Everything you know is wrong! Including this title!

Today, another Comicon pickup, and a book I knew of but never thought I'd actually read: from 1985 and Eclipse, Miracleman #3, reprinting Alan Moore and Alan Davis's Marvelman stories from Warrior #9-11. (With a Howard Chaykin cover!)

If you aren't familiar with Miracleman, or Marvelman...yow. Over at the Beat, there is a series of articles called "Poisoned Chalice" about the history of the character, and the decades of behind-the-scenes machinations about who owns what, which is still kind of a mess to this day. Marvel may have the rights, but I'm worried they'd do something really stupid like try to make Miracleman, Marvelman, whoever, part of the Marvel Universe. I don't think he'd be a good fit three, or that it would do the character any favors either; but I have a sinking feeling that wouldn't stop Marvel editorial from pushing it.

Anyway, this issue is where Marvelman's origin really starts to unravel: instead of being a relatively innocent Captain Marvel, say the magic word type; he was an orphan used in a secret government experiment using recovered alien technology and headed up by what I presume was the villain of the piece. Marvelman also tangles with Big Ben, the Man with No Time for Crime; who likewise wasn't a straightforward superhero, but instead an earlier experiment and quite insane. This probably wasn't the earliest example of the "Everything you know is wrong" origin retcon, but it's one of the prime examples.

It's not exactly "fun," but it's so well done--you really do see why everyone's fighting over the rights. Pick it up, if by random chance you come across a copy.