Miracleman #6



Our cover comes from Tim Truman and it has a hard edge to it, that matches the story inside.This is where things get nasty (or nastier)!

At Gargunza's compound, Liz sits alone in her room. She is grabbed from behind and silenced. It is Evelyn Cream and he tells her that her husband is coming. Next, we see Miracleman fly in and smash through the compound, rending walls and levelling buildings as if they were paper. Gargunza watches in awe at his creation. He calls for his dog, Pluto, and his tinted spectacles. Miracleman finds Gargunza, holding his dog, and tells him he has come to kill him. Gargunza chuckles and says "no," then says "Abraxas. In a flash of light Miracleman is gone and Mike Moran stands, dumbfounded. He utters "Kimota,' but, nothing happens. He asks Gargunza what he has done. Gargunza had implanted other trigger words and tells Mike it lasts an hour. he sets down the dog and tells it to listen carefully, then says "Steppenwolf." The dog is replaced by a four-legged monster.



This is where Marvelman ended, in Warrior, in issue #21, in 1984. Within the magazine, Dez Skinn claimed that it was due to legal threats over the Marvelman Special they published, with reprints of old stories. Marvel sent letters about the name, threatening legal action. It later came out that a dispute between Skinn and Moore was the more likely cause. Readers were left hanging until Eclipse began publishing the series and reached this issue. Unfortunately, Alan Davis was not available to continue, nor, I assume, was Gary Leach. Eclipse, instead, went with a rookie, who had done some work on Alien Worlds, Chuck Beckum (Chuck Austen).



The shift in the art is jarring.

Mike and Liz are reunited, but their time is brief. Gargunza tells Mike and Cream they will have a three minute headstart. They run off into the jungle, but Mike falls behind, in his middle-aged, out of shape form. He falls to his knees in despair. Cream aggressively tells him he has to stay alive to bring back Miracleman and save Liz & their baby. He gives him his pistol and they split up. Cream runs and sees images from his nightmares. Eventually, Miracledog catches up and attacks, leaving his head severed, which is still alive enough to see what has occurred, before dying. Mike stumbles along and finds his path blocked by Miracledog, who spits out blood and sapphire teeth.

The issue finishes with a Young Miracleman story (another reprint where Dickie Dauntless, in his day job as a messenger, delivers a parcel to an office, with a very attractive and flirtatious secretary. Dickie leaves and changes form, then flies off to Pluto, where he takes an ice necklace from around the neck of a queen. He carries it back in his messenger bag and then changes back into Dickie's form. he presents the bag to the secretary, who finds it filled with water. She kicks him out and he motors off, dejected.

Alan Davis' art is both striking and a bit off, in the first chapter. Striking when Miracleman smashes into the compound, and a bit off when we see Miracleman and Gargunza together, especially after the abrupt change to Mike. It gets rather cartoonish and it kind of affects the scene. That is minor though, compared to the next chapter. Chuck beckum is rough and very scratchy. Anatomy is a little off in certain panels, though not horribly so. The models are more than a bit off and he has trouble with certain angles. Still, for a rookie, it isn't bad. He has a decent grasp of facial expressions and is able to carry out the story demands; but, I don't think it would have kept the series going, if he had continued longer than the next issue.

Gargunza is calmly terrifying. The casual nature that he throws out his fail-safe trigger, Abraxas, shows us that he has thought this confrontation through, years ago. This is not a cackling baddie, this is a cold, calculating, twisted genius. Then, the introduction of Miracledog is terrifying. It is the stuff of nightmares, rivalling Giger's Alien, in a horrifying form. Beckum isn't quite in Davis' league in depicting it, but, he gives it a good go.

The back-up story is done rather like the old Marvelman comics, with a whimsical flare. The idea that Dickie is smitten with the secretary flies in the face of how he is depicted in The Silver Age and you are left wondering whether Alan Moore saw the character as being in love with MM or not. Certainly, dialogue within the series (via the flashbacks, especially in an upcoming issue) tends to support the possibility of it, though you could also argue that those scenes are simply hero worship from young boys, who are uncomfortable around girls. I've never fully bought into the idea that Young Miracleman is gay, as the Silver Age is left unfinished and we don't see where Neil Gaiman was going with it. Moore also left it ambiguous, so people tend to read their preference into it. I like to keep an open mind, until the story (if ever) is completed. I do think that both boys worshipped Miracleman and could even have a "crush" on him, though that doesn't mean they are gay, in absolute. These things can be situational and many people fall somewhere in between on the spectrum between absolutely heterosexual and absolutely homosexual. That is one of the great elements of this series, though; it brings up all kinds of ideas that superhero comics did not touch, before.

Not disputing that things later went a bit sour with Moore, but as I have always understood it, there were indeed threats of legal action from Marvel, while Moore continued to work for Warrior after Marvelman ended. Also, by the time Eclipse picked up the strip, Alan Davis had, IIRC, fallen out with Moore over a separate (though related) matter, rather than not being available.

I suspect it simply comes down to Moore not having been able to see past the point he was trying to make and acknowledge Davis's point of view; Moore has never seemed terribly motivated by money and, in any case, was very much in demand at the time so e didn't need Marvel, and possibly jut couldn't see why Davis didn't feel the same way? Pure speculation, of course, but at this stage that's all we have. As for the cessation of Marvelman, I've read a lot about what happene over the years, and have also spoken to people involved, and I have never heard any suggestion that it was about anything other than Marvel's threats of legal action. Certainly, Moore was still working for Warrior on other strips right up until the end, months after Marvelman ended.

I'm aware Dez Skinn is regarded as "shady" in some circles, but I've crossed paths with him several times over the years and he's never struck me that way; back in about 2002, when I was still trying to get into writing with a self published fanzine, Dez helped me a lot in small ways, giving my 'zine free advertising in Cmics International and even designing a new and better logo for it, unasked and purely because he wanted to encourage me. I ended up writing and editing articles and reviews about comics for various magazines and websites, including Comics International in its later issues, for several years after that, a good time for me, and that would not have happened without Dez's encouragement, so I tend to take a lot of what people say about him with a pinch of salt.

They say that mass killers often start with animals.

Oops, spoilers!

Miracleman #9



You will note the warning on the cover. The issue features the birth of Liz and Miracleman's baby. It does so graphically, with full details. As such, they felt a warning was in order. It's telling that the burnt and chewed bodies, dogs getting their skulls smashed, and an upcoming scene involving Johnny Bates didn't require warnings; but, childbirth did. The scenes were based on the book A Child is Born, by Lennart Nilsson, first published in 1965 and updated in 1975. It features, in expansive detail the birth process. We sold copies of it regularly at Barnes & Noble, when I worked there. These scenes sparked some minor controversy. Some were in favor of things, others felt the detail was overdone, and others felt it was inappropriate. I greatly differ with the latter opinion. the depictions are accurate, about bringing new life into the world. Contrast that with previous issues of death and destruction, it makes for a nice contrast. Then again, I saw a film about childbirth, with my mother, when I was pretty young (don't remember how it came about; but, I distinctly remember seeing it).

On to the issue...

Speaking of violence, our story opens with Liz awakened by a voice telling her "It's time..." and feeling contractions. She looks for help but Gargunza's nurse run away in terror. Liz looks for help as we see bodies strewn about and destruction everywhere...



Liz finds Miracleman, floating in the air. She tells him the baby is coming, then remembers Mike and the Miracledog. MM soothes her and tells her Gargunza and Miracledog are no longer threats. Liz wants to be gone and MM has her get in a truck and then transports her away.



As they fly, Liza asks what happened to Gargunza. MM replies that he"...threw him at a planet."

Meanwhile, two black clad , mysterious figures visit St Crispin's, the hospital where Johnny Bates is housed. They show a nurse a pencil and make her believe it is an Air Force ID. They go to Johnny's room and find him unresponsive. They go inside his mind and ask about his "change-self." Johnny's mind appears as himself, face buried in his hands. He does not respond and the pair departs. Kid Miracleman appears, as Johnny lowers his hands and wonders who they were.



Miracleman delivers their child, as Liz strains through the pain. We see the baby's head emerging, and then the rest. Veitch includes the mucus and fluids of childbirth and shows the gradual emergence, which is a bit startling, if you've never witnessed it, in any form. The baby emerges healthy and MM shows her to Liz.

Mother and father settle down to enjoy their little girl, as Liz begins nursing. Then, the parents are delivered a shock that no other parent has even experienced:



To say this is a mature book is to go beyond the ordinary comic book definition. This is real, mature life, in a fantastic setting, with amazing characters. It is new life, in all of its messy glory. Rick Veitch has a talent for this kind of thing, as you can see in less glorious detail, in his own Maximortal series, or his other King Hell books, or his Roarin' Rick's Rarebit Fiends. And yes, the baby looks a bit like Winston Churchill.

The natural state of the childbirth scenes lulls you into believing that things have relaxed for the pair, then Moore hits you with more horror: the newborn can speak. Earlier, Liz remarked that the progress towards labor seemed far faster than it should have been. What kind of being is this aby? Was it the voice that awoke Liz? These questions will wait until subsequent issues.

It's funny, considering everyone under the sun has ripped off Alan Moore's work and rehashed his plots and ideas; and, given the graphic nature of many of today's comics, it's surprising that no one else has done copied much of this issue. Guess it was too icky for them.

Next, more of our mysterious visitors, more on Johnny Bates, and Mike Moran returns.

No surprises there.

I do have to say, I did get a bit of a shock once, when I worked for B&N.  My particular store had a seating area, near the back, outside the Children's Department.  the restrooms and offices were off to the side.  I had been doing some admin, in the office, when I came out of the back, turned the corner to enter the seating area and there is a woman breast feeding.  Now, this wasn't unusual, as we had women nursing there before.  What was different was that most before had covered themselves and the baby with a blanket for their own privacy.  Not this woman.  I walked out and got a full view of breast, with child attached!  Perfectly normal activity; just not used to see it in such vivid presentation.  Funny thing is, a hundred years before, it probably would have seemed normal (maybe a little further back).  One of the points brought up in issue 10, in regards to reader responses, was how women in the 1700s walked around with nipples exposed; but, in Victorian times it was unseemly to see either sex's nipples exposed.  These days, a man can be shirtless; but society is shocked if a woman is.  It's a fair point, illustrating how society often regresses, as it progresses.

In a few issues, the childbirth scenes will seem quite tame.