Alan Moore's Work Returns to Marvel (sort of): Miracleman #1

Alan Moore, Mick Anglo (writers)
Garry Leach, Don Lawrence, Anglo (artists)

The 1950s superhero Marvelman, whose name, due to a lawsuit filed by Marvel Comics, was later changed to Miracleman, has been the subject of considerable legal brouhaha for quite some time. Apart from the whole kerfuffle about his name, there was a long-running dispute about the ownership of the character that resulted, for reasons which are hazy to me, in somewhat sordid litigation between comic book creators Todd McFarlane and Neil Gaiman. That's since been settled with a helping hand from Marvel, who, as a result, now has access to the entire back catalog of Miracleman's adventures, including the ones that were written by comics legend Alan Moore back in the 1980s.

Miracleman #1, released last week, contained the first two of Moore's stories with artist Garry Leach, which originally appeared in the British anthology magazine Warrior.  The story depicts middle-aged freelance reporter Michael Moran, who has constant migraines and dreams of flying. He is covering a news story when terrorists attack, and rather unexpectedly, during a migraine episode, Moran remembers a very special word and transforms himself completely into a superhero.

The issue also includes reprints of Miracleman's adventures in the 1950s as written by Anglo and drawn by Don Lawrence and even Anglo himself. These actually take up the bulk of the issue, in addition to a few "behind the scenes" extras. Of course, the Moore/Leach story is the main attraction here, and to be fair to Marvel, there's considerable value-added on their part; the digital color restoration looks amazing, and Chris Eliopoulous' new lettering is pleasing to the eye. It's a good enough read, but apparently the real groundbreaking stuff lies ahead.

The deal breaker here, unfortunately, is the astronomical cover price of the issue. At USD5.99 we only get fourteen pages of Moore's story, with everything else being Silver Age and "making of" content, none of which is particularly engaging. I cannot really recommend this, especially not to anyone with a fixed budget for comics; you might be better off waiting for the inevitable trade, because this issue just feels like a rip-off, and if future issues are just like it, in terms of content-to-price ratio, they will feel that way too.

2/5