Posted in: Comics, Comics Publishers, Marvel Comics | Tagged: Mark Buckingham, marvel, miracleman, NeilGaiman, trans

The Trans Politics Of Miracleman In The Silver Age #5 (Spoilers)

Thirty years later, Mark Buckingham is drawing and redrawing Miracleman from those original scripts by Neil Gaiman, published for the first time.

When Alan Moore and Garry Leach created their version of Marvelman for Warrior Magazine forty years ago, later with Alan Davis, and then renamed Miracleman with Chuck Austen, Rick Veitch and John Totleben, it came with a new twist on the Captain Marvel Shazam transformation. Mickey Moran would say the world Kimota and become Miracleman – but this was all part of the alien race of Qys and their body transformation technology that allowed one with access to their technology the power to change their body into… anything. With a wardrobe of other bodies held in subspace, instantly accessible by a different word. Qys could change their body like their clothes. Their identity, their gender, and their species were instantly fluid. It wasn't shape-shifting, it was switching one body for another while your original body was stored elsewhere. In Miracleman, Johnny Bates chooses to stay in his Kid Miracleman body forever as it gradually ages. Mike Moran found he could think more clearly, and have a different perspective on his world when he was Miracleman as if he were two different people.

When Neil Gaiman and Mark Buckingham took over Miracleman, over thirty years ago, they told more stories about the world that Miracleman created, including a worldess series of short stories called Retrieval which showed a problem entering infra-space to find the body of Dickie Dauntless, Young Miracleman, who was killed by the nuclear bomb that also hit Miracleman and Kid Miracleman. And you saw the whole span of possibilities that the Qys technology might present. All the different bodies one could try on before finding the one for you.

I have trans friends around my age who told me how much this spoke to them many years before they would choose to transition. It was a science fiction parallel that spoke to the way they felt about themselves and how their world changed along with their physical presentation. And yes, that included children of Miracleman and others, using the Qys technology to swap bodies and fight like superheroes and monsters across an abandoned Manhattan skyline. It could be an allegory, but this came after Neil Gaiman had written stories such as A Game Of You, and it looks as if the subtest was about to become text.

Because thirty years later, Mark Buckingham is drawing and redrawing from those original scripts by Neil Gaiman, published for the first time. And today sees the publication of Miracleman: Silver Age #5 from Marvel Comics. And it has something that was subtext then, becoming text now.

Amazing what a difference three decades makes.

MIRACLEMAN SILVER AGE #5
MARVEL COMICS
DEC220764
(W) Neil Gaiman (A/CA) Mark Buckingham
Miracleman continues his search for Dickie Dauntless, A.K.A.. Young Miracleman. As we learn more about Miracleman's forgotten past, we see that he could use all the help he can get. But will he accept it? Mature In Shops: May 10, 2023 SRP: $4.99

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