After years of legal complications and starts and stops, Neil Gaiman and Mark Buckingham's Miracleman 'The Silver Age' storyline will finally and officially return and be completed starting October 19 at Marvel Comics.
Marvel will publish the completed story along with remastered editions of the first two published issues, complete with new artwork and bonus material - and now we've got your first lettered preview of Miracleman: The Silver Age #1 right here, followed by some previously released first look pages:
The returning/completed series will be joined by Marvel's Miracleman by Gaiman & Buckingham Book 1: The Golden Age trade paperback collecting the creative team's first Miracleman series, also on sale October 19.
Marvel also published Miracleman #0 on October 5, a one-shot anthology featuring new work from Gaiman and Buckingham that serves as a prelude to the completion of 'The Silver Age,' along with stories by creators Jason Aaron and Mike Carey, Ty Templeton, Ryan Stegman, and more.
All this is part of the publisher's celebration of the modern Miracleman's 40th anniversary and also seems to be leading to Miraclemen joining the Marvel Universe alongside Captain America, She-Hulk, Spider-Man, et al.
"We're back! And after 30 years away it is both thrilling and terrifying," says Buckingham about the competition of 'The Silver Age.' "Neil and I have had these stories in our heads since 1989 so it is amazing to finally be on the verge of sharing them with our readers."
"I have pushed myself to my limit to craft something special for these issues. Cinematic in approach, clean and elegant, drawing on the best of my own style but also paying homage to the exceptional talents of all who came before us, whose unique visions have shaped this ground-breaking series over 40 years, and the 1950's Marvelman foundations on which it was built."
According to Marvel, Young Miracleman — the lost member of the Miracleman Family — returns, but his last memories were of a 1963 world of joy and innocence. Thrust into the 21st century where his best friends have become gods and monsters, Young Miracleman must adjust from that simpler time to the modern world.
Debuted as Marvelman in 1954 as a UK substitute for Captain Marvel created by Mick Anglo, Miracleman as we know him today appeared on the scene in 1982 in a post-modern reboot helmed by Alan Moore and the late Garry Leach.
Miracleman has a long, storied history not just in the comics, but also in the courts. After a back-and-forth battle between Gaiman and Todd McFarlane over the character in the late '90s and early aughts, it was revealed in 2009 that Anglo – the original creator of Marvelman – had retained rights to the characters all along.
At that year's San Diego Comic-Con, Marvel announced it had purchased the rights from Anglo, securing the character for its large roster of heroes. New team-up covers seem to indicate that he'll finally join the Marvel Universe soon, after years of fans waiting for his proper inclusion in the Multiverse.
Alan Moore references Miracleman in his run on Captain Britain, one of the best Marvel Multiverse comic book stories of all time.
