Marvel Drops a Massive Avengers: Armageddon Twist, as [Spoiler] Finally Enters the Stage

Warning: This article contains full spoilers for Avengers: Armageddon #4!

Marvel has spent months teasing the idea that Avengers: Armageddon will radically reshape the Avengers franchise and the Marvel Universe as a whole. With the penultimate chapter of Armageddon now on the stands, we now have a better idea of what that entails. This issue introduces a huge new character to the playing field, one fans have been waiting years to see. That's right, Miracleman has finally joined the Marvel Universe.

Who is Miracleman, and why is his debut such a big deal? Here's everything you need to know about the character and why he promises to profoundly shake things up heading into 2027.

Miracleman was originally known as Marvelman. He was created by writer/artist Mick Anglo in 1954, appearing in comics published by the British company L. Miller & Son. L. Miller & Son had previously found success republishing Fawcett Comics' Captain Marvel comics, but after losing the rights to that franchise, they commissioned Marvelman as a replacement character.

Conceptually, Marvelman is very similar to Captain Marvel/Shazam. When an ordinary but morally upright young man named Mickey Moran utters the word "Kimota," he transforms into a powerful superhero. Also like Captain Marvel, Marvelman had younger sidekicks aiding him in his battles against evil, in this case Young Marvelman and Kid Marvelman.

Marvelman fell into obscurity and vanished from the stands in the mid-'60s. It wasn't until Warrior Magazine revived the property in the early '80s that Marvelman reached a new audience and a much larger level of critical acclaim. Warrior tasked a young Alan Moore with reimagining Marvelman. This new version, which came to be known as Miracleman, dramatically revamped the character to become a much darker, more mature figure heavily influenced by the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche.

Under Moore and artists like Garry Leach, Alan Davis, Chuck Austen, and Rick Veitch, Miracleman became a hot property and one of the vanguards of a more literary approach to superhero comics in the '80s. After Moore wrapped up his 16-issue run, the series was taken over by Neil Gaiman and Mark Buckingham. Unfortunately, the collapse of publisher Eclipse Comics in the early '90s cut their planned story short.

Following Eclipse's bankruptcy, Marvelman/Miracleman remained trapped in limbo for decades, sparking a prolonged legal battle between Gaiman and Todd McFarlane Productions. It wasn't until 2009 that Marvel discovered the original ownership rights actually still resided with Anglo. They purchased the character from Anglo and began reprinting the classic stories in 2010. In 2022, they also launched Miracleman: The Silver Age, allowing Gaiman and Buckingham to continue their long-dormant collaboration. However, in light of the sexual assualt allegations against Gaiman, it doesn't appear that Marvel has any current plans to finish off that trilogy by publishing Miracleman: The Dark Age.

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