Marvel Teases the Long-Awaited Return of Miracleman

WARNING: Spoilers for Timeless #1 follow. The classic superhero Miracleman is about to make his debut in the Marvel Universe. The final page of Timeless #1 reintroduced the double “MM” symbol for Miracleman, as the author Anatoly Petrov mindlessly scribbled the symbol in his journal after witnessing the time-travel exploits of Kang the Conqueror in person. After helping Kang destroy a pirate timeline, Anatoly returns to his home and ponders all of the potential futures he witnessed. Many of these futures will play out across the Marvel Universe in 2022, but Marvel appears to be doubling down on Miracleman next year.

Marvel released an official Miracleman teaser from Timeless #1 today, which places the Miracleman logo inside a clock. This was the publisher’s method of promoting the special one-shot leading up to its release, with other teasers featuring the death of the Celestials and Kang the Conqueror. The promotional art for Miracleman reads, “How will Miracleman affect the future of the Marvel Universe?”

Some other future Marvel events previewed in Timeless #1 include Punisher’s logo change and alliance with The Hand, the introduction of a new Iron Fist, and Iron Man transitioning into an Iron God. Other events tease major changes and possible deadly fates for the X-Men, Captain America, and more.

Marvel Comics #1000 was a celebration of the publisher’s 80th anniversary. Each page from the oversized issue is centered on a period of time in Marvel’s history. Miracleman gets a page to himself as well, with Neil Gaiman and Mark Buckingham returning to the character for a story with Dave Stewart and Todd Klein. The page finds Miracleman reflecting on his family’s existence put the superhero genre out of business in his world, though he remains fascinated by their stories. As Miracleman reads Marvel Comics #1000 he’s surrounded by the classic iterations of Marvel characters.

Marvel acquired the publishing rights to Miracleman in 2013, which also included the seminal run by Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, and Mark Buckingham. When Marvel obtained the Miracleman rights, it announced plans to reprint Alan Moore’s run and the issues that were printed from Gaiman and Buckingham’s unfinished run. Gaiman and Buckingham were to then continue their run. The first three issues of new Gaiman and Buckingham Miracleman stories were solicited but later canceled due to Marvel encountering new legal hurdles. Those issues were said to have been resolved in 2018 and Gaiman and Buckingham were expected to resume their run as early as 2019, but there has been no news since then.

It would appear Miracleman has a place in the Marvel 616 Universe at some point next year. It should be interesting to see how that all plays out going forward.

Let us know what you thought of Timeless #1 in the comments!