Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Alan Moore, Comics, marvel, Marvel Comics, marvelman, miracleman, warrior

Miracleman #4 To Include Marvelman Summer Special And Warpsmith Stories From A1

Published Fri, 14 Feb 2014 12:00:12 -0600

Last updated Mon, 17 Feb 2014 04:05:56 -0600

It's been interesting to see exactly what stories will be contained in the Marvel reprints of Marvelman, issue by issue, what they include and what they leave out. Including Yesterday's Gambit was appreciated, but there is more to come.

The Marvelman Summer Special, published by Quality to accompany Warrior was the comic that merited a cease and desist letter from Marvel Comics – Marvelman appearing in Warrior at the time was fine, it seems, but calling a comic Marvelman was too much for the corporate folk, the lawyers sent a slapdown and so began the long and bitter legal fight over the character. Nowadays of course, that's no longer an issue.

The Special, again used as a bit of a fill in, was used as a way to reprint some old Mick Anglo strips with a bookend device from Alan Davis and Alan Moore, with janitors at Garguanza's place looking back over the old "recordings". It was also a device for publisher Dez Skinn to launch his own series, Big Ben – The Man With No Time For Crime.

Shortly afterwards, Marvel UK would begin reprinting Marvel US's Thing series, retitled Big Ben, as a deliberate snub to Skinn.

The Special was reprinted by Eclipse as Miracleman 3D Special, with the colouring looking even more off-kilter than usual.

Joke.

Anyway, it's being included in Miracleman #5. As is the spinoff Warpsmith story by Alan Moore and Garry Leach that ran in A1 #1 from Atomeka. A1 was an anthology series set up by Garry Leach and Dave Elliott that's been published by several publishers over the years including, at one point, Marvel.

Basically, this is a good sign that a) a deal has been done with Garry Leach and b) Marvel are serious about trying to get everything relevant into this reprint programme. And thankfully they aren't going to sue themselves over this one.

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