If you like the character and his early comics, more power to you. I’m not telling you what to like. However, this site is about my thoughts and I want to like Miracleman and company. And yet I can’t.
Miracleman, formerly Marvelman, is in the hands of Marvel Comics, and now about to be added to the Marvel Universe. Or possibly multiverse. I haven’t followed the Armageddon storyline (not to be confused with the DC storyline “Armageddon: 2001”), and I don’t know who David Colton is, or his powers, or any of that. However, a solicit and article on Bleeding Fool gave me some rather odd news:
On stands now, AVENGERS: ARMAGEDDON #4, the penultimate issue of the five-issue event series by Chip Zdarsky, Delio Diaz and Frank Alpizar that ushers in the next era of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, delivered a game-changing revelation: the source of the Origin Box that gave David Colton his mysterious—and unparalleled—powers was none other than MIRACLEMAN.
A pioneer of modern super hero storytelling, MIRACLEMAN remains one of the medium’s most revolutionary characters. Now, the character returns in the Marvel Universe as his awesome power finds a new champion in David Colton, the 21st-century Captain America introduced in the opening arc of Chip Zdarsky’s acclaimed Captain America run.
Colton’s transformation couldn’t come at a more pivotal moment. AVENGERS: ARMAGEDDON is reenergizing the Marvel Universe—and comic shops with sold-out printings—as the Avengers face a battle that will forever change how the world sees them as protectors. Now, David Colton assumes the mantle of MIRACLEMAN, who once deconstructed the very idea of what it means to be a super hero, to help usher in this new age. But as Colton embraces his new power and brings it to the forefront of the fight, will there be an Earth left standing to avenge?
I have a bunch of issues with this, but before I can explain why we need to be on the same page. (No puns were intended in that last sentence.) So first we need to watch a video from Owen Likes Comics about the history of a character that started out as Captain Marvel’s British replacement, and moved into the same old deconstruction nonsense by a guy who can’t stop himself from making them. Then I can get into just why this doesn’t make any sense, and frankly bothers me a bit.
If you’re curious about those legal issues, I posted a video some time ago by Comic Drake that covers how Miracleman ended up at Marvel. So let’s get the part I don’t understand: why is Miracleman here? Marvel rejected him once, and all he needed was a second name change? Beyond that, part of history has already been done with the Sentry, who made it to the MCU, and Blue Marvel, which hasn’t. You know, superhero that life forgot suddenly returns. Except in this case the superheroing was a lie. I don’t see how you retcon this in to give Marvel yet another not-Superman when they already have the Sentry. Plus his backstory as retconned doesn’t work in the Marvel universe unless he’s actually from another Earth. A quick check of the Marvel Database tells me that’s the case, so fine. Colton’s story is…something.
It’s not just that he feels like an odd fit for the Marvel universe, but he wouldn’t work in DC either thanks to the retcon. Not surprising that it’s Alan Moore, the guy who wrote Watchmen. Fun, more traditional superhero stories are something he seems to despise, as I’ve been noticing in my first time readthrough of the book. I’m not surprised that he thought of the kids who turn into adult superheroes and thought “how can I ruin their lives?”, since he’s the same guy who thought “I bet Peter Pan and Wendy’s story from this book of children’s literature made into a whimsical Disney cartoon would be more interesting as porn”.
The only thing fitting here is that Marvelman/Miracleman is to Marvel what Captain Marvel/Shazam is to DC. The company that killed the character now owns the character. In DC’s case, National Comics assumed they alone should be allowed to have a character like Superman. Come on, guys. You didn’t see Edgar Rice Burroughs or his estate going after all the Tarzan knockoffs, including the girl variant like Sheena. Apparently all they had to do was change the name and he could have still been a UK superhero published in the UK and not become obscure enough that a deconstruction addict who hates the traditional superhero wouldn’t have changed his whole story. So Marvel stops Marvelman, and then buys him, like DC did with Captain Marvel. That just seems wrong to me. Meanwhile they’ve allowed the Ultraverse, New Universe, and Star Comics characters vanish from history. But at least they took Angela away from Image Comics. Does she even matter to…anyone?
I’m not mad, just annoyed. This business nonsense is obnoxious. Another family of young heroes that appealed to kids had all the fun drained out of it. Poor Mike Moran got it as bad as Billy Batson, though at least Freddy Freeman didn’t turn evil.
Realized it as soon as I finished that sentence. Okay, fine, but he didn’t STAY that way, and it was still a fun story that wasn’t trying to deconstruct yet another hero to give them a horrible life and a non-attempt at building him back up. We won’t go into what DC in the main universe did to Mary Marvel. I guess it’s par for the course in the past few decades. “We hate kids, we hate kid characters, and we make comics so we need to take them away from kids.” That’s the continuing formula and I’m sick of the whole thing. I might want to check out the older Marvelman comics, when it was intended as continuing the fun Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family as the Marvelman Family. Might even make a good team-up. Today’s version of both teams? I don’t care.
