jammasterjamie's review
5.0
The payoff volume of Moore's Miracleman saga delivers everything I was promised and then some!
some_okie_dude27's review against another edition
(Some Spoilers Will Follow)
"And sometimes...sometimes, I just wonder"
it is here that we see the end of the first series in Alan Moore's spiritual superhero trilogy, which ends on a rather paradoxical note, as we see one of the weaker stories in Alan's Miracleman run, but one he makes up for with an ending that will punch you straight in the nuts and make you say thank you for it. It was truly the ending of the series that got me to really love this and declare it one of Alan's more underrated works, which I still think that it is. But then I see some of my friends here who absolutely loathe this series, or at least the ending arc of it, and I won't pretend to see why they do. Alan's tendency to tell more than he allows to show often rears it's ugly head, and while he got better at it with him growing as a storyteller, it certainly hasn't gone away. But for my friends who found themselves dissatisfied with the ending arc, I can only direct them to wait until the ending, as to really understand the weight of Alan's ending for a man who's become a god.
As for the paradoxical nature of this book, the real issue with the arc is the Qys and Warpsmith arc, which is admittedly Alan's weakest arc of the series, but not because it isn't well written or developed, but rather that it isn't as remarkable as the rest of Alan's work in this run. But, with that out of the way, we also see the ending of the series, which is one that can be oddly comforting, yet completely horrifying at the same time. The final two issues of Alan's arc on Miracleman are nothing short of masterful, with John Totleban, who'd later work with him on Swamp Thing, contributing some truly remarkable work that's nothing short of sublime, but coming with some horrific art as well.
With Miracleman, Alan aimed to deconstruct the Superman and or Shazam concept and show how it could possibly work in the real world, and the point that Alan makes is that, with the existence of these gods, full on terror could ensue, particularly if this godlike power fell into the hands of one like Kid Miracleman, who ends up unleashing a personal holocaust on London, which while well written, is a horrific scene and the entirety of Issue 15 is one that will stick with you for a long time, not just with how horrific the violence is when Kid Miracleman unleashes his power. But that's never what impacted me as much, what really impacted me was the ending, along with its implications, I'm not saying that the horrific violence of Issue 15 isn't effective, but rather it was Issue 16 that really got me thinking, and it even has questioning out of the superhero deconstructions, which one from Watchmen or Miracleman was the most effective. But after giving it some thought, I thought that their endings are both special in their own unique ways.
There are many similarities with Watchmen's ending and Miracleman's ending, as both are ambiguous in their own ways on what actually happened, while in Watchmen, it is Rorschach who gets the last laugh in undermining Ozymandias' utopia, Miracleman's is a much more somber and reflective ending, with Miracleman establishing his 'perfect world' on humanity, but wondering if what he did was the right thing, which will haunt him as the series goes on from here. I'd expect even a god to understand that there's no such thing as 'perfection,' especially from a being who no longer understands humanity and has become little more than a dictator, as the old saying goes, the path to hell is often paved with good intentions, the world Miracleman creates seems to be nice, but Moore cleverly puts in hints that this world, despite its status as 'perfect' seems wrong, even perverse. But Moore has never been one to talk down to his audience or to illustrate his own views on the subject, but rather he allows us, the readers, to do so. It also forces you to think about everything that Miracleman has been through throughout the entirety of Moore's run and almost drives you crazy with the what ifs and the could'ves, should'ves, and would'ves of Miracleman's situation, but it leaves you with a sad thought, with Miracleman creating this 'perfect paradise', he has everything, but at the same, he has lost it as well.
Considering how perfect the ending feels, one can't help but see the flaws in it, which is ironic, considering how Moore tends to carry himself in his works. Moore's writing, while lyrical and well crafted, can show his aforementioned tendency to tell more than show, but that is a double edged sword as every great storyteller has his/her purpose, and the scenes that are crammed full of monologues that are beautiful, while at the same time as droning, like I said before Moore did eventually get better with this, but he still carries these habits in his work from time to time. There's also the aforementioned alien storyline which, while it makes sense, isn't really necessary and it feels like Moore is trying too hard to get us interested in this aspect of the story, while he had some really good material with Bates to get to.
But with that, Alan's first major superhero deconstruction comes to an end with an ending that I dare say rivals the ending of Watchmen, which is why I call it the perfect thematic prequel for the masterwork that would become Watchmen, while its focus is more leaning towards the superhuman aspect of superheroics, we also see the story of how a man goes from being a normal man into a god, and now that he has everything, he can only dare to ask what comes next.
"And sometimes...sometimes, I just wonder"
it is here that we see the end of the first series in Alan Moore's spiritual superhero trilogy, which ends on a rather paradoxical note, as we see one of the weaker stories in Alan's Miracleman run, but one he makes up for with an ending that will punch you straight in the nuts and make you say thank you for it. It was truly the ending of the series that got me to really love this and declare it one of Alan's more underrated works, which I still think that it is. But then I see some of my friends here who absolutely loathe this series, or at least the ending arc of it, and I won't pretend to see why they do. Alan's tendency to tell more than he allows to show often rears it's ugly head, and while he got better at it with him growing as a storyteller, it certainly hasn't gone away. But for my friends who found themselves dissatisfied with the ending arc, I can only direct them to wait until the ending, as to really understand the weight of Alan's ending for a man who's become a god.
As for the paradoxical nature of this book, the real issue with the arc is the Qys and Warpsmith arc, which is admittedly Alan's weakest arc of the series, but not because it isn't well written or developed, but rather that it isn't as remarkable as the rest of Alan's work in this run. But, with that out of the way, we also see the ending of the series, which is one that can be oddly comforting, yet completely horrifying at the same time. The final two issues of Alan's arc on Miracleman are nothing short of masterful, with John Totleban, who'd later work with him on Swamp Thing, contributing some truly remarkable work that's nothing short of sublime, but coming with some horrific art as well.
With Miracleman, Alan aimed to deconstruct the Superman and or Shazam concept and show how it could possibly work in the real world, and the point that Alan makes is that, with the existence of these gods, full on terror could ensue, particularly if this godlike power fell into the hands of one like Kid Miracleman, who ends up unleashing a personal holocaust on London, which while well written, is a horrific scene and the entirety of Issue 15 is one that will stick with you for a long time, not just with how horrific the violence is when Kid Miracleman unleashes his power. But that's never what impacted me as much, what really impacted me was the ending, along with its implications, I'm not saying that the horrific violence of Issue 15 isn't effective, but rather it was Issue 16 that really got me thinking, and it even has questioning out of the superhero deconstructions, which one from Watchmen or Miracleman was the most effective. But after giving it some thought, I thought that their endings are both special in their own unique ways.
There are many similarities with Watchmen's ending and Miracleman's ending, as both are ambiguous in their own ways on what actually happened, while in Watchmen, it is Rorschach who gets the last laugh in undermining Ozymandias' utopia, Miracleman's is a much more somber and reflective ending, with Miracleman establishing his 'perfect world' on humanity, but wondering if what he did was the right thing, which will haunt him as the series goes on from here. I'd expect even a god to understand that there's no such thing as 'perfection,' especially from a being who no longer understands humanity and has become little more than a dictator, as the old saying goes, the path to hell is often paved with good intentions, the world Miracleman creates seems to be nice, but Moore cleverly puts in hints that this world, despite its status as 'perfect' seems wrong, even perverse. But Moore has never been one to talk down to his audience or to illustrate his own views on the subject, but rather he allows us, the readers, to do so. It also forces you to think about everything that Miracleman has been through throughout the entirety of Moore's run and almost drives you crazy with the what ifs and the could'ves, should'ves, and would'ves of Miracleman's situation, but it leaves you with a sad thought, with Miracleman creating this 'perfect paradise', he has everything, but at the same, he has lost it as well.
Considering how perfect the ending feels, one can't help but see the flaws in it, which is ironic, considering how Moore tends to carry himself in his works. Moore's writing, while lyrical and well crafted, can show his aforementioned tendency to tell more than show, but that is a double edged sword as every great storyteller has his/her purpose, and the scenes that are crammed full of monologues that are beautiful, while at the same time as droning, like I said before Moore did eventually get better with this, but he still carries these habits in his work from time to time. There's also the aforementioned alien storyline which, while it makes sense, isn't really necessary and it feels like Moore is trying too hard to get us interested in this aspect of the story, while he had some really good material with Bates to get to.
But with that, Alan's first major superhero deconstruction comes to an end with an ending that I dare say rivals the ending of Watchmen, which is why I call it the perfect thematic prequel for the masterwork that would become Watchmen, while its focus is more leaning towards the superhuman aspect of superheroics, we also see the story of how a man goes from being a normal man into a god, and now that he has everything, he can only dare to ask what comes next.
katepowellshine's review against another edition
4.0
For years I've refused to read this series because I was put off by the (what I think of as) old-fashioned art. I finally caved earlier this week, when enough of the reprints had piled up and I just started reading. I tore through them, and when I ran out of reprints, cried, "I need more Miracleman!" so my husband kindly pulled out the issues I've been asking him to quit nagging me to read for the past ten years :-D
It's funny, the art doesn't seem bad now.
What an awesome story. On to the next!
It's funny, the art doesn't seem bad now.
What an awesome story. On to the next!
darylnash's review against another edition
5.0
I'm giving this one five stars, but I'm not really sure I liked it.
The art is gorgeous, full stop, so we can get that out of the way first.
But I don't think this is Moore's most compelling work: Watchmen and Swamp Thing are his best work from this time period. Part of the reason Olympus left me cold was that it is framed as a retrospective, which gives all of the events a narrative distance and removes the immediacy. It reads almost like an outline for a story rather than the story itself. Also, the prose is extremely purple at times.
And yet... It's written as the memoir of Miracleman so presumably any of the excesses of the prose could be because it's in his self-proclaimed godlike voice. And occasionally it strikes moments of poetry. The immediacy that is lacking could be a direct commentary on the typical form of super-hero comics, which eschew intellectual consideration for an exciting narrative. Instead, Olympus is an examination of the introduction of superheroes to the world and how it changed everything, almost as a poetic dissertation. A history rather than an action movie or literary thriller.
Plus the big ideas and narrative style remind me of Morrison and, more recently, Hickman, so it's clear that the influence of this volume of Miracleman is far-reaching.
So the more I thought about it, the less I was comfortable giving it 3 or 4 stars. I didn't love Olympus, but I respect the hell out of it.
Any utopia seems unsustainable, so I'm very curious to finally see Gaiman's follow-up completed.
The art is gorgeous, full stop, so we can get that out of the way first.
But I don't think this is Moore's most compelling work: Watchmen and Swamp Thing are his best work from this time period. Part of the reason Olympus left me cold was that it is framed as a retrospective, which gives all of the events a narrative distance and removes the immediacy. It reads almost like an outline for a story rather than the story itself. Also, the prose is extremely purple at times.
And yet... It's written as the memoir of Miracleman so presumably any of the excesses of the prose could be because it's in his self-proclaimed godlike voice. And occasionally it strikes moments of poetry. The immediacy that is lacking could be a direct commentary on the typical form of super-hero comics, which eschew intellectual consideration for an exciting narrative. Instead, Olympus is an examination of the introduction of superheroes to the world and how it changed everything, almost as a poetic dissertation. A history rather than an action movie or literary thriller.
Plus the big ideas and narrative style remind me of Morrison and, more recently, Hickman, so it's clear that the influence of this volume of Miracleman is far-reaching.
So the more I thought about it, the less I was comfortable giving it 3 or 4 stars. I didn't love Olympus, but I respect the hell out of it.
Any utopia seems unsustainable, so I'm very curious to finally see Gaiman's follow-up completed.
rebus's review
4.25
Moore shoots for an epic metaphysical ending and falls a little short in the conclusion. He's reaching a bit too hard for the Boomer vision of Utopia and like that narcissistic generation sees no other ideal. The main problem is that the Utopia is ushered in in a fascist manner and expected to be seen as the most benevolent of gifts (with the tired Boomer trope that cultural miscegenation can be Thanatic and Destructive or Erotic and Creative, while movements from that generation became sterile and reflexive). He does admit that the houses of gods are built on human bones, which recognizes the bonobo theory above is a little flawed, but it's simply not as engaging as previous volumes.
Kurzweil's Boomer immortality trip is also touched upon, and entertainment is ludicrously included as a fundamental human right in this Utopia, but it simply doesn't resonate with Moore's supposed anarchist leanings and it's why the story falls a bit flat in the end.
Kurzweil's Boomer immortality trip is also touched upon, and entertainment is ludicrously included as a fundamental human right in this Utopia, but it simply doesn't resonate with Moore's supposed anarchist leanings and it's why the story falls a bit flat in the end.
spelingexpirt13's review
2.0
I'm not sure why I continue to read this, probably because it is on my pull list for my gf and I read all the comics that come into the flat but by god I hate this. Volume 2 was actually pretty decent which is probably why this volume angers me so much. I despise every single character.
ivan_tw's review against another edition
5.0
Holy hell, Moore knows how to close off a saga; the storyline starts off exponentially more widescreen and epic than the last, and just grows from there. John Totelben's art is light years beyond Chuck Bekham's scribbles, and though I still miss Alan Davis and Garry Leach's dark, vicious shadows of the first book, Totelben's work on Marvelman's Ragnarok in issue 15 is impressively shocking and appalling. Moore is in full flower again, a story that posits superheroes as literal gods and takes an unsurprising dig at organized religion as a result...when gods walk the earth, how can society not end up fascist? Mind-blowingly well-written, crushingly depressing, beautiful and horrific in equal turns, Marvelman's final act really shows how forward-thinking Moore was, and how ripples of this work are still felt today, in comics, movies, and literature. We are robbed at a very base level that this masterwork isn't available for all to read, taken together it has to be one of the great trilogies of our lifetime.
verkisto's review
4.0
(This review is for all three volumes written by Alan Moore. Potential spoilers may follow.)
I first read Miracleman long after I had read Watchmen, and around the time when I decided to read more of Alan Moore's work. Given that Miracleman is basically Watchmen v0.1, I wound up reading the works out of order, but I liked them enough that when the series was finally getting reprinted last year, I started buying them up to re-read them all together. Since The Golden Age finally saw print last month, I decided to sit down and make my way through the series again.
Ultimately, Watchmen is Moore's magnum opus. It takes the ideas that he started examining in Miracleman and Swamp Thing and forms them into a complex analysis of comic book heroes, comic books, and politics, all while telling an engaging, compelling story. It's just a shame that it was the first of Moore's works I read, since all the other stories he's told using these ideas pale in comparison to it.
Miracleman was Moore's first attempt at deconstructing the superhero mythos, and there's no denying that he did a great job with it. When a hero comes along with abilities that make him god-like, it's logical that they would become like gods. Moore takes another version of Superman and does just that with him. When someone with that kind of power exists, and sees ways to improve the world, why wouldn't he do it? Why wouldn't he step in and say "This is how we're going to do things, because if we don't, I have the power to make it happen regardless"? Once the heroes are public, and their strengths are common knowledge, how would one avoid that kind of conclusion?
The opposite side of that coin is someone with that kind of power without any kind of moral compass, which Moore also addresses with the character of Kid Miracleman. That character is one who has internalized his suffering, blaming others for his own pain, so when he has the opportunity to take his revenge, he does so, without remorse, regret, or concern over anyone who gets in his way. Since there are only a handful of others who can survive against such a superhuman onslaught, several innocents are killed in that revenge. Moore doesn't shy away from showing the horrors of such an act, but neither does he shy away from showing the aftermath of it. Some story arcs would approach that story, end it, and then move on. Look at how The Avengers ended, with widespread destruction and (presumably) thousands of deaths. It's all ignored to focus on the victory of the heroes. And it's not at all realistic. Moore attempts to make it realistic, and he succeeds.
The origin story for the Miracleman Family is a little ridiculous, which can be forgiven, since Moore was working within the confines of the original origins of the characters and attempting to create a new mythos while keeping the existing canon in place (see also how he did the same to Swamp Thing). The explanation he creates makes about as much sense as it can, given those constraints, and it makes as much sense as other superhero origin stories.
As good as Moore's run on Miracleman was (and continues to be), it's simply not as good as Watchmen. Considering, though, that Miracleman is still a four-star story when compared to the five-star story of Watchmen, Miracleman is still a story worth reading and examining. I just wish I had read them in the proper order so I could have experienced Moore's development over the course of all his works.
I first read Miracleman long after I had read Watchmen, and around the time when I decided to read more of Alan Moore's work. Given that Miracleman is basically Watchmen v0.1, I wound up reading the works out of order, but I liked them enough that when the series was finally getting reprinted last year, I started buying them up to re-read them all together. Since The Golden Age finally saw print last month, I decided to sit down and make my way through the series again.
Ultimately, Watchmen is Moore's magnum opus. It takes the ideas that he started examining in Miracleman and Swamp Thing and forms them into a complex analysis of comic book heroes, comic books, and politics, all while telling an engaging, compelling story. It's just a shame that it was the first of Moore's works I read, since all the other stories he's told using these ideas pale in comparison to it.
Miracleman was Moore's first attempt at deconstructing the superhero mythos, and there's no denying that he did a great job with it. When a hero comes along with abilities that make him god-like, it's logical that they would become like gods. Moore takes another version of Superman and does just that with him. When someone with that kind of power exists, and sees ways to improve the world, why wouldn't he do it? Why wouldn't he step in and say "This is how we're going to do things, because if we don't, I have the power to make it happen regardless"? Once the heroes are public, and their strengths are common knowledge, how would one avoid that kind of conclusion?
The opposite side of that coin is someone with that kind of power without any kind of moral compass, which Moore also addresses with the character of Kid Miracleman. That character is one who has internalized his suffering, blaming others for his own pain, so when he has the opportunity to take his revenge, he does so, without remorse, regret, or concern over anyone who gets in his way. Since there are only a handful of others who can survive against such a superhuman onslaught, several innocents are killed in that revenge. Moore doesn't shy away from showing the horrors of such an act, but neither does he shy away from showing the aftermath of it. Some story arcs would approach that story, end it, and then move on. Look at how The Avengers ended, with widespread destruction and (presumably) thousands of deaths. It's all ignored to focus on the victory of the heroes. And it's not at all realistic. Moore attempts to make it realistic, and he succeeds.
The origin story for the Miracleman Family is a little ridiculous, which can be forgiven, since Moore was working within the confines of the original origins of the characters and attempting to create a new mythos while keeping the existing canon in place (see also how he did the same to Swamp Thing). The explanation he creates makes about as much sense as it can, given those constraints, and it makes as much sense as other superhero origin stories.
As good as Moore's run on Miracleman was (and continues to be), it's simply not as good as Watchmen. Considering, though, that Miracleman is still a four-star story when compared to the five-star story of Watchmen, Miracleman is still a story worth reading and examining. I just wish I had read them in the proper order so I could have experienced Moore's development over the course of all his works.