Marvelman - Miracleman: The Neil Gaiman Years

Miracleman: The Neil Gaiman Years

Writer Neil Gaiman picked up the series at #17, and developed it further in the 1990s, working with artist Mark Buckingham. He planned three books, consisting of six issues each; they would be titled "The Golden Age", "The Silver Age" and "The Dark Age".

The first part, "The Golden Age", showed the world some years later: a utopia gradually being transformed by alien technologies, and benignly ruled by Miracleman and other parahumans, though he has nagging doubts about whether he has done the right thing by taking power. Gaiman's focus in "The Golden Age" is less the heroes themselves than the people who live in this new world, including a lonely man who becomes one of Miraclewoman's lovers; a former spy (whose tale recalls J.G. Ballard's short story War Fever); and a robot duplicate of Andy Warhol.

Eclipse followed up "The Golden Age" by publishing the standalone, three-issue mini-series Miracleman: Apocrypha, written and illustrated by a variety of other creators, with framing pages by Gaiman and Buckingham. These stories did not form part of the main narrative, but instead further fleshed out the world of "The Golden Age".

Two issues of "The Silver Age" appeared, but issue #24 was the last to see print. Issue 25 was completed (apart from colouring) but due to the collapse of Eclipse it has never seen light. #23 and #24 saw the resurrection of Young Miracleman and would describe the beginnings of trouble in Miracleman's idyllic world, and #25 would have reintroduced Kid Miracleman. A few pages of issue #25 can be read at various sites online, and in George Khoury's book Kimota! The Miracleman Companion. "The Dark Age" would have seen the full return of the character of Kid Miracleman and completed the story once and for all.

During this period, Miracleman was a featured character in the mini-series Total Eclipse, written by Marv Wolfman and penciled by Bo Hampton, with pencil assists by James Ritchey III and Mark Pacella (among others), and inks by Rick Bryant.

A short story by Gaiman and Mark Buckingham (entitled "Screaming") appeared in Total Eclipse #4, where it technically comprised Gaiman's first published Miracleman story. This story was reprinted in issue #21 and in "The Golden Age" trade paperback.