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Post by Spike-X on Apr 13, 2017 18:18:44 GMT -5
That's the first time I've seen those Retrieval pages. They weren't reprinted in the tpb, for some reason.
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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 13, 2017 21:23:52 GMT -5
That's the first time I've seen those Retrieval pages. They weren't reprinted in the tpb, for some reason. The Retrieval subplot kept me interested when I was a little underwhelmed by some of Gaiman's stories. First time through, I was a little ambivalent about the Golden Age (liked the spy issue and the Warhols/Gargunza one), given what it followed; but, it grew on me with rereading. Retrieval kept me interested in where it was going, with each two-page installment. I only ever owned the issues (and have scans of them), so I never saw the trade. Do you mean the Eclipse trade or the Marvel? I can see where they might have held that for use as a prologue for the uncompleted Silver Age, if/when it was collected. |
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Post by Spike-X on Apr 14, 2017 0:44:25 GMT -5
I've owned two different printings of the Eclipse trade, and it wasn't in either of them. I don't know if it's in the Marvel reprints, either singles or tpb/HC.
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Post by tingramretro on Apr 14, 2017 1:24:54 GMT -5
I've owned two different printings of the Eclipse trade, and it wasn't in either of them. I don't know if it's in the Marvel reprints, either singles or tpb/HC. It's certainly in the Marvel singles. |
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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 15, 2017 14:49:29 GMT -5
Miracleman #18  Our story finds a windmill keeper, living alone in the country, reflecting on 1987, and the events of The Great Storm (essentially, a hurricane-like storm that tore through passed over the UK and parts of Europe, in 1987). The man went out to experience the storm and saw the sight of Miracle Woman flying through it, experiencing lightning strikes. The man said "I love you," softly and was surprised that she heard..  She takes the man inside and they have sex. They part and he asks if she will return. She asks if she needs to and he says yes. She replies, "Perhaps." The man continues his work and dreams of fighting Miracleman and driving him off so that he can be with Miracle Woman, forever. She makes frequent visits and suddenly asks why he is alone and reveals she knows about his past relationships.  He is constantly finding physical fault with women, seeking perfection, which he has found in MW. She reveals the truth...  She tells him that physical perfection is an illusion and that the internal is what matters. She calls him to bed and she makes love to him as Avril Lear. She leaves him a brand, her fingerprint seared into a shoulder, proving it was real. He uses her love-line and is matched with an old flame, Anita. They continue to meet once or twice a month, but never remarry. He puts his story on the net for others to read. All very Gaiman, rather like a Sandman interlude. Miracle Woman continues to be Aphrodite to this world, connecting people, helping them find true love. It's a quiet story, somewhat predictable. A second story finds a pair of kids meeting behind the bicycle sheds, where she asks him to show it to her. The boy is a Bates, a worshipper of Johnny Bates, the apostate. They are outsiders, those who reject the modern world and see Bates as their symbol. They are the Goths and Emos of the Utopia. The girl talks about how Bates has become trendy and the boy rejects the idea of Bates becoming "popular." She says another Bates said they were going to bring him back...  The other school kids talk of sex ed classes, with real sex, and how new miracles keep happening, like potions that turn kids invisible. The young Bates finally shows the girl his necklace...  The story ends with the girl asking how she'd look in a crew cut and leather jacket. She says her mom would have kittens. She reveals her father was killed by Bates; he was a newsvendor in Piccadilly, killed during Bates' rampage. Still she is thrilled with the idea. Interesting look at the Bates worshippers and the nature of negative things becoming fashion trends, separated from the reality of their history, like Nazi fashions devoid of swastikas, but with the same lines. It also plants the idea that the Bates want to bring Johnny back. We end with part 2 of Retrieval...   Again, this issue feels more like an average Vertigo book than the Miracleman/Marvelman that came before. I think that is what lost a part of the audience (apart from sporadic distribution); these are quieter stories and a portion of the audience was looking for more of the superhero deconstruction and violence, rather than the philosophical. Seeds are being planted, if you look carefully. I think the Silver Age was supposed to be where the seeds start sprouting and the Dark Age was to be the end result. It certainly seemed to be building that way. |
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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 16, 2017 12:24:03 GMT -5
Miracleman #19  Eclipse was really making this series look like Vertigo, right down to the Dave McKean covers. Most folks probably know this as the Warhol issue. Mors comes to Andy, calling him Andek, and says he is needed to mentor a new awakening. Andy presents Mors with a t-shirt, with the fantasy image of Dr. Borgheim, the fictional Shazam of the Gargunza para-reality programing. Mors shows him the new subject: Dr Gargunza. When he awakes, he is a bit confused...  Warhol explains what happened, in simple terms and Gargunza asks about the science, to which Warhol is oblivious. Gargunza is told an electro-magnetic field keeps him "alive" but his is limited to the room they occupy. Warhol departs, leaving Gargunza. Gargunza starts recording a journal. He laments that he is stuck in his old body. he and Warhol converse more and Gargunza criticizes the lack of freedom and speaks of his "son", who never visits. Eventually, one of his progeny does..  Lots of (literal) talking heads follow, in the style of Warhol's prints...  They speak of new religions and Gargunza remarks he likes the Moranists most of all. They believe that Mike Moran had a brain tumor that caused his migraines and that the world is his wish fulfillment, in the last few moments, after a seizure. Mors and Andy speak. Gargunza has asked him for things: batteries, a wristwatch, paperclips. Andy gave them to him. Mors gives him a pomegranate to add. Mors and Andy meet again and Mors explains why they brought Gargunza back, to try to harness his mind. Mors stops Gargunza, as he tries to escape to the upper world, with a portable electro-magnetic field, built into a backpack apparatus. Gargunza is shut down and Mors explains that he was not the first Gargunza...  At the end, we see multiple Gargunza shells, fitting our Warhol theme, as Mors says one day he will get the balance right. I'm not a fan of Warhol. Personally, I think he was a glorified con artist who talked a better game than any "art" he produced; but, others see differently. Art is subjective. Buckingham does a great job of capturing Warhol's "style" with repetitive images, while Gaiman captures his self-indulgent voice, that mixture of disassociated observer and shrewd businessman. Gargunza, master manipulator that he is, uses Warhol for information and access to things, to create his escape mode. He almost succeeds, again. This has always been an odd one for me; an interesting experiment, though one that really doesn't fit my tastes. Gaiman's Warhol monologues leave me cold, though the Gargunza pieces interest me. Buckingham's art is all over the place, from extremely harsh lines, to the cut-and-paste graphics, to repeated icons. He gets to play in a lot of styles, showing his versatility. However, it is an issue for a rather select audience. We end with Retrieval, part 3...   Now we know the drone's target: the corpse of Dickie Dauntless/Young Miracleman. We also see the human forms of Avril Lear and Mike Moran, as well as the impaled body of Kid Miracleman; still a threat for some future date. Something tells me that Avril and Mike will factor into the future (if we ever see it), especially after Winter tells Gargunza that they don't come because of his fail-safe's. They worry that there might be more. Following Chekhov's Gun, that must factor into the story again, later. |
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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 17, 2017 22:06:33 GMT -5
Miracleman #20  In the opening chapter, we meet Rachel, a writer, who narrates about the holidays now celebrated.  We soon meet her family, including Glen, her stepson, Glen's father, Jack, and Rachel's Miracle Baby, Mist, who has come back to visit, before going to a party with Winter, in Paraguay. Like Winter, Mist has an adult (well, even more advanced) mind in an infant's body. Glen is older; but, a normal boy and he gets upset that Mist can do things he can't. They go upstairs for a bedtime story, about Winter..  Winter's Tale is essentially a child's version of her adventures on the way to the Qys homeworld. She learned that the Qys travel via underspace (Gargunza's Infra-space) and she learns to tune her aura to match the bio-metric circuitry that the Warpsmiths use to warp space. She learns of the battle with Johnny bates from the Warpsmiths and returns home from the Qs in time for the celebration seen at the end of issue #16. Glen is put to bed and Mist asks Rachel a question and reveals a secret to her...  Rachel puts Mist to bed and gets a reasoned critique of her last movie. She goes downstairs and asks Jack about what Mist said and he confirms it. Rachel spends the night in the ebd in her study. As she undresses, she thinks about why she wanted a child and we learn that all she wanted was undone by having a Miracle Baby; she wanted someone who would need her, yet Mist is more adult than she is and needs no one. Rachel dreams of Winter and her ship (from the story), feeling alone. This is a very melancholy tale, though the bedtime story with Winter is quite charming. Mark Buckingham alters his style into something more cartoony to match the tone of things, juxtaposing his harsher line for the "real world." Rachel seems like someone alone, even before the revelation that Jack is leaving her and taking Glen. Her body language is depressed and everything about her speaks of sadness, even without Gaiman's words. The story in the middle helps bring some life to this, then Gaiman pulls the rug out from under us, with the ending. Even in the utopia, life isn't everything you dream of. We end with Retrieval Part 4...   We can assume that the cells that are subdividing and growing are from the samples taken from Dickie Dauntless/Young Miracleman. Again, the two pages of subplot overshadow the main story, for this reader. |
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Post by tingramretro on Apr 18, 2017 3:53:32 GMT -5
I think Winter's Tale was probably the strongest of the Golden Age, for me. It's not a "big" story, but it's an incredibly well written one, and quietly moving.
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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 18, 2017 11:08:16 GMT -5
I think Winter's Tale was probably the strongest of the Golden Age, for me. It's not a "big" story, but it's an incredibly well written one, and quietly moving. It's very akin to Gaiman's work on Sandman, particularly the short pieces he would do between the longer epics. In fact, The Golden Age feels like one long interlude, before we get back to the meat of Miracleman. That was something different, in the era in which it was published. It was only the year before that Gaiman did a similar thing, with the issues between Doll's House and Season of Mist. Part of the reason Retrieval overshadows things, for me, is that it represents what I wanted to see with Gaiman on the book; where he was going to take the story next. The main stories are all good; but a lot of it involves characters I don't know and don't really connect with. Some of the stories catch my interest more than others, such as the short story with the Bates worshipper. That is both an interesting stand alone story and it has overtones for what is to come. The Warhol piece indulges in some stuff that leaves me cold; but, presents the idea that Gargunza, even in death, is still a threat. For this one, if it wasn't for the central Winter's tale, I probably would have lost faith with Gaiman. As you say, it is moving; but, the melancholy tone and depressing nature of the story is not something I would seek out. I've rarely gravitated toward that kind of story, though I have read and seen many. The bedtime story pulls you back from the abyss a bit and Retrieval whets the appetite for The Silver Age. Funny thing is, I liked the interludes most, on Sandman. Maybe it was because they tended to be lighter, after the long darkness of the big stories. Looking over those first couple of years, Sandman was a very dark book. Miracleman was a tragedy, disguised as a heroic adventure and a deconstruction of the tropes of those adventures. It felt then, and still does a bit today, odd; like the series took a right turn at Albuquerque, with the Golden Age. It would probably seem less so had Gaiman and Buckingham been able to finish the Silver Age and even start the Dark Age. Stepping back, you can see how it fits into things. As published and as the series currently resides, it's a movement in an unfinished symphony that seems a little out of place. |
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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 18, 2017 12:55:19 GMT -5
Miracleman #21  This is probably my favorite of all of the Golden Age stories, as it is, in part, an homage to one of my favorite tvs series, The Prisoner. Our story opens with a lesson in tradecraft; and, extreme paranoia...  She finally picks a taxi and goes to a callbox, to receive a message. A meeting is arranged via words that mean something else. She travels to the meeting sight, having and listening to conversations. Are they signs and countersigns or just ordinary conversation? She arrives at her destination, a fishmongers and the dance begins...  She meets with her boss and speaks of a party. Her typical party activities have underlying codes she meets with another woman, drugs her and photographs her papers, now delivering them to her boss. After she leaves, she contacts another and says she has fed the papers to him. Is she a double, a triple? We see more layers of secrets and mask, or is it rampant paranoia? She starts to wonder about this city. Which city is it? Where is it? She starts to realize that she is trapped in a game...  She goes on the run, dodging police cars and other people. She comes to a high electric fence and a revelation...  Cream tells her of the problem of people in the intelligence community and utopia. These people live in a world of deceit and treachery that was so ingrained they couldn't adapt to the changes. So, they were removed and placed in this city, where they could live out their existence in their own little world. However, Sandra (her real name), has grown beyond that, recognizing the city for what it is and has no need of it anymore. Cream tells her she can leave whenever she wants.  Really great tale and a fun homage to the Prisoner. I had only then-recently watched that series, having heard about it but not encountering it until I was out of college. By this point, I had the whole series on VHS and was obsessive about it, reading The Prisoner Companion for the behind-the-scenes detail, even buying a pair of Iron Maiden Albums just to hear their Prisoner themed songs (Back in the Village and The Prisoner). DC had published Dean Motter and Mark Askwith's Prisoner: Shattered Visage just a couple of years before and I loved it. This felt very similar, with even the art being of a similar style. It is the Village on a larger, more benevolent scale. Sandra is our Number 6, travelling through a world where nothing is what it seems and she wants out. However, this turns the notion on its head. Number 6 left the spy profession behind and found himself imprisoned in the Village, because he knew too much and the masters wanted to know why he left. Sandra is there because she and her kind can't handle the Brave New World and are put there to live their lives in peace, if not freedom. They act out their Len Deighton and John Le Carre fantasies daily. Sandra wants the real world and Evelyn Cream, our Number 2 and Lazarus, offers her the chance. It is interesting to note that Cream is wearing the same mobile electro-magnetic field that Gargunza created to escape his prison. Thus, we see the possibility for others of the dead to escape; maybe the next version of Gargunza? A second story catches us up with Jason Oakey, the young boy Miracleman encounters, just before discovering that Liz has been kidnapped. He wanted to go into London, to spend the day with friends, looking for old records; but, he and his younger sister were shipped off to an aunt, at a seaside village. Jason is bored to death there, with no friends and ignored by his aunt and her "pepperpot" friends. His sister makes friends with the girls next door and Jason is alone and miserable, dreaming of being in London. He comes back to his aunt's place and learns of the tragedy in London. He knows his friends were killed. He describes some of the horrors. he says he later saw a documentary, from Kubrick, that showed the devastation and we see unspeakable horrors that make Night and Fog seem tame. It is there where Jason discovers what happened to his friend Gary, whose head is seen in the film, impaled on a weather vane, the wind whistling through his open mouth, creating a perpetual scream. He tells his lover of his meeting with Miracleman and how that was the dawn of miracles for him. Jason is wearing a blond crew cut, with a spit curl, like Miracleman. He is the antithesis of the Bates worshippers. This interlude carried more weight with me than Rachel's story in the last issue. It connects back to what we have seen before, letting us know what happened to that kid, from another side story. It also keys us in to the true horror of what Johnny Bates did, as we see a checkerboard covered with breasts, cut from the bodies of their owners, and a building wrapped in the entrails of innocents. In that we can forgive Miracleman for crushing poor innocent, abused Johnny Bates head, after Kid Miracleman swapped places. It was the only way to trap the monster. Buckingham's art is one part something in step with Gary Leach and Alan Davis and John Totleben and one part Ralph Steadman (or Gerald Scarfe, or some other British artist with whom I am unfamiliar), as we see the caricature of Jason's aunt and her dismal world. Buckingham's versatility continues to amaze.  Finally, in between the two stories, is Retrieval 5...   It appears that Mors is doing his thing, with the psychic vibrations of the dead. |
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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 19, 2017 11:03:09 GMT -5
Miracleman #22  Issue 22 is the wrap-up of the Golden Age. The characters from the previous issues come together for Carnical, in London, near the foot of Olympus...  We see the pilgrim who climbed the stairs of Olympus, to ask Miracleman to save his daughter. He refused. We see the windmill keeper and Anita, the woman with whom he was reunited, we see Rachel, Sandra the spy, Jason Oakey, the young girl Bates wannabe and even Jack, Glen and Jack's new lover. Everyone is preparing for the celebration of the miracles. Jason is vending Warhol t-shirts, though money no longer changes hands...  Rachel has spent time on the killing fields, mourning. The question is whether she mourns the dead or her life? She is eventually reunited with Mist, for a brief period of time. A "spaceman" comes through the crowd (a drugged out psychic, who spout visions in nonsensical statements). Various people ask things and get no clear answers. The Bates girl asks if he is coming back, the pilgrim, whose daughter has died, asks what happens after death. Rachel asks how the world would have been without the Miracles. A tall stranger in a ballcap asks if he is doing the right thing...  The fireworks come and Miracleman addresses the crowd, via monitor, revealing that they have discovered a new anti-gravity device and that if people wish to fly, they should take a balloon. The story ends with the pilgrim and several others floating over the celebration. In all, a quiet end to a quiet stretch. The characters are brought back and we see what has happened to them. The pilgrim has lost his daughter, but goes on. The windmill keeper and Anita are together, if not deeply in love. Jason still has a connection to Miracleman, complete with his blond hair. He meets the Bates girl. We see other Bates followers, who flip birds at people, like Satanist posers. At the center is Rachel, in her lonely mourning world. She is gloom at the center of joy. Retrieval brings us to the end and signals the start of The Silver Age...     "Wake him..." A simple set of words launches the next phase. This is part of why the subplot felt like the true core of the Golden Age. This felt more like a link to what Alan Moore and the group of artist had done previously and a sign of what was to come. In the end, this issue, like many of the rest, feels like an issue of Sandman, minus Morpheus. In many ways, the Golden Age is an illustration of the difference in style and focus between Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman. They are eternally linked, as the two British superstars who followed one another. There were others who came to the US; but, Gaiman became the next bona fide superstar. Moore was taking icons of the superhero and twisting and morphing them into new shapes, looking at them from new angles, taking them to extremes. Gaiman was exploring characters; looking at life. Both deal in high concepts and both developed layered characters; but, they went about it differently. Moore seemed to bring more of the pulp adventure tradition to things, while Gaiman had more of a novelist and fantasist's approach. Moore is about ideas and impactful scenes, Gaiman is more about language. Dreams are a theme throughout this book, as Gaiman was living in a world of dreams, at this point. So, the Golden Age concludes and the prelude sounds for The Silver Age. However, before it would arrive, Eclipse would give us The Apocrypha. Those three issues will be the next focus. |
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Post by mikelmidnight on Apr 19, 2017 11:44:06 GMT -5
Rachel has spent time on the killing fields, mourning. The question is whether she mourns the dead or her life? She is eventually reunited with Mist, for a brief period of time. A "spaceman" comes through the crowd (a drugged out psychic, who spout visions in nonsensical statements). Various people ask things and get no clear answers. The Bates girl asks if he is coming back, the pilgrim, whose daughter has died, asks what happens after death. Rachel asks how the world would have been without the Miracles. A tall stranger in a ballcap asks if he is doing the right thing... I think "Just be" is incredibly stupid and inapplicable advice to give to someone in Marvelman's position. Utter claptrap from Gaiman. I found it unnecessarily denigrating of Marvelman for him to admit to the world that he had no idea how any of this stuff worked. Moore's rendition of Marvelman wasn't stupid, he was simply inexperienced compared to the others, whereas I feel that Gaiman's rendition is kind of unintelligent. |
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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 19, 2017 12:29:49 GMT -5
Rachel has spent time on the killing fields, mourning. The question is whether she mourns the dead or her life? She is eventually reunited with Mist, for a brief period of time. A "spaceman" comes through the crowd (a drugged out psychic, who spout visions in nonsensical statements). Various people ask things and get no clear answers. The Bates girl asks if he is coming back, the pilgrim, whose daughter has died, asks what happens after death. Rachel asks how the world would have been without the Miracles. A tall stranger in a ballcap asks if he is doing the right thing... I think "Just be" is incredibly stupid and inapplicable advice to give to someone in Marvelman's position. Utter claptrap from Gaiman. I found it unnecessarily denigrating of Marvelman for him to admit to the world that he had no idea how any of this stuff worked. Moore's rendition of Marvelman wasn't stupid, he was simply inexperienced compared to the others, whereas I feel that Gaiman's rendition is kind of unintelligent. I don't know; I think Gaiman is trying to present that inexperience. There is another element, that comes up in Apocrypha; Liz and the life he left behind. During Moore's run he presented the idea that Miracleman has clearer thoughts and no neuroses, compared to Mike Moran. Gaiman and Sarah Byam (in Apocrypha, issue #1) present the idea that Miracleman is still caught up in Mike's life, and Liz. The others have no attachments and have spent more time in their bodies, losing those attachments. They have travelled in space, while MM has only ventured with Miraclewoman to the Qys world and went right back, because of Bates. He also harbors the guilt of killing the human Johnny Bates. I think that informs the actions of Retrieval; he failed Johnny, so he will try again with Dicky. In that, yes it is not necessarily what Moore was doing. Like I said above, Gaiman is very much about the internal, more than the adventure. Moore travels more in both worlds. Golden Age was somewhat polarizing in the letters pages. Some loved it, some hated it and wanted more of the action that Moore had. It appears that was to come in the Silver Age, though the two published issues don't have that much, apart from the Miracle Kids playing superhero games. One thing I did notice is in the editorial tone. Valerie Jones edited The Golden Age and she gets rather high and mighty in the letters pages. cat yronwode often did the same, though some of Valerie's seem more strident. I suspect she and cat were of similar natures and wouldn't put it past them to pick out letters to pounce on and claim the moral high ground. By contrast, I always thought Diana Schutz was a bit more level-headed, in the Grendel letters columns, unless someone was really getting offensive; then she usually hit them with both barrels. Things got hot there, during the Eppy Thatcher period, since the villain was a pope and religion made for a touchy subject. Eclipse liked to court controversy; to present the image of a social crusader. I'm sure much of the sentiment was genuine; but, various accounts of dealing with cat yronwode suggests she could be very Jeckyll and Hyde. |
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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 20, 2017 21:44:03 GMT -5
Miracleman Apocrypha #1  Apocrypha was a 3-issue mini-series, published in between The Golden Age and the Silver Age. It featured short stories by a variety of creative personnel including a couple of rookies, James Robinson (pre-Starman) and Alex Ross. Neil Gaiman and Mark Buckingham did the framing pieces, while the rotating contributors provided the stories. These were fictions, within the MM universe; things made up by writers and artists in the utopia of tomorrow. As such, they are not directly tied into the continuity of the main stories, though they do take some of their cues form there. Our first story, "Miracleman and the Magic Pen," is from Steve Moore and Stan Woch.  The story is basically a riff on the classic Marvelman stories, from Mick Anglo's studio. A artist passes by a curio shop that is going out of business. he sees various fantastic objects (The Phoenix's Egg, Horshoe of Pegasus, etc..) and buys Merlin's Magic Pen, for a pound. He tries it out at home, drawing an ogre that comes to life. It swings a club at him, but it harmlessly passes through his body. The ogre walks throughthe wall and disappears. he tries again with a dragon and it also comes to life, though it cannot harm anyone. however, it does create havoc as people react to it. Word reaches the Daily Bugle, as well of word of a ransom demand, and Mickey Moran is dispatched to cover the story. Faster than you can say "Kimota!" Miracleman is on the scene. MM traces the artist and discovers the truth. he takes the pen and draws a Miracleman, who comes to life and is able to wrap up all of the monsters the artist created...  Fairly lightweight story, done in dozens of comics (including the famous Gil Kane House of Mystery story). "The Rascal Prince" is from James Robinson and Kelly Jones. A group of Bates worshippers have gathered in the Himalayas to read a book, borrowed from Olympus. It tells of what happened while Johnny Bates was in hiding, living as Kid Miracleman, incognito.  Johnny Bates, or to be more accurate, Kid Miracleman, has been living in hiding. He lives a kid's fantasy life of no adult supervision, comics and candy and junk food. Without guidance he has begun to test his boundaries and there is no one to pull him back when he goes too far. He decides to lose his virginity, at 11, and follows a woman. Their path stumbles across some crooks committing an armed robbery. he stops it and feels joy as he tears into the crooks. He doesn't stop at knocking them out; he ripped out their heart. The innocent bystanders go from joy to horror and he turns on them. His existence is a secret. They are added to the body count. KM goes after the woman. In his version (and the Bates followers) he is a rascal who charms her; in reality, he brutally rapes her. When he finishes, she begs him not to hurt her anymore. He promises her no more pain and snaps her neck. She is the first of many. This is horrifying, as Robinson shows how brutal Johnny quickly became, while the modern Bates followers see him as some rascally imp; not an unchecked monster. If there is a weakness it is the lack of an evolution to Johnny's depravity. Much of that is due to space and the convention that this is the Bates version, the worshippers. It is not likely that Johnny would immediately turn into a monster, though the discovery of the truth of Project Zarathustra would probably help push him. We don't see that. Sarah Byam and Norm Breyfogle present "The Scrapbook."  Miracleman looks through the scrapbook and sees an alternate life, with Liz and Winter, if he had kept the Mike Moran identity. They go on a family vacation and Mike avoids changing into Miracleman. Car trouble has them stranded in rural North Dakota. They walk to a gas station and get someone to tow their vehicle back, while they head off to a diner for some food and relaxation. Everything seems idealic, until a man comes to rob the diner. mike changes form and stops him; but, Liz is angry and storms off with Winter, leaving MMM alone.  The book is a bit of revenge, from Gargunza, something to torment MM. The story is interesting, in showing an alternate Miracleman. It also presents the idea that Miracleman is still clinging to his past, as Mike moran, even after he left the body behind. He grieves for a lost life. Perhaps this is why he hasn't advanced as much as Johnny, Miraclewoman or Winter. The last story is Limbo, by Matt Wagner.  Miracleman comes to Mors' garden and tells him they are close to an aging cure. Mors reflects that his job will become harder and he will have to reach further back. The story ends. Just a nice quiet piece from a master. The book ends with another Gaiman & Buckingham bookend. So, like most anthologies, a bit of a mixed bag. The opening story is fine, if lightweight, while the Rascal Prince is rather disturbing. The Scrapbook isn't quite the mindf@#$ it wants to be, since it has to end abruptly. Wagner's piece is short, but very sweet. This felt very in tune with what Gaiman & Buckingham had been doing, without ever really exploring the possibilities inherent in exploring other realities. |
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Post by mikelmidnight on Apr 21, 2017 14:42:00 GMT -5
I considered most of the series mediocre, although I loved Matt Wagner's tale and thinks it ought to be canon.
I loathed Rascal Prince. It seemed like Robinson trying to be cheap & nasty for its own sake, rather than genuinely add to our knowledge of the character.
Did Bates ever discover the truth of Project Zarathustra? I see no indication he ever did (else either he or Gargunza would be dead).
Think about it from Bates' point of view. He and his friends have established careers as superheroes. They investigate a flying fortress run by their arch-foe, and are killed by an unknown form of energy (I don't know for sure but I'd not be surprised if there was at least one 50s Marvelman story in which he survives an A-bomb, so it clearly couldn't be that). He barely survives, and comes to earth and finds that Gargunza has blasted the entire population with some sort of hypno-ray, because nobody remembers them! Even the newspaper reports have been erased, and the paper Mike and Dicky work at doesn't even exist! No wonder he felt the need to be KM full-time ... how utterly terrifying that must have been!
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