Crimson_Dragoon said:
SilverHammerMan said:
I really hope Bob's wrong about Marvel maybe introducing Marvel/Miracleman in Age of Ultron. See, Marveleman was really only notable for Alan Moore's reworking of him, before that he was just a generic,ripoff of Captain Marvel and by extension Superman. The Eclipse Comics stuff though, put him down into a world where there were no other superheroes and Moore wasn't bound by a status quo, which allowed Moore to go crazy with the character, throwing him into apocalyptic battles and dark conspiracies and questions about identity, ultimately ending the series as a quasi-benevolent dictator of a transformed Earth.
Putting Marvelman into the the Marvel universe though, would mean that he can't do any of that stuff, because at the end of the day Marvel Comics wants their fictional universe intact so that they can still tell stories and sell comics with the X-Men and Thor and all their other properties.
We saw the same thing when Marvel introduced the Sentry, that kind of superman-analogue just doesn't fit into the Marvel Universe's paradigm, so they're left awkwardly shuffling from story to story, no writer ever quite sure what to do with them.
This goes with my question: why go through all this trouble for a Captain Marvel (and as you pointed out, therefore a Superman) ripoff? I've never read any Marvelman books, but after your description of Moore's run, I'm also not seeing how he'd fit into the Marvel Universe. So again, why does Gaiman give so much of damn about this character that he would sink his own comic book profits into buying him?
Oh, and it wasn't just the Sentry. Marvel has tried this shtick before with other characters like Hyperion, and it didn't take off then either. I don't get why Marvel has such a Superman envy.
For starters, I can't overstate my recommendation that you read the brief Alan Moore's run of the character (and Gaiman's too). It is Moore's Swam Thing/Gaiman's Sandman kind of great.
I guess it will only be available in the darkest corners of the internetz, but it will be worth your while. And no, you just can't officially buy it anywhere, unfortunately, precisely because of the neverending lawsuits.
So eff it, read it now, purchase it on paper as soon as it is available!
Now, let's have something clear. Marvelman being part of Marvel's Universe Mythos is just a conjecture. And is, from my point of view, a terrible idea, indeed.
However I just don't see it happening (conjecturing, myself), exactly because of the giant wasted opportunity it would be.
Gaiman is not going through all this trouble just that he can see if MM could beat Thor in a fist fight.
To me what's at stake here is not "British Superman", but the incredible story arcs written by Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman, which: A) were left unfinished; B) can't even be PUBLISHED, or read (unless you are lucky enough to find an obscure, very old, low quality edition), all because of a troublemaking toymaker and some legal shenanigans.
Miracle Man (I really prefer it that way, can't stand another "Marvel-thing") deserves to be known and recognised as the seminal work that transcended the comic book medium, just as it's aforementioned "siblings" Swamp Thing Saga and The Sandman. It is really that good!
So I am really, really hoping that Gaiman gets it his way and works with the character. And I don't believe he is going to be in the Marvel universe. Probably (and hopefully) it will be a standalone comic book, published by Marvel.
Or, on the unlikely (from my point of view) event that he joins Marvel's roster, it would be very tangentially related. After all, both the Swamp Thing and The Sandman (yes, even Neil Gaiman's rendition of the character) were part of DC's Universe.
Perhaps Gaiman's deal is "here, Marvel, have Angela!" (since he wouldn't do nothing with her anyway, and she's better suited to a superhero universe) and Marvel helps with the whole MM affair... Or maybe it is just to piss McFarlane off (and that is a guy who deserves a pissing).
Let's not forget that the battle is not to give MARVEL the character, but to acquire it for Neil Gaiman. And it could not end up in better hands!
