, it was the '50s, last he remembers). Miraclewoman tells Miracleman that Young Miracleman has a crush on Miracleman and if Miracleman simply acts on it, it’ll make things better for everyone. Miracleman, not given to deep pondering, agrees and flies up to Young Miracleman, gives him a look of smouldering passion and kisses him on the lips. Possibly slipping him some tongue too.
Young Miracleman freaks, decks Miracleman and flies off determined to “fix” things.
The next issue, though completely written and drawn was never published.
Eclipse comics was playing games with payment and Gaiman refused to give them anything until they were paid. The pages currently reside with Gaiman. My understanding is that Gaiman has the scripts done through issue 30 and plots out to issue 40(?).
And we’ll probably never see them. < sigh >
Fenris
Just read the first arc Fenris. Thanks a lot! I have Miracleman until he’s getting beaten up by kid Miracleman. You have no idea of how frustrating it was not knowing what happened.
The series seems to be great. Can I get it at Ebay? What magazines should I look out for?
What do youm mean they didn’t finish Books of Magic? What about Ney Reiber’s (?) 60 issues arc? It didn’t end? What about Molly?
Thanks again. Great work.
A couple of tidbits:
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Doing some research, apparently Gaiman bitchslapped McFarlane in court, but chose to not actualy demand the rights back for Miracleman, as apparently the so-called rights that McFarlane has may be worthless. Gaiman’s lawyer speaks here
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Four pages from the complete, but unpublished Miracleman #25 can be found here
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For people interested in the minutae of the case, there’s an article here
Fenris
I believe that currently they’re running a new book titled “Hunter: The Age Of Magic”, which is a continuation of BOM. From what’ve read of volume 4/5
Re: Molly
Molly gets cursed by a person of faerie and is never able to touch normal earth ground, or eat human food. She breaks up with Tim, and gets a sorceress to transport her home.
Don’t know about after that.
Thanks Aslan2. But if you could elaborate just a little… Here’s what I know of Molly: she’s cute, she and Tim hook up, she’s either not human or not a virgin, she’s got some sort of hidden past with magic in it.
How does all this add up?
I’ve got an issue from each arc. I knew there were legal problems. But, I had no idea they were this bad.
Re-The Resin Statue
WTF??? A hideous desecration of Miracle Man! Your’s for only $100!
Re-Mr Cream
Just why does he have sapphire teeth? And why did they pick the name Cream?
I believe that molly’s grandma was in contact with faeries, possibly she herself a faerie or a half faerie, or some sort of magical entity.