Set Description:
A close second on my list of favorite comic book series (Sandman would be first), Miracleman was yet another read that turned the conventions of comic book story-telling inside out.
What started as a seemingly-innocent rip of Captain Marvel was drastically transformed when Alan Moore jumped into the fray with his grown-up version of Mike Moran, unable to console his (fabricated) past as the mighty superhero Miracleman (née Marvelman) with the daily trials & tribulations of a normal adult life.
From the highly graphic birth scene in issue #9 to the apocalyptic gore & mayhem in issue #15 when Kid Miracleman unleashes his wrath on 40,000 Londoners (and, as the defenseless Johnny Bates, is finally killed by Miracleman) and, finally, to the unsettling depiction of an entire planet under the totalitarian control of Miracleman & his superhuman allies, Alan Moore built his run on the series up to an epic finish - and then walked away, leaving Neil Gaiman to pick up the pieces.
Neil Gaiman's tenure on Miracleman was, unfortunately, cut short due to the collapse of Eclipse - he managed to give us the stunningly beautiful 3-issue (6-issue if you include the three issues of Miracleman: Apocrypha) "The Golden Age" which focused on the people inhabiting a world where Gods walk the earth, but managed just two issues of "The Silver Age" that would have featured the reintroduction of Kid Miracleman. The final story, "The Dark Age", never even left the drafting table.
Even with the rather abrupt ending, Miracleman is still a masterpiece, though - a series that deserves to be read, re-read and praised as one of the most important stories of the last couple of decades. Kimota!
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This set took two years to put together, and was completed on August 18th, 2009.
My personal favorites in this set include:
- the lone CGC 9.9 copy of #17
- signed copies of 20 of the issues
- issue #14 and #15 with stunning sketches by John Totleben
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