Miracleman by Gaiman and Buckingham: The Silver Age #5-#7

I realized I only had three issues left of "Miracleman," so I decided to prioritize them as a break in making my way through my backlog.

Miracleman by Gaiman and Buckingham:  The Silver Age #5:  This issue is a slog.  Gaiman forces Buckingham into employing densely paneled pages so we can get through the mounds of dialogue and exposition that propel Dicky and Meta-Maid's search for Dicky's identity.

After leaving Jason in the Himalays to go find a person he left at camp (clearly a romantic interest of some sort), Meta-Maid convinces Deadlock to take her and Dicky on his mega-bike back to England.  They stop in several cities along the way, and, when Dicky comments on some sort of social ill he witnesses, such as kids living on garbage heaps in India or a man with skin cancers in Budapest, Meta-Maid explains their plight as an honor or privilege.  It sets up a binary where either children really do apply to live on the garbage heaps or Miracleman's Utopia isn't really one.  Dicky clearly believes the latter is true.

Upon finally arriving in England, Dicky and Meta-Maid search the British Museum for information about orphanages or the Spookshow (the government agency behind Gargunza's project) but find nothing.  A librarian recommends they go to the Memorial Museum, and Meta-Maid enters it alone when they discover it's located at the foot of Olympus.  She tracks down the remaining Spookshow records to a town in Yorkshire, the one where the man and his nephew from issue #4 run the church dedicated to Miracelman.  There, they work with an archivist, Professor Porter, to go through the records on microfilm.  (Interestingly, Porter refers to Bates as "little rascal," which seems like a pretty mild way to refer to the Butcher of London.)  Eventually, Meta-Maid recognizes the name "Joyful House," which Dicky muttered in a dream on the train to the town.

At Joyful House, clearly the abandoned orphanage where he lived, memories overwhelm Dicky, and he collapses.

Miracleman by Gaiman and Buckingham:  The Silver Age #6:  Unsurprisingly, Joyful House wasn't really all that joyful.

An eight-year-old Dicky arrives at the orphanage in 1949 clutching his mother's photo and a vinyl recording of Ruddigore, a Gilbert and Sullivan opera he attended with his mother before she died.  Dicky's father died in the war, a member of a Polish RAF squadron.  When Mrs. Maul — Joyful House's Miss Hannigan — tells Dicky that she can't pronounce his name, he adopts the name Dicky Dauntless.

Mrs. Maul takes the photo and record, the last vestiges of his previous life.  He's forced to bathe, and they burn his clothes, leaving him with the same "grey ill-fitting second-hand clothes" the rest of the kids wear.  When Dicky turns 12, he discovers that Mr. Maul pimps out the boys to various wealthy men, and Buckingham does an amazing job showing the melting ice-cream cone that signifies the end of each "encounter."

It changes for Dicky in 1952, at the age of 14 years old, when Gargunza appears.  He shows Dicky comic books, and Dicky confesses that he wants to fly one day.  Later, Mrs. Maul sends Dicky to get some fish and chips, where he's chloroform-ed and enters Gargunza's experiment.  (We're never told why Gargunza selected Dauntless, though it seems like he was going through all the orphanage's boys and Dicky fit the bill.  Buckingham certainly makes him the definition of a strapping English lad here.)

In the present, Dicky awakens, his memory restored.  Meta-Maid lays him on the bed and asks if she can kiss him; they kiss, and Dicky confesses it's the first time he's kissed a girl and the first time anyone asked him if it was OK.  (Oof.)  Later, she asks his real name, and Dicky says that it's Dicky Dauntless, the name he gave himself, "the only one that matters."  Then, Dicky announces he's ready to face Miracleman and transforms into Young Miracleman.

Miracleman by Gaiman and Buckingham:  The Silver Age #7:  For how long Gaiman has vamped, we finally get somewhere here.

Dicky takes over the world's television broadcasts to invite Miracleman to meet him in Petra.  Once Miracleman arrives, Dicky tells him that Meta-Maid is broadcasting their discussion lest he murder Dicky.  He then more or less orders Miracleman to lay out the futures he sees for him, which Miracleman does, reluctantly:  1) accept Miracelman's world ("embrace the miracle") and join the Pantheon; 2) go the same route as Caxton and give up his power; or 3) die.

Dicky then challenges Miracelman for the fourth option that he claims Miracleman's body language is screaming as his preferred option, which Miracelman does:  he reveals they've "retro-engineered" the Gargunza machine, so Dicky could live forever in their 1950s world.  Dicky asks if it's all Miracelman has.  When Miracelman doesn't respond, he tells him that this world sucks (a world that's jarring to see him use).  With Buckingham showing him as a beautiful young man, Dicky tells Miracleman that he's going to be his adversary:  "If this is Eden, I'm going to be the serpent."

In Sydney, a few weeks later, Dicky meditates under a tree while Meta-Maid spreads the world about him.  Eventually, more and more people gather around him, while, inside his head, a voice speaking in dark word bubbles — clearly Johnny, as seen in issue #3 — tells Dicky that he can't avoid him forever and to let him out.  Then, we're told the story will continue in the "Miracleman by Gaiman and Buckingham:  The Dark Age."  Dun-dun-DUN!

Final Thoughts:  Despite (or because of) this series' wordiness, I think it would've benefitted from a few more issues.  Gaiman hints at certain things at various points but never fleshes out the thought.  For example, I'm still uncertain if Dicky was attracted to Jason, and we never really get a good sense of when Meta-Maid started falling for Dicky.  After all, she joins him essentially because she's bored with the party she's attending, and it seems a lot to ask of her to abandon her partying ways (to which she alludes at the end of issue #7).

Continuing on the theme, Gaiman draws explicit parallels between Johnny and Dicky here, as Dicky suffered the same sexual abuse that led to Johnny release Kid Miracelman on his rapists in "Miracleman" #14.  But I'm not sure how far Gaiman is going to take that.  The implication at the end of issue #7 is that Dicky is going to become the villain like Johnny was.  But I have to hold out hope Gaiman doesn't go that route, as it seems more like Dicky to find a way to process that trauma and oppose Miracelman's authoritarianism on his own.

Even with these questions, I'm a lot happier with this series than I was.  Something about the Qys and Warpsmiths never really sat well with me, so I'm happy to have Gaiman focus more on the humans and their struggles.  Given the accusations against Gaiman, I find it hard to believe that we're ever going to see "Miracleman by Gaiman and Buckingham:  The Dark Age," but we'll see.

Twelve-Month-Old Comics!: The February 8 Edition - Part 2 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Miracleman by Gaiman and Buckingham:  The Silver Age #4:  This issue stalls us a bit, as we don't gain any new insights into the story that Gaiman is telling.  Instead, two adolescents - Phon Mooda and Dickie Dauntless - ponder why they can't quite put their finger on what feels wrong about this world.

First, Phon Mooda is called before the Black Warpsmiths, a trio of enormous Warpsmiths who are connected to each other and, we learn, created the other Warpsmiths.  They ask Phon Mooda for her thoughts about the "confluent world" rather than the facts she usually delivers.  She confesses that something about the world seems wrong, though she can't yet define it.  They ask about the Miraclechildren, and, except for Winter, Phon Mooda dismisses the others as focused on "entertaining" themselves and little more.  

We then get some cryptic alien speak, as the Black Warpsmiths ask her about the Qys and she tells them that the Qys "never understood how the Cuckoo Seed was fertile to begin with."  (Sure.)  Phon Mooda admits that, unlike other worlds, this one doesn't seem to mature, opining that "this relatively short experiment may actually be winding up."  The Black Warpsmiths inform her that something Phon Mooda calls "the Whisper" at the edge of the Universe merits their attention.  She leaves their presence.

Meanwhile, Dickie asks Tom Caxton if Miracelman did anything to make him want to stop being Mister Master.  Caxton obviously doesn't understand why Dickie asks this question and instead narrates his realization that he had gotten everything he ever wanted and didn't know what happened next, which is why he asked for the Gold Kryptonite.  Caxton tells Dickie that he knows that he's Young Miracleman and asks him what his real name is, provoking Dickie to realize, seemingly or the first time, that it probably isn't Dickie.  

Meta-maid arrives and informs Dickie that sexy, sexy Jason is ready to leave and confides to Caxton that she's going with Dickie because she's tired of being around "superfucks."  Hauntingly, she says that it's "so nice to be around someone who knows who they are."

In the post-script story, Miracleman reviews Dickie's past to try to find evidence of what he's missing, as Avril earlier suggested that maybe it wasn't Miracleman but something else he wanted.  He reviews Miracelman's first encounter with Young Nastyman but finds nothing to light a path for him.

In other words, Gaiman is flagging a central mystery that we maybe didn't realize yet was a mystery.  Phon Mooda, Dickie, and Miracleman are all looking for something that explains an absence they feel, which implies that it's something bigger than just Miracleman's machinations.  We'll see.

Star Wars:  Darth Vader #31:  OMG, we're *finally* starting to get somewhere here.  

After yet another issue of Vader playing with his food, he and the Handmaidens finally force Jul Tambor to flee and rescue to Sabé.  Pak reveals that Vader's motive is really to find a consort that he thought he had in Padmé, as we see through flashbacks of his confrontation with Padmé on Mustafar as well as his imaginings of how it could've gone if Padmé accepted his offer to rule the galaxy.  Acting on these feelings, Vader holds the rest of the Handmaidens in a Force Grip as he offers Sabé a place by his side.  

Again, it's taken *way* too long to get here, but I'm glad we're finally here.

Star Wars:  Hidden Empire #3:  I remember not being particularly impressed with this series, which is surprising given how much I like Charles Soule.  But this issue is solid.  

Chanath Cha and her team, the Orphans, arrive on whichever planet it is where the Archivist finds herself to save her and the Fermata Cage.  (No one particularly seems to care about her assistant, Kho Phon Farrus.)  Chanath has apparently spent her life trying to get close to Vader to avenger her parents, so she and Sear stay to take on Vader while Imara Vex and Ladybright accompany the Archivist and Kho to their ship.  Vader unsurprisingly kills Sear and knocks Imara off the ship (to an uncertain fate).  Ladybright plans on saving Chanath (and disobeying Qi'ra), but the Archivist disassembles her in order to stay safe from Vader.  As brutal as it seems, the Archivist is smart in doing so, as Vader easily kills Chanath.

This issue is about more than just getting the Archivist from Vader.  It's also a rumination on how revenge motivates so many people in this galaxy far, far away, though they seldom get to see their first for it satisfied.  Vader notes that Chanath sacrifices her whole life to get her the point where she could stop Vader, but, of course, all the time she stopped him not at all.  Similarly, Qi'ra notes to Cadeliah that Chanath thought she was the main character in her own story, when really she was just a side character in Qi'ra's (and not even a character in Vader's).  It's brutal but true.  

Of course, we all know that Qi'ra is a side character in Vader's life.  Soule is pretty much winking to the audience on this point, stressing what we all know except for Qi'ra, that this damned fool idealistic crusade ends poorly for her.

Storm and the Brotherhood of Mutants #1:  Storm recounts the fall of Arakko as Sinister finally launches his invasion, blaming augmented Skrull troops for the attack.  She's recounting these events from the remains of Arakko - an asteroid archipelago - as she berates Destiny for advising her not to attack Sinister and Krakoa when she wanted, ten years earlier.

Of course, it turns out "Destiny" is Mystique, who informs Storm about Sinister manufacturing Moira clones, including one created ten years ago.  Storm and company travel to Muir Island with Sinister, where Whiz Kid uses technology he created - and Storm recognizes as not the same as his usual technology - to teleport away Sinister's lab.  But it turns out "Taki" was Mystique (again), and she kills Storm once the lab is transported to the World Farm, where Destiny and Orbit Stellaris await.  (She was clearly using Sinister's technology instead of Taki's, addressing Storm's suspicion.)

We learn that Destiny is doing everything because this timeline is the only one where Mystique lives, a reminder that she is a villain at her core.  Not only did she advise Storm not to attack Sinister ten years ago, she has Mystique steal the lab because Sinister was going to reset this timeline the next day when he loses a Quiet Council vote.  (I don't get how he could lose a vote to people he controlled, but I'll allow the mulligan because I liked this issue.)

The remaining questions from this issue is what the force field at the center of Sinister's lab hid.  Next issue jumps 100 years, a reminder that the team is telling a story related to the X3 timeline that Hickman showed us in "Powers of X."

Five-Month-Old Comics: The December 28 Edition - Part 2 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Miracleman by Gaiman and Buckingham:  The Silver Age #3:  This issue's sub-title should be, "Let's Talk about Sex, Baby."  I mean, no one actually talks about sex.  But the issue is all about Young Miracelman  finding himself surrounded by breasts and dicks.

In his flight from Miracleman, Dickie for some reasons loses consciousness and reverts to his messenger outfit, crash-landing on Mt. Kanchenjunga in the Himalayas.  A hiker named Jason finds him.  Jason is a suspicious character mostly for his lack of curiosity over finding a besuited teenager in the snow in the Himalayas.  He just assumes Dickie set out poorly prepared like he did as a kid.  Conveniently, he has an extra thermal suit he lends Dicky.

Jason is apparently going to see Tom Caxton, a.k.a. Mister Master.  We learn that Caxton was the first enhanced human Miracelman created but he eventually retired to Mt. Kanchenjunga.  Jason tells Dicky that he was close to the top of the enhancement list but pulled his name from consideration, which is why he wants to talk to Caxton.  Just as Jason complains about losing time (presumably due to helping Dicky), two enhanced humans on a flying motorcycle appear and offer to bring them to the lodge up the mountain.  The woman introduces herself as Meta-Maid and the man as Deadlock the Demolisher.  Dicky sits behind Meta-Maid on the bike, and she not subtly at all places his hands on her breasts.

That night, Jason (wearing a Kimota! t-shirt) reads from Caxton's book, which is essentially a screed against enhancement.  Meta-Maid invites Dicky to sleep with her, but he declines, as does Jason.  For the second time in the issue, Johnny Bates approaches Dicky in his sleep.  Dickie awakens from the nightmare to find a buff and naked Jason crouched at the foot of his bed asking if he's OK.  Something about Jason's nudity implies Jason's interest in Dicky might not be platonic.  (In Buckingham's original sketches including in the issue's back matter, we see Jason from behind, his naked ass prominent, which means Dicky is looking straight at his junk.)

The next morning, Jason and Dicky depart for Caxton's abode, and Jason tells an odd story about how he once met Miracleman as a kid because he was chosen to have a conversation with him.  It was staged as a play and later a movie, and Jason confesses that he doesn't remember what Miracleman actually said to Jason.  Shortly thereafter, Meta-Maid appears, having dumped Deadlock (who admittedly seemed dull).  They all arrive at Caxton's together.  

That night, Meta-Maid tells the story about how her boyfriend left her for Kay after the Young Miracelman parade.  (She implies her boyfriend will change into something after sex with Kay, which is interesting.)  Deadlock offered her a ride to see the Himalayas, which is how we came to meet them.

For his part, Caxton tells the story of becoming the first enhanced human, a chance he won in a lottery.  Interestingly, he says Miracleman originally thought everyone would become enhanced, so something clearly happened to disrupt those plans.  Jason asks why Caxton decided to give up his enhancements, and Caxton says that he forgot what it was like to be a human.  He eventually climbs Olympus and asks Miracelman to turn him into a human again.  Miracleman asks Caxton if the project failed, and Caxton replies that he didn't think it did:  he just came through it.  Now, he's simply Tom Caxton again.  

Jason tells Caxton that he'd answered most of his questions.  When it's time for bed, Caxton has Jason come with him to get the sleeping bags and asks Jason if he's looking after Dicky.  Jason says he is, and Caxton tells him to take care of him because he needs it.  I wonder if Caxton knows Dicky is Young Miracelman?

Later that night, Johnny appears to Dicky again, but Dicky banishes him.

As I said at the top, this issue reads as hypersexualized, a vibe that Gaiman and Buckingham use to highlight Dicky's profound innocence in this new world.  Jason's rugged handsomeness and humanity stand in contrast to Miracelman's perfection and visual blandness.  In fact, Jason's attractiveness also stands in contrast to Meta-Maid's sexuality.  If Dicky realizes Jason might want to fuck him, it would likely scare him less than if Meta-Maid wanted to fuck him.  

It all just seems like it's going to be too much for Dicky.

Star Wars:  Han Solo and Chewbacca #8:  I don't know how he does it, but Guggenheim writes Phaedra in a way that makes me totally believe in her ability to smuggle Han and Chewie into Grand Moff Tarkin's office to steal the urn.   

The issue stars with the trio shaking down Greedo in Mos Eisley.  He tells them that Khel and her crew, Han's "dad" (i.e., Corbus Tyra), and he all went their separate ways after the last job.  When Han asks about the urn, Greedo confirms that the Imperials picked up the urn when they scanned the Falcon and that it's in Tarkin's office on Coruscant.

Han reasonably assumes that it's unreachable, but Phaedra has a plan.  Said pain relies on a mysterious person (or persons) owing Phaedra not one, but two, favors.  Favor #1 involves said person (or persons) getting the trio hired as "waste-disposal personnel" because the Empire apparently doesn't do background checks on the people who keep the sewers working.  Favor #2 involves said person (or persons) getting Phaedra the "full schematics for the sewer network and the Grand Moff's building."  They're definitely convenient favors.  But something about Phaedra makes you believe that said person (or persons) really does owe her these favors.

Of course, it isn't all smooth sailing for the trio, and I don't just mean Chewie falling off the roof of the train that serves as their get-away car.   As they're going to work on Coruscant, Marshal Vancto tracks down Tyra who offers him Han's location (since he knows Han would go after the urn) in exchange for his freedom.  Honestly, I almost think Corbus is Han's dad...

Also Read:  Moon Knight #18; X-Terminators #4; Star Wars:  Yoda #2

Five-Month-Old Comics: The November 23 Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Amazing Spider-Man #14:  I was upset about Ben's fall during Spencer's run, but damn if the Beyond arc wasn't one of the most intense stories that I've ever read.  Maybe Wells is better at telling other people's stories than his own, because he takes Spencer's ball and fucking runs with it here. 

First things first, Wells addresses Janine.  We learn at the issue's start that Ben is raiding Beyond warehouses with the goal of finding a technology that'lll help him steal Peter's memories.  Janine decides to leave him over his obsession.  As she sits dejectedly picking at her eggs at a café in Grand Central Station, the friendly owner asks what's bothering her.  But Janine has been down this road many times before and realizes the owner is stalling for time after he called the police.  When he begins to judge her for murdering her father, she attacks him and flees.  She realizes that Ben is the only sanctuary she's ever had, so she returns to him and commits to supporting him fully.

Meanwhile, Ben finds himself called to Limbo after he discovers that one of the devices he swiped opens a portal there.  Enter Madelyne Pryor.  This pairing makes perfect sense.  In fact, the only reason that I could see for not getting these two together is that they're from such different corners of the Marvel Universe that I'm sure it required some legwork on the authors' and editors' parts to make it happen.  

Ben and Janine eventually move to Limbo where Ben convinces Madelyne to lend him her demon army to invade New York.  We're not clear why Ben wants to invade New York at this point, but we'll see.  For Madelyne's part, she's starting to wonder if the mutants really gave her what she wanted or simply exiled away a bad memory.

Before the invasion begins, Madelyne powers up Janine using S'ym's finger, introducing us to the worst-named character ever, Hallows' Eve.  Name aside, Wells does a great job showing how this outcome is really the only one that makes sense for Janine.  If she wants to inhabit Ben's world, she needs to do so fully.

The issue ends with Ben standing outside Peter's apartment in the hope of seeing him once last time before he attacks him.  Instead, he runs into the increasingly unhinged debt collector chasing Peter.  The collector (understandably) mistakes Ben for Peter, and Ben mishears the comma and believes that the collector called him a "fake[,] Peter Parker."  Ben loses it and drag the collector to Limbo where we learn that he isn't the nicest of men.  Madelyne has him taste from the Tree of Exquisite Liberation, confirming her theory that it can free a soul from a body.  Guess how Ben wants to use that?

Honestly, I find myself surprisingly stoked about the upcoming "Dark Web" event after this issue.  Go figure.

Miracleman by Gaiman and Buckingham:  The Silver Age #2:  This issue is the finally step in getting us ready for new stories, as Miracleman kisses Dicky at Miraclewoman's urging.  

Miraclewoman is convinced that Dicky has always been in love with Miracelman.  Miracelman sees Dicky's violent reaction to the kiss as proof that she was wrong and that Dicky doesn't love him, though I wouldn't necessarily read it that way.  A devastated Dicky leaves Olympus after telling Miracelman not to follow him, and Miracleman tells Miraclewoman that they need to talk.  The way Buckingham draws that last panel, Miracleman seems to suspect Miraclewoman had ulterior motives for pushing him to kiss Dicky.  

Looking ahead, Dicky seems destined for some role in taking on the Pantheon.  For most of this issue, we're following him as New York throws him a ticker-tape parade.  At the post-parade gala, a "spaceman" appears and rambles.  Winter tells Dicky that it portends great things (the spaceman is a known quantity somehow to her), and Miraclewoman tells Miracleman later that he didn't understand the spaceman's message because it was meant for Dicky.  The intriguing part of said message is the end, when he says, "If sanity consists of adapting to uncover crimes of light."  It isn't hard to see Dicky as the one undercovering Miracelman's well meaning crimes.

Beyond the plot, Gaiman and Buckingham do a spectacular job of showing how awful Miracelman's betrayal is.  Dicky's been alive for days, maybe weeks.  Rather than waiting to address the potential for his feelings when the stress of his reincarnation is less, Miracleman kisses him.  The look of horror and shock on Dicky's face is a testament of Buckingham's skill.  Miracelman's actions send a confused yet powerful adolescent into this carefully crafted world.  We've been down that road before, and it doesn't end well.

Star Wars:  Revelations #1:  As a public-service announcement, I'd warn anyone reading even one of the "Star Wars" series to skip this issue, as it basically just summarizes recent events in each series.  As someone reading all the series except "Star Wars:  Doctor Aphra," I was as annoyed as Vader was.

Star Wars:  Yoda #1:  This issue is solid.  Scott does an excellent job of showing Yoda's ability to focus on doing the right thing when he insists on personally responding to a distress call from Turrak, a backwater planet in the Outer Rim.  But Scott also doesn't make it that easy.

Arriving on Turrak, Yoda helps Sclavi villagers survive Crulkon pirates' third raid in as many days.  Deciding to fight against the galaxy usually works, he decides to stay on the planet.  If I'm reading between the lines correctly, Yoda's decision is motivated from the knowledge that the pirates would simply destroy the village the minute he left.  It's obviously noble, but the Council isn't wrong when it's concerned that his absence from Coruscant will mean more people will suffer in the aggregate.  Yoda clearly knows that, too, so it'll be interesting to explore his thought process as events progress.  

I was worried this series would lean too much into Yoda's more cartoon-y iterations, but Scott really captures Yoda's essence here.  Great stuff.

X-Men #17:  I wasn't really feeling this arc, but Duggan wraps it up beautifully.  

Caliban - or, at least, Caliban's essence - argues with Forge when he decides to leave Laura to find Darwin.  Forge's logic is that the Five have already resurrected her, which he mutters is the second time that they've resurrected someone not actually dead.  (I'm not sure who the other one is.)  Caliban's essence sees Forge as yet another person misusing his gift.

But Forge's search is frustrated when Serafina attacks him.  Duggan doesn't explain how she avoided Forge's trap, but Caliban's kindness - and her apparent debt to the mutants, who previously saved her from Orchis (seriously, don't we do editor's notes anymore?) convinces her to let them leave with Laura.  

Before they can, Darwin contacts Forge in his subconscious, revealing that he turned into code when he needed a way to escape the living autopsies to which the Children of the Vault subjected him.  Darwin declines to leave with Forge, and Forge instead leaves with Laura, the happiest of all possible endings for an overjoyed Synch.  Seriously, it's possibly the only clear romantic win for an X-Men maybe...ever.  Wrapping up a minor mystery, Tempo was the third mutant's gift who Forge used, to make sure that he didn't age in the Vault.

Fascinatingly, Dr. Reyes' medical report about Forge's condition at the issue's end makes it clear that Darwin embedded himself into Forge, since Forge's Cerebro backup "was measured in Zettabytes."  It eventually returned to normal, implying Darwin is now in Krakoa somehow.  I'm sure that'll turn out well.

Miracleman by Gaiman & Buckingham: The Silver Age (2022) #1 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Oh, Neil Gaiman.  How glad I am that you decided to make this dream a reality.

One of the things that I found distressing about "Miracleman (2022)" #0, which I couldn't quite articulate at the time, was the fact that all the stories seemed so...pulpy, like the original Miracleman stories set in the 1940s and 1950s.  The characters were all two-dimensional.  I found myself wondering why "Miracleman (2014)" and "Miracleman by Gaiman and Buckingham (2015)" captivated me in the first place if all the stories were like that issue's.

Gaiman in his brilliance shows that I was almost meant to feel this way.  Young Miracleman serves as the reader's surrogate as he struggles to get a grasp on the technocolor insanity of this era.  

The issue begins with Jenda and Zapster, two of the Miraclechildren (who we first saw in "Miracleman (2022)" #0), fighting each other on "an island in the South Pacific" that looks a lot like Manhattan.  Gaiman gives sly nods to Marvel throughout their fight:  the children battle a Galactus-like figure named "Klingsor the Galaxatron, Destroyer of World;" Jenda yells, "It's pulverizing time;" and "Klingsor" quips that Earth will become another battery in his cosmic "power pack."

Suddenly, a fellow Miraclechild, Mist, interrupts the battle to inform the pair that Panorama wants them to come to her since Miracelman is waking up Young Miracleman.  It turns out "Klingsor" is a third Miraclechild, named Duncan, and they're all excited to see the awakening.  Given the destruction they're committing, I assumed that the scene would dissolve into something like the Danger Room, but the Miraclechildren talk about reconstructing the island after resuming their fight the next day.  

Here, Gaiman is making it clear the extent to which Miracleman and his cohort really are gods and Earth is their playground.  It's possible the island is just a playground created for them, as they keep referring to destroying the World Trade Center (which definitely isn't on a South Pacific island) in a previous fight.  It would explain why we see no people throughout their battle.  Either option, though, underscores just how powerful the Miracles are.

The Miraclechildren arrive at a floating space station where we're introduced to other Miraclechildren, including Panorama.  She uses her telepathic powers to connect to Winter, who is present at Young Miracelman's awakening.  

Young Miracelman (who'll I'll call by his "human" name, Dicky, to save on typing) awakens, and Miracleman enters his room.  Miracleman explains to Dicky that he has been dead for 40 years and stresses that he wants to take his reintroduction slowly.  Buckingham is brilliant in these pages, as Dicky is basically the epitome of a handsome 1950s teenager, something Gaiman emphasizes through the script as well.  It helps highlight just how displaced Dicky is in this reality.

When Winter enters Dicky's room, against Miracleman's wishes, Miracleman realizes that his plan of a slow reintroduction has failed.  He then takes Dicky into the rest of Olympus and introduces him to the Pantheon:  Miraclewoman (Dicky is taken aback when Miracleman introduces her as his "consort" though not as Winter's mother), British Bulldog (formerly Big Ben), Huey Moon the Firedrake, Kana Blur and Phon Mooda of the Warpsmiths, and Mors from the Qys.  Dicky is unfailingly polite through this conversation, with his 1950s vernacular standing in sharp contrast to the wonders he's encountering.  He then asks Miracleman to escort him to his room so he can rest.

In his room, Dicky explodes.  He asks about the "woman in that - that filthy bathing suit," the "coloured gentleman," and the man in the animal costume.  He expresses confusion over an extremely large statue of Johnny grabbing onto who we know is Kid Miracelman and a similarly large portrait of Dr. Gargunza.  

Realizing he has to tell Dicky the truth, Miracleman asks Dicky recount his origin story.  To Dicky's mind, he was an orphan who stumbled upon a secret plot where former Nazis sent messages to each other in "hollowed-out vegetables from the orphanage market garden," a brilliantly ridiculous plot only an old-school comic could contain.  Dicky met Micky Moran, who was on the story's trail for the "Daily Bugle," and they found the Nazis' submarine headquarters.  During the fray, one of the Nazis shot Dicky.  Micky called for Guntag Borghelm to save Dicky, which he does by allowing Miracelman to share his energy with him.  Dicky exposits to us that he had to call out "Miracleman" instead of "Kimota" since he didn't have a direct connection to "atomic harmony" like Miracelman did.

Reluctantly, Miracleman is forced to tell Dicky his real history.  He informs Dicky that his father didn't die in the Battle of Britain, and his mother didn't die in the Blitz.  Dicky's father came home to find Dicky's mother in bed with his best friend and killed them both before committing suicide.  Gargunza later kidnapped Dicky from the orphanage to become part of the Spookshow.  Miracleman explains all their memories from that period where artificial implants (something I had forgotten) while they actually slept for eight years.  The British government eventually balked at the program, and, in in 1963, they were all sent to their deaths via atomic bomb, as we know.

Miracelman explains that he resurrected Dicky after taking over the world, and Dicky devastatingly asks why.  Miracleman explains that he thought he deserved a second chance.  Dicky asks if Miracelman killed Johnny (news that Miracleman had broken to him earlier) to make the world safe for "peace and democracy," and Miracelman explains that he alone is in charge.  Dicky asks for a minute, and Miracleman leaves.  He then turns into his human form - dressed as the messenger he was - and, in one of the most devastating scenes I've ever seen in comics, sobs that he wants his mom.

Back at the space station, the Miraclechildren watch, with the same emotionlessness that we saw earlier.  Kay announces that she wants to have sex with Dicky, and another Miraclechild comments on Dicky's hokey accent.  Conversely, Panorama is shaken, and Mist ominously notes how traumatized Dicky is and "where it goes from here is anybody's guess."  Jenda and Zapster then discuss resuming their fight.  Jenda declines because "sometimes you can get really bored with hitting people through buildings," and the issue ends with Duncan and Zapster continuing the fight on their own, with Duncan appearing as another Marvel villain, Vril-Vrox-Vrang  (i.e., Fin Fang Foom).

Again, Gaiman is brilliant here.  It's clear that he's using Dicky to show us the corruption and perversity of the Pantheon and the Miraclechildren.  Given Dicky's comment about "peace and democracy," it seems possible that Dicky will be the one to take on Miracelman and his regime.  The question still is how welcome Earth's people will find his attempt to do so.  Do they really appreciate the 19 years of "miracle" they've enjoyed at this point?  Or are they under the thumb of a god-like dictator and his insane lieutenants?  (British Bulldog in particular seems unhinged.)  Only time will tell!