Miraclewoman was to have been named Marvelwoman but despite the fact that the Marvelman character predated the formation of Marvel Comics by at least a decade their lawyers forced Quality Comics Warrior (which had revived the character) to shut down. Ironically Marvelman had originally been a thinly disguised British rip-off of Fawcett Publications Captain Marvel characters who were now owned by Marvel's major rival DC Comics. Anyway thanks to Marvel's lawyers he was renamed Miracleman when the character reappeared published in America by Eclipse Comics. Eclipse reprinted all the Warrior material (with all instances of "Marvel" changed to "Miracle") then began to publish new Miracleman stories beginning with the sixth issue. Marvelman/Miracleman was among the early masterpieces of Alan Moore which established his reputation in the comics community. He is also one of the few comics writers to get positive reviews in the mainstream press but I'm getting off topic so let's get back to the Marvel Family, excuse me, the Miracle Family. Alan Moore's concept for Miracleman was that all his old corny and silly stories from the fifties had happened. Except that they had been computer simulations fed into the minds of three slumbering superhumans designed to give these ultimate weapons an identity as superheroes that the British Government could manipulate at will. Their arch-nemesis Doctor Emil Garagunza was actually their creator and the scientist responsible for using recovered alien technology to create them. What the British Government didn't know was that Garagunza had created five superhumans, not three. The other two were kept in his private laboratory; Terry Rebbeck aka Young Nastyman (designed to be an adversary for Kid Miracleman, Young Miracleman and Miracleman) and Avril Lear, Miraclewoman. Avril first appeared in the tenth issue then showed up as Miraclewoman at the end of the eleventh. In the twelfth issue (art by John Totleben) she explained her origins to Miracleman who had assumed that like all his past adventures she was just a character in Garagunza's simulations. She explained that her dreams had also been programmed by Garagunza but that unlike the superheroics of the male Miracle trio he had given hers a distincly pulpish flavour.
To make a long, complicated, but well worth reading story short together with Miracleman, the Firedrake and two alien empires using Earth as neutral ground Miraclewoman set about radically reshaping the world into a utopia. Which concluded Alan Moore's run on the character and he handed the writer's reins over to Neil Gaiman. Neil managed to complete his first storyline "The Golden Age" before Eclipse went under. During this time the three issue Apocrypha miniseries was published. Each issue paid homage to the cover of a different comic. In this case the original Fantastic Four #5 with Miraclewoman taking the Invisible Woman's part.
Popular as Miracleman was and how big both writers have become in comics neither he nor Miraclewoman have been seen in years. This is because the copyrights are caught in a major legal wrangle. When last heard of Todd McFarlane was claiming to have bought them at Eclipse's bankrupty sale but Neil Gaiman and Mike Austin (the original creator) were disputing Eclipse had possessed the right to sell Neil's work or ever owned the character. Alan Moore was staying as far away as possible which is very wise considering the mess it's turning into. Will Miracleman, Miraclewoman and the rest of the gang return? Only time will tell.
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