MIRACLEMAN: OLYMPUS

WRITTEN BY: ALAN MOORE
ART BY: JOHN TOTLEBEN
PUBLISHED BY: ECLIPSE

KIMOTA!!!

I know I talk a lot of shit about Alan Moore, but the damn dirty pirate has got some awesome ideas. These are ideas I wish I had thought about. He revolutionized the job of the comic book writer, making it ok for us guys to become more cerebral and not pull punches with our four color fantasies. This is where it started, the MIRACLEMAN series. Originally titled MARVELMAN and published in the U.K., Marvel had problems with the title being too similar to their Captain Marvel, so Moore changed it up a bit and we now have the U.S. version. The story of MIRACLEMAN is very sordid, as to how he came to be and what happened to the rights after Moore left the book, but I’m here to speak on the coolness of the book and how one can learn a lot about the comic book medium and what can be done through solid storytelling.

This arc explores at its most basic point, the wants and needs of Superheroes and the wants and needs of those the hero chooses to serve, like a god who has worshipers and those who worship the god. A cycle of dependence and what can happen when a god decides to become selfish and the needs of the many do not out weigh the desires of the one, being the hero.

What if Superman went rogue? Who would be able to stop him, I mean the guy can fly through the sun, move planets, and go back in time! This is what Moore explores through MIRACLEMAN, showing us what can occur if a hero goes unchecked and left to his own devices. It's full of issues that are ripe with philosophy and ethical/moral implications. What if YOU were a god, or had godlike powers, and let’s say YOU were a little ‘nuts?” The lead in into OLYMPUS shows us exactly this scenario with a member of the MIRACLEMAN family going a little cookoo, in dramatic buildup and cataclysmic violence we see Kid Miracleman decimate civilization as he shows the world what happens when a god goes mad.

He is one of the most sympathetic evil psychopaths I've ever read in comics. Born as MiracleMan's sidekick, Kid Miracleman becomes a victim and puppet of all his worst impulses. He gives in to any and every whim that strikes him, becoming more and more wicked with every twisted act of cruelty and brutality. Kid MIracleman goes through a Dr. Jekyll / Mr. Hyde transformation to become truly, consciously evil. Even when the end is imminent, and the battle with MIRACLEMAN is at its end, we realize that there is only one way out for the former hero. We still feel compassion for how far he’s fallen and hope that there is an alternative to what must be done. The end is truly tragic, and leaves the reader thinking about the moral connotations of what happens when those with the power to control the world go unchecked.

The final part of the book is a brief story about the Miracleman family establishing a Utopia on earth, supported by their ultimate and unlimited power, they become benevolent deities, breaking humanity's selfish vices and reinventing the world as it should be, a virtual Garden of Eden. But of course the tried and true saying states, “Nothing gold can stay” and the end of the book, we are left wondering, how long will this last before the next catastrophe usurps the peace MIRACLEMAN has brought?

It’s a task to find this book in print, and I lucked out by finding a first printing at SDCC for only 6 bucks, it’s a $90 dollar book since it hasn’t been reprinted in many years, we can all thank McFarlane for that one, selfish bastard! But that’s another story. After Moore left the book, Gaiman took over and continued to weave the magic that is MIRACLEMAN. It only lasted a little while because Eclipse which published the series went tits up, and so the last book of the series was written and drawn, but never released

If you like Alan Moore, and wonder what would happen if Superman went crazy, track this book down! By the way KIMOTA is the word that MIRACLEMAN says in order to activate his powers and become MIRACLEMAN. Until next time…KIMOTA!!!

But if you insist on me picking a hit of the week then pick up Agents of Atlas from Marvel, Agent Jimmy Woo returns, now how many of you out there know who the hell Jimmy Woo is?