Miracleman
Miracleman 16 (December 1988)
Moore bites off a lot for this final issue to the arc. It isn’t enough Miracleman and company will turn the world into a utopia, Moore has to sell it. He uses great detail–like the Warpsmiths liking the Inuit language the most–to make things process. He also throws in a lot of personality. Heavy metal […]
MoreMiracleman 15 (November 1988)
What’s incredible–and possibly singular–about how Moore approaches Miracleman is his distance. There are moments this issue where another writer might wink at superhero comics. Moore doesn’t. Even in those moments, he’s only writing this one. More so, he’s only writing this moment, even though it’s technically a flashback. London is destroyed, decimated. There is no […]
MoreMiracleman 14 (April 1988)
As far as the art goes, it’s near perfect. Moore’s script (presumably with panel arrangement), Totleben’s art, it’s outstanding. And most of the issue is excellent too. The stuff with the Moran family, the stuff with Miracleman and the other super-powered beings setting up their club… well, actually that decision is Moore’s second most questionable […]
MoreMiracleman 13 (November 1987)
It’s an awesome issue. Not just in the flashback plotting and reveals, but with how Moore structures Miracleman’s narration from the present. Even though the present day stuff is all static and all summary, Moore manages to get in an amazing finish for this issue. Moore doesn’t try to frustrate the reader with foreshadowing, he […]
MoreMiracleman 12 (September 1987)
More hints at what’s to come–both in the bookends and in the present action. Moore’s pretty slick with one of the reveals–so quiet maybe it’s a typo–but the other, revealed on the last page but suggested much earlier… Well, things might just get really dramatic here in a bit. This issue reveals Miraclewoman’s back story. […]
MoreMiracleman 11 (May 1987)
Wow. Even with Moore’s overcooked prose–it’s from Miracleman’s memoirs–wow. It opens five years later, with Miracleman somewhere above the Earth in a floating castle. I think (about the location, not the time). Moore opens with these grandiose images and then brings things down again. New–and lovely–artist John Tolteben can do both fantastical and mundane with […]
MoreMiracleman 10 (December 1986)
John Ridgway returns to ink Veitch and it works out nicely. Veitch has fine composition, with the Ridgway inks the panels all have a lot of personality. I love how Mike looks so ancient and tired. Most of the issue is spent with two aliens who have come to Earth to check on the miracle-people. […]
MoreMiracleman 9 (July 1986)
That is one ugly baby. Sorry, getting ahead of myself. This issue features Moore’s returns after a reprints issue and fresh artists. Rick Veitch pencils, Rick Bryant inks. It’s a major improvement over Austen–the panel compositions are once again ambitious–but it’s not particularly great art. Veitch and Bryant do a little Mick Anglo homage and […]
MoreMiracleman 8 (June 1986)
The issue opens with Cat Yronwode apologizing for the following reprints. She ought to doubly apologize as there’s a mention of the reprints being what Miracleman is thinking about after the end of his battle with Gargunza. Except none of the reprints feature Gargunza. Apparently when Miracleman thinks about his past, he thinks about unrelated […]
MoreMiracleman 7 (April 1986)
I wonder how Alan Moore felt about seeing these finished pages. He turned in a great script, sent it off, got back these Chuck Austen pages. It’s a shock he didn’t quit comics then. Oddly enough, Austen is better this issue than last. He’s still terrible though. He can’t do a subplot about some former […]
MoreMiracleman 6 (February 1986)
And here we have the first appearance of Chuck Austen on the art. And wow. Wow. I complained about Alan Davis–who does the first chapter–I complained about his work on faces. But he got the mythic quality of the story. He got how people, even if they aren’t beautifully drawn, do look different. Austen doesn’t […]
MoreMiracleman 5 (January 1986)
Really, the art’s Alan Davis? Mostly, I mean–John Ridgeway’s back to finish the flashback story–but Davis does the art on most of the issue. And it’s not good. It’s really rushed, really loose with detail. There’s definitely some decent composition, but I just thought whoever came on the art had good composition and not good […]
MoreMiracleman 4 (December 1985)
And here’s the first mention of Miracleman as a superhero. He’s hanging out in a park, runs across a kid who’s terrified of a nuclear attack, they bond. Great scene from Moore. Alan Davis does most of the art this issue. It’s very well composed at times, but his figures feel a little two dimensional. […]
MoreMiracleman 3 (November 1985)
It’s a nice issue, sort of finishing out the main questions about Miracleman–how can a fifties-type superhero actually have existed in the modern world Moore operates the series in. The answer is predictable, but Moore’s presentation of the explanation is good. The setup for the reveal, including a fight with another super-powered individual, cuts between […]
MoreMiracleman 2 (October 1985)
And here’s a great cliffhanger. Again, Moore’s not plotting these stories for a full issue, but it shakes out very nicely this issue. Miracleman is an odd comic. Moore runs headstrong into the relationship problems between Mike and Liz, he deals with Mike’s strange duality with Miracleman–the way Mike’s able to talk about Miracleman’s rather […]
MoreMiracleman 1 (August 1985)
There’s something magnificent about the way Alan Moore starts Miracleman. Of course, given the issue is a compilation of shorts from Warrior, it must have been even better to read them in that series. He opens with a retro superhero comic strip, full of fifties silliness and plays it through to the end of the […]
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