Marvel's Miracleman #14 Review: A Bundle of Contradictions

This is quite an excellent issue of Miracleman in a number of respects though one with some rather odd incongruities or drawbacks.  Here we find some of the series most exemplary art sharing page space with some somewhat dodgy faces.  We find fairly movingly poetic prose that falls shy of being overblown next to cliche.  We also find at least one questionable Moore-ism.  It is also notable for the re-emergence of quite a formidable adversary who I fully expect will play a catastrophic role in future issues.  Diving into it, one finds it somewhat difficult where to start.

That being said, I'm just going to get this out of the way right off the bat, there is a rape in this issue of Miracleman.  There have been several references to rape and/or rapes acknowledged as part of the backstory of several characters so far in this series, and I've mentioned them when they've popped up as a nod to what is the generally accepted fact that Alan Moore as a writer has a marked tendency to include rapes or some form of sexualized violence in his work.  I have not attempted to critique these instances in any great depth as I feel I do not have the background to delve too thoroughly into them and I did not attempt to pass judgement on Moore, his use of rape, or his moral sensibilities.  Once again, I am acknowledging the presence of rape in this story without making a particularly big deal out of it and would appreciate commenters, of whom at least one per review seems to get shirty at any mention at all of rape as it appears in Moore's work regardless of the closeness or pointedness of the analysis, to count to ten before jumping onto their keyboards.

Regardless of whether or not it is a baseless claim (and I do not believe that it is), there is a vocal contingent in the circles of comic book commentary which notes that Moore uses rape in his stories with anomalous consistency.  The issue is not whether its use is justified or handled with appropriate care, but the simple question of why Moore feels it completely necessary to utilize again and again, almost without fail.  Personally, I'm tempted to say that Moore treats it as a crutch, using rape to inject easy "darkness" or some attempt at depth simply by tossing one into his stories every so often.  As far as the rape in this issue, that of Johnny Bates at the hands of a young male bully who had previously been tormenting him which ultimately causes him to turn say his trigger word and turn back into Kid Miracleman, I can't help feeling that another act could have been utilized as the instigation for his giving in to his darker side.  As presented, the rape comes across to me as added for cheap shock value.  Moore is an excellent writer but I can think of little need for this repeated injection of rape aside from serving to add faux-maturity to a story.

My mild frustration with the rape scene is only compounded by the presence within it of the cliche that I alluded to in my opening paragraph.  When faced with Kid Miracleman coming toward him, a young boy begins reciting the Lord's Prayer and is only dispatched by Kid once he gets to the "deliver us from evil" line.  Perhaps this wasn't a horrendous cliche back in 1988 when this comic was originally published but today such a scene is eye-rolling in the extreme, almost unforgivably so.

Moving onto the positives of this issue's writing, Moore actually does quite excellent work in the narration.  In prior reviews of this series, I've criticized Moore's narration captions for sometimes delving into pretentious, overblown twaddle; however, that is certainly not the case here.  Throughout this issue, Miracleman in the "present" of the story is looking back on past events and relaying them to the reader as he engages in a form of interpretive dance.  Just from that description, one might expect the narration text to quickly become insufferable.  Much to the contrary though, Miracleman's movements and the descriptions thereof are quite deftly penned and tie very well into the action that is presented.  In fact, they do an excellent job of bringing the reader into Miracleman's state of mind.  The language is elevated without sounding inhuman and it never becomes so convoluted as to shake the reader from the story.

In terms of the narrative, it is in this issue that Moore really delves into the idea of Miracleman's dual identity as the mild-mannered Mike Moran and the godlike Miracleman.  We see Miracleman as an odd creature not really belonging to humanity or to a sort of godhood.  On the one hand, he is too lofty a being for his wife Liz to feel comfortable with.  On the other hand, he is too limited in his thinking for his daughter Winter.  Ultimately, they both leave him for their own lives, Liz going elsewhere in England to lead a more normal life and Winter flying into space as a superpowered, superintelligent six-month-old to realize her potential.  While Miracleman can adapt, Moran cannot, and engages in a sort of symbolic suicide, surrendering to his idealized other half.  This really is an intriguing examination of how the sort of power that Miracleman wields would change a person and what living this sort of dual identity might actually result in over time for one's psyche.  While Moran and Miracleman seem to share a consciousness, their manner of thinking is so far removed from one another that it seems to have resulted in a kind of split personality without an actual split.  It really is an interesting idea though I do worry that the narrative has lost something by restricting us to Miracleman's point of view and so thoroughly rejecting that of Moran though it has admittedly been quite some time since the lesser persona had any kind of meaningful role to play in the narrative.

Finally, while I am intrigued about the notion of a "Firedrake," a kind of fire-wielding superhuman whose existence justified the alien Qys' first visit to earth, I'm not sure what to make of us without further development.  The building of a "pantheon" between Miracleman, Miraclewoman, the Warpsmiths, and this Firedrake, a homeless black man named Huey Moon, certainly fits in with the theme of godhood with Moon being directly related to the Greek Apollo.  I look forward to seeing what Moore makes of this character over future issues.  As a quick aside, I am pleased to see that Miracleman does in fact blame himself for Bates' reemergence as Kid Miracleman as the fact that he never once checked up on him seemed a fairly obvious oversight on his part.

Turning to the art, John Totleben outdoes himself with this issue.  In particular, his depictions of Miracleman's lonely dance are fairly stunning.  They are anatomically impeccable with the poses lovingly rendered in fairly great detail.  The inking technique appears to be quite virtuosic and for once I am quite pleased with the back matter which gives some insight into the creation of these figures.  The back matter even provides some context in text form explaining that Totleben produced numerous studies in order to capture these renderings, studies which are thoughtfully reproduced here and look as though they could have come from a Renaissance sketch book.

Unfortunately, it must be said that Totleben's transcendent work with the dancing figures forces some of his other work to suffer by comparison.  While the dancing figures utilize fine shading that is rarely seen elsewhere, much of the rest of the comic relies on Totleben's signature parallel diagonal lines to provide structure and shading.  While there are places where this technique works to great effect, for instance in the depiction of Winter, there are others where the art suffers for it.  For examples of this, one need simply compare the finished artwork on Huey Moon to the much more appealing and detailed pencils, and take a close look at the rape and revenge of Johnny Bates where several faces have a slightly misshapen look.  That being said, this issue remains probably the best in terms of art since the latter work of Alan Davis or that of Garry Leach.  The panel structure as well is quite engaging with a dynamic mix of regular panels and irregular forms.

The Totleben cover for this issue is also notable for being an absolutely excellent revisiting of the original cover for this issue when first published in 1988 which helps to show the degree to which Totleben's work has improved and been refined.  Essentially the same cover, the new version is much more dynamic and engaging with Miracleman's pose looking much more natural.

It is worth noting that this reprinting of Miracleman 14 by Marvel has a fairly obvious printing error.  On pages 14 and 15, Kid Miracleman's text balloons are completely black with no visible text.  It seems that the balloons were intended to be black with white text but through some mistake, the text was made black as well and thus they are completely unreadable.  For your convenience, the text is reproduced below based on the pencils in the back matter:

Page 14, Fourth Panel:  Not Steve.

Page 15, Third Panel:  Hm. Do you know you were the only one who was kind to me? The only one.

Fourth Panel:  I think I'll let you live.

Seventh Panel:  I'm sorry. They'd say I was going soft wouldn't they?

This is quite an effective scene unfortunately rendered ineffectual through its unreadability without referring to an outside source or the back matter for the text.  The most intriguing aspect of this scene might be the fact that before his change of heart, the reader thinks he might actually show a glimmer of humanity.  As it turns out though, his heart appears to be blacker even than his speech balloons.

Turning to the back matter, as I mentioned earlier it is a bit more welcome in this issue as Totleben's process with respect to the dancing figures is much more interesting than the simple progression of pencils to inks than is usually presented and the original cover of this issue is well-worth comparing to Totleben's recreation.  Also, the pencils for pages 14 and 15 are the only way to read Kid Miracleman's text.  On the other hand, the Marvelman reprint is yet another segment of the story that has steadily been advanced in the last several issues, and it isn't especially engaging or notable except perhaps for the fact that Gargunza and Marvelman are briefly on the same side.

While this latest installment in Marvel's reprint of Miracleman has its few drawbacks, it is still quite an engaging read.  I will remark again that it is quite easy to see why this series make the impact it did when it was first released and reading it for the first time in regular installments as was originally intended has been an enthralling experience.  While I may not always find the ideas and actions, or their depiction to be above criticism, they are always thought-provoking.  I also have the privilege of saying that the back matter is more interesting in this issue, helping to justify the premium cover price.  All-in-all this series remains worthy of recommendation for lovers of the comic book medium and fans of Alan Moore.

As a final thought, the one concrete thing I knew about the Miracleman series going into this series of reviews is the event which the few issues seem to have been building toward and which I believe will be coming, or at least starting, with the next issue.  We will see if I'm right but I'm looking forward to it with a mixture of excitement and a certain amount of wary skepticism.  Regardless, I'm quite looking forward to subsequent issues of this series and hope that you'll join me in reading along.